decoded_text stringlengths 4.18k 47.6k |
|---|
of the knee and ankle, but we’ll look at the pros and cons of those options as and when we come to it.
The weight is distributed evenly across both feet. As with the Traditional Thai stance, the width and length are pretty even, but it is longer and wider. The angles of the feet have been rotated and are facing more towards the opponent.
Defence – A decent muay Thai stance for blocking kicks off of both legs with the weight being evenly distributed between left and right. However, if the feet are flat on the ground, the legs are more easily raised when compared to being on the balls of the feet.
Attack – Another decent grade for attacking techniques, with the advantage being given to the “heels up” method as it makes it easier to explode forward into an attack. The hips aren’t as forward-facing when using this stance as they are with the traditional Thai stance so strikes are generally more powerful.
Mobility – Movements to the left and right and forward and back are fairly easy. The fighter is able to take larger steps and make quicker movements using this stance than when using the traditional Thai stance. The body is positioned halfway between both feet making push-offs in both directions relatively easy.
Stability – Being knocked off balance is rarely an issue with this stance and the foot placement is fairly wide which allows the knee and hip musculature a lot of scope to provide shock absorption and prevent unnecessary foot movement when struck from the sides. The heels up method provides more resistance when hit with a teep or straight boxing techniques.
Pros/cons | All-rounder
Balanced (Narrow) Muay Thai Stance
This stance is similar to the previous stance in that the weight is evenly distributed between the two feet, only this time the stance is narrower and longer. This stance may suit a more attacking fighter or counter fighter who requires quicker movements and extra power.
The angles of the feet are smaller than in the previous two examples, with the front toes pointing directly forwards.
Defence – We’re heading towards the attacking end of the spectrum here so defence attributes are decreasing, although this stance still provides adequate blocking abilities. The lead foot is still pointing forwards so there are no issues with not being able to open the hips for blocks to the left or to the right, nor is there the issue of having too much weight placed on that leg. The rear leg is just as capable at blocking kicks as the lead leg due to the even weight distribution.
Attack – Excellent attacking muay Thai stance which provides a very powerful base going forwards AND backwards. The angle of the back foot and the narrow width of the stance means the fighter can bounce back and forth at speed to generate powerful attacks. The fighter can also generate more torque in the hips and shoulders for striking power because of the long stride, providing more room for rotation.
Mobility – An extremely mobile stance for forward and backward movements. The fighter is able to move in and out of range quickly and safely. The superior ability to do this when compared with the previous two stances makes this muay Thai stance a great option for those who like to punch. Movement to the left and right is not quite so easy – the fighter will need to widen the stance somewhat to get any real distance and may be slow, but circling to the left can be done quickly and with ease. Circling right can be sluggish.
Stability – The most stable of all stances listed so far in terms of straight shots, but may be vulnerable to becoming off balanced by strong kicks or hooks coming in from the left and right. This stance’s integrity may also come into question when fighting an opponent with good sweeping ability, due to the narrow width of the foot placement.
Pros | Great attacking muay Thai stance with awesome moblity.
Cons | Vulnerable to sweeps and being off balanced left and right.
The Boxing/MMA stance
The final stance is more of a boxer’s stance, and is similar to some MMA fighters stances. I’m not sure how many muay Thai fighters are able to use this stance but a lot of practitioners from other sports such as boxing or MMA may favour this stance so I thought I’d include it and explain its pros and cons.
In terms of weight distribution, it’s 50/50, maybe even 60% rear and 40% lead. The angles of the feet are large, with both feet facing right.
Defence – Poor. The angle of the lead leg is far too great to be capable of defending a kick quickly – the hips need to be rotated in order to form a blocking position and that takes far too long. A fighter with this stance is also extremely vulnerable to being swept for the same reasons. If the weight is evenly distributed between two legs then blocking off of the rear leg shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Attack – Good attacking stance from a boxer’s point of view – the hips and torso are facing away from the opponent which makes for a small target and the right hand had tremendous power due to the extra rotation of the torso. However, a good roundhouse kick or knee is impossible to pull off due to the fighter being unable to open up the hip angle with the lead foot. If the foot is rotated to the left to open the hip from this stance then the opponent would see the kick coming a mile off.
Mobility – Very mobile stance with quick movements in all directions.
Stability – A seriously vulnerable muay Thai stance in terms of stability along the width. Any kick or sweep will off-balance the fighter.
Pros | Powerful punches with good mobilty
Cons | Extremely poor kicking and sweep defence, lacks stability
Which Muay Thai Stance Suits You?
The question shouldn’t be “what is the best muay Thai stance?”. Rather, which muay Thai stance suits you in a given situation or against a particular opponent.
During a fight, numerous stances are normally used, depending on the given situation. For example, if a fighter is using stance #2 (balanced) and is unable to defend leg kicks, the logical solution would be to switch to more of a traditional stance where more of the weight is place on the rear leg making it easier to block using the front. Or, switch to stance #3 (balanced narrow) which is more suitable to attack the kicker with counters using boxing.
However, fighters generally have one stance which suits them initially.
Coaches will teach one type of muay Thai stance to beginners, but there is no right or wrong stance. The practitioner just needs to know why he/she is using that stance.Chas Andres is a freelance writer and MFA student living in Wilmington, North Carolina. When he's not at his keyboard dreaming up stories, you can find him playing with his cats, listening to records, or building yet another Magic deck.
The only creature on my side of the table was a Jötun Owl Keeper.
Two glass beads sat on top of the card—markers designed to track the cumulative upkeep cost I'd have to pay once my turn came back around. I picked up the beads and held them in my open palm, my mind wandering deep into the world of the game. For a moment, I pictured them as large and beautiful barn owls, their talons sharp enough to rend bone, their feathers the color of new-fallen snow.
That's when disaster struck.
Brian—my nominal ally in a four-player game that was nearing the hour mark—cast Lignify on my Jötun Owl Keeper. "Really?" I sighed, running my hands through my hair. "You don't want to take out Emma's Dragon? You'd rather deprive me of my hard-earned owls?"
He shrugged. "I've seen what your deck can do with a few small flyers. Plus, you have a tree friend now. That's kind of sweet, right?"
I shot Brian a sarcastic smile before staring back at my board. Would my Owl Keeper enjoy his new life as a Treefolk? I figured he would. When you dedicate yourself to the care and maintenance of avian life, there are worse fates.
I played a handful of spells over the following few turns, but I couldn't keep from falling behind. As my opponents traded haymakers, I emptied my hand in order to stay alive. The one thing I refused to do was let my Treefolk die. "His story isn't done yet," I said, defiantly rolling my life die down to 16, then 14, then 12.
I was at 2 when my patience was rewarded. After drawing for my turn, I grinned and began slowly tapping my lands. "Kozilek?" Brian asked me as my mana base kept turning sideways. "Comet Storm? Fireball? It's not Martial Coup, is it?"
Once I reached twelve mana, I plopped Argentum Armor on the table. "Equip?" I asked. No one had any responses, so I gave my 0/4 Treefolk one of the most powerful pieces of Equipment in the game. All of a sudden, my Lignifyed Owl Keeper had the ability to destroy any permanent on the table in a single attack.
"Coming at you, Brian," I said, sending my Treefolk into the red zone.
"You're destroying the Lignify with your armor, right?" He asked, nervously thumbing the Mirari's Wake that was allowing him to dictate the pace of the game, and play three or four spells each turn.
"Of course not," I said. "This Jötun Owl Keeper? He's embraced his fate. He was scared about being a Treefolk at first, but he likes it now. He gets to hang out with his owl friends and no one has to pay any cumulative upkeep. It's the life he's always dreamed of."
My Jötun Owl Keeper's suit of armor destroyed Brian's Mirari's Wake, and his life total went from 16 down to 10. Unfortunately for me, it was too little, too late. I was eliminated before my next upkeep, and Brian claimed victory a few turns later.
I may have lost that game of Magic, but I'd call the experience a win. I'll never forget the day when one my Jötun Owl Keepers got to take a heroic journey of his own.
My Favorite Flavor
Welcome to week one of My Favorite Flavor! My name is Chas Andres, and this is my new column. Every Tuesday, we're going to explore the flavorful side of deck building and game play. I've you've ever tried to build the ultimate Octopus deck, agonized over whether or not Silkwing Scout should make the cut in your Ravnica Cube, wondered what picks Garruk would make in a draft, or spent hours debating which basic lands are the best, this is the column for you.
Silkwing Scout | Art by Rebecca Guay
I kicked off My Favorite Flavor with my Jötun Owl Keeper story because it does a good job of showing what I think is so special about Magic's flavor. With just three cards, printed years apart, I was able to experience an evocative little narrative in the middle of an otherwise normal game. How cool is that?
What can you expect out of My Favorite Flavor? It'll vary from week to week, but my goal will always be to have fun while exploring an aspect of the game beyond power, toughness, casting cost, and rules text. I won't restrict our journey to any one format, so I might propose an FNM-ready Standard deck focusing on Ojutai and his brood one week and a wonky Goblin brew featuring cards from Tempest block the next. I love playing Commander, too, so we'll make regular forays into the world of hundred-card deck building as well.
My other major goal of My Favorite Flavor is to explore fun new ways of playing Magic. We'll create Cubes designed to capture the essence of Theros and Tarkir. We'll build our own duel decks and battle them against each other. I'll introduce you to Flavor Draft, a format where flavor-based arbitration dictate the rules of the game. We'll explore Stipulation Drafts and Sealed Deck pools where I give myself flavor-based goals or a Planeswalker persona to take on before the first pack is opened. We'll dive in the worlds of Planechase and Vanguard in an attempt to create new ways to approach multiplayer, based on everyone's favorite characters and settings.
One of the things I love most about Magic flavor is that it can be enjoyed in so many different ways. Sometimes, it's fun to devour the latest installment of Uncharted Realms and build decks based on the mythic rareal figures present in Magic's rich lore. Other times, I just want to make the bear-iest Bear deck possible or see what happens when I put all of the cards that look like they'd fit in on a spaceship into one deck. I'll be exploring both sides of that spectrum in My Favorite Flavor, and I expect there to be plenty of shenanigans happening alongside the more'serious' articles.
The world, as they say, is our oyster.
A Flock Of Seagulls
What kind of deck might you come across in My Favorite Flavor? Well, in honor of my beloved Jötun Owl Keeper, let's put together a sample deck that's strictly for the birds.
Unlike most Tribal Bird decks, I'm going to declare bird-like people to be off-limits. As much as I love Aven Brigadier and Lieutenant Kirtar, they don't belong in the same deck as actual birds like Thieving Magpie and community favorite, Storm Crow. How would they even communicate?
Aven Brigadier | Art by Greg Staples
Soraya the Falconer is free to help us out, though. Her oracle text changed 'Falcon' to 'Bird,' so I'm guessing she's learned how to train all sorts of avian creatures in the years since Homelands was released. She'll be a big help.
Bird Tribal was a supported archetype back in the Odyssey and Onslaught days. That gives us access to some very powerful support cards like Soulcatchers' Aerie, Airborne Aid, and Battle Screech. The Squadron Hawks are also happy to fight for our team, and I'm pretty sure they'll enjoy being given Banding by Soraya. It'll help them learn how to fight in an even more formidable squadron.
I generally like to add some solid Equipment to any deck I build around small flying creatures, but unfortunately for us, most pieces of Equipment are just too big for birds to carry. One option is to stock the deck with copies of Supply-Line Cranes (they're clearly able to handle a sword) but my favorite solution is simply to add a couple of Basilisk Collars. They're made from the fangs of dead Basilisks, so they should be tiny enough for even our smallest birds to handle. Throw one on a creature with first strike, like Steeple Roc, and you have a pretty unstoppable blocker, too.
I also think it's worth including a copy of Paradise Mantle. Our deck needs all of the white and blue mana it can get for Jötun Owl Keeper, so we're not going to be able to include Birds of Paradise, Magic's most iconic bird. Lucky for us, the mantle will allow any of our birds to take on that role.
Here's the build I'm going with for now:
This is a pretty top-heavy version of the deck, and it's important to watch your curve when you've got to pay for Jötun Owl Keeper's cumulative upkeep on a fairly regular basis. As long as your opening hand has a Squadron Hawk in it, though, you should be set on two-drops for the rest of the game.
Be sure to use the Ice Age art for Swords to Plowshares if you can. This is the most important spell in the deck, and the Ice Age version features a perfectly on-flavor painting of woman's sword transforming into a dove.
When it comes to basic lands, both Champions of Kamigawa Plains #290 and Mirage Plains A feature birds in the art. On the blue side of things, Rise of the Eldrazi Island #234 has a really nice flock of birds in it. There are some prominent hedrons in the art, though, so if you'd prefer not to have your battle take place on Zendikar, you could opt for Ice Age Island C. It has a seagull in the foreground.
If you find yourself enjoying the Dovescape subgame (everything is birds!!), I suggest adding a few copies of an X spell like Braingeyser or Overrule. These cards may not technically be on-flavor, but paying X to make X birds certainly fits the spirit of the deck.
That's all for this week! If you have any deck ideas or suggestions for flavor-based formats you'd like me to try out, feel free to hit me up on Twitter @ChasAndres or email me at candres@gmail.com.Compose Is Joining IBM
Today we are excited to announce that Compose is joining IBM. As founders, it was the biggest and most important decision we've ever had to make — much more difficult than we ever would have guessed back when we only dreamed of having a successful company. While we are profitable and growing fast, we think now is the right time to team up with a larger company. We will be able to do more, faster, and it's the best way to continue our mission. Also, I'm not going to say the word "synergy", but synergy.
At IBM, Compose will be part of the Cloud Data Services (CDS) group. It's a great fit. We'll be able to continue building what we think is important, with a brand we really like, and the same team that works so well together. All with the backing of a major company. As a nice bonus, we're especially excited about CDS. IBM has a tremendous database pedigree (it's kind of ridiculous, Codd invented the relational model there in the '60s) and CDS is the spearhead of their efforts to reinvent the entire company. It's an incredible new challenge.
For customers who are wondering what this change means, here is a list of things you might care about:
Our business model. We won't be hiring any sales people anytime soon, nor will our customers be getting any unsolicited phone calls from anyone in sales or marketing. IBM really likes how we sell to developers, it's a big part of why they found us intriguing in the first place.
Datacenters. If you like the datacenter you're in, you can stay there. It's not going away. But, as a result of the acquisition, we will be expanding datacenter options soon.
Support. Customers will still get support from the team at Compose. And, we plan to expand our support to more regions for even faster response times.
Pricing. Our prices aren't changing. However, we may (hint, hint foreshadowing) have new product and pricing options for customers in the near future who want even more control over their datacenters and databases. Stay tuned.
Database technologies. This doesn't need saying, but I'll say it anyway. We will keep running the same databases. And someday, we will offer all the databases.
Our way of working. We love being a distributed company. Many of us work from our homes and like to occasionally relocate for weeks or months at a time to work in other parts of the world. That's not changing. In fact, this is one of the reasons IBM is good for us. They're the most remote-friendly huge company on the planet.
To sum up: If you're a customer, nothing is changing. It's simply getting a little more credible.
There's more about this announcement on the IBM website. If you're a press release junkie, you'll find one there.
On a more personal note, when we made the jump to "building a startup" six years ago, the future was anything but certain. Starting a company is a certain kind of crazy, too. Starting a company when you have family and kids was another layer of zaniness. We've been fortunate, though, and it worked better than we could have imagined. It's been a magnificent ride.
I'm really proud of our team and their work. It is because of them that Compose has become such an amazing company. I know that's the trite, expected thing for a founder to say, but it really is true. I love working at this company, love the culture we have built together and love working with everyone here. They are the real-deal magic that makes this meaningful. I couldn't be happier that they're all coming with us along this ride.
Kurt Mackey and Jason McCay
FoundersMar 10, 2015; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Minnesota Wild forward Chris Stewart (44) (center) celebrates his goal with forward Mikko Koivu (9) (L) and forward Nino Niederreiter (22) (R) during the second period against the New Jersey Devils at Xcel Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports
In this week’s power ranking overview, the Wild moved up on every list. No surprise there, as they’ve gone 18-4-2 in their last 24 games.
Here’s a look at what some experts around the country think of the surging Minnesota Wild:
Fansided.com Power Rankings:
This week: #11 — Last week: #13
“Devan Dubnyk lost for only the fourth time in regulation after falling to the Avalanche on Sunday, but the Minnesota Wild have played as well as any team since he was traded and made his team debut on Jan. 15. ”
ESPN Power Rankings:
This week: #3 — Last week: #9
“The Wild finally looked human Sunday, losing at home to the Avs. Over the past two months, no team has been hotter than the Wild, who are 18-4-2 in their last 24 games. Besides, I feel like Jordyn Leopold would approve of her daddy’s new team moving all the way up to third in the Rankings.”
CBSSports.com Power Rankings:
This week: #12 — Last week: #13
“The Wild just keep pushing forward. They have 16 wins in their last 20 games and have become a team that is so tough to score against. Minnesota has allowed an average of just two goals against over their last 20 contests during which the Wild also posted four shutouts.”
Bleacher Report Power Rankings:
This week: #10 — Last week: #12
“The Minnesota Wild had their five-game winning streak snapped by Colorado. How hot have they been? Piping hot. Like, as hot as a hot pipe. They are 16-3-1 in their past 20 games.
If the Wild are to reach the playoffs and make a run, their power play needs to improve. They have one power-play goal in 24 chances over their past 12 games.”
FoxSports.com Power Rankings:
This week: #12 — Last week: #16
“Minnesota buried itself so deep in the West that it required a lengthy hot stretch to get back in contention. The Wild are finally starting to climb the standings and earn a higher spot in the rankings that wasn’t warranted until now based on the season’s body of work.”
USAToday.com Power Rankings:
This week: #12 — Last week: #15
“Sunday’s loss to Avalanche was a rare time that Devan Dubnyk, who has started 24 in a row for Wild, has looked human.”
Si.com Power Rankings:
This week: #6 — Last week: #10
“Devan Dubnyk has played his way into the Hart Trophy conversation—no, he’s not the best in the league, but is there anyone more valuable to his team? He doesn’t deserve all the credit for this hot streak, though. His teammates have backed him up with some timely offense, scoring a league-best 26 first-period goals during the stretch. Once they get a lead, they’re tough to beat.”Please enable Javascript to watch this video
LYNDHURST, OH--The trouble for 20-year-old Grace Jones of South Euclid began on August 18, when she got into what she thought was a minor accident at the intersection of Richmond and Cedar in Lyndhurst.
"The light turned green, so we all started rolling ahead and then I look up and the brake lights are on and they're like, slammed on. So, I slam on my brakes to try and slow down and I bump into her rear end."
Jones thought she was doing the right thing when she called Lyndhurst police. They responded to the scene and cited her for not keeping enough distance between her vehicle and the car she bumped into.
Jones says she was floored when she later received a bill from the City of Lyndhurst for $584.87 for emergency services rendered for a non-resident of Lyndhurst.
The itemized list was $308 for the two police vehicles that were used that day, $196.87 for police administrative overhead and $80 for the two officers that responded to the accident scene.
Grace Jones told Fox 8, "if every legal citizen pays their taxes and we're supposed to have these agents that do their job and they're here to protect and help and serve. If I'm still paying you to do your job, after you do your job for getting paid for it, what am I doing?"
Under a 2010 ordinance passed by Lyndhurst City Council, the city sends a bill to “at fault” drivers who do not pay taxes in Lyndhurst.
The city also hired an agency to collect the outstanding fees.
Grace Jones' mother was stunned when she learned Friday that her insurance company would not pay the bill from Lyndhurst police and that the collection agency indicated it was her obligation to pay.
"I can't believe that the police would charge you for doing their job, for showing up to an accident, which you have to do, per your insurance," said Patricia Jones.
The mayor and police chief of Lyndhurst were not available for comment, but Nationwide Insurance told the Jones family that it's the company's position that neither Nationwide nor the family have any obligation to pay the charges for emergency services rendered.
Patricia Jones told Fox 8, "they told me that they would investigate it and that they're not going to pay it, they've already contacted the police department. They can't believe that they're actually charging citizens to do their job."Here’s how we analyzed the Democratic debate.
Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont faced off yet again Sunday night, after a weekend of voting where both Democrats notched wins. Mr. Sanders won the Maine Democratic caucuses, according to The Associated Press. The debate, hosted by CNN, took place in Flint, Mich., a town facing a drinking water crisis, in a state where voters head to the polls on Tuesday that will prove a crucial test for both candidates.
• Anderson Cooper, the debate moderator, kicked off the night by explaining why CNN had chosen to stage its latest debate in Flint, Mich. The city is “in crisis,” he said, and the water “is toxic.”
• Both Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton also paid homage to Flint in their minute-long opening statements, calling for the state’s governor, Rick Snyder, to resign. Mr. Sanders called the situation in Flint “a dereliction of duty,” and Mrs. Clinton said she planned to “continue to shine a very bright spotlight on what has happened in this city.”
• Mrs. Clinton declined to say if the head of the Environmental Protection Agency should be fired, saying she didn’t know how high up the chain the problem went. But both she and Mr. Sanders said whoever was responsible for the crisis should absolutely be relieved of their job.A couple of weeks ago on Halloween night, I was out with some friends when my advisor sent me a message to check web.mit.edu, right now. It took me a few seconds of staring to realize that an article about my masters thesis work on a nonparametric approach to detecting trends on Twitter was on the homepage of MIT. Over the next few days, it was picked up by Forbes, Wired, Mashable, Engadget, The Boston Herald and others, and my inbox and Twitter Connect tab were abuzz like never before.
There was a lot of interest in how this thing works and in this post I want to give an informal overview of the method Prof. Shah and I developed. But first, let me start with a story…
A scandal
On June 27, 2012, Barclays Bank was fined $450 million for manipulating the Libor interest rate, in what was possibly the biggest banking fraud scandal in history. People were in uproar about this, and many took their outrage to Twitter. In retrospect, “#Barclays” was bound to become a popular, or “trending” topic. But how soon could one have known this with reasonable certainty? Twitter’s algorithm detected “#Barclays” as a trend at 12:49pm GMT following a big jump in activity around noon (Figure 1).
Figure 1
But is there something about the preceding activity that would have allowed us to detect it earlier? It turns out that there is. We detected it at 12:03, more than 45 minutes in advance. Overall, we were able to detect trends in advance of Twitter 79% of the time, with a mean early advantage of 1.43 hours and an accuracy of 95%.
In this post I’ll tell you how we did it. But before diving into our approach, I want to motivate the thinking behind it by going over another approach to detecting trends.
The problem with parametric models
A popular approach to trend detection is to have a model of the type of activity that comes before a topic is declared trending, and to try to detect that type of activity. One possible model is that activity is roughly constant most of the time but has occasional jumps. A big jump would indicate that something is becoming popular. One way to detect trends would be to estimate a “jumpiness” parameter, say p, from a window of activity and declare something trending or not based on whether p exceeds some threshold.
Figure 2
This kind of method is called parametric, because it estimates parameters from data. But such a “constant + jumps” model does not fully capture the types of patterns that can precede a topic becoming trending. There could be several small jumps leading up to a big jump. There could be a gradual rise and no clear jump. Or any number of other patterns (Figure 3).
Figure 3
Of course, we could build parametric models to detect each of these kinds of patterns. Or even one master parametric model that detects all of them. But pretty soon, we get into a mess. Out of all the possible parametric models one could use, which one should we pick? A priori, it is not clear.
We don’t need to do this — there’s another way.
A data-driven approach
Instead of deciding what the parametric model should be, we take a nonparametric approach. That is, we let the data itself define the model. If we gather enough data about patterns that precede trends and patterns that don’t we can sufficiently characterize all possible types of patterns that can happen. Then instead of building a model from the data, we can use the data directly to decide whether a new pattern is going to lead to a trend or not. You might ask: aren’t there an unlimited number of patterns that can happen? Don’t we need an unreasonable amount of data to characterize all these possibilities?
It turns out that we don’t, at least in this case. People acting in social networks are reasonably predictable. If many of your friends talk about something, it’s likely that you will as well. If many of your friends are friends with person X, it is likely that you are friends with them too. Because the underlying system has, in this sense, low complexity, we should expect that the measurements from that system are also of low complexity. As a result, there should only be a few types of patterns that precede a topic becoming trending. One type of pattern could be “gradual rise”; another could be “small jump, then a big jump”; yet another could be “a jump, then a gradual rise”, and so on. But you’ll never get a sawtooth pattern, a pattern with downward jumps, or any other crazy pattern. To see what I mean, take a look at this sample of patterns (Figure 4) and how it can be clustered into a few different “ways” that something can become trending.
Figure 4: The patterns of activity in black are a sample of patterns of activity leading up to a topic becoming trending. Each subsequent cluster of patterns represents a “way” that something can become trending. : The patterns of activity in black are a sample of patterns of activity leading up to a topic becoming trending. Each subsequent cluster of patterns represents a “way” that something can become trending.
Having outlined this data-driven approach, let’s dive into the actual algorithm.
Our algorithm
Suppose we are tracking the activity of a new topic. To decide whether a topic is trending at some time we take some recent activity, which we call the observation, and compare it to example patterns of activity from topics that became trending in the past and topics that did not.
Each of these examples takes a vote on whether the topic is trending or not trending (Figure 5). Positive, or trending examples ( in Figure 5) vote “trending” and negative, or non-trending examples ( in Figure 5) vote “non-trending”. The weight of each vote depends on the similarity, or distance between the example and the observation according to a decaying exponential
where is a scaling parameter that determines the “sphere of influence” of each example. Essentially, each example says, with a certain confidence, “The observation looks like me, so it should have the same label as me.” We used a Euclidean distance between activity patterns.
Figure 5
Finally, we sum up all of the “trending” and “non-trending” votes, and see if the ratio of these sums is greater than or less than 1.
One could think of this as a kind of weighted majority vote k-nearest-neighbors classification. It also has a probabilistic interpretation that you can find in Chapter 2 of my thesis.
In general, the examples will be much longer than the observations. In that case, we look for the “best match” between and and define the distance to be the minimum distance over all -sized chunks of.
This approach has some nice properties. The core computations are pretty simple, as we only compute distances. It is scalable since computation of distances can be parallelized. Lastly, it is nonparametric, which means we don’t have to decide what model to use.
Results
To evaluate our approach, we collected 500 topics that trended in some time window (sampled from previous lists of trending topics) and 500 that did not (sampled from random phrases in tweets, with trending topics removed). We then tried to predict, on a holdout set of 50% of the topics, which one would trend and which one would not. For topics that both our algorithm and Twitter’s detected as trending, we measured how early or late our algorithm was relative to Twitter’s.
Our most striking result is that we were able to detect Twitter trends in advance of Twitter’s trend detection algorithm a good percent of the time, while maintaining a low rate of error. In 79% percent of cases, we detected trending topics earlier than Twitter (1.43 hours earlier), and we managed to keep an error rate of around 95% (4% false positive rate, 95% true positive rate).
Naturally, our algorithm has various parameters (most notably the scaling parameter and the length of an observation signal) that affect the tradeoff between the types of error and how early we can detect trends. If we are very aggressive about detecting trends, we will have a high true positive rate and early detection, but also a high false positive rate. If we are very conservative, we will have a low false positive rate, but also a low true positive rate and late detection. And there are various tradeoffs in between these extremes. Figure 6 shows a scatterplot of errors in the FPR(false positive rate)-TPR(true positive rate) plane, where each point corresponds to a different combination of parameters. The FPR-TPR plane is split up into three regions corresponding to the aggressive (“top”), conservative (“bottom”), and in between (“center”) strategies. Figure 6 also shows histograms of detection times for each of these strategies.
Figure 6
Conclusion
We’ve designed a new approach to detecting Twitter trends in a nonparametric fashion. But more than that, we’ve presented a general time series analysis method that can be used not only for classification (as in the case of trends), but also for prediction and anomaly detection (cartooned in Figure 7).
Figure 7
And it has the potential to work for a lot more than just predicting trends on Twitter. We can try this on traffic data to predict the duration of a bus ride, on movie ticket sales, on stock prices, or any other time-varying measurements.
We are excited by the early results, but there’s a lot more work ahead. We are continuing to investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, how well this does with different kinds and amounts of data, and on tasks other than classification. Stay tuned!
________________________________________________________
Notes:
Thanks to Ben Lerner, Caitlin Mehl, and Coleman Shelton for reading drafts of this.
I gave a talk about this at the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Information and Decision in Social Networks at MIT on November 9th, and I’ve included the slides below. A huge thank you to the many people who listened to dry runs of it and gave me wonderful feedback.
For a less technical look, Prof. Shah gave a great talk at the MIT Museum on Friday, November 9th:
AdvertisementsEveryone wants everything – how is that going to work? The promise of economic growth is that the poor can live like the rich and the rich can live like the oligarchs. But already we are bursting through the physical limits of the planet that sustains us. Climate breakdown, soil loss, the collapse of habitats and species, the sea of plastic, insectageddon: all are driven by rising consumption. The promise of private luxury for everyone cannot be met: neither the physical nor the ecological space exists.
UK environment department using 1,400 disposable coffee cups a day Read more
But growth must go on: this is everywhere the political imperative. And we must adjust our tastes accordingly. In the name of autonomy and choice, marketing uses the latest findings in neuroscience to break down our defences. Those who seek to resist must, like the Simple Lifers in Brave New World, be silenced – in this case by the media.
With every generation, the baseline of normalised consumption shifts. Thirty years ago, it was ridiculous to buy bottled water, where tap water is clean and abundant. Today, worldwide, we use a million plastic bottles a minute.
Every Friday is a Black Friday, every Christmas a more garish festival of destruction. Among the snow saunas, portable watermelon coolers and smartphones for dogs with which we are urged to fill our lives, my |
ersistent space to streamline user interaction or save space.Apple's inadvertent distribution of HomePod firmware last month has yielded the best look yet at the company's forthcoming flagship handset. Previous discoveries include an illustration of the handset revealing a bezel-less design with with sensor notch, support for 4K video capture at 60fps, new machine learning-powered camera features and more.Earlier today, developers unearthed evidence suggesting "iPhone 8" will use facial recognition hardware to authenticate payments, a major step away from Touch ID fingerprint technology.Ethereum is live! This is not a drill! Ethereum is live!
What a perfect time to get together again and discuss all things Ethereum!
This meetup is looking to be a doozy. We have been in contact with the Ethereum Foundation and they said they would love to open the meeting with a video chat with someone from the team, as well as potentially providing some swag to give away on the night.
After that Tristan will be your guide through the wonders of the Ethereum frontier. We will learn how to start mining, purchase ether, develop basic contracts, and most fun of all learn how to interact with dapps already in the ecosystem.
If you have been wanting to get started in Ethereum but weren't sure how, this is the meetup for you.
Beer and Pizza has been provided by ansarada.
Tyro Fintech Hub has graciously offered their location to host this event. It's an amazing place that lends itself brilliantly to discussing future Ethereum developments.
See you on the night!
Tristan & NathanThis holiday season, thousands of Americans will flock to theaters to see Quentin Tarantino’s newest epic, The Hateful Eight. Judging by the trailer and the director’s existing oeuvre, it’s safe to assume there will be no shortage of bullets flying in all directions.
In a year plagued by mass shootings, Tarantino’s new film arrives with renewed focus on violence and the place of guns in American society. To get a handle on just how large a role guns play in the director’s films, TIME consulted the Internet Movie Firearms Database, a crowd-sourced site that exhaustively catalogues the exact make and model of every gun used in a major film. The director has made use of 77 firearms in his seven major films, including a whopping 21 in 2009’s World War II revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds. Below you can see each gun used in each movie (The Hateful Eight is not yet included).
Photo credits: The Weinstein Company (Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds). Miramax (Kill Bill 1, Kill Bill 2, Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs)
Contact us at editors@time.com.Racist leaflets not ours: Australia First
Updated
A minor party that opposes immigration says leaflets which breach electoral rules are being distributed in Western Sydney to discredit its candidates.
One pamphlet, purporting to be from the Australia First Party, portrays some African refugees as sub-human and violent.
Other anti-immigration leaflets seen by the ABC are anonymous.
The New South Wales chairman of the Australia First Party, Jim Saleam, says the pamphlets were not made by his party.
He says they are similar to dirty tricks leaflets distributed in Western Sydney in the last election.
"They take the strong argument that we put up against certain types of refugee immigration, but they add what I'll call inflammatory, injudicious and unreasonable remarks into it with the intention of getting the party into some sort of legal trouble," he said.
Editor's note (July 27): This story originally contained an image of the pamphlet which the ABC has removed because of the offensive nature of its content.
Topics: elections, community-and-society, discrimination, federal-elections, states-and-territories, sydney-2000, nsw
First postedI wrote this paper for my Rhetorical Criticism class using a combination of the Narrative Criticism model as well as Feminist Criticism in order to come to a conclusion on The Flash‘s fifth episode of its fourth season. Not to brag (which means I’m about to brag humbly), but I received an A on this paper as well as in the course.
“We wanted to do something we’ve never done before. We started the concept of, wouldn’t it be funny if Barry goes for a bachelor party with the guys and Iris goes for a bachelorette party with the girls, and the girls wind up saving the city. That was where the episode started from, and that’s where it ended up.” –Andrew Kreisberg, Executive Producer of The Flash (Kile, 2017)
Over the last decade, the number of superhero movies and live-action comic book adaptations has increased exponentially. Each season of the year contains at least one adaptation of a Marvel or DC Comics adaptation in theaters, and that doesn’t even factor in the yearly television adaptations that grace the screens of different television networks each night of the week, with more being added each year. “They are the lifeblood of the movie industry” (Fenessey, 2017). Comic book adaptations present the unique opportunity to provide media representation on a large scale due to the sheer diversity found in the source material. “Recent developments in superhero comics have seen positive changes to the representation of characters and storylines” (Curtis & Cardo 2017). One adaptation that has been presented with this opportunity is The Flash, which began airing in 2013.
The Flash has never shied away from diversity. After all, the main cast includes a white main character, a black main love interest, two females, one Latino, and additional black man. Outside of the main cast, there is a wealth of diversity in the recurring supporting cast. Currently in its fourth season, the show has undergone many changes, but the core cast of diverse characters has remained more or less constant. In the fifth episode of the currently airing fourth season, the writers attempted to put emphasis on the female characters in the main and supporting cast with the overt intention of showcasing their progress in representing strong female characters that boldly promote the ideas of third wave feminism. I will use the Narrative Criticism model to perform an analysis and use Feminist Criticism to come to the conclusion of whether this episode reinforces, reverses, questions, or transcends patriarchy.
Normally, the episode structure of The Flash is as follows: a villain appears in Central City, the setting of the story, Barry Allen, the titular hero, will confront that villain and lose. From there, the main characters huddle up to examine why Barry lost that confrontation, and the “leader” of the team that aids The Flash fight crime who also doubles as Allen’s fiancée, Iris West, will give out instructions for the team to take the next step. Then, Barry’s “’regular” life as a crime scene investigator will produce additional drama to add to the tension of the episode. The villain will appear in the city again, the Flash will confront that villain, losing once more, but not before learning something that will help in the final conflict. At this point, whatever additional drama popped up in Allen’s regular life will be resolved which will help him face the villainous threat with a clear head and renewed focus. After the Flash defeats the villain of the week, loose plot threads are tidied up in the closing act of this episode.
The fifth episode of the fourth season, titled “Girls Night Out” sought to subvert this trend. This is the first episode of the entire show’s run in which Barry Allen does not don his crimson uniform to fight crime as the savior of Central City, the Flash. Instead, the focus of the story is on the bachelorette party of Iris West, Allen’s fiancée. West decides to hold a get together with her closest female friends within the superhero community while Barry and the men in the crime-fighting group head to a local strip club to celebrate themselves.
West takes her friends – Caitlin Snow, a metahuman with ice superpowers, Cecile, her father’s girlfriend, and Felicity Smoak, the girlfriend of another vigilante from another crime-fighting show within the same shared universe, Arrow – to a fancy restaurant for a quiet night of light celebration. While they’re enjoying their night out, a villainous figure with superpowers attacks the group of women unexpectedly, with Caitlyn Snow and her ice powers being the target of the attack. Caitlin uses her powers to fend off the attack, but the aftermath leads to conflict within the group. Caitlin did not tell the rest of the group that during a previous absence from the team, she had been involved with a crime lord who used her for her ice powers. Caitlin left while still “under contract,” so to speak, and the villainous figure came to bring Caitlin back. Caitlin planned to leave town immediately after the bachelorette party without telling anyone, and the group is greatly disappointed by this revelation.
After the girls begin to feel like they’re in over their heads with the plot developments, they attempt to call Barry and the other men. Little do they know that the men went to a strip club where all cellphones are confiscated. Their “adventure” at the club becomes a site of emotional conflict as Joe West, Iris’ father and Cecile’s boyfriend, discovers that Cecile’s daughter is a stripper at that very club. Barry becomes intoxicated and gets dragged into a bar fight that lands the group of men in jail and unavailable to help Iris and her group.
Meanwhile, Caitlin breaks away from the group to confront the crime boss in person – a metahuman woman named Amunet who has the power to control shards of metal for offensive or defensive purposes. Upon visiting her at a club, she discovers that Amunet kidnapped and imprisoned another metahuman with the power to create a happiness drug from his tears. This motivates the girls to take action to free the imprisoned metahuman without the help of Central City’s biggest hero, the Flash.
Outside of Caitlin and her ice powers, none of the other girls possess any superhuman powers to combat Amunet and her security detail. The girls devise a plan that partially works, and they free the metahuman slave, “coincidentally” a man, who ungratefully runs off without a “thank you” despite just being freed from slavery and physical abuse designed to force him to cry to produce the drug. Amunet escapes to pester Caitlin later in the season to provide her with a compelling storyline to follow her character as time moves on.
The boys finally return from their overnight adventures, but neither side tells the other what really occurred that night out of what appears to be shame. Joe gets a moment to speak to Cecile’s daughter to confront her about her nightly occupation as an exotic dancer at one of the sleaziest clubs in town. She explains that its research about a book that she’s writing, but Joe implores her to self-examine why she felt it was necessary to hide this job from her mother. The episode concludes with teasing out another appearance of the season-long overarching villain as the plot moves toward an inevitable encounter between this villain, “The Thinker,” and the Flash.
To decide what effect this episode has on patriarchy, I will use the Narrative Criticism model. A narrative has four characteristics: the narrative must be comprised of at least two events, the events must be organized by time order, the events must include some kind of causal or contributing relationship among events in a story, and the events within the narrative must be about a unified subject (Foss 308). When using the Narrative Criticism model, one must examine features of the narrative, which includes the setting, characters, the narrator, events, causal relations, temporal relations, the theme, the audience, the type of narrative it is, and the objective of the narrative. When using the narrative model, one must also look at narrative coherence and narrative fidelity. Additionally, when engaging in Feminist Criticism, the objective is to determine if an artifact reinforces, reverses, questions or transcends patriarchy. It looks at how groups treat women and, in an intersectional way, minorities as well.
The setting of the Flash beyond just the literal location of Central City is important to the narrative. A supernatural phenomenon led to a boom in the number of super powered individuals that inhabit this fictional world. The existence and acceptance plays a role in each character’s view of their positionality within the world. Caitlin, for example, fears her superpowers because they come with an alternate persona that takes over whenever her powers are triggered. Another character in the main cast, Cisco Ramon, was hesitant to reveal his powers because of his fears as well. Since the death of her fiancé, the writers tie all plot points for Caitlin to her metahuman powers.
The main characters in this particular narrative are Iris West, Caitlin Snow, Felicity Smoak, and Cecile. The narrative on any given episode usually focuses on Barry Allen and his adventures in fighting crime with the support of the characters listed above as well as the male supporting cast. Iris, in particular, has received a new overarching plot this season as the “leader” of “Team Flash” because of her role in keeping the team together despite Barry’s absence earlier in the season. Leading up to her and Barry coming together as a couple, the show treated Iris as her own character who had her own career as a journalist who was trying to, at the time, uncover the mystery of the Flash before she discovered that Barry was the hero all along. Because of her lack of powers, she often serves as a damsel in distress; this creates drama for Barry to add to the conflict that he should be super powered enough to normally overcome.
Heading into the season, the writers attempted to add a new dynamic to Iris’ character as the leader of Team Flash (Ennis, 2017). At this point in the show’s run, this serves merely to distinguish her from Barry. The show initially established Iris as a strong, resourceful woman who was fearless after being raised by a father who works in the police force. By the fourth season, her primary role is “Barry’s fiancée,” so this change was made to add more to her character. In this episode, her development as leader is put into focus, as she has to make multiple decisions without the help of her super powered fiancé.
The theme of this episode is clearly feminism. “’Girls Night Out’ does, occasionally, go overboard with its message of female empowerment. That #feminism bit in particular was pretty cringe-worthy” (Moran, 2017). The episode uses blatant and overt messaging to portray the empowerment of women and the lack of needing men to solve all of their problems. Several bits of dialogue push this theme, including the previously mentioned “#feminism” line accompanied with the hashtag hand sign performed by the actors. Additionally, as quoted in the outset, this was the objective of the narrative as explained by the Executive Producer, Andrew Kreisberg. It’s worth noting that Kreisberg has been suspended from producing CW shows amid sexual harassment allegations (Ryan, 2017).
The narrative, while tackling serious themes, was a comedy. Plenty of humor was used throughout the narrative, including the entire subplot of Barry and the boys at the strip club. Felicity, a character who usually provides comic relief on another show, attempted to provide much of that in her stints throughout this episode as well. “Felicity does practically nothing the whole episode except crack a couple of jokes. Aside from the desperate need to have another female character on screen, her presence in this episode serves little purpose” (Zyber, 2017).
The events clearly occurred over a well-defined timeline of one evening. The focus of the present narrative switched occasionally from the main plot of Iris’ adventures to Barry’s misadventures, but both plotlines occurred concurrently over the course of one night. The two sides of the narrative, the main plot and side plot, converge cleanly at the end of the episode when Barry and Iris reconvene. The speed of the narrative is a little choppy, for the audience is made to believe that all of these events happened so quickly over the 42-minute episode when it’s simply not possible. In the absence of Barry Allen, the fastest man alive, it was incredibly easy for the girls to track and locate Amunet and her base of operations. Additionally, they move from location to location, often across the entire city, with relative ease and without a sense of the action taking a long period of time.
There is a lack of narrative coherence as well. One of the male characters, Harry, has the same face of a man convicted for murder. However, Harry strolls into the middle of the same police precinct that arrested his doppelganger two years prior without any consequence. A “dead” man wanted for murder walked into the headquarters of the police and no one batted an eye. There was some narrative fidelity, for many people in the audience can relate to Barry’s side of the story. There have been many bachelor parties that occur in strip clubs that take a turn for the worst. Otherwise, there’s little narrative fidelity in a superpowered society.
After analyzing this model with the Narrative Criticism model, I found that this artifact reinforces patriarchy despite its noble intentions of doing the opposite. Early on within The Flash’s serialization, the female characters, Iris and Caitlin in particular, are established as unbelievably intelligent women who can hold their own in their own situations. They are written as strong, independent women within the first few episodes, and that gave the series a refreshing feeling. However, as the series progressed, they started to fall into the trap of being intrinsically tied to men in everything that they do.
With Iris, in particular, her character growth has been almost entirely based on what the plot needs her to be, not because of any natural progression. “Despite being an original member of the cast and Barry’s true love, Iris’s development has suffered under the steady bloat of the cast, as regularly introduced new (male) characters get entire narrative arcs of personal growth while Iris is shunted to the sidelines. In four seasons, Iris has transitioned from waitress to grad student, from city blogger to journalist, and finally to leader of Team Flash with little to no explanation of how her ambitions have evolved over time, or how she might even have acquired the skills she now uses” (Young, 2017). This disregard for an integral character’s progression in favor of the addition of men to the story shows that feminism isn’t usually the focus of the show.
Obviously, The Flash is the story of Barry Allen, the fastest man alive who fights crime along with his friends in Central City. The objective of the narrative is to appeal comic book lovers and the related demographics. With that being said, a narrative that centers on a male but includes women can include strongly written female characters. Due to the commercial and critical success of Wonder Woman, a film centered on the titular character with the same narrative objective as the “Girls Night Out” episode of The Flash, the issue clearly isn’t the message. The reason why that film was much better received than this episode was because of how the issue of feminism was tackled by the main cast. “While she conforms to traditional articulations of gender in the way she performs an attractive, female, white, heterosexual, middle-to-upper class woman, she also unsettles gendered boundaries through performing a determined, astute, formidable warrior at the same time” (Cocca, 2013). Clearly, a well-written female character gets the message across more than having poorly-written female characters spout messages of girl power and “#feminism.”
If The Flash wanted to truly reverse or transcend patriarchy, they wouldn’t even have an episode dedicated to feminism. In fact, the entire show would consistently show strong and capable women who make wise and well-founded decisions on a regular basis. There wouldn’t be a need to explain that their actions as female characters empower women. Their actions would speak for themselves. “Have faith in the personas you’ve created. More importantly, have a little respect for the audience’s intellect. Show us a fierce woman and we’ll connect the dots from there” (Frith, 2017). Instead, we have a feminism-centric episode that actually does the opposite of what it intended to do. In fact, the episode plays up several stereotypes of women that are harmful to the message of empowerment.
For example, Caitlin’s alter ego that comes out whenever she uses her ice powers, Killer Frost, is shockingly a killer. Iris attempts to overcome this barrier by using the “power of friendship” to explain why Killer Frost doesn’t have to kill (Young, 2017). Typically, when they play, boys are taught to be rough and to play sports and to be independent and cool. Girls are taught to rely on each other, to rely on the power of friendship, and to love each other and to get along. This episode does nothing to buck this trend. It allows men the power to continue to exhort power on others while women are forced to be submissive and friendly because that’s just the way things are.
Overall, “Girls Night Out” missed the intended mark to show that women can be empowered to do whatever they put their minds while being free of the power of men. It’s understandable to see where the writers were coming from; they wanted a conflict that the girls could solve without the men’s help to show that they are free from the restraints of patriarchy. If they truly wanted to accomplish this, the work would have had to start (and continued) from the first episode of the first season with a focus on well-written characters, not a poorly written plot that tries to elevate weakly written females. “Girls Night Out” tries to transcend patriarchy, but in the end, it reinforces the very thing that it tries so desperately to fight.
Works Cited
Cocca, Carolyn. “Negotiating the Third Wave of Feminism in Wonder Woman.” PS: Political Science & Politics, vol. 47, no. 01, 2013, pp. 98–103., doi:10.1017/s1049096513001662.
Curtis, Neal, and Valentina Cardo. “Superheroes and third-Wave feminism.” Feminist Media Studies, 2017, pp. 1–16., doi:10.1080/14680777.2017.1351387.
Ennis, Tricia. “The Flash finally remembered it has female characters, but will that continue?” Syfy, SYFY WIRE, 10 Oct. 2017, www.syfy.com/syfywire/flash-finally-remembered-it-has-female-characters.
Fennessey, Sean. “The Superhero Movie Generation.” The Ringer, The Ringer, 13 Nov. 2017, www.theringer.com/movies/2017/11/13/16643172/superhero-movies-2017-box-office-future.
Foss, Sonja. Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice, 5th ed. Prospect heights, IL: Waveland, 2009
Frith, Vanessa. “’Girls Night Out’ on ‘The Flash’ Had One Glaring Flaw.” BuddyTV – TV News, Spoilers, Photos, TV Personality Quizzes, Trivia, 8 Nov. 2017, www.buddytv.com/articles/the-flash/girls-night-out-on-the-flash-h-66711.aspx.
Kile, Meredith B. “’The Flash’ EP Dishes on Iris’ Bachelorette-Gone-Wrong in ‘Girls Night Out’ — Plus, New Crossover Scoop!” Entertainment Tonight, ETOnline, 7 Nov. 2017, www.etonline.com/flash-ep-dishes-iris-bachelorette-gone-wrong-girls-night-out-plus-new-crossover-scoop-90607.
Moran, Sarah. “The Flash Goes Wild in ‘Girls Night Out’.” Screen Rant, 8 Nov. 2017, screenrant.com/flash-girls-night-out-reviews-spoilers/.
Ryan, Maureen. “’Supergirl,’ ‘Arrow’ Producer Suspended Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations by Warner Bros.” Variety, 11 Nov. 2017, variety.com/2017/tv/news/warner-bros-sexual-harassment-andrew-kreisberg-1202612522/.
Young, Cate. “’The Flash’ Still Doesn’t Know How to Handle Its Female Characters.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 22 Nov. 2017, www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a13857721/the-flash-girls-night-out-review/.
Zyber, Josh. “‘The Flash’ 4.05 Recap: “That’s Not How Feminism Works”.” HighDef Digest, The Bonus View, 9 Nov. 2017, www.highdefdigest.com/blog/flash-405-recap/.
AdvertisementsDaniel Somers was a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was part of Task Force Lightning, an intelligence unit. In 2004-2005, he was mainly assigned to a Tactical Human-Intelligence Team (THT) in Baghdad, Iraq, where he ran more than 400 combat missions as a machine gunner in the turret of a Humvee, interviewed countless Iraqis ranging from concerned citizens to community leaders and and government officials, and interrogated dozens of insurgents and terrorist suspects. In 2006-2007, Daniel worked with Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) through his former unit in Mosul where he ran the Northern Iraq Intelligence Center. His official role was as a senior analyst for the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and part of Turkey). Daniel suffered greatly from PTSD and had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and several other war-related conditions. On June 10, 2013, Daniel wrote the following letter to his family before taking his life. Daniel was 30 years old. His wife and family have given permission to publish it.
I am sorry that it has come to this.
The fact is, for as long as I can remember my motivation for getting up every day has been so that you would not have to bury me. As things have continued to get worse, it has become clear that this alone is not a sufficient reason to carry on. The fact is, I am not getting better, I am not going to get better, and I will most certainly deteriorate further as time goes on. From a logical standpoint, it is better to simply end things quickly and let any repercussions from that play out in the short term than to drag things out into the long term.
You will perhaps be sad for a time, but over time you will forget and begin to carry on. Far better that than to inflict my growing misery upon you for years and decades to come, dragging you down with me. It is because I love you that I can not do this to you. You will come to see that it is a far better thing as one day after another passes during which you do not have to worry about me or even give me a second thought. You will find that your world is better without me in it.
I really have been trying to hang on, for more than a decade now. Each day has been a testament to the extent to which I cared, suffering unspeakable horror as quietly as possible so that you could feel as though I was still here for you. In truth, I was nothing more than a prop, filling space so that my absence would not be noted. In truth, I have already been absent for a long, long time.
My body has become nothing but a cage, a source of pain and constant problems. The illness I have has caused me pain that not even the strongest medicines could dull, and there is no cure. All day, every day a screaming agony in every nerve ending in my body. It is nothing short of torture. My mind is a wasteland, filled with visions of incredible horror, unceasing depression, and crippling anxiety, even with all of the medications the doctors dare give. Simple things that everyone else takes for granted are nearly impossible for me. I can not laugh or cry. I can barely leave the house. I derive no pleasure from any activity. Everything simply comes down to passing time until I can sleep again. Now, to sleep forever seems to be the most merciful thing.
You must not blame yourself. The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity. Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from. I take some pride in that, actually, as to move on in life after being part of such a thing would be the mark of a sociopath in my mind. These things go far beyond what most are even aware of.
To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing coverup is more than any government has the right to demand. Then, the same government has turned around and abandoned me. They offer no help, and actively block the pursuit of gaining outside help via their corrupt agents at the DEA. Any blame rests with them.
Beyond that, there are the host of physical illnesses that have struck me down again and again, for which they also offer no help. There might be some progress by now if they had not spent nearly twenty years denying the illness that I and so many others were exposed to. Further complicating matters is the repeated and severe brain injuries to which I was subjected, which they also seem to be expending no effort into understanding. What is known is that each of these should have been cause enough for immediate medical attention, which was not rendered.
Lastly, the DEA enters the picture again as they have now managed to create such a culture of fear in the medical community that doctors are too scared to even take the necessary steps to control the symptoms. All under the guise of a completely manufactured “overprescribing epidemic,” which stands in stark relief to all of the legitimate research, which shows the opposite to be true. Perhaps, with the right medication at the right doses, I could have bought a couple of decent years, but even that is too much to ask from a regime built upon the idea that suffering is noble and relief is just for the weak.
However, when the challenges facing a person are already so great that all but the weakest would give up, these extra factors are enough to push a person over the edge.
Is it any wonder then that the latest figures show 22 veterans killing themselves each day? That is more veterans than children killed at Sandy Hook, every single day. Where are the huge policy initiatives? Why isn’t the president standing with those families at the state of the union? Perhaps because we were not killed by a single lunatic, but rather by his own system of dehumanization, neglect, and indifference.
It leaves us to where all we have to look forward to is constant pain, misery, poverty, and dishonor. I assure you that, when the numbers do finally drop, it will merely be because those who were pushed the farthest are all already dead.
And for what? Bush’s religious lunacy? Cheney’s ever growing fortune and that of his corporate friends? Is this what we destroy lives for
Since then, I have tried everything to fill the void. I tried to move into a position of greater power and influence to try and right some of the wrongs. I deployed again, where I put a huge emphasis on saving lives. The fact of the matter, though, is that any new lives saved do not replace those who were murdered. It is an exercise in futility.
Then, I pursued replacing destruction with creation. For a time this provided a distraction, but it could not last. The fact is that any kind of ordinary life is an insult to those who died at my hand. How can I possibly go around like everyone else while the widows and orphans I created continue to struggle? If they could see me sitting here in suburbia, in my comfortable home working on some music project they would be outraged, and rightfully so.
I thought perhaps I could make some headway with this film project, maybe even directly appealing to those I had wronged and exposing a greater truth, but that is also now being taken away from me. I fear that, just as with everything else that requires the involvement of people who can not understand by virtue of never having been there, it is going to fall apart as careers get in the way.
The last thought that has occurred to me is one of some kind of final mission. It is true that I have found that I am capable of finding some kind of reprieve by doing things that are worthwhile on the scale of life and death. While it is a nice thought to consider doing some good with my skills, experience, and killer instinct, the truth is that it isn’t realistic. First, there are the logistics of financing and equipping my own operation, then there is the near certainty of a grisly death, international incidents, and being branded a terrorist in the media that would follow. What is really stopping me, though, is that I simply am too sick to be effective in the field anymore. That, too, has been taken from me.
Thus, I am left with basically nothing. Too trapped in a war to be at peace, too damaged to be at war. Abandoned by those who would take the easy route, and a liability to those who stick it out—and thus deserve better. So you see, not only am I better off dead, but the world is better without me in it
This is what brought me to my actual final mission. Not suicide, but a mercy killing. I know how to kill, and I know how to do it so that there is no pain whatsoever. It was quick, and I did not suffer. And above all, now I am free. I feel no more pain. I have no more nightmares or flashbacks or hallucinations. I am no longer constantly depressed or afraid or worried
I am free.
I ask that you be happy for me for that. It is perhaps the best break I could have hoped for. Please accept this and be glad for me.
Daniel Somers
[Photo via Gettypremium]What have been 2015’s most important developments in legal technology? For the past two years, I’ve posted my picks of the top developments in legal tech (2014, 2013). With another year under our belts, it’s time to look back at 2015.
What follows are my picks for the year’s most important legal technology developments. As in past years, the numbers are not meant to be rankings — all of these are important in their own ways. I also refer you back to my prior years’ posts, as much of what I said in them remains true today.
1. Case Law Gets Democratized.
To my mind, the biggest legal technology story of the year was the joint announcement by Harvard Law School and Ravel Law of their Free the Law project to digitize and make available to the public for free Harvard’s entire collection of U.S. case law – said to be the most comprehensive and authoritative database of American law and cases available anywhere outside the Library of Congress. As someone who has covered legal and information technology for more than two decades, this was a day I’d long hoped would arrive. Harvard’s vice dean for library and information resources, Jonathan Zittrain, summed up the significance better than I could when he said: “Libraries were founded as an engine for the democratization of knowledge, and the digitization of Harvard Law School’s collection of U.S. case law is a tremendous step forward in making legal information open and easily accessible to the public.”
This news comes at a time when legal-research start-ups continue to develop innovative ways to access and contextualize legal research. Ravel Law is one example, with its visualization tools that show the connections and relationships among cases. Casetext is another, which just this year introduced such innovations as its crowdsourced citator and its LegalPad writing and publishing tool. Developments such as these are helping to realize a long-held vision of the Internet – that it will make the law more accessible and comprehensible to everyone.
2. Analytics Take Center Stage.
The second-biggest legal technology story of 2015 was the acquisition of Lex Machina by LexisNexis. It was a significant deal in itself, but even more so for what it signals about the direction in which legal technology is headed. Why would one of the world’s most-established legal information and technology companies want this small, six-year-old Silicon Valley start-up? The answer, in a word: Analytics. Lex Machina has developed and refined sophisticated analytics that open new windows into court data. It takes data from the federal courts’ PACER system – dockets, court filings, orders – and lets users extract information, patterns and trends that would otherwise be invisible. It provides insights into lawyers, law firms, litigants, judges and courts that inform decision making and strategy.
So far, Lex Machina has done this for only intellectual property law, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. And there is no reason to confine such analytics to court data. There are troves of freely available government information that could harbor all sorts of invaluable information for legal professionals. Even beyond government data, analytics are already being used by lawyers in e-discovery, budgeting, fee negotiations, settlement negotiations, and a host of other applications. Lex Machina is by no means the only legal company in this space – PacerPro recently launched a new analytics tool called Litigant Profiling and Ravel Law offers its Judge Analytics – but its acquisition underscores the growing significance of data analytics in law.
3. The Duty of Technology Competence Goes Wide.
In 2012, when the American Bar Association formally approved a change to Rule 1.1 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to make clear that lawyers have a duty to be competent not only in the law and its practice, but also in technology, I described it as a sea change. But the Model Rules are merely models. Unless and until they are adopted by the states, they have no binding effect on lawyers. It is significant, therefore, that 20 states have now adopted what I call the duty of technology competence. In 2015 alone, the Model Rule was adopted in nine states and became effective in another two that had adopted it late in 2014.
Why does this matter? Because there is no more hiding from technology. You can no longer competently practice law without at least a rudimentary understanding of technology, the Internet and social media. You need to know enough to recognize what you don’t know and to withdraw or bring on help when circumstances warrant. It is safe to say that, a year from now, the majority of states will have adopted the duty of technology competence. Even in states that do not, courts are increasingly signaling their impatience with lawyers who lack basic technology skills. There can be no more Luddites in law.
4. Technology-Assisted Review Becomes Mainstream.
It was less than four years ago that U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck issued the first-ever court decision to approve the use of technology-assisted |
.” I said, "He may be right.”
But if five grand is live changing, you need to change your life.
And now I got to rob his parent's crib for fucking up my motivation;
if it was five grand, there wouldn't be any(B&E) reason for this home invasion.
I will kick in the door, shoot the whore. You want more dead? Pistol to your head.
Show me to the safe, and I'll be in the vault quicker than Cortez.
Caustic, Pat Stay, The Saurus, Bigg K, I don't give a fuck who you have involved.
I have evolved; bodies once sloppily rotten are now frozen in catalogs.
Serial killers keep trophies, but I'll take cash in hand.
A thousand for the sacrifice: (What's that?) a rack of lamb.
Well I'll be damned, just to see you live in Hell.
This is Silence Of The Lambs: I hope you're living(live in) well.
It puts the lotion on, live in well? How could he fucking win?
Buffalo Bill wouldn't be comfortable in his fucking skin.
It's heavy builder vers' extra filler; they expect a thriller,
these people crazy. Fuck Steven Avery, even my set(-)up killer.
Photo by Banshee for KOTD.
This is not a new release; it ain't gotta do a piece.
Of course I'm fighting a bum; I made a living on the streets.
Fork in the road, the dead end up on another path.
You should've stayed in your lane; you're fucking trash.
You got a little buzz, thought you'd be a fucking match,
but you gon' die leaving a mark that doesn't last.
Did it sting? Then bring up the fucking past.
Yeah, the Earth quaked, but the magnitude is just an after thought,
‘cause the shit that landed in the building wasn't the same after( )shock.
(Yeah, wasn't was it?)
So is it my fault for being groundbreaking if they didn't get the shit?
See, the future can learn from the past, but not exist in it,
so I'm past that. It's not that he can't rap,
I'm just so ahead of my time, you're currently trapped in a flashback.
You're going to lose a rack flat; was it worth the hype?
You can either wait, or(waiter) or have too much on your plate for the perfect bite.
You see what happens when it's catered? Serves you right.
See, your eyes are bigger than your stomach. That food’s a little closer.
You're gonna realize I'm a killer at large and testing(intestine) me
will be the reason you die just(digest) a little slower.
Now did that shit faze you?
‘Cause they said when I face you, phase one was to break you;
they fucking hate you. Look who they gave you.
Think U.S. pennies, ‘cause you're worth less than the cost it took to make you.
(Early!)
Round Two
Psycoses
Yo, he just had that Silence Of The Lambs bar,
but that whole scheme was straight up lame.
I'm not Buffalo Bill, I'm Hannibal Lecter,
’cause once Psyco' broke out the pen, there's no saving face.
This round is for everybody who thinks that my shit is all filler.
Now watch me get this body on cam(Cam): Von Miller.
I'll kill him with hands sharper than Wolverine with the titanium blade,
start rearranging your face
'til it looks like you have Hills Have Eyes creature uranium traits,
have your DNA looking bad when the machete spray in your face,
but if you get in my grill and you're grilling, I'm willing to push your grill in,
so start playing it safe.
Stoop Kid from Hey Arnold:
you don't wanna get stepping over stares(stairs), so stay in your place.
It's safe to say, you go down that path,
you'll take a left and a hook on the right like you were asking directions.
You'll be feeling the burn(Bern) like you want Sanders elected.
Having this bitch head in a box like Brad Pitt in Seven,
when you get beat with bare(bear) hands like that Panda in Tekken.
Photo by Christian Andrabado for BattleRap.com.
You’ve been acting pretentious,
so I'll leave him stuck up with his nose in the air like this dude's snobby,
walking around with half a face from one hit like a House of The Dead 2 zombie.
When the dude's talking, I'm sending the other hand swinging;
that'll make you bite your tongue like a bad seizure,
hands jabbing like Pan's Labyrinth: the kid'll get eaten if my hands see him,
and beat him, 'til you all see one land like Pangaea.
All sea? One land? Pangaea?
We can see that you don't respect the scene, so I take it as disrespect to me.
This is for every time I stopped at the gas station to take a piss,
and your cousin wouldn't give me the restroom key.
Just you see, it'll be like Calicoe's dad, the way I'm taking off on son.
Get your gang involved, and trust, engage in brawl with us,
the same result then comes, but if engaging’s not enough,
then they can all get clubbed like Megan Fox's thumbs.
I'm not the one.
Last battle I said, "One arm waving got you running home like a third base coach,”
but for you, I brought something worse,
when you see two arms waving like Th3 Saga in church.
You thought that every verse was gonna 3-0 me,
but I'm already amounting two-nothing,
and turned that amount into nothing,
and that's why your bars ain't amounting to nothing,
‘cause this is Everest to a desert strip: this a mountain to nothing.
Dude's bluffing.
This a fire cracker to what happens when you're making an atom split.
You aught to quit cause my attic wit is more adequate than Anne Frank's attic width.
You told OT 7even "shank to his neck, I’m apple picking.” Well ain't that some shit?
One boot will turn his Adam's apple to apple sauce with his larynx squished.
Then I'll reboot him...and not even Steve Jobs could get him his Apple fixed.
That was a Genius Bar.
And against Born you said,
"It's hard when everyone you know’s(nose) crooked like Owen Wilson.”
That was so hot; stop.
Quit acting like you when your folks call the shots,
and lighten your tone like Michael Jackson
before everybody that you know’s(nose) falling off.
This reminds me a little bit like Daylyt vers’ Iron Solomon.
I'm not calling this a mirror match; let me give y'all the clear vision.
This reminds me of Daylyt versus Iron Solomon
‘cause in this battle, you need to self reflect on your mere(mirror) image.
(Early!)
Gjonaj
Hibbity, dibbity, flibbity, jibbity-- shut the fuck up.
You want to know what everyone on cam wonders?
How do you spit twice as fast and have half the substance?
You're fucking trash. Look, I appreciate the fans that remain loyal,
but there's a difference between someone that'll lie to you
and someone that'll lie for you.
There's a difference between someone that'll kill for you,
and someone that'll die for you.
That's why I don't give a fuck about your fans.
I can count how many people I trust on Jason Pierre Paul's hands.
Look, don't get defensive or you'll miss the message.
See, I needed a match; he was the natural selection, and I hate that.
It was dramatized, fossilized, let's go way back.
There was a missing link; it seemed our wins didn't explain that.
Now for y'all in the building, who can't rewind or replay that:
“natural selection", "fossilized", "missing link”, “it seemed Darwin didn't explain that”.
Photo by Christian Andrabado for BattleRap.com.
See I'm gonna do that all night and clearly kill him,
but first, let's light up the building.
It's time to switch on him like a step child; this next style nastier than a meth smile.
Die from biting: West Nile. Circles change, shape shift, alien reptile.
I'll crack his Skully; thought it was the X-Files.
American Sniper: I'll go from this Kyle to Chris Kyle.
Confirmed kill. It gets worse still.
I use violence to paint the pig; you're a human virus.
Matrix shit, replay, then glitch:
you'll see the same body over and over. Agent Smith.
Which is why we don't cam a lot(Camelot).
This is not your (k)night; everything I spit sort of lands a lot(sword of Lancelot).
This is my kingdom. I alone am ruler;
they measured my successes soon as my foot fit through
It's quicksand. There's a point I'm 'bout to get to.
Struggle and die faster, did it sink in? I'm the last thing you should've ran into.
Why stop when I got more to prove? I'm Cyclops:
this one I(eye) can't afford to lose. I'm in your blind spot.
Don't get stuck in traffic. Oh, you heard the story?
Well it's working for me. Get stuck in the middle: purgatory.
Fans get to judge the living, and the dead; see, it's all an angle.
Thirty pieces of silver and a fallen angel,
hanging with the twelve before I got a cradle,
and made bread off the body before I got the table.
The last supper. Bow your head as I read a verse.
Dear Lord, tonight one of us is going to leave the Earth.
May the peace be with you, ‘cause if I see him first,
parum-pa-pum-pum, all I brought was a drum, like Jesus' birth.
See at first, wise men followed a star.
Nowadays, fuck that, just follow the bars.
(Salute!)
Round Three
Psycoses
Let’s get it popping, G; I’m here to School(-)boy on cue(Q), no collard greens.
So face it, fam, it's basic math:
I'm the prime one, so you can't even be at odds with me.
I bring Fury to this field like a Ottawa soccer team.
I doctor these pupils: optometry,
running through every body in my path like a Hotel Rwanda scene.
This is Man Vs. Food and it's my job to eat.
Even when I'm freestyling off the top, it's clean;
think Sub Zero from Mortal Kombat: I body frees(freeze).
All these squares around make the game bored(board): Monopoly.
You talk a lot about knocking in noggins clean and socking teeth; stop it, please.
Like couples locked in monogamy rocking promise rings, we never saw you swing.
You say you'll start shooting stars, calm it(comet), please,
or guns(organs) get brought to the table like a Dahmer feast,
long nose in front of your face all day like what Caustic sees,
or catch you and you boo when you're on the streets,
put your boo in a bag like Monster's Inc.
It's odd ‘cause he said he was gonna hurt Diz's career,
then we all just died from laughter
when you forgot your lines at half verse and started calling time quick after.
Hey, you guys wanna know what rhymes with "calling time quick after?"
[Caustic:] Getting bodied by Dizaster!
Photo by Banshee for KOTD.
But tonight you're gonna get it bar for bar,
‘cause that's what everybody here's wanting,
but I didn't write a single jelly fish line,
so tonight no one's gonna have a problem pronouncing this a clear body.
A clear homi, so act a fool and every part you have in you will tear apart,
then black and blue from every scar
and faggot, you will have to prove you carry heart,
when we see this monkey stand up for himself like the evolutionary chart.
Did you hear that Darwinism bar he had in his last round when he said it son?
Yeah, well fuck it, I got a better one.
Are you familiar with the Theory Of Evolution?
‘Cause Darwinism best explains how this match was concepted.
See, you never learned to adapt to the present,
so naturally, it only took one disaster(Dizaster) to end him,
then due to the growth in my bio,(-)logically I was the natural selection.
After you stepped in, it was like Smack had a sex doll fetish,
the way they blew up this fake fuck and gassed his rounds,
while I got slept on by more battle rappers than Organik's couch.
While I had to find a way to try to pay to fly the states,
and trapped in the traffic lines for days, the price was waived right away
for this guy to take the diamond lane to the fastest route,
so the staff on Smack is over half the reason they have him out,
so The King Of The Dot was happy to have him out,
but I'll be happy when we have him out.
But after now, I ain't takin losses, but if they say I lost then
I'm taking off rocking The King Of The Dot chain with Illmaculate hanging off it.
You were taking off when your PG release lifted
his weak image, to be pictured like he's an elite figure;
now they use your bull pen for a warm up like relief pitchers.
You use historical figures and facts that are bound to be
convincing for half the crowd to think it's skill, but in actuality,
it's a gimmick you have to cloud to scheme,
with your simplicity masked as challenging,
‘cause the significant fact left out of these writtens you have are found to be
missing the factuality and littered with massive fallacies
and hidden within a fictitious image with little in practicality.
For example, you told JC,
”They knew I was gonna sleep you as soon as they set a date.”
Set a date/sedative. That's a reach.
Then you said, "I could beat you with the bars I land of the free if the pen in gone"
Pen in gone/pentagon. That's a reach.
Then you said,
"you'll all get fed embalming fluid unless you find somewhere for ‘em all to hide.”
For ‘em all to hide/formaldehyde. That's a reach.
You can battle John John in a Mosque and still out rhyme a don.
Out rhyme a don/Ramadan. That's a reach.
Faggot, please. There's an obvious gap in everything you say.
Getting reaction off bars that don't make sense
only makes you look stupid in the long run. Just ask DNA.
Round three, it's getting hot in here. King Of The Dot, y'all know that slogan.
[Crowd:] Get him the fuck out of here!
Hell no, get the beanie on this geek the fuck out of here.
You're afraid of immigration; get this Syrian refugee the fuck out of here.
Half your bars don't even make sense, get every fucking reach the fuck out of here.
I killed rappers Back To Back here because I love Toronto;
somebody get Meek the fuck out of here.
Gjonaj
Yo, who the fuck is he talking to every round?
You better make like a bitch in her wedding gown and settle down.
Oh, you made(maid) of honor? Well we are not the same.
A loss in reality, I'm how he got a name.
I ignore pain and press your(pressure) points. What an easy win,
look how you act. You punked your(acupuncture)self. Why needle him?
You're so close to death like senior citizens.
Needle, sew clothes?
No joke, while he was thinking about what to write next,
I was doing random licks like dyke sex.
Bitch head in the box, since you mention the movie Seven,
guess you could use a lesson on who to threaten.
There goes all of Rob progress like a 2-11.
Robbery in progress? 2-11?
Plus I said his name. Jesse James, it is Robert right?
Well, if I'm robbed tonight,
as in, you skip town and you're found alive,
leave with the cash and the judges are on his side,
he'll be the next Robert(robber) to die famous like Bonnie and Clyde.
So run and hide. You do not want to be Robert E. Lee.
Granted, history repeats, except I'm leaving a twist:
fuck being Civil, War is where you'll, uh, cease(Ulysses) to exist.
Bitch, I slave over linking(Lincoln) these concepts, no exaggeration,
but there's still free dumb(freedom) for Blackout like emancipation.
Run the chain.
Rone and 'Mac, hunger— hold on, I'm still battling what’s-his-name. What a shame.
‘Cause outside of KOTD, you are not known.
You are just a captive, I would've capped if you affected my Stockholm.
Stockholm; you're skull and bones right away.
Kidnapped, locked away. Escape alive? Not today.
Ransom, you gotta pay. Danger, two kind of ways:
Lotta Zay or Jonbenet, I’ve got to say.
For another four K, you would've got a person buried.
Rem—, I'm not a Hitman, I'm a mercenary.
Photo by Banshee for KOTD.
A pallbearer; don't get carried away. This is not a classic.
I'm Paul Bear Bryant: I'm coaching him in the casket.
See this is what happens when you get it backwards,
when animals run the zoo and get to pick the matches.
You get the poor vers' the top one-percent; we're in different classes.
Show me where the cash is.
I'm Ali before the Frasier fight.
Fuck a war, you know my name. Gjonaj, say it right.
I'll be remembered as a legend; you're a man forgotten.
Your material has a shelf life; it's black and rotten.
It expired before you did, and that’s the problem.
I'd rather make you a current event than rap about 'em.
I had to show him what the difference is,
‘cause feeding lambs to the wolves seem ignorant,
but what's a shepherd do when the sheep ain't listening?
(Goodnight!)
Lyrics transcribed in full, including slurs and offensive rhetoric in interest of accuracy. Language used and views expressed are those of the performers cited.
Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comment section below.UPDATE: We met our funding threshold! Thank you!!! We're still going, and every bit we raise is going in to making Rudy's the best it can be. We are in the middle of the build-out phase, and are facing decisions such as which sound treatments we can afford, so your continued support will ensure that we can get the highest-quality pieces in place.
As featured in the Tennessean and the Nashville Post, Rudy’s Jazz Room will be a new centerpiece of Nashville's music scene. Along with great Jazz, we will be serving up New Orleans cuisine featuring chef Mike’s seafood pies which the Nashville Scene praises as “devastatingly good.”
Named after our good friend Rudy Wooten who passed away in 2010, Rudy’s Jazz Room will be located in the Gulch. We will be opening in Spring 2017, and we need this Steinway piano to make Rudy’s Jazz Room a destination venue for national music acts.
Rudy's will be modeled after Small's Jazz Club in New York City
HIP, UNIQUE, INTIMATE
Rudy’s will enable Nashville to truly live up to its Music City USA nickname and join such great cities as New York, New Orleans, Chicago, Boston, Portland, Kansas City, and many more that have full-fledged jazz clubs. Rudy’s Jazz Room will give residents and visitors alike a place to go hear world class musicians from the jazz world and Nashville’s renowned musicians performing in a welcoming new venue.
Working closely with our architects and designers, we are crafting a cozy space that will keep you hooked on the Rudy's experience. Think about nights in New York City or New Orleans listening to a sweet jazz band in a funky club until the wee hours of the morning. Rudy's brings that scene to Nashville.
Rudy's Jazz Room will be open seven days a week from 5:00pm until 3:00am, with three bands per night and weekly rotating jazz genres. Our full bar will showcase local brews and a number of signature high end craft cocktails only available at Rudy’s. Our full food menu will revolve around authentic New Orleans cuisine.
OUR STORY
We (Mike and Adam) are best friends who grew up as next-door neighbors in Nashville. We both left town for a while, with Adam chasing music around New York, and Mike chasing food around New Orleans. Eventually, we ended up back in Nashville working together in adjoining corporate cubicles writing computer code for databases in the health care industry. We toiled away for over 15 years in our cubicles. Unsatisfied at work, on nights and weekends Adam began playing jazz around town with saxophonist Rudy Wooten and Mike started selling seafood pies at festivals. With the grief of Rudy passing away, we decided to go all-in on our dreams by quitting our day jobs and opening a jazz club in honor of Rudy.In the open market, meanwhile, the yield on 10-year Spanish government bonds rose as high as 7.03 percent before settling back to 6.926 percent. Many analysts say they believe that such rates would eventually make Spain’s financing costs unsustainable.
“Demand for Spanish paper is collapsing, even for shorter-dated debt, which is very worrying and raises the specter of Spain losing market access,” said Nicolas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy, a consulting firm in London specializing in sovereign credit risk. The high yields, he said, “reflect the deep skepticism about the Spanish economy’s ability to get out of the rut in which it finds itself.”
Italy’s 10-year bond, meanwhile, traded at a slightly lower yield on Thursday than in recent days. But at 5.972 percent, it still remained well above the 1.215 percent interest rate that investors were willing to accept for 10-year German bonds.
In Rome, the Italian Parliament completed ratification Thursday of two treaties: the fiscal compact that obliges European governments to control their finances, and the agreement setting up the euro zone’s permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
A day earlier, Italy’s finance minister, Vittorio Grilli, told a parliamentary committee that the two treaties were important for the country’s credibility within the European Union. “It is essential that E.U. member states in particular are able to show the clear will to face this crisis with determination and unity of purpose,” he said.
Spain, for its part, does not plan to auction much more debt over the summer, which should at least temporarily ease market pressure on Madrid, if only until September. But by then some fear that the European Central Bank will have to intervene if Spain is to retain its access to financial markets.
“The euro zone has managed to maneuver itself into a dead end,” said Lefteris Farmakis, an interest rate strategist in London for Nomura International. “The clear solution would be for the E.C.B. to intervene, and if it doesn’t I don’t see how Spain can get out of this hole.”
Spain’s borrowing costs had fallen back briefly following a deal among leaders of the 17-nation euro currency bloc at the end of June that would allow aid to go direct to Spain’s struggling financial institutions once a new European regulatory system for banks is in place. The E.C.B also cut its overnight interest rate on bank deposits to zero percent hoping this would encourage the flow of capital to other parts of the euro zone economy.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
But Spain’s costs have been inching up recently, partly because of worries about the details of Spain’s bank bailout. That, in turn, has fueled worries that a full rescue for Spain’s government might be needed if its borrowing costs remain at current high levels.
“At the moment it is still a game of chicken, of who is going to blink first, the politicians or the E.C.B?” said Mr. Farmakis. “It is uncertain at what point the E.C.B. steps in. But in the end, one way or another, it will have to happen.”
On Friday the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers plans to convene via teleconference, and is expected to agree to the release of a €30 billion portion of the Spanish bank rescue. Separately on Friday, top E.U. officials representing the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and E.U. governments are scheduled to meet to work on details for a centralized bank supervisory body centered around the E.C.B.
Gaia Pianigiani and Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Rome, Paul Geitner and James Kanter contributed from Brussels, and Raphael Minder from Madrid.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
As part of the Heroes In Our Midst series ABBY ALFORD talks to Ray Clemo, chairman of the Cardiff Burma Star Association, about the Forgotten Army
DIG or die was the motto Ray Clemo and his fellow soldiers came to live by during the many months they battled the Japanese in the impenetrable jungles of Burma.
At night we had to dig in. There would be two men in each little trench and you had to go down at least two or three feet to get your head below ground, he said.
If you didnt go deep enough you might not be alive in the morning.
At night in the jungles of Burma in 1944 and 1945 the Japanese would shell or throw hand grenades into areas they believed were occupied by the Fourteenth Army, the Allied force whose goal was to liberate the country.
They would also taunt the young British troops by yelling at them through the darkness.
They would shout obscenities from the jungle at night, said Mr Clemo, 90, from Barry, chairman of the Cardiff Burma Star Association.
They would also shout hello Tommy in English.
I think thats all they knew.
Aged just 24, Mr Clemo, a bombardier in the Royal Artillery, found himself thrust into one of the worst theatres of World War II.
Since the end of hostilities the name Burma has become synonymous with the suffering endured by soldiers fighting to overcome the huge challenges posed by the enemy, heat, disease, a lack of supplies, impenetrable jungle and impossible terrain.
But when the war in the Far East was at its peak, little was known about the huge toll Burma was taking on British and Commonwealth forces fighting as the Fourteenth Army and, as a result, it became known as the Forgotten Army.
After sailing from Liverpool we went to Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, for jungle training, said Mr Clemo, a great-grandfather of five.
They threw a scare into us about the Japs about what sort of fighters they were, that they werent scared to die, so we were scared of the Japs. We didnt know what to anticipate.
From Sri Lanka Mr Clemos regiment was sent into northern Burma and, almost seven decades later, he can still recall the terror which gripped them.
I remember it was getting dark and we were in a teak forest and they told us that the Japs were about two miles down the road, he said.
It had been raining and every time a huge water droplet came off the tree canopy and hit the floor we thought it was the enemy. That first night in the forest I was scared.
We were all scared.
As they made their way south, Mr Clemo and his fellow troops encountered fierce resistance from the Japanese and countered with light artillery.
But as well as all this fighting going on we had terrible food and disease to deal with, he said.
Dysentery and malaria were prevalent.
The boys we appreciated were Americans. They were non-combatants who werent serving with the Americans, but had volunteered to serve with us.
They were very brave men. They would drive jeeps with two stretchers on to take the wounded and sick.
But for those who escaped the worst illnesses, life was on a knife edge in the jungle as the troops fought to stave off the Japanese and hunger.
To get supplies we used to rip parachutes up and make a big X as a signal for the Dakota aircraft to drop supplies, said Mr Clemo.
But when they came the supplies consisted of special Army biscuits known for their ability to break teeth and canned mutton which the soldiers had to eat cold.
In the daytime we couldnt light fires because the Japanese would see the smoke and at night we couldnt light a fire because they would see the flame. I cant remember having a hot meal.
British soldiers also had to take extraordinary steps to warn the RAF during bombing runs of their presence underneath the thick tree canopy.
To stop our own aircraft attacking us we would go up above the canopy of the trees someone would have to climb a tree and hold up an orange umbrella to let the British aircraft know there were British troops underneath, he said.
During his time in the jungle Mr Clemo developed a hatred of the Japanese, but his view mellowed when he encountered a dead solider in 1945 as the war drew to a close after the atom bombs had been dropped on Japan.
I took a picture out of his pocket. There was his wife and around five or six Japanese children all dressed in sailor suits, he said.
I thought my God. These people are human after all. You do mellow when you see something like that.
Mr Clemo is inviting all Burma veterans and their families to join the Cardiff Burma Star Association, which meets on the second Wednesday of every month at the Rafa club on Riverside Terrace, Ely, Cardiff.There are few relationships stronger than that of a dog and their guardian. Anyone who has experienced the joys of sharing their life with a dog knows that nothing can possibly compare to the unconditional love found in this bond. Our dogs are our confidants, our nap-buddies, and bonafide members of our families. When we adopted them and brought them into our homes, we made a promise that we would care for them every single day of their furry lives.
So, when someone tries to get in the way of this bond … it is not something that should be taken lightly. All too often, people who committed to adopting dogs – and cats too – decide that they no longer want to be responsible for their pets and end up abandoning them in shelters, or worse, on the streets. Sometimes these people decide to abandon their animals because a roommate or a significant other doesn’t like pets and rather than recognizing the gravity of caring for their pet, they opt to desert them.
Advertisement
When this man was asked to give up his dog by his girlfriend, he did what many do and posted an ad on Craigslist…
We don’t know about you, but we think he definitely made the right choice with this ad! It might seem harsh, but when you get between a dog and their loving pet parent, you’re likely to get burned.
Image source: Imgur
AdvertisementThe latest unemployment figures are "very disturbing," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in an interview that aired today on "Face the Nation." Yet while she defended President Obama's attempts to move the economy forward, the former Speaker charged that House Republican leadership has yet to tackle job creation.
Republicans "set the agenda," Pelosi said. "We have said every day that they're there, another day goes by and there isn't a jobs agenda or a jobs bill that has come to the floor."
"Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer questioned Pelosi about her complaints about the economy in 2008, under the Bush administration. At that time, when gas cost $3 a gallon and unemployment stood at 5 percent, Pelosi said President Bush's economic policies had "failed our country's middle class."
The latest jobs report, however, shows that unemployment rose to 9.1 percent in May, and just 54,000 jobs were created last month - far fewer than expected.
"What the president has done has improved the situation from where it may have been," Pelosi said. "If he hadn't taken the actions he did, the situation would be worse. He pulled us from the brink of the financial crisis, from an economic crisis, and now we have to dig out of a deep debt. And we have to also make it clear that we're not getting into this situation again."
The next election, Pelosi said, will be about bolstering the middle class and preserving Medicare.
"What you'll see in the election as we go forward is one vision of America that encompasses the Republican budget plan that abolishes Medicare; that makes college almost unaffordable for nearly 10 million people and young people in our country; that takes us deeper into debt, and does not create jobs," she said. "Or you can talk about an agenda that is about making it America, investing in education, innovation, and the rest."
While Pelosi said Congress must raise the debt limit and that the ongoing negotiations have been "civil and constructive," she added that she could "never" support any plan that included a reduction in Medicare benefits.Remarks by the First Lady at Tuskegee University Commencement Address
She’s baaaaaaaack. And she's maaaaaad.
First lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address at Tuskegee University last weekend. She'll do it again at Ohio's Oberlin College—the UC Berkeley of the Midwest, Ground Zero for racial grievance-mongering and fake hate crimes—next week.
Commencement FLOTUS is not the same first lady who shows up on "Ellen" or "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" wearing her pastel cardigan, Chuck Taylors and a megawatt grin. No, this frowny-faced Michelle Obama talks and squawks like Al Sharpton in Jimmy Choo kitten heels. At Tuskegee, FLOTUS traded her affable TV persona for the divisive social justice complainer we all came to know and loathe during her husband's first presidential campaign.
Obama's resurrected bitter half inspired the graduates by complaining about people complaining about her. She complained about the "sting" of "daily slights" throughout her life and her poor, beleaguered husband's. And then she complained. And complained. And complained some more.
She clucked at the "folks" (read: white folks) who allegedly "crossed the street in fear of their safety" at the sight of the Obamas.
She called out unnamed "clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores."
She decried the racist "people at formal events who assumed we were the 'help.'" (Funny, the only time I recall this happening in the Obama White House was when Valerie Jarrett mistook four-star Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who is white, for her waiter. But I digress.)
Reaching into her deep well of indignation, Mrs. Obama then assailed "those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country."
Let me take out my teeny-weeny bow and play the world's smallest violin at the thought of Mrs. Obama being subjected to the "sting" of impolite questions about her honesty. Using my best slow vibrato: Waw-waw-waw-wawwww.
It's hard to take Mrs. Obama seriously, because she has been caught so brazenly lying about the racial discrimination she supposedly still faces today even as first lady of the United States.
When she told the Tuskegee students about being watched "in all those department stores," she neglected to mention that just five months ago, one of her most famous anecdotes of retail racism went up in smoke.
What? You forgot already? Using almost the exact same language in a People magazine interview that she used in her Tuskegee commencement speech, the first lady deplored the "sting" of "racist experiences" that she and her husband allegedly still suffer.
Get her some Calamine lotion STAT!
"Even as the first lady," she bemoaned, "not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me" at a Target store "was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf." Remember: ABC News reported that Mrs. Obama claimed such "incidents are 'the regular course of life' for African Americans and a 'challenge' for the country to overcome."
The anecdote turned out to be a tall tale—with the emphasis on "tall." The reason the 5-foot-11 first lady was asked to get detergent off the Target shelf was that her vertically challenged fellow shopper couldn't reach it. How do we know this? Because Mrs. Obama said so herself in a radically different version of the Target story she told David Letterman three years ago.
"I reached up, 'cause she was short, and I reached up, pulled it down," the first lady described with that megawatt grin, and the shopper said, "Well, you didn't have to make it look so easy." Far from psychologically debilitated by any racial "sting," Mrs. Obama told Letterman, "I felt so good" helping out the short woman.
I don't care what color you are: This arrogant exercise of first lady privilege—invoking false stories to stoke racial hostility and score political points—is patently offensive. There's enough demagoguery in the public square. The Aspen ski-vacationing, haute couture-wearing, Hollywood elite-chumming first lady's delusional discrimination fables are fuel on a raging fire her husband has failed to alleviate with billions of dollars of government "investments," programs, summits and photo-ops.
It is especially irresponsible of Mrs. Obama to be spreading her cultural gasoline on college campuses, where the excesses of identity politics and multiculturalism continue to poison young minds.
Don't like suffering |
aky acids hiss.
It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults
That kill, that kill, that kill.If you’re prepared to forgive Bill Murray for being the lone impediment to the progress of Ghostbusters 3, all you have to do is read his speech introducing Sofia Coppola at the National Board of Review Awards last night. The event was full of charming introductions and thank-yous (even Christian Bale came off well — he joked that he’s found his The Fighter role so hard to shake that the actresses he’s about to screen-test opposite for The Dark Knight Rises “will be the first to get to see Dickie as Batman”), but no one had the crowd roaring like Murray, who introduced his Lost in Translation director with a delightfully deranged speech delivered while sucking on candy. Here it is in its entirety. (Also, check out Vulture’s guide to sitting next to Murray at dinner.)
“They told me I have two minutes. I’m going to pop this Red Hot [candy, pops in mouth] so I’ll be finished in two minutes [mumbling with candy in mouth]. Why do you give this award? Why? Because you have to throw a party. Because you have to compete with the Golden Globes. [Cheers.] We all asked that question. You’re able to get out tonight, celebrate — without your relatives — you earned, you deserve it.
But why do you give it to Sofia Coppola? Why? Because you want to encourage her, I think. I think that’s the real reason. Look at her. Look at her! She comes from a family, mother and father both very successful, creating entertainments, amusements and thought-provoking work. She wrote a spec script for The Virgin Suicides. The ambition of these young people! Can you believe it? The ambition! She got the job as the director. She directed Lost in Translation in another country in another language, and got a prize for it. [Pause.] God, this is a hot, hot Red Hot. But I’m not going to quit on you people, because I’ve got another half in my pocket. [Pulls out of pocket and puts in mouth.] I got one-and-a-half in my mouth right now. [Mumbling.]
Then she decided to work in France to do Marie Antoinette, a woman who was beheaded. Not a sympathetic creature, you know what I mean? A lot of directors would pass on that. Who do you root for? You know? She did a beautiful, beautiful movie. And now she did this Somewhere, which takes place … somewhere. I know — it’s the West Coast, Southern California based.
So why do you give this person an award? You give them an award because they need to be encouraged. You look around this room and you can look around the world of film, and you can see people that had great success early in their career. Some earned it, some were lucky, some got it, but at a certain point they live life. They get into life, like Sofia has gotten into life. She’s married. Now she’s got a French lover, [Phoenix front man Thomas Mars]. She has two beautiful children by this French lover. And I, for one, am sick of these directors with the homely kids. I can’t stand it anymore. She’s got beautiful children, and she lives with a man who is the only Frenchman that could play rock and roll, ever. Fuck Johnny Hallyday! [Audience roaring, gasping.] Pardon my French.
So why do you encourage these people? Because now she’s had this success, she’s had this work, she has this life, she has this family, she has this thing going, and now is when people like you have chosen well to say, ‘Let’s give this person another boost, let’s give this person another boost to say keep going, because now life will come to you hard, like it’s come to everyone that’s lived long enough. It comes hard and it gets in the way of your career; it stops your career, it stunts your life — not necessarily your life, but it definitely will make your career go left. You show me an actor doing a shit movie, I’ll show you a guy with a bad divorce. [Audience laughs.] Right? Right? [Looking around the room.] You know who I’m talking about.
I want the best for her because she’s a lady. She acts like a lady, the women in her movies are ladies, they have strength and power and they’re strong. Even the pole dancers in this latest movie have enough of themselves to call the lead actor a moron. As all you women should call your men this evening, I think, pole or not. So we’ll give her a boost to say, go on, you’ve made it this far, push her out into the deep water, push her out into bigger and deeper films, more and more films. She has a beautiful eye. She has great taste in the people she chooses to work with. She’s a kind and thoughtful director and editor and producer. She’s all the things that we hoped we could be when we were like this. She’s been lucky so far, and she’s been strong so far. Let’s keep her going. I appreciate your asking her to receive this award for filmmaking achievement. Ms. Ms. Ms. Sofia Coppola.”
Previously: Dinner With Bill Murray: A Party Reporter’s GuideThe 25-year-old man killed Tuesday afternoon in a wreck on Ga. 400 worked as a field staffer for the Georgia Republican Party, Governor Nathan Deal said.
Maret “Mack” Burgess died in the rollover wreck that temporarily blocked all northbound lanes of Ga. 400 near I-285 Tuesday afternoon, according to Sandy Springs police.
The wreck happened shortly after 1:20 p.m. and involved two cars, according to investigators. Burgess was transported to a hospital, but did not survive.
Shortly after 4 p.m., Deal’s campaign office released an emailed statement on Burgess’ death.
“Mack was an incredible young man, smart, hard-working, with a bright future ahead of him,” Deal said. “This is a terrible loss for everyone in our organization and for anyone who knew him. We are going to take some time to grieve and pay our respects to Mack and to the Burgess family. I ask that everyone bear with us as we take a break from the campaign to mourn a life ended much too soon.”
Burgess, of Roswell, graduated in 2008 from Centennial High School and in 2012 from the University of Tennessee, where he was the president of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and active in student government, Deal’s office said. Burgess was the son of Banks Burgess, one half of the Atlanta-based Banks & Shane music duo, and Missy Burgess.
While police and firetrucks were at the scene of the wreck, a tractor-trailer ran into the back of a firetruck, the Sandy Springs fire department said. No one was injured in the second collision, which caused minor damage to the vehicles.Just as ancient Greeks fantasized about soaring flight, today’s imaginations dream of melding minds and machines as a remedy to the pesky problem of human mortality. Can the mind connect directly with artificial intelligence, robots and other minds through brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies to transcend our human limitations?
Over the last 50 years, researchers at university labs and companies around the world have made impressive progress toward achieving such a vision. Recently, successful entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk (Neuralink) and Bryan Johnson (Kernel) have announced new startups that seek to enhance human capabilities through brain-computer interfacing.
How close are we really to successfully connecting our brains to our technologies? And what might the implications be when our minds are plugged in?
Origins: Rehabilitation and restoration
Eb Fetz, a researcher here at the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE), is one of the earliest pioneers to connect machines to minds. In 1969, before there were even personal computers, he showed that monkeys can amplify their brain signals to control a needle that moved on a dial.
Much of the recent work on BCIs aims to improve the quality of life of people who are paralyzed or have severe motor disabilities. You may have seen some recent accomplishments in the news: University of Pittsburgh researchers use signals recorded inside the brain to control a robotic arm. Stanford researchers can extract the movement intentions of paralyzed patients from their brain signals, allowing them to use a tablet wirelessly.
Similarly, some limited virtual sensations can be sent back to the brain, by delivering electrical current inside the brain or to the brain surface.
What about our main senses of sight and sound? Very early versions of bionic eyes for people with severe vision impairment have been deployed commercially, and improved versions are undergoing human trials right now. Cochlear implants, on the other hand, have become one of the most successful and most prevalent bionic implants – over 300,000 users around the world use the implants to hear.
Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE), CC BY-ND
The most sophisticated BCIs are “bi-directional” BCIs (BBCIs), which can both record from and stimulate the nervous system. At our center, we’re exploring BBCIs as a radical new rehabilitation tool for stroke and spinal cord injury. We’ve shown that a BBCI can be used to strengthen connections between two brain regions or between the brain and the spinal cord, and reroute information around an area of injury to reanimate a paralyzed limb.
With all these successes to date, you might think a brain-computer interface is poised to be the next must-have consumer gadget.
Still early days
Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, CC BY-ND
But a careful look at some of the current BCI demonstrations reveals we still have a way to go: When BCIs produce movements, they are much slower, less precise and less complex than what able-bodied people do easily every day with their limbs. Bionic eyes offer very low-resolution vision; cochlear implants can electronically carry limited speech information, but distort the experience of music. And to make all these technologies work, electrodes have to be surgically implanted – a prospect most people today wouldn’t consider.
Not all BCIs, however, are invasive. Noninvasive BCIs that don’t require surgery do exist; they are typically based on electrical (EEG) recordings from the scalp and have been used to demonstrate control of cursors, wheelchairs, robotic arms, drones, humanoid robots and even brain-to-brain communication.
But all these demos have been in the laboratory – where the rooms are quiet, the test subjects aren’t distracted, the technical setup is long and methodical, and experiments last only long enough to show that a concept is possible. It’s proved very difficult to make these systems fast and robust enough to be of practical use in the real world.
Even with implanted electrodes, another problem with trying to read minds arises from how our brains are structured. We know that each neuron and their thousands of connected neighbors form an unimaginably large and ever-changing network. What might this mean for neuroengineers?
Imagine you’re trying to understand a conversation between a big group of friends about a complicated subject, but you’re allowed to listen to only a single person. You might be able to figure out the very rough topic of what the conversation is about, but definitely not all the details and nuances of the entire discussion. Because even our best implants only allow us to listen to a few small patches of the brain at a time, we can do some impressive things, but we’re nowhere near understanding the full conversation.
There is also what we think of as a language barrier. Neurons communicate with each other through a complex interaction of electrical signals and chemical reactions. This native electro-chemical language can be interpreted with electrical circuits, but it’s not easy. Similarly, when we speak back to the brain using electrical stimulation, it is with a heavy electrical “accent.” This makes it difficult for neurons to understand what the stimulation is trying to convey in the midst of all the other ongoing neural activity.
Finally, there is the problem of damage. Brain tissue is soft and flexible, while most of our electrically conductive materials – the wires that connect to brain tissue – tend to be very rigid. This means that implanted electronics often cause scarring and immune reactions that mean the implants lose effectiveness over time. Flexible biocompatible fibers and arrays may eventually help in this regard.
Co-adapting, cohabiting
Despite all these challenges, we’re optimistic about our bionic future. BCIs don’t have to be perfect. The brain is amazingly adaptive and capable of learning to use BCIs in a manner similar to how we learn new skills like driving a car or using a touchscreen interface. Similarly, the brain can learn to interpret new types of sensory information even when it’s delivered noninvasively using, for example, magnetic pulses.
Ultimately, we believe a “co-adaptive” bidirectional BCI, where the electronics learns with the brain and talks back to the brain constantly during the process of learning, may prove to be a necessary step to build the neural bridge. Building such co-adaptive bidirectional BCIs is the goal of our center.
We are similarly excited about recent successes in targeted treatment of diseases like diabetes using “electroceuticals” – experimental small implants that treat a disease without drugs by communicating commands directly to internal organs.
And researchers have discovered new ways of overcoming the electrical-to-biochemical language barrier. Injectible “neural lace,” for example, may prove to be a promising way to gradually allow neurons to grow alongside implanted electrodes rather than rejecting them. Flexible nanowire-based probes, flexible neuron scaffolds and glassy carbon interfaces may also allow biological and technological computers to happily coexist in our bodies in the future.
From assistive to augmentative
Elon Musk’s new startup Neuralink has the stated ultimate goal of enhancing humans with BCIs to give our brains a leg up in the ongoing arms race between human and artificial intelligence. He hopes that with the ability to connect to our technologies, the human brain could enhance its own capabilities – possibly allowing us to avoid a potential dystopian future where AI has far surpassed natural human capabilities. Such a vision certainly may seem far-off or fanciful, but we shouldn’t dismiss an idea on strangeness alone. After all, self-driving cars were relegated to the realm of science fiction even a decade and a half ago – and now share our roads.
In a closer future, as brain-computer interfaces move beyond restoring function in disabled people to augmenting able-bodied individuals beyond their human capacity, we need to be acutely aware of a host of issues related to consent, privacy, identity, agency and inequality. At our center, a team of philosophers, clinicians and engineers is working actively to address these ethical, moral and social justice issues and offer neuroethical guidelines before the field progresses too far ahead.
Connecting our brains directly to technology may ultimately be a natural progression of how humans have augmented themselves with technology over the ages, from using wheels to overcome our bipedal limitations to making notations on clay tablets and paper to augment our memories. Much like the computers, smartphones and virtual reality headsets of today, augmentative BCIs, when they finally arrive on the consumer market, will be exhilarating, frustrating, risky and, at the same time, full of promise.Last time there was an attempt to turn streaming copyrighted content into a felony the effort was crushed when the Internet rose up and defeated SOPA. But this week the thorny issue was again raised before Congress, with a suggestion that until the offense is considered a felony rather than a misdemeanor, enforcement will be problematic. Across the Atlantic, Pirate Bay nemesis Rights Alliance says that while enforcement against torrents continues, visitors to streaming sites are on the increase.
For close on ten years the mainstream movie and TV studios have struggled with BitTorrent piracy.
Despite years of high-profile crackdowns on sites and their users, very few inroads have been made into reducing the amount of content being shared via the famous protocol. In fact, one might argue that in the past few years things have only become worse.
Among the technologically literate youth, mechanisms for obtaining unauthorized media are now common knowledge and BitTorrent is on the way to becoming a household name.
With this in mind the studios and their music industry counterparts are now embarking on a new educational drive. Wrapped up in projects such as “six strikes” in the United States, these initiatives aim to inform people that obtaining copyright material online without permission is illegal.
But education cuts both ways, and increasingly people are learning that it is the sharing or “uploading” of content that is what puts people in trouble. Uploading is built into BitTorrent so aside from a user employing IP masking techniques, little can be done about that. However, there are other ways of viewing movies and TV shows online, methods that are virtually 100% safe.
These days the “YouTube experience” is something familiar to most Internet users. Do a search, call up a page, press play and a video appears in the browser. But while YouTube specializes in general content there are dozens of sites that offer all the latest TV shows and movies in the same format and just as easily.
Fire up a site like Movie2K or TubePlus and not only are the perceived complexities of BitTorrent instantly removed, but also pretty much all of the risk too. No wonder they’re becoming so popular.
However, the rise of streaming sites isn’t going unnoticed. The industry-backed SOPA legislation would have allowed for harsh criminal penalties to be attached to streaming, had it not been defeated by a massive Internet revolt of course. But months on and the issue is now being raised again, on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.
According to U.S. Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante, the legislative gap between downloading and streaming needs to be addressed.
“There is a gap in the law,” Pallante told a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet yesterday.
“Law enforcement can go after the reproduction or the distribution [of copyright material], and they can go after them in a meaningful way because they are felonies, not misdemeanors. Streaming, whether it’s a football game or music, is a misdemeanor,” she said.
“If there is illegal streaming happening, especially in an egregious, willful, profit-driven kind of way, how do you get at that activity if the best that you can do is go after them for a misdemeanor?” Pallante added.
Although there is indeed a theoretical weakness in the law, one could be forgiven for thinking that wasn’t the case. The operators of streaming video portal NinjaVideo were all severely punished for their role in the site. Megavideo, a streaming service that needs no introduction, is currently the subject of the biggest copyright battle of all time.
On the flipside, other streaming and linking cases have been dealt with relatively amicably recently, including the conclusion of the U.S. case against UK resident Richard O’Dwyer and the amnesty given to operator of ChannelSurfing.
Of course the problem isn’t isolated in the United States. Over in Sweden, the spiritual home of The Pirate Bay, an interesting trend is developing.
Previously known as Antipiratbyran, Rättighetsalliansen (Rights Alliance) is well know for its anti-piracy activities. Just recently it scooped dozens of headlines with its demand that The Pirate Bay must get out of Sweden, but largely out of the public eye it also takes action against smaller sites.
But with their successes comes a flipside – as they continue to target file-sharing services, there is an increase in visitors to streaming sites.
“We can see that about 60 million movies were downloaded last year,” Henrik Pontén of Rights Alliance told SVT. “The latest figure we have on streaming is almost a year old, but then it was 20 million movies. It has increased since and we will soon get new statistics.”
Chasing down BitTorrent users in Sweden has its problems but the law is able to deal with those uploading copyrighted material, even if the punishments aren’t particularly harsh for an isolated user. However, those who watch streaming movies can do so with impunity. Not only can they not be monitored by anti-piracy outfits, but it’s possible that they aren’t even breaking the law either.
“Streaming is a growing problem,” says Pontén. “From the creators’ point of view, it’s irrelevant what technology is used, they lose sales and legislators have to deal with that.”
In any event, it seems that streaming is here to stay. Most of the sites providing the streams are outside the U.S. and Sweden and although they don’t say much in public, their operators don’t seem overly concerned about what the authorities think. Expect the activity to continue growing as more and more “strikes” warnings go out.In modern times, we see entire new industries rise and fall in a lifetime. The man who dedicated his life working in a buggy-whip factory was simply out of luck when the auto industry made his job obsolete, unless he got lucky, or he had some other means of support. An old man with outdated skills could just die in a gutter back then.
But in the time since then, American progressives have been working hard to enact socialist policies that give someone like that another chance. A nation's most important resource is it's people. A wasted life is a wasted chance to create more wealth for all of us. Other nations, the social democracies of Europe, for instance, have worked harder perhaps than we have, to ensure that their own people have an opportunity to contribute to society.
This is the goal of socialism: to give everyone an opportunity to help, to be useful; and to help even those who can't contribute, for whatever reason. Most people are good. They want to contribute, to feel the sense of self worth that comes from being a useful and productive member of society. You do not need to use fear of deprivation, starvation, and death to motivate people to contribute to society. Most people, you just need to give them the opportunity and they will take it gladly, even when the other option is being a lazy leach on the dole.
As a nation, we prosper when we take big risks that pay off. But not all risks pay off. One reason for society to exist is to adjudicate risk and reward. In societies where the risk, for a new small business person, of going bankrupt is minimized by a robust social safety net, more people will feel safe to take the risk involved in starting a new and innovative business.
People are self interested, as well as being motivated by a desire to contribute. When they can't contribute, they will fight for what they need. Look at the riots in London, so many people with no better option than looting and burning. People do not generally go quietly into that good night, desperate people lash out, and hurt everyone around them, the guilty and the innocent.
How can we, as a society, quickly create entire new industries if we are afraid of change, afraid of losing our jobs even when something newer and better comes along? We must be able to adapt to a fast pace of technological change. A society living in fear for their lives can not adapt.
Ensuring that no one need fear for their life is one major goal of socialism. That means we make a pact to ensure that everyone's basic needs are met, no matter what. It needn't be too pleasant, but it shouldn't be degrading. Basic shelter. Clothes. Nutritious food. Clean water, sanitation, health care, and community based police and fire. A robust and corruption free justice system. Access to education, freely available to everyone throughout life. Access to well regulated free markets. These are the basic things that a highly adaptive society must provide to all it's citizens.
This ensures that no one can use economic coercion against another. Reducing the ability of the powerful to use economic coercion against the weak, besides being a worthy goal for any rational self interested person in and of itself, also serves the goal of maintaining well regulated free markets. When people are empowered to stand up to economic manipulation by having their basic needs met, the powerful lose a major lever of power.
Well regulated free markets are crucial for a nation's long term success. They are a good way of adjudicating risk and reward. In a well regulated free market, excellence almost always triumphs over shoddiness and dirty pool. But only well regulated markets can remain free. Nobody wants to trade in a market that is thick with thieves. Nobody but the very powerful want to do business in a market where justice is a salable commodity. Nobody wants to set up shop or invest in markets where fairness is scarce. It isn't safe.
In the long run, socialist democracies will outpace pure capitalist economies because the later will always end up with un-free, thief infested markets run by robber barons and banksters. The smarter investors of the world will not continue to put their money in the hands of bandits.
Socialist democracies will outpace pure capitalist economies because socialist economies can be more flexible and adaptable. New businesses, supported by cooperative (meaning, owned by the customers and or staff, and run democratically) banks, cooperative staffing agencies, cooperative business planning services, ad agencies, and so on, will be more numerous, more innovative, and more successful than businesses in a cut-throat society of crony capitalists.
If you care about social justice, I know I don't have to win you over to socialism. But even if you are only in it for yourself, I have to ask you, do you want "our team," America, to keep on winning, or are you okay being on the losing team for the foreseeable future? Because the socialist democracies of Europe, if they can remain as such, are going to be eating our lunch for the next century unless we, too, adopt more socialist policies.J-pop and metal are brought together once again by a band talented enough to make it satisfying and highly enjoyable. The best part is that
J-pop and metal are brought together once again by a band talented enough to make it satisfying and highly enjoyable. The best part is that the album doesn't ever sacrifice one genre in favor of the other. Even when it leans slightly more to one side for a track the other genre is still very present giving this album the edge it so clearly has. The balancing act is excellently performed.
It's heavy, catchy, fun, and even emotional. It's a work that shows real growth while still maintaining moments of the playfulness that made them stand out in the first place. From the more emotional ballads, heavy riffs, and upbeat, pop themes everything comes together in a wholly satisfying package.
The best of both genres are captured and brought together. Despite the band's name this is the kind of stuff no hardcore metal fan could be embarrassed of listening to. Babymetal shows real growth and that their debut album wasn't just a fluke. The metal idol trio have grabbed my attention and hopefully will grab the rest of the metal community's. I for one can't wait to see what comes next. Until then I have an outstanding album to help me wait.
9.3/10
…Most of this interview was conducted on July 19th. Following a New York Times excerpt published on August 7th, and the book’s release two weeks later, many neuroscientists have expressed “outrage” at Dittrich’s portrayal of Corkin. The controversy culminated in a statement from MIT, where Corkin was based, rebutting three allegations in the book. Dittrich has himself responded to the rebuttals, and at the end of this interview, I talk to him about the debate.
Ed Yong: Given your family connections to the story, were you aware about ‘Patient H.M.’ growing up?
Luke Dittrich: It’s one of those odd facts about my relationship to the story: I don’t have a clear episodic memory about when I first learned about Patient H.M. I think I was told about him at one point by my mother but I don’t clearly remember when that was. I had a brief textbook understanding of the case, and my grandfather’s involvement intrigued me.
Yong: How well did you know Scoville, your grandfather?
Dittrich: He died when I was 10, so not very well. He was always this larger-than-life figure to me, as many grandfathers are to 10-year-old boys—but he really was a larger-than-life figure in many ways. He was by all accounts a brilliant neurosurgeon, but he occupied this morally nebulous middle ground between medical research and practice. He was one of the most prolific lobotomists of all time. And as I discovered, he was driven by this passionate quest to develop a surgical cure for madness, because his wife—my grandmother—was herself mentally ill. Very few people knew about that, even within the family. Mental illness has always been stigmatized and even more in the 1940s and 50s than today.
Yong: The relationship between your grandfather and grandmother forms some of the most shocking parts of the book. You reveal her history of mental illness, describe the horrible ‘treatments’ she endured, and suggest that Scoville was motivated to lobotomize other patients in an attempt to find a cure for her. Did you agonize about whether to delve so deeply into your own family history?
Dittrich: I struggled with it. I’ve done quite a bit of investigative journalism but this was the first time I’ve experienced finding things out and knowing that they would hurt my mother. That wasn’t easy in any way. I loved my grandmother and she was a very private person. I certainly had reservations about dragging her most painful moments into the light.
But ultimately, I decided that it was a story worth telling. It’s really impossible to understand the story of Henry without understanding this long period of psychosurgery that led up to the experimental operation my grandfather performed. Given that my grandfather was this crusading psychosurgeon and his motivation was in large part my grandmother’s mental illness, she was an odd and unexpected part of the story. What she went through in the asylum is what tens of thousands of people endured.ME3 a guest Nov 7th, 2011 51,309 Never a guest51,309Never
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 143.91 KB Жнецы и их создания (слабые спойлеры) Скрытый текст --Нажмите чтобы скрыть-- Reaper Variants The Citadel races have classified the known variants of Reapers into four types: * CAPITAL SHIPS are Sovereign-class Reapers two kilometers in length. They typically target the dreadnoughts, defense installations, and industrial cities of organic civilizations. Experts believe the Reapers harvest a single species of organics during each cycle of extinction to create these massive ships. * DESTROYERS are the 160-meter-long workhorses of the Reaper fleet. They engage cruisers and other, smaller ships, as well as communications posts and enemy command centers. Research suggests destroyers are created from those species that are not harvested to make capital ships. * TROOP TRANSPORTS carry husks to unconquered planets and bring victims of the harvest to Reaper processing centers. They vary in length from 200 meters to one kilometer, but, unlike capital ships and destroyers, do not appear to be self-aware. Instead, other Reapers operate troop transports remotely. * PROCESSORS, also called "slaughter ships," are mobile centers for mass DNA harvesting. Like troop transports, processors appear to be remotely operated by sapient Reapers. Ravagers: Rachni Reaper creatures. Marauders: Turian Reaper creatures. Brutes: Turian/Krogran Reaper creatures. Banshees: Asari Reaper creatures (the entry before the secret of their creation is revealed) Cannibals: Batarian husks. Husks: Husks, updated from ME1 since they have no electrical attack any more. Сильные спойлеры: Скрытый текст --Нажмите чтобы скрыть-- Зарисовки сюжета, часть 1 (критичные для основного сюжета спойлеры). Скрытый текст --Нажмите чтобы скрыть-- [Cinematic] The Hammerhead drives into the landing area of the Cerberus installation. A transmitter dish is clearly seen behind the base. Shepard and team exit the Hammerhead, and are immediately hailed over their radio. Puzzle: There are three computers in here each of which is processing two different sections of Shepard's body. These all connect to the main machine. Shepard must find a unique combination (where each machine shows two "parts" not shown on the other machines) to rebuild a healthy model of himself. After the player has soved the puzzle there is a gated section while the computer gathers and processes all the data. During this time the player must fight a wave of enemies. I see this lasting around 1 minute of spawns. VO (VI): "Model is not complete, no transfer can be made" "Model complete, rebuilding all data, this may take some time" "Model rebuilding at 25%" "Model rebuilding at 50%" "Model rebuilding at 75%" "Model rebuiling completed" "Transfering model data to specified omnitool. Thank you and have a nice day" The leaders of Earth have grounded you and are demanding you answer for his actions while with Cerberus. Alone in your "cell," you gazes wistfully at the idyllic view of Vancouver, Earth's gleaming capital city. The hearing begins and your are summoned; escorted from you cell by an elite young soldier, James. On the long walk you are accompanied by your mentor and friend, Admiral Anderson. Just as you are about to enter the hearing, your old friend (lover?) Ashley/Kaidan arrives; but there's little time for reminiscing as you are whisked inside. James and A/K wait outside while you face your accusers. The hearing is a witch hunt; nobody seems interested in the truth. Even with Anderson defending you, it's clear the leaders won't listen to reason. Before the trial can conclude, your warnings are proven true as earth is rocked by the advanced guard of the Reaper forces. Chaos ensues as you and Anderson attempt to rendezvous with the Normandy and escape the carnage. Your initial plan is foiled and you're forced to find a new pickup location. Meanwhile, A/K and James find an alternate route and reach the Normandy ahead of you. As Reapers forces bear down on you and Anderson, the two veteran soldiers stand back to back to repel the overwhelming enemy numbers. At the last possible moment, the Normandy arrives; Alliance troops poor out of the Normandy, you leap on board and encourages Anderson to join him. Anderson refuses -- Earth needs him here! He vows to stay and fight while Shepard searches the galaxy for a way to defeat the Reapers once and for all. In the midst of the battle, Anderson grants you access to all Alliance military facilities... including the archives on Mars. As the Reaper forces converge, you, A/K, Joker, and James blast away in the Normandy and head for Mars in search of answers. Tension on board the Normandy is high as your team races to Mars. James wants to stay and fight on Earth... and though A/K trusts you, they're confused about the need to go to Mars. But you have a plan. The small team takes the shuttle down to Mars while Joker remains in orbit as a lookout. Shepard, A/K, James and the Alliance Multi-Purpose-Bot (AMP) exit on to the dusty surface of the red planet. After taking in the stunning vista, the team realizes something isn't right; the Alliance forces are absent. In their place are Cerberus operatives with an order to shoot on site. You dispatch the first few waves, but discovers that Cerberus has taken over and his Alliance Access only gets him so far. The sudden and mysterious appearance of a blue alien on Mars is the key to their problems. Liara has a plan; your plan actually. It was her job to find a way in if you could not free yourself of your captors on Earth. With Liara's appearance, James is sent back to the shuttle while you and your old mates proceed to the facility. More Cerberus operatives appear, but they present little resistance, and you easly finds what your looking for; the prothean archive. Accessing the data proves to be more difficult. The information is being deleted. As you and Liara desperately try to stop the download they are confronted by the all too familiar visage of the Illusive Man. He's aligned himself with the Reapers, but wants the prothean data in case the deal goes badly. A deadly Cerberus fembot is responsible for the data theft. She completes the download. you and your team must prevent her escape or risk losing the data. Amidst a blinding wind-storm of red sand they chase the deadly mech through the facility. Just when it appears the fembot might escape on a Cerberus troop ship, James appears; piloting the Normandy's shuttle on a kamikaze mission, destroying both ships and disabling the fembot. A/K reaches the mech first and attempts to recover the data; but the fembot awakens and critically injures A/K. As you and Liara face down a horde of Cerberus troops lead by the fembot, James appears from behind the wreckage. The odds slightly more in their favour, you and your team defeat the Cerberus enemies. The Normandy comes to the rescue once again, warning of more Reapers enroute. The AMP drags the fembot onboard while you and Liara carefully retrieve their fallen comrade. With no clear plan and a critically wounded team mate, you are forced to make your way to one of the few places you still have friends... the Citadel. You put the injured A/K in the care of Dr. Michel, who now has a clinic on the presidium. If Dr. Chakwas is alive, she comes to the clinic as well. You meet with the council. They describe that the turian homeworld of Palaven is under Reaper threat. The turian councillor requests aid to recover their Primarch from a besieged moon over Palaven. You return to A/K for to say goodbye. Dr. Michel offers to join the Normandy crew as ship's doctor. If Dr. Chakwas is alive, you can choose her instead of Dr. Michel to join you on the Normandy. The Normandy flies up to the Geth dreadnought which is lightly damaged due to recent skirmishes. A badly damaged extended umbilical prevents proper docking, so Shepard is dropped off to traverse the umbilical and secure a way to dock and infiltrate the dreadnought. You land on Rannoch and fight geth forces. They are still under Reaper control, but are less effective due to the loss of the dreadnought. EDI traces the Reaper signal, and the aggressive quarian Flotilla assaults the geth fleet instead of retreating. EDI finds the Reaper's |
.
When it comes to music streaming, over half of the under-29s surveyed were happy to use legal means to get their beats per minute fix, but barely a third felt the same for video. Legal film streaming was much more welcomed by the older generation, who were raised on thinking $15.99 is a good price for a film.
When it comes to games piracy the situation is much starker. Modifying a game console to play pirated games is hard, and less than three per cent of those surveyed said they had a console with the capability. Of those, 55 per cent had bought them premodded, suggesting a very limited market for such systems.
When it comes to the penalties for piracy the American public is a lot more forgiving than the courts. Three quarters of those surveyed felt that fines of less than $100 per song were acceptable and only 16 per cent felt that cutting off internet access was justified to stop piracy. Only a quarter who approved of disconnection felt that more than a one month ban was warranted.
All in all the survey data makes depressing reading for those looking to push SOPA legislation through Congress. While the public maintain a nuanced view of piracy, it seems legislators - using media company legal suggestions - are not. ®Posted on September 13, 2015 at 12:10 pm by /
T-ara appeared on the recent Asia Music Network Show Case on September 11. AMN is a platform for K-Pop idols and groups and acts as a stepping stone for them to expand overseas. It is a large-scale showcase stage for popular South Korean idols, groups, singers and bands. On the evening of September 11, T-ara and two more MBK Entertainment’s idols (Shannon & DIA) appear on AMN’s and spent meaningful time together.
Before T-ara’s performance, the girls revealed some secrets behind their Hallyu popularity and their heart-felt feelings as seniors of the other two idols in an interview. On the day of the showcase, Hyomin could not attend as she was in the US. She is the first South Korean idol to have the honor of making the first pitch for Pittsburgh Pirates, a Major League Baseball team. T-ara being an idol group that is almost 7 years old, still managed to practice and perform on stage without problems despite Hyomin’s absence. Soyeon said, “since debut, we have always been active with group activities as well as individual activities. As such, there were many instances where Hyomin was absent, even myself, and other members. Every time one member is unable to perform, we would revise the choreography. Basically, we would have 6 different versions (in any case any member was unable to perform).” Eunjung added, “Hyomin traveled across huge seas to the US, while we are here in Asia. However, all of us will still perform our best.”
Q. AMN provides idols a chance to introduce and prove themselves to foreign music producers/agencies. It is said that T-ara is already very popular in China.
Eunjung: Our China Tour is a very good chance of exposure for us. We constantly meet a lot of Hallyu fans and even managed to clinch several awards. We also managed to clinch the 1st position on China’s music charts and, collaborate with a popular Chinese singer duo (Chopstick Brothers). We were able to feel the love from our fans and are very grateful for that.
Soyeon: Because we spoke to our peers around us, most of them managed to get good results from their Chinese activities, we didn’t think that we’re really popular in China. Sometimes, our seniors would tell us about their success too.
Q. After watching quite a few rookie groups that performed on AMN’s stage, we seem to be able to understand the factors that contributed to T-ara’s popularity.
Eunjung: The most important thing is to work hard. No matter what, our biggest driving force is our music. Maybe some would say that our music is not exactly of the Pop genre, but a special color that is unique to us. When we perform with that ‘color’ to our fans, it seems like our music has a melody that is very popular among everyone. Our music is somehow our greatest weapon.
Soyeon: Regarding Chinese’s Hallyu wave, there is not only K-Pop, but also movies, dramas and variety shows. All of T-ara’s 6 members have activities and apperances in various media, and we have experience in variety shows. Our biggest strength lies in the fact that everyone of us has the ability to fit in the various aspects of Chinese media.
Q. What kind of activities does T-ara have in China right now?
Soyeon: Jiyeon has finished filming ‘Encounter’ not long ago and it will be screened soon. As a whole group, all 6 of T-ara members have filmed our web drama too. Next, we will be be appearing on Chinese variety shows. We will be collaborating with a popular boy group in China, TFBOYS.
Eunjung: It’s for the second season of a popular cooking variety TV program called ‘Celebrity Chefs China.’
Soyeon: We’re very honored to appear on a Chinese variety show with such a popular group.
Q. When you appear on Chinese variety shows, how are you all going to communicate?
Soyeon: If we appear on variety shows, we will need to talk quite a lot. Regretably, our Mandarin isn’t that fluent yet. Fortunately, when Chinese variety shows invite South Korean idols, they would take good care of them. We don’t feel uncomfortable while filming. There are quite a few Korean-speaking people in China, they probably picked Korean up while following the Hallyu wave. There are also Korean MCs, they’d use translating earpieces too, so we felt quite comfortable during the filming.
Eunjung: We prepared some answers in Mandarin to respond to some usual standard questions, and also Chinese songs to perform. To prove our sincerity, we are constantly working hard to learn and practice Mandarin.
Q. Generally speaking, K-Pop idols owe most of their popularity to their language abilities that appeal to various fans. How do T-ara communicate with their fans, then?
Soyeon: Previously when we had our Japan Tour, we spent quite a lot of time studying Japanese. Although we are still quite lacking in Japanese, all the concerts in Japan were in Japanese. Therefore, we are determined to do the same for our China Tour. However, we are unable to speak Mandarin as fluently as Japanese so we’d prepare the important words that we want to tell our fans and say it at the start of the concert. Of course, there are instances where we have to use Korean too. However, we’d at least learn basic greeting and interesting phrases of a country’s national language before visiting it.
Eunjung: Also on SNS. We take pictures and upload them on our SNS accounts before, during rehearsal and after concerts. This is to show our commitment to making our fans feel closer to us.
Soyeon: We prepare some surprise activities every now and then too.
Q. Recently, T-ara just had their comeback with ‘So Crazy.’
Eunjung: Our Korean fans have given ‘So Crazy’ a lot of love. It’s our comeback after a long break since the end of ‘Sugar Free’ promotions. It became a chance for us to reunite with our fans. We also have this ongoing activity where fans wear sunflowers on their heads while watching our performances. Other fans from various countries came down too. It was a good chance for us to bond with our fans’ hearts.
Q. T-ara must have prepared many more surprise events for fans, right?
Soyeon: This time round’s album should have been a surprise itself. The time of this comeback was brought forward too. This seems like an album and comeback where the feeling to engage and interact with our fans is even stronger. Because we had been busy with many activities overseas, it feels like the time we spend with our fans has shortened. This comeback seems to be more special so we prepared many more surprise events.
Eunjung: We’re very happy that our fans watched our performances as if they were a pretty girl group, haha. (Fans wore sunflowers to music shows and events.)
Q. This comeback allowed T-ara to try a more innocent and cheerful concept. T-ara have tried a lot of different concepts.
Soyeon: Red Velvet and Laboum did pretty well too (with different concepts). Although we are quite satisfied with the results of our previous comebacks, we can’t really say, “we did exceptionally well.” There are quite a lot of regretful moments.
Eunjung: Nevertheless, we still worked hard and persevered till the end. Since we were trainees, our attitude never changed. We are still very determined to do well in our performances. Rather than being innocent, I think that we are more suited for high-spirited and cheerful concepts. Our debut song ‘Lies’ seemed like a innocent concept, but compared to other groups, it seemed more like a depressing concept, haha.
Soyeon: We always choose those concepts that leave a deeper impression, more likeable and cheerful, so that the public and fans will find the concepts more agreeable. It’s a pretty good thing that these concepts seem to differentiate us from the rest of the groups. We’re very happy now. So crazy, so happy~
Jiyeon: I really like the concept of ‘So Crazy.’ Another concept that we did in the past that can make you laugh is ‘Roly Poly.’ I think it has been 3-4 years already? It’s been a long time since we can wear such pretty clothes to show a pretty and cute image. It’s been long since we had the chance to engage and interact with our fans too. We wanted to work even harder this comeback for our fans.
Q. What is T-ara’s resolution for future activities?
Boram: We will continue to work even harder for future activities. Of course eating healthily and taking good care of our health is of utmost importance too. We hope that we won’t fall sick and live healthily. We want to continue this way, we hope that we can be a T-ara that works even harder.
***
Source: TenAsia
was last modified: byA new bill intended to update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act would allow victims of computer attacks to engage in active defense measures to identify the attacker and disrupt the attack.
Proposed by Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), the bill would grant victims of computer intrusions unprecedented rights. Known as the Active Cyber Defense Certainty Act, the legislation seeks to amend the CFAA, the much-maligned 1986 law that is used in most computer crime prosecutions.
Under the definition in the bill:
“the term ‘active cyber defense measure’— ‘‘(i) means any measure— ‘‘(I) undertaken by, or at the direction of, a victim; and ‘‘(II) consisting of accessing without authorization the computer of the attacker to the victim’ own network to gather information in order to establish attribution of criminal activity to share with law enforcement or 26 to disrupt continued unauthorized activity against the victim’s own network”.
The proposed legislation includes the caveat that victims can’t take any actions that destroy data on another person’s computer, causes physical injury to someone, or creates a threat to public safety. The concept of active defense has been a controversial one in the security community for several years, with many experts saying the potential downside outweighs any upside. Not to mention that it’s generally illegal.
Graves is attempting to change that with his new bill.
“This bill is about empowering individuals to defend themselves online, just as they have the legal authority to do during a physical assault,” said Graves. “While the bill doesn’t solve every problem, it’s an important first step. I hope my bill helps individuals defend themselves against cybercriminals while igniting a conversation that leads to more ideas and solutions that address this growing threat.”
Graves proposed the new bill on Friday.
Image: Karl-Ludwig Poggemann, CC By license.As regular readers of this blog know, I have spent a lot of time discussing what we call the “smart idiot” effect: Political conservatives who know more about science—or, have a higher level of education—tend to be more in denial of science or facts in contested areas, like global warming, than are less knowledgeable conservatives.
Any way you look at it, this is a puzzling phenomenon. For after all, we also know that leading climate scientists—e.g., those who have the most knowledge, the most expertise—clearly accept the science, and are deeply worried about it. A 2010 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), for instance, examined the scientific publication records of climate researchers and compared these with their views on global warming. It turned out that the scientists publishing most in the literature were overwhelmingly accepting of the idea that human beings cause global warming.
What this suggests is there is a level of scientific training and expertise beyond which the smart idiot effect largely vanishes. In fact, while there are assuredly some climate skeptics remaining within the scientific community, the PNAS study found that on average, their “relative climate expertise and scientific prominence” tended to be “substantially below that of the convinced researchers.”
What this implies to me is that the conservatives who become worse science deniers with a little knowledge or education may be evidence of an odd effect that, in the psychology literature, goes by the name of Dunning-Kruger (after the researchers who famously discovered it). In other words, they may be over-confident in their abilities, but simultaneously, unaware of it. (A little knowledge truly can be a dangerous thing.)
In a famous 1999 study, Justin Kruger and David Dunning of Cornell University captured this effect by studying student performance in grammar, logic, and humor. In each case, they found that those who fared the worst in these areas relative to their peers “grossly overestimated” their performance (relative to those same peers). “Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices,” wrote Kruger and Dunning, “but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.” By contrast, those who tended to perform best at logic, grammar, and humor tended to underrate their abilities—they were less sure of themselves than they should have been!
Here’s a figure from the famous Dunning-Kruger study, when it came to a grammar test:
Why might Dunning-Kruger be relevant to the right wing denial of scientific reality? First, and as I document in The Republican Brain, we have a situation today in which advanced degrees are strongly skewed towards the political left—as are academia and science in general–even as anti-science views are skewed to the political right. And more specifically, we have a situation in which the leading climate scientists are convinced that humans are causing global warming, but scientifically literate and politically engaged conservatives are highly skeptical. There is no political Dunning-Kruger study that I’m aware of, but perhaps there ought to be.
And it’s not just global warming where this appears relevant. For instance, a majority of Republicans today are creationists—and I’m willing to bet many think they have great arguments against the theory of evolution.
Finally, I’ve recently seen Dunning-Kruger-type behavior from conservatives in an area I know a lot about, because I just wrote a book on it—the science of ideology. Conservatives like Jonah Goldberg of National Review and Andrew Ferguson of the Weekly Standard have launched broad attacks against this entire field of research, and seem perfectly happy dismiss its validity, even though those of immersed in the subject know that they did not really even hit the target.
So are we seeing a Dunning-Kruger effect when it comes to conservative science denial? There’s a very important complicating factor here: Conservatives may be more sure of themselves in general, and liberals more self-doubting in general. Certainly, a lot of the research on ideology suggests that conservative ideologies (in both politics and religion) more appeal to those who crave certainty, and are less tolerant of ambiguity, nuance, and doubt.
But hey, untangling these sorts of things is what science is for. So I repeat, someone ought to design some (competent) research here. You would expect conservatives to bash such a study and dismiss it, of course–but then, that's the beauty of it. If the hypothesis turns out to be supported by the evidence, they’d only be proving its point!LONDON (Reuters) - Chevron Corp. left workers pleading to be evacuated from a gas exploration platform off Nigeria which kept drilling while smoke poured from a borehole until an explosion killed two people as the rig became engulfed in flames, according to accounts from four of the platform’s workers.
A Chevron tanker truck unloads gasoline into underground storage tanks in Burbank, Calfiornia June 18, 2008. REUTERS/Fred Prouser
Chevron, the second largest U.S. oil major, said it did not receive requests to evacuate the KS Endeavour rig and that staff on board had the right to call a halt to work if they believed conditions were unsafe.
“There were no evacuation requests received before the KS Endeavour incident occurred,” the U.S. energy company said in an emailed response to questions from Reuters.
Testimony from some of the 154 workers who were present alleges that, instead of addressing fears that equipment failures and smoke presaged disaster, Chevron flew extra staff to the platform just before the January 16, 2012, blowout.
Chevron says a nationwide Nigerian strike that included staff at airports had disrupted its normal crew changes but that at no time were approved safe manning levels exceeded.
The fire that followed the blast burned on the rig for 46 days until March 2. Chevron drilled a relief well to stem the gas leak, sealing it on June 18. It said in an email to Reuters on July 2 that an investigation with the Nigerian authorities had concluded that an entry of high pressure gas in the wellbore had caused the failure of equipment and fire.
The two who died in the explosion were the installation manager for the rig, Bruno Marce, a French national, and Indian driller Albert Devadas. They worked for KS Drilling, a subsidiary of Singapore-based KS Energy, a sub-contractor employed by Field Offshore Design Engineering (FODE) Ltd to drill a gas exploration well for Chevron off Nigeria.
Transcripts of accounts from three workers were given to Reuters by the offshore oil branch of Britain’s Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) trade union which said the documents were genuine but withheld the names of the witnesses to protect their employment prospects. Those accounts were backed by subsequent interviews in Nigeria with a worker who was also on the rig.
FODE declined comment, citing confidentiality clauses in its contract with KS Drilling preventing it making public any information about work for Chevron.
The accounts convey rising panic from some of those on the platform, who fearing a blowout, checked each morning the volume of smoke billowing from the drilling borehole.
“Chevron knew for over a week that the well was unstable yet they refused to evacuate us,” said one of the rig workers who gave his account to the RMT union.
A Nigerian worker who was aboard the rig at the time of the blast said many wanted to be evacuated.
Speaking at a hotel in Yenagoa, the oil capital of the Niger Delta’s oil-rich Bayelsa state, Omietimi Nana, 28, a maintenance worker for FODE said: “We were told we may be evacuated, it was mentioned but it didn’t happen. I don’t know who made the decision not to evacuate but certainly many people wanted to be evacuated because of the situation,” he said.
The most senior witness to give testimony to the RMT, a Frenchman, said a series of pump failures throughout the drilling operation led to a massive build-up of pressure that triggered the blowout.
The Frenchman said rig engineers held a site meeting and advised Chevron to evacuate staff while well pressure control measures were applied.
“That advice was not heeded and additional personnel were even brought onboard to get ahead of what was believed to be impending strike action,” the Frenchman, who was at that meeting, said.
Nana added: “About three days before the accident, the drilling company workers told us they wanted to stop drilling because of the gas pressure but they spoke with Chevron who told them to carry on.”
The French witness said an earlier failed attempt in late December to drill an exploration well near the same was abandoned after the discovery of a gas leak.
He said that “in an attempt to learn from experience” Chevron began drilling a second well “despite repeated failure of the pumps” and often having to stop drilling in order to service the top-drive, the device on the rig that provides rotational force.
Chevron acknowledged that the first exploration well was abandoned but denied it was because of a gas leak.
“SCARED LIKE HELL”
The second well, drilled 300 meters from the first, at a depth of 12,945 feet, soon began to lose pressure integrity, the French witness said.
“At almost every point in time, we saw thick smoke coming out of the open hole, and we were all scared like hell because we could see a disaster happening any moment yet they (Chevron) did not evacuate us - why, I do not know,” the witness said.
“This is the reason so many of us survived because we were all aware that it was going to happen, but just didn’t know when,” he said.
FODE maintenance worker Nana said: “Everyone was talking about how the mud weight had been lost but by then it was too late to stop the gas rising to the surface.”
Within days, said the French witness, rising gas pressure overwhelmed the mud weight in the wellbore spewing gas over the rig, sending workers scrambling for the lifeboats.
“The blowout occurred on Monday at 5.30 a.m., and if Bruno (Marce, the rig manager who died) had not advised as he did that the lifeboats be kept serviced and in functional condition then none of us would have made it out alive,” said the eyewitness.
“Bruno was shouting, but with a very strange voice, over the public address system that everyone should abandon the rig, I really felt for him for if not for his timely intervention myself and others would not have been alive today,” he said.
The witness said that by the time he had reached the lifeboat the rig was smothered in gas. When the lifeboat operator called rig manager Bruno Marce for permission to launch there was no reply, he said. The gas exploded and the lifeboat launched.
“By the time we hit the water the entire rig was engulfed by fire,” he said, describing metal debris raining down.
A second eyewitness described a deafening release of gas followed by “a loud bang and an orange flash as the gas ignited.”
The witnesses described how crew on a barge adjacent to the platform jumped into the water and scrambled into a life raft. The raft quickly began to melt from the heat of the fire, forcing them into the sea to be rescued by fishermen three hours later.
“If it were not for the fisherman those guys would have died in the water,” the French witness said.
CHEVRON RESPONSE
Asked to respond to the principal points of the allegations, Chevron said it was at no time asked to evacuate staff and that all personnel present had the power to order a work stoppage if they felt they were in danger.
“Our employees and contractor are fully empowered to exercise stop work authority (SWA) when they sense an unsafe work environment,” Chevron said, explaining that an SWA gives anyone aboard a rig the power to order a stop to operations in the event safety guidelines are breached.
“At no time was an evacuation initiated by anybody on the rig before the incident occurred,” Chevron said.
The union said it believed workers were worried they would lose their jobs if they quit the rig without permission.
“It appears the Endeavour workforce were reluctant to abandon the rig after the evacuation request was denied for fear of losing their jobs,” said Jake Molloy, head of OILC, the offshore energy branch of the RMT, which had members on the rig.
Molloy said the installation manager’s efforts to prepare lifeboats demonstrated that the danger was known.
“That fear is evident in the actions of the offshore installation manager who, as part of some bizarre ‘risk assessment process’, opted to ensure the lifeboats were in a state of readiness for what appears to be an inevitable evacuation,” the union official said.
Chevron said its rules required that lifeboats should be kept ready at all times and the crew held weekly drills, one of which was scheduled by the Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) Bruno Marce for the morning of the day before the blow-out happened.
“Like any other personnel, the OIM has full responsibility to stop the operation if he feels conditions are not safe,” Chevron said.
Related Coverage Little harm from Chevron November oil spill off Brazil: report
The company said it had launched a prompt, full rescue effort and the evacuation had been orderly and structured, although it acknowledged fishermen had picked up some workers.
“Search and rescue operations began immediately upon being made aware of the abandon ship alarms being sounded,” it said. Nearby vessels were directed to aid the rescue.
“152 of the 154 personnel on board the KS Endeavour and the Mako barge were evacuated immediately. Aircraft operations were impacted initially by darkness and by visibility conditions,” it said.Madison Gas & Electric
The major transmission networks in North America are currently divided into ten ISOs which run the wholesale electricity markets across the country. The Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) is the designated ISO for the Midwest United States and Maintoba, Canada, which began market operation in 2005. In 2011, the value of the real time load cleared was $18 billion. This money is dispersed to generating assets, transmission improvements, wind integration, long term planning, and to run MISO. The pricing scenarios used in this paper will be taken from MISO’s market data. MISO’s mission is to ensure reliable, least-cost delivered electricity for consumers.
Summary
Here are the wholesale prices for utilitiy Madison Gas and Electric. The prices on the grid are decided by an independent entity know as Midwest Independent Systems Operators (MISO). They clear the market for bulk electricity in two stages, a day-ahead market and a real-time market. The real-time market is on a rolling 5 minute basis, so every 5 minutes they have to clear a market which involves finance calculations and more differently power flow equations. The day-ahead market is difficult as well and is more about strategic decisions for the future uncertain demand.
Interesting Features
The period before the recession (2006 - mid 2008) has much higher volatility than the following period (mid 2008 - 2014)
One possible explanation is a change in the generation portfolio. The prices never recover after the recession, however (I have yet to check) the demand most likely recovers so the lower prices are most likely due to lower natural gas prices. This lowers the cost of generators with ramping capability which makes peak times relatively less costly.
To investigate, need total demand data as well as generator mix data
The first quarter of 2014 has large price spikes, which follow a period of relatively low volatility
What happened? Long term generator outages? Unplanned shut down of plants? Long term line outages? Unplanned loss of lines? Wholesale fuel prices?
Using the yearly rolling averages, it can be seen that the residential rates are consistently climbing while wholesale prices have fallen and stayed low over the same period
Is there an explanation for this? Renewable targets? Building new generators? Infrastructure development?
Only around 1/4 of it their power demanded is purchased electricity, its average weighted cost of electricity will only be partially affected by the wholesale prices of electricity.
Graph Explanation
This graph displays the time-series prices for the day-ahead and real-time prices for Madison Gas & Electric. These are the prices determined by an optimization routine done by the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) in order to determine a least cost supply of power to meet demand and maintain given reliability standards. The day-ahead prices are determined, you got it, a day in advance. The generators submit there bid offers and the demand is estimated using a forecasting procedure. The day-ahead problem has two complicating elements and determines hourly prices for the following day. First, MISO needs to determine which generators to have online throughout the next day. Second, they need to ensure they are N-1 secure in order to meet requirements set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision (FERC). N-1 secure means that the power grid is capable of withstanding any one power line or generator going down and not disrupting load. They must also be able to move to an operating point in which no lines are overloaded within a given time frame. Since the day-ahead problem is scheduled to forecast, the real-time problem must make up for errors in forecast as well as unforeseen events such as a power line or generator outage. This is done on a 5 minute basis, that is, every 5 minutes the new supply offers are cleared with the realized real-time demand.
Each day is represented by its average price for both the real-time and day-ahead prices. The region between the maximum price and the minimum price for any day is shaded to represent the prices it took on any given day.
Congestion?
LMP is Locational Marginal Price
MCC is Cost of Congestion component of LMP
MLC is Loss component of LMP
Show Series: Day-Ahead LMP Day-Ahead MCC Day-Ahead MLC
Real-Time LMP Real-Time MCC Real-Time MLC Rolling Averages: Daily Weekly Monthly Yearly Data
Citations
[1] MGE's Generation AssetsNow that the early free agency buzz has worn off, we’re going to be hearing more and more about the NFL Draft and the prospects that the Patriots are interested in. One need area the Patriots have yet to address in free agency is a sub-package pass rusher that can help take some of the workload off of veterans Rob Ninkovich and Chandler Jones.
In fact, the Patriots may be looking to add such a player early in the draft. According to SB Nation’s own Dan Kadar, first round pass rushing prospect Dee Ford will visit with the Patriots:
Talked with Dee Ford today. He has upcoming workouts/meetings set with the Patriots and Buccaneers. — Dan Kadar (@MockingTheDraft) March 18, 2014
Kadar talked about it further in the Mocking the Draft podcast.
Ford, an Auburn product, is a bit undersized at 6’2” and 252 lbs, but would seemingly be a great fit as a sub-package defensive end. He’s an athlete with great explosiveness who is also very fluid and could theoretically drop in coverage and perhaps play some linebacker as well.
While defensive end may not seemingly be the Patriots number one need, with the league now passing more than ever, it may be just as important to have three good defensive ends as it was to have two of them not even five years ago. The presence of Ford or a player of a similar caliber would allow the Patriots to get creative in some sub-packages (perhaps slide Chandler Jones in at DT) and would also help both Jones and Ninkovich stay fresh.'Watching Manchester United nearly killed me,' says female fan suffering from rare medical stress disorder
58-year-old woman hit by anxiety and panic attacks
Blood tests confirm rare and life threatening disorder
She must take daily medication for life
The stress of watching her favourite football team in action nearly killed a woman blighted by a rare medical condition, doctors have revealed.
A 58-year-old woman was forced to seek medical advice after she experienced severe anxiety and panic attacks while watching Manchester United matches.
Tests confirmed that she suffered from 'Addisonian crisis', a rare and life threatening disorder caused by lack of the stress hormone cortisol.
A woman was forced to seek medical advice after she experienced episodes of anxiety and panic attacks while watching her favourite sports team
Without treatment it can cause various complications including cardiac arrest, stroke, coma and death.
The Red Devils supporter said that symptoms were worse towards the end of high-profile and crucial games.
Dr Akbar Choudhry, who treated her at Trafford General Hospital said: 'On these occasions, she considered leaving the stadium because she felt so unwell.'
Since discovering the condition, the woman now takes daily medication to replace the lost hormones.
To date the treatment has alleviated the symptoms although doctors said this coincided with a number of comfortable wins for her team so she hasn't been exposed to the most stressful situations.
Addisonian crisis is a particularly serious manifestation of Addison's disease, which results from the adrenal glands not producing enough cortisol.
The condition is difficult to diagnose because the main symptoms, such as fatigue, lethargy and low mood, are often experienced by 'healthy' individuals.
But blood tests confirmed the woman had dangerously low levels of cortisol and she was immediately treated.
Dr Choudhry and his team concluded in the British Medical Journal : 'We believe our patient was having difficulty mounting an appropriate physiological cortisol response during the big games and therefore we present this as the first description of Manchester United-induced Addisonian crisis.'
Addison’s disease is named after Dr. Thomas Addison, a British physician who first described the condition in 1849.
Due to advancements in treatment, the average life expectancy for sufferers has improved significantly over the last 50 years.On Monday, Morrissey backed out of appearing on Jimmy Kimmel's late night show because he would have shared the stage with the cast of A&E's Duck Dynasty.
Kimmel responded like a chubby child live on TV last night...
Here's the statement Morrissey released in response:
27 February 2013
I was disappointed with last night's Jimmy Kimmel Show wherein our smiling host managed to ridicule depression (70% of Americans have experienced depression according to the National Institute of Mental Health). He then found time to ridicule healthy eating (the obesity epidemic in the U.S. costs $147 billion per year in medical expenditure), and he also ridiculed the notion that animals should be entitled to the possession of their own lives. Furthermore, he found time to jokingly promote gun-ownership - hugely amusing for the parents at Sandy Hook, no doubt. He also promoted his special guests Duck Dynasty - who kill beings for fun.
None of the above issues are, of course, as important as Jimmy Kimmel himself, who has finally revealed his show to have an overwhelming loss of meaning. Tune in and relive the intellectual fog of the 1950s.
MorrisseyLast week, an Oklahoma man, who recently converted to Islam, went on a violent stabbing spree at his former workplace, including beheading a coworker, but MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry was quick to dismiss his religion as being a factor in the killing.
Appearing on her self-titled show on Saturday morning, Harris-Perry insisted that “it is a story that I read as a workplace violence story” and then proceeded to condemn any references to his Islamic faith when discussing the crime.
The segment featured two controversial Muslim comics, Dean Obeidallah and Negin Farsad, both of whom did their best to dismiss the murderer, Alton Nolen, and his connection to Islam. Farsad is perhaps best known for appearing in a 2011 documentary film about Muslim comedians. Obeidallah, who is a prominent comedian, claimed in 2011 that as a Muslim comedian he was fighting for Muslim civil rights.
During the segment, Obeidallah eagerly claimed that Nolen’s faith “will be used” and “we are seeing right wing media use this, continuing the narrative.” Harris-Perry went one step further and compared Nolen’s Muslim faith to being of no more importance than what she had for breakfast that morning:
I think this to me is that there is a belief that at the core--I can also probably have breakfast that morning but we don’t think any of those things are relevant. But we do think that his conversion, jailhouse by the way, conversion is what is relevant.
As the segment wrapped up, Farsad made sure to play up the need for Muslims to inject humor into pop culture to help change the public perception of Islam in America:
We’ve gone on and on and on creating this language between Muslims and violence and we need to have a counter-narrative. We don’t. So what we need -- that is what we are trying to do… Muslims are funny. That’s the new stereotype. Pass it around. Muslims are hilarious.
Only at MSNBC would a man’s conversion to Islam a year before beheading a coworker be described as “workplace violence.” Instead of discussing potential influence Islam may had in the execution of an innocent Oklahoma woman, the folks at the “Lean Forward” network would rather discuss the efforts of two fringe Muslim comedians trying to push the narrative that “Muslims are hilarious.”
See relevant transcript below.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams will today claim it is her party and not the Conservatives who are true champions of business.
Ms Williams will claim it is a “myth” that the Conservatives embrace business, enterprise and entrepreneurship and argue only the Lib Dems have the ideas and ambition the Welsh economy needs to grow.
Welsh Conservatives accused the Lib Dems of having “persistently propped up a Welsh Labour Government” that is “failing businesses”.
'Here is my truth'
But Ms Williams will today state in a speech at Coleg Cambria, Wrexham: “Here is my truth: It is a myth that Conservatives embrace business. For too long, the Conservatives have got away with one of the biggest myths that exist in politics, and that is that the Tories are the party of business.”
Related:
The Brecon and Radnorshire AM will claim that being the “party of hedge fund managers and tax cuts for your richest donors does not make you the party of business.”
She will say: “The fact is that conservatism regards business as supporting the status quo, but for Liberals, business is about change. It’s about allowing new ideas to challenge old ones, allowing the small to challenge the big.”
'Everyone deserves that same chance'
Making a pitch for the support of Wales entrepreneurs, she will say: “Entrepreneurism and liberalism are at one on so many issues: Believing that no-one owes us a living and that Government shouldn’t get in the way of us making a living; believing that, given the opportunity, we can make a difference through our own individual talents and vision; believing everyone deserves that same chance to succeed regardless of where they come from.
“It’s about wanting to be creative and innovative, supporting people to be their own boss, and letting them thrive in creating opportunities for others.”
Related:
The burden on business
Addressing business concerns, she will say: “I’m yet to speak to a small business owner who doesn’t complain of the weight they feel to be under, which is why the Welsh Liberal Democrats will tear down the barriers that stop businesses from fulfilling their ambitions.
“We’ll empower councils to |
threats from the Sanggunian, INC’s highest governing body. Menorca’s mother Fredesminda, having no one else to stay with, also joined the family.
In a petition for habeas corpus filed Wednesday, Menorca’s younger brother Anthony, and Jungko Otsuka, twin sister of Jinky, asked the Supreme Court to compel top INC officials to release their missing relatives. The younger Menorca had been placed under the government’s Witness Protection Program in August after citing alleged threats to him and his family.
ADVERTISEMENT
READ: SC asked to act swiftly on habeas corpus plea of ex-INC minister | SC asked to order Iglesia leaders to produce missing members
Clarifying that his family did not ask the INC leadership to place them under “protective custody,” Lowell said they were detained at the INC central compound in Quezon City from July 25 to Oct. 21 supposedly to extract information regarding the release of damaging articles against the church.
“Hindi po namin kailanman hiniling sa pamamahala na bigyan kami ng pabahay doon, na kami ay ilagay sa protective custody ng Iglesia Ni Cristo. Kaya po nila ginawa ‘yun sapagkat ginamit nila ang pagkakataon na ’yun para alisin ako sa kulungan, ilagay ako sa controlled environment, na kung saan maaari nila akong puntahan anytime, kausapin, i-interrogate at makuha nila ‘yung mga impormasyon na gusto nilang makuha mula sa’kin,” he said.
While admitting that he thought of remaining silent for the sake of the sect’s integrity, Menorca said he decided to speak up because of the human rights violations being committed by church leaders. He shared that they were prevented from receiving guests and visitors and barred from using electronic gadgets.
“Wala kaming kalayaang makaalis o pumunta sa kung saan namin gusto … Lahat ng ito ginawa nila sa amin ng labag sa aming kalooban. Kung ito po ay hindi labag sa karapatang pantao, marahil hindi po ako magsasalita sa inyo,” Menorca said.
Threat of expulsion
“Ang totoo po dumating na sa punto na alang-alang na lang sa kapakanan ng Iglesia, nakahanda ako at ang aking buong sambahayan na manahimik para na lang mawala ang isyu na ito. Subalit dahil hindi pa rin sila tumigil sa kanilang ginagawang panggigipit hindi lamang sa akin kundi pati sa maraming mga kapatid sa buong mundo, ito po ang dahilan kung bakit nagkusa na po akong magsalita para maihayag na ang katotohanan,” he added.
Menorca admitted that he and his family members might be expelled from the church following his revelations, but added that they were ready to face it for the sake of the truth.
He said he would reveal further details regarding the abduction and illegal detention in a press conference next week.
“Ang iba pang detalye tungkol sa naging pagdukot sa amin ay ihahayag po namin sa proper forum. Magkakaroon po ng press conference kung saan ibibigay ko po ang lahat ng detalye. Nababatid ko po na pagkatapos kong magsalita ngayon ay ipatitiwalag kami ng Iglesia, isang bagay na napakabigat sa amin, napakasakit sa damdamin. Subalit handa kaming tanggapin ito alang-alang sa paninindigan sa katotohanan,” Menorca said.
Menorca was among several INC ministers that top leaders suspect were responsible for the publication of antichurch articles. His fellow expelled minister Samson also told the media that he and his family were held under “house arrest” at the central compound, adding that 10 other ministers had also been detained. Yuji Vincent Gonzales/RC
RELATED STORIES
Suspended Iglesia ni Cristo minister details detention
INC council wants to help ‘brother’ in jail—lawyer
De Lima confirms brother of ‘abducted’ INC minister now under WPP
Read Next
LATEST STORIES
MOST READThe Cleveland Cavaliers’ season could come to an end Monday night, and with it the latest chance for the city to end its half-century championship drought. A pair of NBA Finals losses is not the legacy LeBron James was hoping to leave when he returned home two summers ago.
As usual, it isn’t because of a lack of statistical performance on James’s part. In these finals, he’s averaging 24.8 points, 11 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game, which would mark only the second time since 1984 that a player has averaged at least 20, 10 and 8 in the finals. (The only other time? That would be when James did it last year.)
In terms of average Game Score in the series, nobody else on the Cavaliers — or the Golden State Warriors — is close to James’s 20.2 per-game mark. And in the playoffs as a whole, James leads the NBA in value over replacement player (VORP), Win Shares and John Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating-based value metric Estimated Wins Added.
Yet it’s not enough, as it seldom has been for LeBron. If he hangs on to his lead this year, James will have been the playoff leader by consensus of these three statistics eight times over his career, tying Michael Jordan for the most since ’74. But he’ll have won a championship in just two of those playoff campaigns; Jordan, by contrast, went six for eight.
IN YEARS LEADING THE POSTSEASON, NUMBER OF TIMES … PLAYER WON TITLE LOST TITLE Michael Jordan 6 2 LeBron James 2 6 Larry Bird 3 0 Magic Johnson 3 0 Shaquille O’Neal 2 1 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 1 2 Tim Duncan 2 0 Clyde Drexler 1 0 Dave Cowens 1 0 Elvin Hayes 1 0 LeBron’s losses are out of place among playoff stars “Lost Title” includes losses at any stage of the postseason. Source: Basketball-reference.com
How uncommon is it for a player to lead the NBA playoffs numerically and still not lead his team to a championship? Since 1974, the consensus best statistical player of the postseason also won the title about 70 percent of the time. James, on the other hand, has won a ring on only a quarter of the occasions he’s been the playoffs’ best individual performer. If he, like his peers, had 70 percent odds each time, there’d be only a 1 percent chance he’d go two for eight.
On the one hand, this is kerosene-soaked kindling for fans who decry James as a choker with a disappointing postseason record. (For what it’s worth, a loss to Golden State would put him about 0.6 titles below expectation, after accounting for the strength of his finals opponents.) On the other hand, it’s tough to criticize LeBron too harshly for some of his off-the-charts statistical performances in losing efforts over the years, particularly given the supporting casts he’s been saddled with at times.
But on the — um, third hand? — James’s teammates also have a history of undershooting expectations in ways that go beyond even their performances in the finals. As part of my research into Kobe Bryant’s career, I looked for the effect a player had on his teammates, in terms of whether they met their preseason projections while suiting up with the player in question. And among the top 100 players since 1974 by VORP, only seven were associated with bigger, more persistent shortfalls by teammates than James. Mystifying as it may be for a player known for his vision and playmaking skills, LeBron might simply be a difficult player to slot in next to and play your best alongside.
All of this makes James’s legacy one of the most complicated to assess of any player in NBA history. And unless he and the Cavs can capitalize on Draymond Green’s Game 5 suspension — then conjure up miracles in games 6 and 7 as well — the stark juxtaposition between James’s own numbers and his teams’ record in the finals will continue to dog LeBron into the summer and beyond.
Check out our NBA Finals predictions.With the arrival of Andrey Arshavin to English Football came not just a fast and skilled Russian but a whole new insight into the mind of a professional footballer. Andrey's team management haven't taken long to follow in his footsteps and offer their fans more than the usual autograph/signed shirt. This season at Arsenal.com you can find some absolute gems regarding the first team squad in a new section creatively titled "Trivia".
Balls.ie has done the hard work for you and dug up the most interesting of the interesting.
Advertisement
Manuel Almunia - He met his wife in an Irish pub/ He used to run with the bulls in Pamplona/ He used to have a remote-controlled metal dog
Andrey Arshavin - He has written three books including one called ‘555 Questions and Answers on Women, Money, Politics and Football’/ He has a degree in fashion design
Cesc Fabregas - He has studied Maths during his time with Arsenal/ He liked John Travolta when he was a boy
Bacary Sagna - He is the best chess player in the Arsenal squad
Thomas Vermaelen - His parents own a plumbing business
Tomas Rosicky - He once sang ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ for a bet/ His partner presents the weather on TV
Robin Van Persie - Lettuce is one of his least favourite foods/ He is a fan of the singer Phil Collins
Theo Walcott - He likes to sing ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ at karaoke
Alex Song - His favourite actor is Steven Seagal/ He has 17 sisters and 10 brother
Johan Djourou - He lives in a former asylum
Lukasz Fabianski - He once had a bad food experience with shrimpsTherefore, the bulldozers and excavators are still readying for construction of a new operations, control, and laboratory building on 115 Water St. — covering part of the area where the historical wharf was discovered — as part of Newburyport’s waste-water upgrade and improvement project. Along the way, experts from The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Department of Archeological Services have been monitoring and documenting, and collecting unearthed artifacts.
Much of the area at the intersection of Lime and Water streets — and thus the embedded relics of Coombs’ wharf beneath — is contaminated, largely due to an oil tank farm that operated there in mid 1900s, according to Bill Harris, a local lawyer and historian who compiled an extensive, 62-page history of the site. Thus, it would be difficult to protect it, according to local officials and visiting archeologists, because, in its state, it likely wouldn’t be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or other historical designations.
But unfortunately in this case, most of what was lost ultimately can’t be saved.
“It’s a great discovery,’’ said Kolterjahn, adding that “often what gets lost is our history.’’
But last summer’s find has reinforced the fact that archeology doesn’t just happen in the pages of National Geographic — and that we never really know what rich history is beneath our feet.
When you think about archeology, you probably imagine workers in trenches by the pyramids or Indiana Jones types overseeing workers in the shade of Mayan temples — probably not at an East Coast waterfront clustered with houses and situated just off a tangled traffic square.
“We’re thrilled — how could we not be?’’ said Newburyport Historical Commission member Tom Kolterjahn. “It’s exciting to uncover an important piece of our history.’’
Although many of the structural artifacts are too damaged or contaminated to save, local officials and historians call the find an extraordinary one, providing a conduit between modern times and the country’s beginnings.
And, as the city’s infrastructure project has continued for the past several months, archeologists have periodically been on-site to document additional finds from the 1700s and 1800s, including more capstones, cribbing supports, and, this month, timbers from an adjacent wharf.
Last June, as workers excavated portions of Newburyport’s Water Street for the city’s new waste-water operations building, they unearthed large, centuries-old slabs of granite. Based on maps and archaeological research, the giant rectangles of rock were identified as the capping stones of a 19th-century wharf built onto an earlier Revolutionary War wharf owned by Captain William Coombs.
And the late-1700s wharf might have remained that way — embedded for the ages — had it not been for a recent accidental find.
For years it has been buried, swallowed up by layers of earth, muck, and water, a once-prominent landmark concealed by time.
Inevitably, some parts of the historic wharf will be disturbed; other parts (such as the granite slabs) will be pulled out, and other portions will remain in the ground, with most of it covered back up, according to project manager Pieter Hartford. Plans have been retooled a bit — as Hartford explained, the building will be shifted about 15 feet west from where the structure was unearthed to minimize the impact.
“We’ve come across something historical, but the integrity of it is no longer intact,’’ he said. However, “if we’re not preserving what’s there, we’re trying to document and learn from it.’’
Kolterjahn agreed that crews are “trying to preserve what they can, and leave as much of it intact as they can.’’
How it’s all been pieced (or rather de-pieced) together so far: In late November, UMass archeologist Timothy Barker determined that the granite caps initially quarried from the site in June likely date to the 19th century. Then, in an excavated trench amid contaminated water, he also identified hand-hewn timbers that probably constituted the crib of the initial wharf likely built by Coombs’s father, Philip Coombs, between 1734 and 1756, according to Harris. In December, more granite capping stones were uncovered, and, earlier this month, timbers from an adjacent wharf were revealed — all of this as local history boosters and buffs stood by.
“It’s fascinating to watch the process and to have a professional archeologist on-site,’’ said Kolterjahn, one of those onlookers.
Eventually, the UMass archeologists — who initially identified several sensitive areas by layering various historical maps over construction plans — will report their findings to the city’s historical commission and the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
At this point, though, many quandaries remain. “It’s evolving as we go along,’’ said Kolterjahn.
Researchers have scant early history to go on.
According to Harris’s research, Ralph Cross sold the site to Philip Coombs on Nov. 30, 1734, for 198 pounds. Somewhere in the 22 years between then and 1756, the elder Coombs is believed to have built a wharf on the waterfront property.
But then, in 1756, he was killed as a prisoner of France in the French-Indian War, and his son William inherited his property. Nearly a decade later, in 1765, the younger Coombs was authorized to build or extend a wharf, according to Harris’s research.
The ensuing Revolution was when the maritime structure made its impression on history. In 1775, it was operating privateers — privately owned and manned boats commissioned by the government to attack enemy ships.
That year and the next, Coombs also organized two key missions to the West Indies to import gunpowder and other military stores for the war — the first believed to be the first Colonial gunpowder importation mission, according to Harris.
Therefore, he said, this isn’t just about local history. “These wharves were of national significance,’’ Harris noted.
Meanwhile, the wharf provided iron, copper, tar, and nails, and was later used for various commercial activities, before Coombs, a Newburyport selectman and state representative, died in 1814.
After that, the wharf’s history goes quiet again, before reemerging in the records in 1860, when the state authorized Edward Kimball and Nahum Perkins to extend it 60 feet.
In the century-and-a-half since, the area was slowly filled in and many buildings were constructed, razed, and built again.
The goal is to have markers and signs on the site once it’s covered up, Kolterjahn said.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.The families of murdered Israeli teen Naftali Fraenkel and the murdered 16 year-old Palestinian, Mohammad Abu Khdeir, who was killed on Wednesday, have been drawing comfort from an unexpected source – each other.
The Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, wrote on Facebook about his “emotional and special telephone conversation between two families that have lost their sons.” He went on to add that he had visited the Fraenkal family home, while he also took the opportunity to speak to Hussein Abu Khdeir, who is Mohammad’s father. He expressed his pain at the “barbaric” murder of his son, the Jewish Daily Forward reports.
Barkat suggested to Abu Khdeir that he should contact Yishai Fraenkel, who is the uncle of Naftali Fraenkel. The uncle spoke to the press recently, saying, “The life on an Arab is equally precious to that of a Jew. Blood is blood and murder is murder, whether that murder is Jewish or Arab.” The two took the advice of the mayor, and consoled one another by telephone.
Kidnapped and slain Arab teen was burned alive – autopsy results
An Israeli official announced Monday that three suspects in the killing of Abu Khdeir have confessed to committing the crime, according to the Associated Press. The official said the suspects were taking part in a police-staged re-enactment of the killing for the authorities.
On Sunday, Israeli authorities announced the arrests of six Jewish male suspects in connection with Abu Khdeir’s murder. Their identities have not been released and the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was still ongoing.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also phoned Hussein Abu Khdeir on Monday to express his shock and horror at the murder of his son.
“I want to express my shock, and the shock of all Israeli citizens, at the heinous murder of your son,” he said in the call, according to a statement put out by the Prime Minister's Office.
“We acted immediately afterward to locate the murderers, and they will be brought to justice,” Netanyahu added. “We reject all cruel behavior, and the murder of your son is heinous and cannot be accepted by any human being.”
Speaking on Sunday after a condolence call in Nof Ayalon to the parents of Naftali Fraenkel, Netanyahu said Israel will punish the murderers.
Referring to violence between Jews and Arabs, Netanyahu said, “We are opposed to ‘price-tag' attacks in the same way that we are opposed to fire bombs, rock-throwing and blocking of roads.”
Israel's outgoing president, Shimon Peres, and his successor, Reuven Rivlin, promised in a joint editorial published Monday in Yedioth Ahronoth, the country's best-selling newspaper, that there would be no cover-up in the investigation of the Palestinian's death.
Cautioning that "words can kill," they also appealed for an end to incitement by both sides in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"The bloodshed will stop only when we all understand that it is not our unhappy fate to live together, but rather our destiny to do so," Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and Rivlin, a veteran right-wing politician, wrote.
In a separate visit organized by Rabbi Rafi Ostroff, chair of the religious council of Gush Etzion, Palestinians from the Hebron area went to see the Fraenkel family, looking to comfort the bereaved.
Asked why they had come, one of the Palestinians said, “Things will only get better when we learn to cope with each other’s pain and stop getting angry at each other. Our task is to give strength to the family and also to take a step toward my nation’s liberation. We believe that the way to our liberation is through the hearts of Jews.”
He later said that the visit went very well from his perspective. “They received us very, very nicely. The mother [Rachel Fraenkel] was incredible.”
“I see before me a Jewish family who has lost a son opening the door to me,” he added. “That’s not obvious. It touched my heart and my nation.”
The Palestinian visitors to the Fraenkels also mentioned an initiative championed by both Jews and Muslims to turn the July 15, the Jewish fast day known as 17 Tammuz, into a joint fast day for people of both religions who wish to express their desire to end violence in the region.
The tension gripping the region started when three Israeli youths – Gilad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Ifrach – went missing in the occupied West Bank and were found dead after 18 days of searches.
The disappearance sparked a massive door-to-door manhunt in the Palestinian city of Hebron and surrounding villages in the West Bank, with the Israeli authorities accusing Hamas of the crime.
During the 'Brother’s Keeper Operation' to locate the missing teenagers, over 2,300 homes were searched in the West Bank and over 400 Palestinian suspects were detained.
Many believe Abu Khdeir’s killing was carried out in revenge by Israelis incensed at the killing of the three Israeli teens. He was kidnapped on Wednesday in his neighborhood in Arab East Jerusalem. His charred body was found several hours later in a forest on the outskirts of the city. Autopsy reports say that he could have been burned alive as soot was found in his lungs, a sign that he was still conscious when he was set alight.
Caught on camera: Israeli police beating 15yo cousin of murdered Palestinian teen (VIDEO)
A day after Mohammad Abu Khdeir was killed, his cousin, Tarek Abu Khdeir, 15, an American citizen, was brutally beaten and detained by police. Tarek’s parents maintained his innocence and claim Israeli police officers committed an unprovoked attack on their son while he was handcuffed. He had been spending summer in East Jerusalem with his uncle’s family.
An Israeli court ruled Sunday that Tarek Abu Khdeir should be subject to house arrest in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. Court spokeswoman Luba Samri said that police had asked the judge to extend the teenager’s remand, claiming that he attacked police officers during violent protests over the death of his cousin.Late last year Sony agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission over claims that it falsely advertised the PlayStation Vita console at launch. Anyone in the U.S. who purchased the handheld prior to June 1, 2012 is entitled to $25 cash or one of three different game bundles. Here’s how.
The company handling Sony’s settlement started sending out instruction emails today—I got mine this morning—directing customers to a claims website. Eligible purchasers must complete the process before June 30, 2015 in order to claim their goodies.
What’s The Situation?
Consumer complaints alleged that early ads for the PlayStation Vita urged purchase based on features that were not available or never came to fruition. Remote playing PlayStation 3 games, playing online multiplayer games over a 3G network and extensive PS3/Vita cross-saving were touted but never materialized in a satisfactory fashion.
So yeah, gives us some stuff, Sony.
What’s The Payout?
Eligible claimants can select from three options.
A $25 check. $25 in PSN credit. One of three different game bundles.
Advertisement
Looking at the selection available, I’d say go for the PSN credit. The check will likely take forever to arrive, and these bundles suck.
How To Get Your Stuff
If you received the following email, simply follow the instructions. The claims website wasn’t fully-functional this morning, but it is now up and running.
CASH BACK OR MERCHANDISE OFFER FROM SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA LLC Dear Customer: Our records show that you purchased a PlayStation Vita handheld game console prior to June 1, 2012. The Federal Trade Commission has alleged that some SCEA advertisements for the PlayStation Vita during this period were deceptive. Although SCEA neither admits nor denies liability in connection with this matter, SCEA has agreed to settle the dispute with the Federal Trade Commission by offering either cash back (or credit on your PSN account) or merchandise to customers who purchased a PlayStation Vita before June 1, 2012, and who have not returned the product for a full refund. Accordingly, we are pleased to offer you the opportunity to receive a check for $25 (or a $25 credit on your PSN account). Alternatively, you are eligible to receive a merchandise voucher that you can use to select from a list of merchandise, video games and/or services. The selection of merchandise, video games and/or services that are available through this offer has a retail value of $50 or more. You are eligible to receive either a check for $25 (or a $25 credit on your PSN account) or a merchandise voucher, but not both. For details of each offer and to make your choice of the $25 check (or credit) or the merchandise voucher, please click here. You MUST complete and submit the information requested in the above link by June 30, 2015 to be eligible to receive the $25 check (or $25 credit on your PSN account) or merchandise voucher worth $50 or more. Please be assured that your acceptance of this offer does not obligate you to purchase anything. For more information on our settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, please visit www.ftc.gov and search for “Sony Computer Entertainment America.” If you have any questions, please call Sony Computer Entertainment America claims administration at 1-800-410-5484.
Advertisement
The page at https://vitaclaims.com will ask prequalified customers for their PSN ID and Vita serial number. Update: If your serial number has faded, you can hook your Vita to a computer and look under properties.
Select a reward, hit submit and you’ll receive a confirmation.
If you do not receive an email and believe you qualify for free stuff, there’s a form that you can fill out and mail to the claims administration folks in order to be added. Get that here.
Advertisement
And that’s it. Once your claim is submitted, the waiting begins. With a cutoff of June 30, I’d expect all claims to be processed no later than the end of the year. We might be waiting for our $25 for a while, but think how nice it’ll be when it finally shows up.Morocco has recently started recruiting and training mourchidat, female Muslim clerics whose role is to help usher in a more moderate Islam. Sally Williams talks to some of the students and watches the mourchidat at work in the community
Just inside Rabat's walled medina - with its market stalls selling fake Gucci sunglasses and bzeghir, traditional Moroccan pancakes - stands the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, an octagonal building resplendent with bougainvillaea and a fountain. This is the seminary where a revolution is under way. Two hundred student imams sit in long rows in disciplined silence as their tutor, Hussein Ait Said, addresses them. All the students are wearing robes and have a copy of the Koran on their desk, but 50 of them also have handbags and, more surprising still, a pair of white slingbacks is just visible in the fifth row. These are the women who are training to be mourchidat - female priests - the second intake at the seminary.
The mourchidat (meaning 'female guide') first made news in April 2006 when the Moroccan government announced with great fanfare that the first 50 had graduated. Funded by the government, the initiative is part of a wave of liberal reform begun by King Mohammed VI in 2004. 'This is a rare experiment in the Muslim world,' Muhammad Mahfudh, the centre's director, says. The mourchidat will help women with religious questions, with their education and give support in schools and prisons. The long-term hope is that by working face-to-face with the community, they will help foster a more moderate Islam.
At the western edge of the Arab and Muslim world, with only six miles of sea separating it from Europe, Morocco is a Muslim country - Islam is the state religion - led by a king, not an imam. It was an early ally in America's 'war on terror' and the only Arab country to hold a memorial service for the victims of September 11, 2001. But on May 16, 2003, suicide bombers killed 45 people in Casablanca, heralding a resurgence of radical Islamic fundamentalism. In Europe 80 per cent of those arrested since 2003 on terrorism charges have been Moroccans. The conservative Istiqlal party may have won the parliamentary elections last September, but the election itself, with its record low turnout of only 37 per cent, was a clear rejection of the political system, which Islamic fundamentalists have exploited in order to recruit militants.
In the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, the female student priests are taking a morning break. More than 400 women applied for the 50 places. The prerequisites are an exam, an interview and a BA. Candidates are also required to have a life grounded in the Koran, by which is meant memorising it, and an understanding of tajwid, the art of Koranic recital. Men have to know the entire text by heart; women, half of it. Once accepted on the course, students are given a grant of 4,000 dirhams (£360) a month. To rent a room in a shared house, as many students do, costs about a quarter of that. The youngest woman on the course is 22 - 'baby mourchidat!' - the oldest nearly 40. Lessons include Islamic studies, psychology, sociology, computer skills, economy, law and business management, plus three hours of homework a day.
'We want to help people know the Koran and to promote flexibility, and there are a lot of problems in our society - social, political, all,' one student, Halima Kachkach, 29, explains. With her is Zakia Haddad, who has a BA in English from the University of Fez, where her family live. Her father is a retired shopkeeper, her mother a housewife, and she is one of six children. After university she worked as an administrative assistant on a news-paper, taught in a school and studied in a Koranic school, where it took her five and a half years to learn the Koran by heart. For her interview at the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassania, she was asked to recite passages aloud, with examiners checking for pronunciation, elongation, word stress and intonation. All students live outside the seminary, so Haddad now lodges with her sister in Rabat.
Men and women learn side by side, but only men will be able to lead prayers. Does she mind? 'No, because it is from our religion,' Haddad replies. 'We are not shocked or belittled by this.' How do the men treat you? 'There is distance, manners in our relationship.' Any criticism? 'If there is, they don't say it to our face…' She pauses and smiles,'so perhaps…'
Women have come a long way since pre-independence days, but Morocco is still a divided society: one where some women are modern, educated and forging ahead in high positions in politics, business, medicine, law - about 25 per cent of professionals are women; yet nearly 70 per cent of women are illiterate (89 per cent in rural areas) compared with 41 per cent of men, according to 1999 government figures.
In some rural areas, a woman who is beaten or abandoned by her husband with no means of livelihood has only one course of action: words 'of spiritual impact' to her husband are written on a piece of paper by the local imam. The woman then keeps the piece of paper, hoping it will somehow change her husband's behaviour.
'Before the mourchidat, women had no one to answer their questions,' says Dr Rajaa Naji el Mekkaoui, an expert in family law at the Université Mohamed-V in Rabat, and one of the architects of the mourchidat programme. 'They will try to find the answers in other areas, from fundamentalist imams - and this is a big risk to society. If they ask if they are authorised to work, the imams will say, "No, that is not allowed." If a woman asks what must I wear, they will say, "She must be covered with the veil."?' El Mekkaoui believes that the mourchidat are a liberating force for women, and an inhibitor for radicalism.
The idea for the mourchidat was first discussed in 2003, but its roots go back to 1999, when Mohammed VI came to the throne. He promised a new era of openness and democracy after the 38-year repressive dictatorship of his father, Hassan II. First to go was the palace harem - some 40 women. Next was the interior minister, Driss Basri, who had run Hassan's security system for 20 years, and was feared and detested like no other. The king also remodelled himself as a champion of women's rights, approving modifications to the Moudawana, the family code, in 2004, including raising the age of marriage from 15 to 17.
But the landmark event that paved the way for the mourchidat took place in 2003. In a radical break with tradition, the king invited a woman - el Mekkaoui - to give the Ramadan lecture at the royal palace in Rabat, attended by members of the government, high-ranking military officials and foreign ambassadors. It was the first time a woman had even been allowed to enter the room, let alone permitted to speak.
I meet el Mekkaoui at her home in Avenue Jacaranda, an upmarket area of Rabat, where she lives with her four grown-up children. On the wall is a photograph of that historic event. A diminutive figure, she is pictured dressed in white robes, facing the king and imams from all over the Islamic world. The image spells out just how explosive the idea of giving women religious power is because in Islam male domination is institutional, Koranic. 'Many don't understand why I take part in this ceremony,' el Mekkaoui explains. 'Out of habit we think that religious laws don't allow women into the priesthood, but once a woman overcomes these obstacles, she will become more acceptable.'
That lecture, el Mekkaoui says, opened a window. '[Setting up the mourchidat] became less difficult, because people had this image of a woman in a religious context.' Also, el Mekkaoui was known as a moderate; others were reassured by the fact that the mourchidat worked only with women. But still, for many Muslims it was a hugely provocative step. 'There was intense opposition from imams,' she recalls.
But in Morocco the monarchy has all the power, and the parliament plays a marginal role. The true power is in the hands of the people close to Mohammed VI. And the two other people instrumental in the formation of the mourchidat are senior advisers to the king: Professor Abdelhadi Boutaleb, a well-known Islamic authority; and Ahmed Toufiq, the minister of Islamic affairs. Boutaleb publicly stated his support of women's rights soon after Mohammed VI came to power in late 1999. Islam, he noted at a public meeting of the Woman's Network, a coalition of some 200 volunteer organisations, was a'message of renewal and reform', and he cited verses that demonstrated that Islam advocated the equality of men and women - 'It is true that a bird needs two wings to fly.'
I meet Ahmed Toufiq in the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in Rabat, adjacent to the royal palace. A stocky, scholarly man in his mid-50s, Toufiq is known as a moderniser - last year he delivered a lecture at the British Library in London on 'Why Muslims should embrace democracy'. He has high hopes for the mourchidat. 'Their role can go far beyond what is expected - far beyond what the imams in the mosques are expected to do.' Toufiq hopes to increase the number of places for women at the seminary to 150 - the same as imams.
On graduation, each mourchidat is assigned a mosque, which can be anywhere in Morocco, although the ministry in charge aims to find somewhere close to their families. The mourchidat offer spiritual advice and teach women the Koran, but also discuss more contentious gender-related issues - about sex, women's health, what to do if your husband beats you - issues that women would not dream of asking an imam. They are paid 5,000 dirhams (£420) a month, and work long hours, both in and outside the mosque.
Samera Masouk, 30, a mourchidat in Rabat, works a 12-hour day in the mosque to which she has been assigned, but additionally has some responsibility for 67 other mosques (there are 300 mosques in Rabat; the smallest are inside houses). She also visits children in schools, women in hospitals, runs activities for 200 females in a nearby prison and supports ex-prisoners when they are released. This routine is on top of the cultural pressure to be a good wife to her husband, a tailor. 'My husband never cooks,' she laughs, so she makes a dinner of fish or chicken for him in the morning, before she leaves for work. She admits there have been heated 'discussions' about her work. 'There is questioning: why are you coming home at 11pm?'
Zireb Hidra, 39, is based east of Casablanca at the Imam Abderahunane mosque, in an area with narrow streets, rundown car workshops and laundry hanging out to dry on half-ruined houses - a world away from the city's villa complexes, hotels and expensive discos burgeoning on the |
and they would unhesitatingly commit their naval forces, to the last ship and the last man, into an all-out fight for survival. Our Air Force could not be counted on to guard our transports from the British Fleets, because their operations would depend on the weather, if for no other reason. It could not be expected that even for a brief period our Air Force could make up for our lack of naval supremacy.[44]
On 13 August 1940, Alfred Jodl, Chief of Operations in the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) wrote his "Assessment of the situation arising from the views of the Army and Navy on a landing in England." His first point was that "The landing operation must under no circumstances fail. A failure could leave political consequences, which would go far beyond the military ones." He believed that the Luftwaffe could meet its essential objectives, but if the Kriegsmarine could not meet the operational requirements of the Army for an attack on a broad front with two divisions landed within four days, followed promptly by three further divisions irrespective of weather, "then I consider the landing to be an act of desperation, which would have to be risked in a desperate situation, but which we have no reason whatsoever to undertake at this moment."
Landing craft [ edit ]
Invasion barges assembled at the German port of Wilhelmshaven
In 1940 the German Navy was ill-prepared for mounting an amphibious assault the size of Operation Sea Lion. Lacking purpose-built landing craft and both doctrinal and practical experience with amphibious warfare, the Kriegsmarine was largely starting from scratch. Some efforts had been made during the inter-war years to investigate landing military forces by sea, but inadequate funding severely limited any useful progress.[46]
The Kriegsmarine had taken some small steps in remedying the landing craft situation with construction of the Pionierlandungsboot 39 (Engineer Landing Boat 39), a self-propelled shallow-draft vessel which could carry 45 infantrymen, two light vehicles or 20 tons of cargo and land on an open beach, unloading via a pair of clamshell doors at the bow. But by late September 1940 only two prototypes had been delivered.[47]
Recognising the need for an even larger craft capable of landing both tanks and infantry onto a hostile shore, the Kriegsmarine began development of the 220-ton Marinefährprahm (MFP) but these too were unavailable in time for a landing on British soil in 1940, the first of them not being commissioned until April 1941.
Given barely two months to assemble a large seagoing invasion fleet, the Kriegsmarine opted to convert inland river barges into makeshift landing craft. Approximately 2,400 barges were collected from throughout Europe (860 from Germany, 1,200 from the Netherlands and Belgium and 350 from France). Of these, only about 800 were powered (some insufficiently); the rest had to be towed by tugs.[48]
Barge types [ edit ]
Two types of inland river barge were generally available in Europe for use in Sea Lion: the peniche, which was 38.5 meters long and carried 360 tons of cargo, and the Kampine, which was 50 meters long and carried 620 tons of cargo. Of the barges collected for the invasion, 1,336 were classified as peniches and 982 as Kampinen. For simplicity's sake, the Germans designated any barge up to the size of a standard peniche as Type A1 and anything larger as Type A2.[49]
Type A [ edit ]
Converting the assembled barges into landing craft involved cutting an opening in the bow for off-loading troops and vehicles, welding longitudinal I-beams and transverse braces to the hull to improve seaworthiness, adding a wooden internal ramp and pouring a concrete floor in the hold to allow for tank transport. As modified, the Type A1 barge could accommodate three medium tanks while the Type A2 could carry four.[50]
Type B [ edit ]
This barge was a Type A altered to carry and rapidly off-load the submersible tanks (Tauchpanzer) developed for use in Sea Lion. They had the advantage of being able to unload their tanks directly into water up to 15 metres (49 ft) in depth, several hundred yards from shore, whereas the unmodified Type A had to be firmly grounded on the beach, making it more vulnerable to enemy fire. The Type B required a longer external ramp (11 meters) with a float attached to the front of it. Once the barge anchored, the crew would extend the internally stowed ramp using block and tackle sets until it was resting on the water's surface. As the first tank rolled forward onto the ramp, its weight would tilt the forward end of the ramp into the water and push it down onto the seabed. Once the tank rolled off, the ramp would bob back up to a horizontal position, ready for the next one to exit. The Navy High Command increased its initial order for 60 of these vessels to 70 in order to compensate for expected losses. A further five were ordered on 30 September as a reserve.[51]
Type C [ edit ]
The Type C barge was specifically converted to carry the Panzer II amphibious tank (Schwimmpanzer). Because of the extra width of the floats attached to this tank, cutting a broad exit ramp into the bow of the barge was not considered advisable as it would have compromised the vessel's seaworthiness to an unacceptable degree. Instead, a large hatch was cut into the stern, thereby allowing the tanks to drive directly into deep water before turning under their own motive power and heading towards shore. The Type C barge could accommodate up to four Schwimmpanzern in its hold. Approximately 14 of these craft were available by the end of September.[52]
Type AS [ edit ]
During the planning stages of Sea Lion, it was deemed desirable to provide the advanced infantry detachments (making the initial landings) with greater protection from small-arms and light artillery fire by lining the sides of a Type A barge with concrete. Wooden slides were also installed along the barge's hull to accommodate ten assault boats (Sturmboote), each capable of carrying six infantrymen and powered by a 30 hp outboard motor. The extra weight of this additional armour and equipment reduced the barge's load capacity to 40 tons. By mid-August, 18 of these craft, designated Type AS, had been converted, and another five were ordered on 30 September.[50]
Type AF [ edit ]
The Luftwaffe had formed its own special command (Sonderkommando) under Major Fritz Siebel to investigate the production of landing craft for Sea Lion. Major Siebel proposed giving the unpowered Type A barges their own motive power by installing a pair of surplus 600 hp (610 PS; 450 kW) BMW aircraft engines, driving propellers. The Kriegsmarine was highly sceptical of this venture, but the Heer (Army) high command enthusiastically embraced the concept and Siebel proceeded with the conversions.[53]
The aircraft engines were mounted on a platform supported by iron scaffolding at the aft end of the vessel. Cooling water was stored in tanks mounted above-deck. As completed, the Type AF had a speed of six knots, and a range of 60 nautical miles unless auxiliary fuel tanks were fitted. Disadvantages of this set-up included an inability to back the vessel astern, limited maneuverability and the deafening noise of the engines which would have made voice commands problematic.[53]
By 1 October 128 Type A barges had been converted to airscrew propulsion and, by the end of the month, this figure had risen to over 200.[54]
The Kriegsmarine later used some of the motorized Sea Lion barges for landings on the Russian-held Baltic islands in 1941 and, though most of them were eventually returned to the inland rivers they originally plied, a reserve was kept for military transport duties and for filling out amphibious flotillas.[55]
Army [ edit ]
Panzers ashore [ edit ]
Providing armour support for the initial wave of assault troops was a critical concern for Sea Lion planners and much effort was devoted to finding practical ways of rapidly getting tanks onto the invasion beaches. Though the Type A barges could disembark several medium tanks onto an open beach, this could be accomplished only at low tide when the barges were firmly grounded. The time needed for assembling the external ramps also meant that both the tanks and the ramp assembly crews would be exposed to close-quarter enemy fire for a considerable time. A safer and faster method was needed and the Germans eventually settled on providing some tanks with floats and making others fully submersible.
Schwimmpanzer [ edit ]
The Schwimmpanzer II was a modified version of the Panzer II which, at 8.9 tons, was light enough to float with the attachment of long rectangular buoyancy boxes on each side of the tank's hull. The boxes were machined from aluminium stock and filled with Kapok sacks for added buoyancy. Motive power came from the tank's own tracks which were connected by rods to a propeller shaft running through each float. The Schwimmpanzer II could make 5.7 km/h in the water. An inflatable rubber hose around the turret ring created a waterproof seal between the hull and turret. The tank's 2 cm gun and coaxial machinegun were kept operational and could be fired while the tank was still making its way ashore. Because of the great width of the pontoons, Schwimmpanzer IIs were to be deployed from specially-modified Type C landing barges, from which they could be launched directly into open water from a large hatch cut into the stern. The Germans converted 52 of these tanks to amphibious use prior to Sea Lion's cancellation.[56]
Tauchpanzer [ edit ]
Panzer III Tauchpanzer under test (1940) under test (1940)
The Tauchpanzer or deep-wading tank (also referred to as the U-Panzer or Unterwasser Panzer) was a standard Panzer III or Panzer IV medium tank with its hull made completely waterproof by sealing all sighting ports, hatches and air intakes with tape or caulk. The gap between the turret and hull was sealed with an inflatable hose while the main gun mantlet, commander's cupola and radio operator's machine gun were given special rubber coverings. Once the tank reached the shore, all covers and seals could be blown off via explosive cables, enabling normal combat operation.[57]
Fresh air for both the crew and engine was drawn into the tank via an 18 m long rubber hose to which a float was attached to keep one end above the water's surface. A radio antenna was also attached to the float to provide communication between the tank crew and the transport barge. The tank's engine was converted to be cooled with seawater, and the exhaust pipes were fitted with overpressure valves. Any water seeping into the tank's hull could be expelled by an internal bilge pump. Navigation underwater was accomplished using a directional gyrocompass or by following instructions radioed from the transport barge.[57]
Experiments conducted at the end of June and early July at Schilling, near Wilhelmshaven, showed that the submersible tanks functioned best when they were kept moving along the seabed as, if halted for any reason, they tended to sink into the sand. Obstacles such as underwater trenches or large rocks tended to stop the tanks in their tracks, and it was decided for this reason that they should be landed at high tide so that any mired tanks could be retrieved at low tide. Submersible tanks could operate in water up to a depth of 15 metres (49 ft).[58]
The Kriegsmarine initially expected to use 50 specially-converted motor coasters to transport the submersible tanks, but testing with the coaster Germania showed this to be impractical. This was due to the ballast needed to offset the weight of the tanks, and the requirement that the coasters be grounded to prevent them from capsizing as the tanks were transferred by crane onto the vessel's wooden side ramps. These difficulties led to development of the Type B barge.[58]
By the end of August the Germans had converted 160 Panzer IIIs, 42 Panzer IVs, and 52 Panzer IIs to amphibious use. This gave them a paper strength of 254 machines, about the equivalent of an armoured division. The tanks were divided into four battalions or detachments labeled Panzer-Abteilung A, B, C and D. They were to carry sufficient fuel and ammunition for a combat radius of 200 km.[59]
Specialised landing equipment [ edit ]
As part of a Kriegsmarine competition, prototypes for a prefabricated "heavy landing bridge" or jetty (similar in function to later Allied Mulberry Harbours) were designed and built by Krupp Stahlbau and Dortmunder Union and successfully overwintered in the North Sea in 1941–42.[60] Krupp's design won out, as it only required one day to install, as opposed to twenty-eight days for the Dortmunder Union bridge. The Krupp bridge consisted of a series of 32m-long connecting platforms, each supported on the seabed by four steel columns. The platforms could be raised or lowered by heavy-duty winches in order to accommodate the tide. The German Navy initially ordered eight complete Krupp units composed of six platforms each. This was reduced to six units by the autumn of 1941, and eventually cancelled altogether when it became apparent that Sea Lion would never take place.[61]
In mid-1942, both the Krupp and Dortmunder prototypes were shipped to the Channel Islands and installed together off Alderney, where they were used for unloading materials needed to fortify the island. Referred to as the "German jetty" by local inhabitants, they remained standing for the next thirty-six years until demolition crews finally removed them in 1978–79, a testament to their durability.[61]
The German Army developed a portable landing bridge of its own nicknamed Seeschlange (Sea Snake). This "floating roadway" was formed from a series of joined modules that could be towed into place to act as a temporary jetty. Moored ships could then either unload their cargo directly onto the roadbed or lower it down onto waiting vehicles via their heavy-duty booms. The Seeschlange was successfully tested by the Army Training Unit at Le Havre in France in the autumn of 1941 and later chosen for use in Operation Herkules, the proposed Italo-German invasion of Malta. It was easily transportable by rail.[61]
A specialised vehicle intended for Sea Lion was the Landwasserschlepper (LWS), an amphibious tractor under development since 1935. It was originally intended for use by Army engineers to assist with river crossings. Three of them were assigned to Tank Detachment 100 as part of the invasion; it was intended to use them for pulling ashore unpowered assault barges and towing vehicles across the beaches. They would also have been used to carry supplies directly ashore during the six hours of falling tide when the barges were grounded. This involved towing a Kässbohrer amphibious trailer capable of transporting 10–20 tons of freight behind the LWS.[62] The LWS was demonstrated to General Halder on 2 August 1940 by the Reinhardt Trials Staff on the island of Sylt and, though he was critical of its high silhouette on land, he recognised the overall usefulness of the design. It was proposed to build enough tractors that one or two could be assigned to each invasion barge, but the late date and difficulties in mass-producing the vehicle prevented this.[62]
Other equipment to be used for the first time [ edit ]
Operation Sea Lion would have been the first ever amphibious invasion by a mechanized army, and the largest amphibious invasion since Gallipoli. The Germans had to invent and improvise a lot of equipment. They also proposed to use some new weapons and use upgrades of their existing equipment for the first time. These included:
Broad versus narrow front [ edit ]
The German Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres, OKH) originally planned an invasion on a vast scale by landing over forty divisions from Dorset to Kent. This was far in excess of what the Kriegsmarine could supply, and final plans were more modest, calling for nine divisions to make an amphibious assault on Sussex and Kent with around 67,000 men in the first echelon and an airborne division to support them.[73] The chosen invasion sites ran from Rottingdean in the west to Hythe in the east.
The Kriegsmarine wanted a front as short as possible, as it regarded this as more defensible. Admiral Raeder wanted a front stretching from Dover to Eastbourne and stressed that shipping between Cherbourg/Le Havre and Dorset would be exposed to attacks from the Royal Navy based in Portsmouth and Plymouth. General Halder rejected this: "From the army's point of view I regard it as complete suicide, I might just as well put the troops that have landed straight through the sausage machine".[74]
One complication was the tidal flow in the English Channel, where high water moves from west to east, with high water at Lyme Regis occurring around six hours before it reaches Dover. If all the landings were to be made at high water across a broad front, they would have to be made at different times along different parts of the coast, with the landings in Dover being made six hours after any landings in Dorset and thus losing the element of surprise. If the landings were to be made at the same time, methods would have to be devised to disembark men, vehicles and supplies at all states of the tide. That was another reason to favour landing craft.
The battle plan called for German forces to be launched from Cherbourg to Lyme Regis, Le Havre to Ventnor and Brighton, Boulogne to Eastbourne, Calais to Folkestone, and Dunkirk and Ostend to Ramsgate. Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) would land near Brighton and Dover. Once the coast was secured, they would push north and take Gloucester and encircle London.[75] There is reason to believe that the Germans would not attempt to assault the city but besiege and bombard it.[76] German forces would secure England up to the 52nd parallel (approximately as far north as Northampton), anticipating that the rest of the United Kingdom would then surrender.[77]
German coastal guns [ edit ]
With Germany's occupation of the Pas-de-Calais region in Northern France, the possibility of closing the Strait of Dover to Royal Navy warships and merchant convoys by the use of land-based heavy artillery became readily apparent, both to the German High Command and to Hitler. Even the Kriegsmarine's Naval Operations Office deemed this a plausible and desirable goal, especially given the relatively short distance, 34 km (21 mi), between the French and English coasts. Orders were therefore issued to assemble and begin emplacing every Army and Navy heavy artillery piece available along the French coast, primarily at Pas-de-Calais. This work was assigned to the Organisation Todt and commenced on 22 July 1940.[78]
By early August, four 28 cm (11 in) traversing turrets were fully operational as were all of the Army's railway guns. Seven of these weapons, six 28 cm K5 pieces and a single 21 cm (8.3 in) K12 gun with a range of 115 km (71 mi), could only be used against land targets. The remainder, thirteen 28 cm and five 24 cm (9.4 in) pieces, plus additional motorised batteries comprising twelve 24 cm guns and ten 21 cm weapons, could be fired at shipping but were of limited effectiveness due to their slow traverse speed, long loading time and ammunition types.[79]
Better suited for use against naval targets were the four heavy naval batteries installed by mid-September: Friedrich August with three 30.5 cm (12.0 in) barrels; Prinz Heinrich with two 28 cm guns; Oldenburg with two 24 cm weapons and, largest of all, Siegfried (later renamed Batterie Todt) with a pair of 38 cm (15 in) guns. Fire control for these weapons was provided by both spotter aircraft and by DeTeGerät radar sets installed at Blanc Nez and Cap d’Alprech. These units were capable of detecting targets out to a range of 40 km (25 mi), including small British patrol craft inshore of the English coast. Two additional radar sites were added by mid-September: a DeTeGerät at Cap de la Hague and a FernDeTeGerät long-range radar at Cap d’Antifer near Le Havre.[80]
To strengthen German control of the Channel narrows, the Army planned to quickly establish mobile artillery batteries along the English shoreline once a beachhead had been firmly established. Towards that end, 16th Army's Artillerie Kommand 106 was slated to land with the second wave to provide fire protection for the transport fleet as early as possible. This unit consisted of twenty-four 15 cm (5.9 in) and seventy-two 10 cm (3.9 in) guns. About one third of them were to be deployed on English soil by the end of Sea Lion's first week.[81]
The presence of these batteries was expected to greatly reduce the threat posed by British destroyers and smaller craft along the eastern approaches as the guns would be sited to cover the main transport routes from Dover to Calais and Hastings to Boulogne. They could not entirely protect the western approaches, but a large area of those invasion zones would still be within effective range.[81]
The British military was well aware of the dangers posed by German artillery dominating the Dover Strait and on 4 September 1940 the Chief of Naval Staff issued a memo stating that if the Germans "…could get possession of the Dover defile and capture its gun defences from us, then, holding these points on both sides of the Straits, they would be in a position largely to deny those waters to our naval forces". Should the Dover defile be lost, he concluded, the Royal Navy could do little to interrupt the flow of German supplies and reinforcements across the Channel, at least by day, and he further warned that "…there might really be a chance that they (the Germans) might be able to bring a serious weight of attack to bear on this country". The very next day the Chiefs of Staff, after discussing the importance of the defile, decided to reinforce the Dover coast with more ground troops.[82]
The guns started to fire in the second week of August 1940 and were not silenced until 1944, when the batteries were overrun by Allied ground forces. They caused 3,059 alerts, 216 civilian deaths, and damage to 10,056 premises in the Dover area. However, despite firing on frequent slow moving coastal convoys, often in broad daylight, for almost the whole of that period (there was an interlude in 1943), there is no record of any vessel being hit by them, although one seaman was killed and others were injured by shell splinters from near misses.[83] Whatever the perceived risk, this lack of ability to hit any moving ship does not support the contention that the German coastal batteries would have been a serious threat to fast destroyers or smaller warships.[84]
Indefinite postponement [ edit ]
During the summer of 1940, both the British public and the Americans believed that a German invasion was imminent, and they studied the forthcoming high tides of 5–9 August, 2–7 September, 1–6 October, and 30 October – 4 November as likely dates.[85] The British prepared extensive defences, and, in Churchill's view, "the great invasion scare" was "serving a most useful purpose" by "keeping every man and woman tuned to a high pitch of readiness".[87] He did not think the threat credible. On 10 July, he advised the War Cabinet that the possibility of invasion could be ignored, as it "would be a most hazardous and suicidal operation". That summer, Britain exported tanks to the campaign in Egypt.
The Germans were confident enough to film a simulation of the intended invasion in advance. A crew turned up at the Belgian port of Antwerp in early September 1940 and, for two days, they filmed tanks and troops landing from barges on a nearby beach under simulated fire. It was explained that, as the invasion would happen at night, Hitler wanted the German people to see all the details.[89]
In early August, the German command had agreed that the invasion should begin on 15 September, but the Navy's revisions to its schedule set the date back to 20 September. At a conference on 14 September, Hitler praised the various preparations, but told his service chiefs that, as air superiority had still not been achieved, he would review whether to proceed with the invasion. At this conference, he gave the Luftwaffe the opportunity to act independently of the other services, with intensified continuous air attacks to overcome British resistance; on 16 September, Göring issued orders for this new phase of the air attack. On 17 September 1940, Hitler held a meeting with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt during which he became convinced the operation was not viable. Control of the skies was still lacking, and coordination among three branches of the armed forces was out of the question. Later that day, Hitler ordered the postponement of the operation. He ordered the dispersal of the invasion fleet in order to avert further damage by British air and naval attacks.[91]
The postponement coincided with rumours that there had been an attempt to land on British shores on or about 7 September, which had been repulsed with large German casualties. The story was later expanded to include false reports that the British had set the sea on fire using flaming oil. Both versions were widely reported in the American press and in William L. Shirer's Berlin Diary, but both were officially denied by Britain and Germany. Author James Hayward has suggested that the whispering campaign around the "failed invasion" was a successful example of British black propaganda to bolster morale at home and in occupied Europe, and convince America that Britain was not a lost cause.[92]
On 12 October 1940, Hitler issued a directive releasing forces for other fronts. The appearance of preparations for Sea Lion was to be continued to keep political pressure on Britain, and a fresh directive would be issued if it was decided that invasion was to be reconsidered in the spring of 1941.
While the bombing of Britain intensified during the Blitz, Hitler issued his Directive No. 21 on 18 December 1940 instructing the Wehrmacht to be ready for a quick attack to commence his long planned invasion of the Soviet Union. Seelöwe lapsed, never to be resumed.[96]
Chances of success [ edit ]
Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, believed the invasion could not succeed and doubted whether the German air force would be able to win control of the skies; nevertheless he hoped that an early victory in the Battle of Britain would force the UK government to negotiate, without any need for an invasion.[97] Adolf Galland, commander of Luftwaffe fighters at the time, claimed invasion plans were not serious and that there was a palpable sense of relief in the Wehrmacht when it was finally called off.[98] Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt also took this view and thought that Hitler never seriously intended to invade Britain; he was convinced that the whole thing was a bluff to put pressure on the British government to come to terms following the Fall of France.[99] He observed that Napoleon had failed to invade and the difficulties that confounded him did not appear to have been solved by the Sea Lion planners. In fact, in November 1939, the German naval staff produced a study on the possibility of an invasion of Britain and concluded that it required two preconditions, air and naval superiority, neither of which Germany ever had.[100] Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz believed air superiority was not enough and admitted, "We possessed neither control of the air or the sea; nor were we in any position to gain it."[101] Grand Admiral Erich Raeder thought it would be impossible for Germany to attempt an invasion until the spring of 1941;[102] he instead called for Malta and the Suez Canal to be overrun so German forces could link up with Japanese forces in the Indian Ocean to bring about the collapse of the British Empire in the Far East, and prevent the Americans from being able to use British bases if the United States entered the war.[103]
As early as 14 August 1940, Hitler had told his generals that he would not attempt to invade Britain if the task seemed too dangerous, before adding that there were other ways of defeating the UK than invading.[104]
In Memoirs of WWII, Churchill stated, "Had the Germans possessed in 1940 well trained [and equipped] amphibious forces their task would still have been a forlorn hope in the face of our sea and air power. In fact they had neither the tools or the training".[105] He added, "There were indeed some who on purely technical grounds, and for the sake of the effect the total defeat of his expedition would have on the general war, were quite content to see him try."[106]
Although Operation Sea Lion was never attempted, there has been much speculation about its hypothetical outcome. The great majority of military historians, including Peter Fleming, Derek Robinson and Stephen Bungay, have expressed the opinion that it had little chance of success and would have most likely resulted in a disaster for the Germans. Len Deighton and some other writers have called the German amphibious plans a "Dunkirk in reverse".[107] Robinson argues the massive superiority of the Royal Navy over the Kriegsmarine would have made Sea Lion a disaster. Dr Andrew Gordon, in an article for the Royal United Services Institute Journal[108] agrees with this and is clear in his conclusion the German Navy was never in a position to mount Sealion, regardless of any realistic outcome of the Battle of Britain. In his fictional alternate history Invasion: the German invasion of England, July 1940, Kenneth Macksey proposes that the Germans might have succeeded if they had swiftly and decisively begun preparations even before the Dunkirk evacuations, and the Royal Navy for some reason had held back from large-scale intervention,[109] though in practice the Germans were unprepared for such a speedy commencement of their assault.[110]
Logistics [ edit ]
Four years later, the Allied D-Day landings showed just how much materiel had to be landed continuously to maintain an amphibious invasion. The problem for the Germans was worse, as the German Army was mostly horse-drawn. One of its prime headaches would have been transporting thousands of horses across the Channel.[111] British intelligence calculated that the first wave of 11 divisions (including the airborne divisions) would require a daily average of 3,300 tons of supplies.[112] In fact, in Russia in 1941, when engaged in heavy fighting (at the end of a very long supply line), a single German infantry division required up to 1,100 tons of supplies a day,[113] though a more usual figure would be 212-425 tons per day.[114] The smaller figure is more likely due to the very short distances the supplies would have to travel. Rations for two weeks were to be provided to the German troops of the first wave because the armies had been instructed to live off the land as far as possible in order to minimise supply across the Channel during the initial phase of the battle.[115] British intelligence further calculated that Folkestone, the largest harbour falling within the planned German landing zones, could handle 150 tons per day in the first week of the invasion (assuming all dockside equipment was successfully demolished and regular RAF bombing raids reduced capacity by 50%). Within seven days, maximum capacity was expected to rise to 600 tons per day, once German shore parties had made repairs to the quays and cleared the harbour of any blockships and other obstacles. This meant that, at best, the nine German infantry and two airborne divisions landed initially would receive less than 20% of the 3,300 tons of supplies they required each day through a port, and would have to rely heavily on whatever could be brought in directly over the beaches or air-dropped.[116]
The capture of Dover and its harbour facilities was expected to add another 800 tons per day, raising to 40% the amount of supplies brought in through ports. However, this rested on the rather unrealistic assumption of little or no interference from the Royal Navy and RAF with the German supply convoys which would have been made up of underpowered (or unpowered, i.e. towed) inland waterways vessels as they shuttled slowly between the Continent to the invasion beaches and any captured harbours.[116]
Weather [ edit ]
From 19 to 26 September 1940, sea and wind conditions on and over the Channel where the invasion was to take place were good overall, and a crossing, even using converted river barges, was feasible provided the sea state remained at less than 4, which for the most part it did. Winds for the remainder of the month were rated as "moderate" and would not have prevented the German invasion fleet from successfully depositing the first wave troops ashore during the ten days needed to accomplish this.[117] From the night of 27 September, strong northerly winds prevailed, making passage more hazardous, but calm conditions returned on 11–12 October and again on 16–20 October. After that, light easterly winds prevailed which would have assisted any invasion craft travelling from the Continent towards the invasion beaches. But by the end of October, according to British Air Ministry records, very strong south-west winds (force 8) would have prohibited any non-seagoing craft from risking a Channel crossing.[118]
German intelligence [ edit ]
At least 20 spies were sent to England by boat or parachute to gather information on the British coastal defences under the codename "Operation Lena"; many of the agents spoke limited English. All agents were quickly captured and many were convinced to defect by MI5's Double-Cross System, providing disinformation to their German superiors. It has been suggested that the "amateurish" espionage efforts were a result of deliberate sabotage by the head of the army intelligence bureau in Hamburg, Herbert Wichmann, in an effort to prevent a disastrous and costly amphibious invasion; Wichmann was critical of the Nazi regime and had close ties to Wilhelm Canaris, the former head of the Abwehr who was later executed by the Nazis for treason.[119]
While some errors might not have caused problems, others, such as the inclusion of bridges that no longer existed[120] and misunderstanding the usefulness of minor British roads,[120] would have been detrimental to German operations, and would have added to the confusion caused by the layout of Britain's cities (with their maze of narrow roads and alleys)[clarification needed] and the removal of road signs.[121]
Post-war wargaming of the plan [ edit ]
In the 1974 wargame conducted at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst,[122] which assumed the Luftwaffe had not yet won air supremacy and continued to divert much of their efforts into bombing London,[citation needed] the Germans were able to establish a beachhead in south-east England. However, the German ground forces were delayed at the "Stop Lines" (such as the GHQ Line), a layered series of defensive positions that had been built, each a combination of Home Guard troops and physical barriers. At the same time, the regular troops of the British Army were forming up. After only a few days, the Royal Navy was able to reach the Channel from Scapa Flow, cutting off supplies and blocking further reinforcement. Isolated and facing regular troops with armour and artillery, the invasion force was forced to surrender.[123]
Planned occupation of Britain [ edit ]
Administration [ edit ]
According to the most detailed plans created for the planned post-invasion administration, Great Britain and Ireland were to be divided into six military-economic commands, with headquarters in London, Birmingham, Newcastle, Liverpool, Glasgow and Dublin.[124] Hitler decreed that Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home of Winston Churchill, was to serve as the overall headquarters of the German occupation military government.[125] A certain source[who?] indicated that the Germans only intended to occupy Southern England, and that draft documents existed on the regulation of the passage of British civilians back and forth between the occupied and unoccupied territories.[126] Some Nazi planners envisaged the institution of a nationalities policy in Western Europe to secure German hegemony there, which entailed the granting of independence to various regions. This involved detaching Scotland from the United Kingdom, the creation of a United Ireland, and an autonomous status for Western England.[127]
The OKW, RSHA, (the Reichssicherheitshauptamt) and Foreign Ministry compiled lists of those they thought could be trusted to form a new government along the lines of that in occupied Norway. The list was headed by Oswald Mosley. The RSHA also felt that Harold Nicolson might prove useful in this role.[128] OKW also expected to face armed civilian resistance.
After the war rumours also emerged about the selection of two candidates for the "viceregal" office of Reichskommissar für Großbritannien ("Imperial Commissioner for Great Britain"), which in other occupied territories (such as Norway and the Netherlands) actually entailed the granting of near-dictatorial powers to its officeholders (Josef Terboven and Arthur Seyss-Inquart, respectively).[129] The first of these was Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister and previously an ambassador to Great Britain, the second was Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, an undersecretary in the Foreign Office and the Gauleiter of the NSDAP/AO.[129] However, no establishment by this name was ever approved by either Hitler or the Reich government during the Second World War, and was also denied by Bohle when he was interrogated by the victorious Allies (von Ribbentrop not having been questioned on the matter). After the Second Armistice at Compiègne with France, when he expected an imminent British capitulation, Hitler did however assure Bohle that he would be the next German ambassador to the Court of St. James's "if the British behave[d] sensibly".[129]
British monarchy [ edit ]
A Channel 5 documentary broadcast on 16 July 2009 repeated the claim that the Germans intended to restore Edward VIII to the throne in the event of a German occupation.[130][131] Many senior German officials believed the Duke of Windsor to be highly sympathetic to the Nazi government, a feeling that was reinforced by his and Wallis Simpson's 1937 visit |
husband does know for sure: “She was absolutely not frightened. Not even slightly. She was as calm and peaceful as you could imagine.”
After she passed away, Jonathan let go of her hand and called his wife’s doctor, who came and confirmed death and notified the RCMP.
An RCMP officer interviewed Jonathan and together they waited for the coroner.
“The policeman asked me what happened and I told him. He was very good. Efficient and civilized and good,” said Jonathan.
The officer’s respectful treatment was a small comfort. He and his wife knew that if anyone assisted her, they would be breaking the law.
“Gillian and I both disliked and disapproved of the laws making it impossible to help a loved one with something as important as death.”
His brilliant, beautiful wife — who once had a thriving clinical psychotherapy practice — had made the choice she felt was morally and ethically correct.
Dementia had crept in bit by bit.
Lately, Bennett became increasingly forgetful, hyperfocused on certain things, obsessing non-stop about others.
“She was failing more quickly in the last six months,” said her daughter Sara, “and she knew it.”
During lucid moments in the last two years, Bennett wrote about her decision. Vegetating for years in a hospital — in diapers, incompetent, a financial and physical burden — was a prospect she perceived as “ludicrous and wasteful.”
“Her position wasn’t just that she didn’t want to be a burden to others,” said Jonathan. “She was also considering the kind of life she would have. It would have been hard on the rest of us and not good enough for her.”
Her final gift to her children Sara, 56, and Guy, 55, was to call them home for a last weekend together on Bowen.
For the last few months, Guy said, his mother’s condition was declining. “She was in and out. She was very aware of the window closing.”
So when she called them to say that Monday would be the last day, the children were shocked but not surprised.
“The last weekend with her was surreal. It was just so painful. Really, really difficult,” said Guy.
But it was also extraordinary. Their mother had caught a “last wind,” Guy said. Her wit and humour were sharper than ever. She was on her game.
During a night in the house that seemed like any other night, Bennett got into a dispute with her husband about the themes of Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale. She argued vehemently that the play had to do with the mixing of blood, inbreeding, genes. Her husband argued that the play was all about class.
Jonathan didn’t hold back, telling his wife she was wrong and pulling examples from the text to support his argument in a last battle of two formidable intellects.
“He was very clearly right,” said Guy, “but my mother came up to me in the kitchen and said, ‘Your father appears to have a point.’” She glanced in her husband’s direction and added in a sly aside, “But we won’t tell him that.”
Bennett had private moments with each of her children, taking Guy on a vigorous hike to the top of a high hill where they could take in the view. The next day she went for a walk alone with his sister.
“The last thing she said to me, I was crying, she held my hand and said, ‘The only thing you need to do is just keep being you.’”
In spite of going public with her choice, Sara describes her mother as very private. Funny. Smart. Irreverent.
For Sara, her mother is gone too soon. She believes that had there been legal, humane medical options, her mother might still be alive.
“If someone could have helped her, she wouldn’t have had to die yesterday. She could have waited. If the law was different so that she could have had help, she would not have had to choose to end her life as soon as she did. That is the hardest thing.”
Sara struggles to hold back her tears. “Even though my mom died painlessly in exactly the way she chose, at the time she chose, knowing that she left the legacy she chose, it’s still unbelievably painful.”
Bennett, a mother of two, grandmother of six and great-grandmother of two, wanted to be remembered for who she was, said Jonathan: “Lively and full of life and ideas and encouragement. An opener of doors.”
The final door she wanted to open for others, as she carefully closed her own, was simply, said Sara, “A conversation. About this.”
dryan@vancouversun.com
READ ORIGINAL STORY: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Dead+noon+woman+ends+life+rather+than+suffer+indignity/10132068/story.html
===
VIEW MORE PHOTOS HERE, or if you're using a mobile device, tap the story image and swipe.
===
Click here to report a typo or visit vancouversun.com/typo.
Is there more to this story? We'd like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. CLICK HERE or go to vancouversun.com/moretothestoryThis year's 25th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine announced on Monday that OLDCODEX will perform a theme song for the first Kuroko's Basketball compilation film. The film, titled Winter Cup Sōshū-hen ~Kage to Hikari~ (Winter Cup Compilation ~Shadow and Light~), will open in Japan on September 3.
The second compilation film is titled Winter Cup Sōshū-hen ~Namida no Saki e~ (Winter Cup Compilation ~Beyond the Tears~), and it will open in Japan on October 8. The third film is titled Winter Cup Sōshū-hen ~Tobira no Mukō~ (Winter Cup Compilation ~Crossing the Door~), and it will open in Japan on December 3.
Aside from the compilation films, an anime film adaptation of the Kuroko no Basuke Extra Game manga is also scheduled for 2017.
Tadatoshi Fujimaki launched the original Kuroko no Basuke manga series in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2008, and he ended the series in September 2014. Shueisha published the 30th and final compiled volume of the manga in Japan in December 2014.
In the beginning of the original series, Taiga Kagami has just enrolled at Seirin High School when he meets Tetsuya Kuroko of the school's basketball team. Kuroko happens to be the shadowy sixth member of the legendary "Generation of Miracles" basketball team. Together, Kagami and Kuroko aim to take their team to the inter-high school championship — against Kuroko's former teammates.
The original manga inspired three television anime series, in addition to the upcoming anime films. Viz Media announced last October that it will release the original manga in 2-in-1 omnibus editions in North America starting this summer.December 30, 2017
The paper blasted off, losing touch with reality, a long time ago. When ten million Ukrainians were killed under the communist boot, they published Walter Duranty's piece, "Russians Hungry, but Not Starving." Such terrible reporting was a good opportunity to learn and correct the Times' distorting leftist ideology. Unfortunately, the paper is content to remain in orbit.
Mark Landler's recent front-page story on the NYT could be written only by someone who doesn't live here on Planet Earth among us humans. He claimed that President Trump, "breaks with 70 years of American foreign policy." Now, there are plenty of legitimate ways to critique Trump's foreign policy, but claiming Trump is a radical "insurgent" is not one of them.
Almost every move Trump has taken has been to moderate Obama's actions. Obama was a dilettante who took America far off course. Trump is a return to center.
One of Landler's first pieces of evidence is Trump's removal of America from the Paris Accords. Really? When did Eisenhower say America should submit to a supranational organization to control the world's climate? If the NYT wants to argue that Americans must subordinate domestic policy to communists in Beijing, please do so, but it is illogical to claim that Trump is an "insurgent" because he ended Obama's singular policy of linking global warming to national security.
Landler brings up Trump's role in denouncing the Iran deal as further evidence that Trump is out of line. In fact, Trump hasn't even ended the deal yet.
But okay, let's assume Trump does end the Iran deal at some point in the future. By ending a deal that " paves Iran's path to the bomb," Trump would be reaffirming long-term American policy of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
No leftist NYT hit piece on Trump would be complete without a mention of his tweeting habits, which Landler feels are "fanning fears of war" with North Korea. If Kim Jong-un is so volatile that a tweet could cause Kim to start a war, then Obama made an unforgivable mistake by standing around with his hands in his pocket while North Korea obtained nukes and ICBMs.
It was American policy, dating all the way back to Truman, to contain China and North Korea. Trump is doing nothing more than stating the truth, recognizing adversarial powers, and taking steps to stop their expansion when he tweets that China was caught "RED HANDED" letting oil through to North Korea.
Incidentally, Trump called out China and North Korea the morning Landler released his article, where he quoted a NeverTrump saying "[t]he Chinese are playing" Trump. When one's framework of understanding is contradicted the exact same day it's spammed to the entire world, perhaps it's a good time to re-evaluate.
Perhaps most telling of all is Landler's complaints about Trump's "strange" relationship with Vladimir Putin.
Left unstated is that if Russia is such a problem, why did Obama change century-old American policy and grant the Russians permanent normal trade relations? Obama's move is reminiscent of fellow leftist Franklin Roosevelt's decision to recognize the USSR in 1933 (that worked out well, didn't it?), the same year the NYT published Duranty's piece.
Now, once again, the NYT wants to lecture people about Ukraine, stating that Trump has "little idea of Ukraine's importance." However, Trump recently approved the sale of sniper rifles and anti-tank Javelins to Ukraine. This is a tough decision for Ukrainians: do they prefer leftists who cover up the Holodomor and normalize trade relations with Putin? Or the president who sells them arms to defend their sovereignty?Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A lawyer for Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger said the pair were "shaken"
The CCTV footage seems routine. Four swimmers, fresh from celebrating their final competitions, return to the Olympic village in the early hours of the morning. They pass through the metal detector, taking items from their pockets - possibly wallets and phones - as they go. They appear relaxed.
But this short, unremarkable clip is now at the centre of an Olympic mystery and a police investigation because, according to the four US Olympic gold medal winners - Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Jack Conger, and Gunnar Bentz - they had just been robbed at gunpoint at a petrol station.
It seemed like a simple story at first, but the athletes' account has now been contradicted by Rio police who say they have evidence that the men were involved in a fight at the petrol station after one of them vandalised a toilet door, and that they invented the robbery to cover it up.
Mr Lochte has been back in the US since Tuesday. Mr Conger and Mr Bentz were allowed to fly home on Thursday - a day after they were pulled off a plane to be questioned. Mr Feigen is now also returning home after agreeing to donate nearly $11,000 (£8,300) to a Brazilian charity.
And on Friday Mr Lochte apologised for his actions, and "for not being more careful and candid".
Since the story began on Sunday morning, 14 August, it has taken more than a few twists and turns.
The story emerges
On Sunday afternoon, six or so hours after the swimmers returned to the village, USA Today and Fox Sports Australia, citing Mr Lochte's mother, reported that four US athletes had been robbed on their way back from partying at Club France, part of the French hospitality area.
According to the reports, the swimmers got in a taxi for the Olympic village at about 04:00. Speaking to NBC News hours after the story hit the headlines, Mr Lochte gave a vivid account of what happened next:
"We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge, no lights, no nothing, just a police badge and they pulled us over. They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground. They got down on the ground. I refused, I was like, 'We didn't do anything wrong, so I'm not getting down on the ground.'
"And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said: 'Get down,' and I put my hands up, I was like 'Whatever.' He took our money, he took my wallet. He left my cell phone, he left my credentials."
Image copyright Other Image caption Ryan Lochte posted Snapchat videos during the night showing the group partying
Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, told the press that the swimmers' account was "absolutely not true".
Then Mr Adams retracted his statement, saying he received incorrect information from the US Olympic Committee (USOC). The USOC put out a statement confirming that the swimmers were robbed.
The swimmers did not report the incident to police or to the USOC, and officers in Rio only got involved after seeing it reported on TV.
Police struggle to find evidence
By this point, two of the four had made public statements about the robbery.
Posting on Instagram, Mr Lochte wrote: "While it is true that my teammates and I were the victims of a robbery early Sunday morning, what is most important is that we are safe and unharmed."
Mr Bentz tweeted: "We are all safe. Thank you for your love and support. P.S. the gold medal is safe."
At this point, a police official told the Associated Press that Mr Lochte and Mr Feigen were unable to give basic details and are contradicting each other's stories.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jack Conger (L) and Gunnar Bentz were pulled off their flight and interviewed at Rio airport
Mr Lochte and Mr Feigen had told police they left Club France at about 04:00 and took a taxi from a nearby petrol station. According to their account, they went straight from the club to the village - a journey of 30 to 40 minutes - with the robbery happening along the way.
But the CCTV footage clocked the swimmers returning to the village at 06:56, nearly three hours after they left the club.
Mr Lochte then slightly altered his account, telling NBC on Wednesday that the taxi was not pulled over but they were robbed while making a stop at a petrol station. And he said the gun was not pointed directly at his forehead.
Police tried and failed to find the taxi driver, or any other witnesses.
A Brazilian judge was sufficiently concerned that she ordered Mr Lochte and Mr Feigen to surrender their passports. But when police turned up at the Olympic village on Wednesday the four men had already moved out, and Mr Lochte had already landed in the US.
Mr Conger and Mr Bentz were then tracked down to a flight about to leave Rio. They were pulled off the plane for questioning. It later emerged that Mr Feigen was still in Brazil.
Robbery claim denied
On Thursday, police sources in Rio told the BBC that the swimmers invented the story about the robbery. They said that the four athletes arrived by taxi at a petrol station in Barra da Tijuca, 16km from the Olympic Park, where one of the athletes broke down a toilet door.
The petrol station attendants asked the Americans to pay for the damage, according to the police, and a verbal dispute ensued.
The athletes then reportedly paid the staff and left before police arrived. Police said they have identified the recording of the phone call from the gas station and the security guard at the station had given a statement to police.
Rio's civil police head Fernando Veloso later on Thursday emphatically denied a robbery took place. "They were not victims of the crimes they claimed," he said. He did concede that one of the security guards pointed his gun at the swimmers.
The people of Rio were unhappy to see the reputation of their city damaged, Mr Veloso said, adding that the city was owed an apology.
The USOC has apologised for what it called the unacceptable behaviour of the swimmers.
Story inconsistenciesThe views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily those of the Brennan Center for Justice.
America is a nation that follows politics with the passion of Romans flocking to the Colosseum to watch gladiators in combat. But there are peculiar gaps in this collective political obsession -- even when it comes to factors that could heavily influence the 2020 presidential race.
At a time when the Democrats are refighting the 2016 nomination battle with the publication of Hillary Clinton's latest memoir, the California legislature voted in the wee hours Saturday morning to upend the 2020 political calendar. The legislature's handiwork would move the California primary from June to early March. Gov. Jerry Brown is widely predicted to sign the measure. As a result of this shift, which has gotten little attention outside the state, Californians would vote for president directly after the four small states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada) that traditionally kick off the primary season.
At this point, many readers are probably stifling yawns and murmuring to themselves, "So what?" It is a common -- if wrong-headed -- response since the only time that the order of the primaries arouses much public attention is during a presidential year when it is far too late to change the schedule. (I wrote a paper on the presidential selection system for the Brennan Center in April warning of precisely this problem).
Alex Padilla, California's secretary of state, summarized the rationale for the scheduling change in a recent op-ed for the The Sacramento Bee. "By moving the primary to March," Padilla wrote, "California would become more than an ATM for politicians who fly in to raise money and leave without hearing from voters. Future presidential candidates would need to make California a priority by visiting our state early and often."
Yes, they would -- and that is precisely the problem.
The issue is not the admirable diversity of California's voters or the injustice of the state usually voting after the presidential nominees have been determined by other states. Rather, by jumping near the front of the queue, California will make it likely big money will determine the 2020 Democratic and Republican nominees, if there is a GOP contest.
It is quite possible that serious Democratic candidates will need to spend upwards of $25 million each to compete in this single primary. Frugality is for losers since Democratic Party rules require candidates to get at least 15 percent of the vote in individual congressional districts or statewide to win any delegates.
This week Newsweek, in a comically premature rush to judgment, used the projected new California primary date to ask in a headline: IS KAMALA HARRIS NOW THE 2020 ELECTION FAVORITE TO TAKE ON TRUMP?" Harris, who has been in the Senate for less than eight months, of course, represents California. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is also viewed as a would-be candidate who might benefit from a fast-forward California primary. An early March California primary would also be made to order for a self-funding billionaire candidate like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg or environmental crusader Tom Steyer.
It would be ironic if the Democratic Party -- which is militant on the topic of overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision -- unthinkingly opened the flood gates for a presidential nomination fight by and for billionaires.
California has experimented with an early presidential primary before, most recently in February 2008. But the state proved too vast for a decidedly California imprint on the races in either party. As the San Jose Mercury News editorialized two weeks after the 2008 experience, "California’s vote may have ‘mattered’ more than it did in previous years, but voters didn’t see any more of the candidates than in previous years. Nor did the candidates focus on issues of special significance to the state or the region."
It is worth noting that 2008 was the last presidential race before the dawn of the Super PAC era. While there was no Democratic contest in 2012 and Hillary Clinton never deployed her Super PAC resources against Bernie Sanders in 2016, it is unlikely that this self-restraint will carry over 2020. Especially if the Democratic candidates early in the nomination contest have to contend with the prodigious costs of campaigning in California.
But it won't be just California. In all likelihood, California's primary legislation will trigger a land rush of other states trying to get in on the action. On the first Tuesday in March in 2016, nine states (including Texas) held primaries. Add in California and other states that will be screaming for attention -- and it is easy to envision that nearly half the convention delegates could be selected in primaries on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
Such front-loading of the primaries would be a disaster for democracy. Candidates will need to have tens of millions in hand before the Iowa caucuses (tentatively slated for early February) in order to reserve ad time in key March 3 states.
Moreover, what essentially would be a warp-speed four-week primary race would destroy any sense of deliberation in the selection of a nominee. It often takes months of investigative reporting and biographical excavations for the media to provide an accurate portrait of a presidential contender.
What is happening in California illustrates the inherent weakness of political parties in 2017. Tom Perez, the new Democratic national chairman, neither has the clout nor the inclination to pressure California Democrats to reconsider their heedless rush to move their primary to March. The sad result may be that candidates without personal fortunes or complaint Super PACs will be effectively barred from running serious campaigns for the White House in 2020.
(Photo: Thinkstock)That Ms. Palmer absorbed the basics in a day — her usual instrument is the piano — indicates one of the ukulele’s great advantages: it’s so easy to learn that it’s said to be almost impossible to play it badly. Even when slightly off key, it serves as a blank canvas that can accent the character of any voice. And in the right hands, it can strip a song to its skeletal core.
“Nobody picks up the ukulele who is later going to go back and Auto-Tune their vocals,” said Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields, whose 1999 triple album, “69 Love Songs,” featured the ukulele extensively and was a landmark in its revival. “It definitely sounds untrained, and therefore goes with untrained vocal styles.”
Mr. Vedder has a tidy summation of its advantages: “Less strings, more melody.”
The ukulele craze of the 2000s is only the latest in its long history. A descendant of a four-stringed instrument called the machête that Portuguese laborers brought to Hawaii in the 19th century, the ukulele first made a mainland splash in 1915, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. It had waves of mass popularity in the 1920s and the ’50s, but by 1968, when Tiny Tim’s “Tip-Toe Thru’ the Tulips With Me” became a novelty hit (No. 17 on the pop charts) — and condemned the instrument to punch line status for years — it was already fading.
Photo
Its journey back from oblivion began in the mid-1990s, led by a revival among musicians in Hawaii, and since then it has followed parallel paths in independent and corporate culture. In 1999 a spare and wistful version of “Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole was used in a commercial for eToys, and sparked a ukulele ad frenzy. The recording has been licensed more than 100 times to sell food, software, paint, bank services, lottery tickets and plenty else, and it shows no sign of slowing down.
It’s not hard to see the attraction. The light, carefree strum that has become the instrument’s sonic stereotype invokes innocence, sincerity and childlike wonder, as well as nostalgia for a pre-rock ’n’ roll era. It doesn’t hurt that the sound also conforms to ingrained notions of Hawaii as a consumer-friendly earthly paradise.
Those connotations can be narrative gold for visual storytellers, and for advertisers they offer instant humanization.
“Everyone is sticking the tinkling sound of ukulele under their commercial,” said Jim Beloff, who wrote “The Ukulele: A Visual History.” “It’s shorthand for lightness of tone. It says, ‘We’re good guys at heart.’ ”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
At the same time that Hollywood and corporate America began turning to the ukulele, a grass-roots uke revival gathered steam. Local strumming societies emerged around the country, aided by the Internet. And, following the Magnetic Fields’ lead, the instrument began popping up throughout the indie-rock world: Mirah, Beirut, Dent May, Noah and the Whale, Buke and Gass, Tune-Yards, even a Neutral Milk Hotel tribute band called Neutral Uke Hotel. From there it spread to the mainstream.
Photo
The ukulele is all over Train’s 2009 song “Hey, Soul Sister,” for example, which reached No. 3, won a Grammy Award and was featured on “Glee.” (And let’s not forget the Beatles factor: Paul McCartney paid tribute to the ukulele-loving George Harrison at the 2002 “Concert for George”; four years later Jake Shimabukuro’s virtuoso “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” became a YouTube hit.)
As Ms. Palmer sees it, the ukulele is the zeitgeist instrument for the D.I.Y. age. “This is the age of the democratization of music,” she says. “Anyone can be a musician. And in a recession, when you have a $20 instrument and there’s a big musical renaissance, anyone will want to join in.”
Sales of the instrument, meanwhile, have surged. Sammy Ash, chief operating officer of the Sam Ash music stores, said he sold more ukuleles last December than in the entire previous decade, along with lots of accessories. “We sell a Metallica ukulele book,” Mr. Ash said, “and we sell a lot of them.”
Perhaps some of those Metallica uke skills will be on display at the New York Uke Fest from May 5 to 7, with concerts and workshops including slide guitar technique and lei making (nyukefest.com).
For most of its history the ukulele has tended to be defined by its limitations: it lacks the resonance of the guitar, the bark and twang of the banjo, and one result is a narrow range of performance styles. In some ways that’s the ukulele’s strength, a simple, effective strum that anyone can learn. But — aside from the dazzling performances of masters like Mr. Shimabukuro — is that all there is?
Photo
Mr. Vedder’s album is halfway between the standard uke style and something more idiosyncratic. Respecting one of the instrument’s unwritten rules, he plays antique songs like “Dream a Little Dream of Me” and “Tonight You Belong to Me” (you may remember Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters singing that one in “The Jerk”). And he exploits the sentimentality of the instrument for all it’s worth, singing lines like “For every wish upon a star that goes unanswered in the dark/There is a dream I’ve dreamt about you.” But on songs like “Can’t Keep,” he seems to be trying to cram an angst-y Pearl Jam song through the tiny instrument, attacking the strings.
Merrill Garbus of the band Tune-Yards, whose second album, “Whokill” (4AD), is scheduled to be released Tuesday, is more experimental. Ms. Garbus creates loops of sound using drums, ukulele and her own voice, weaving the elements together over reggae beats and African-influenced vocal melodies.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
You’d be forgiven if you didn’t hear the ukulele on a first listen. Through various electronic manipulations she has made it sound like a synthesizer, or a distorted electric guitar, or simply short blasts of noise. But listen carefully and you’ll hear the tell-tale plink-plink of a ukulele.
“I definitely made it my goal to make the ukulele sound not like the ukulele,” Ms. Garbus said. “I’ve been amplifying the ukulele through a pick-up and then overdriving it in a really great tube amp, so the texture became not the stereotypical strum of the ukulele. It has these gnarly edges to it.”
Or, as Mr. Vedder explained: “My inspiration was to wrestle with the thing, to give it something different from the way it’s been played before. Can I make this happy little instrument as depressed as I am?”A ninja, a pirate, a robot, and an extraterrestrial super-warrior lead the star-studded team of brand ambassadors for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The games may be three years away but it has already drummed up immense anticipation following the announcement of the Tokyo Olympics Committee that Son Goku of the Dragonball Z fame will be among the chosen ambassadors, Konbini reported.
Other anime favorites Naruto, One Piece’ Luffy, Shin Chan, Pretty Cure, Sailor Moon, and Astroboy will be the Saiyan’s co-ambassadors. Noticeably missing from the bunch are Pikachu and his gang of pocket monsters.
This means the official merchandises for the event are already destined for awesomeness.
According to the organizers, the use of the “popular animated celebrities” is, in part, an effort to draw the attention of younger fans. It is also a perfect way for Japan to promote and celebrate its rich influence on modern culture.
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has earlier highlighted the importance of Japanese culture for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics during the closing ceremony of the Rio Games on August 21, 2016. Japan’s head of state even came out of a green tube dressed as Super Mario.
The Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to kick off on July 24 and will run until August 9, 2020.Roman Reigns spoke to IGN.com this week to hype Sunday’s Royal Rumble match.
After a breakout performance at last year that saw Reigns eliminate a record 12 competitors, the former Shield member looks to make history once again and earn his first WrestleMania main event. He said:
“I don’t think anyone thought I was going to do what I did last year when I had 12 eliminations and took the record off of Kane, and then be among the final two guys in the ring. Everybody was thinking about Bryan last year because he never came out, and they were thinking about Batista too, and not really thinking about me.”
With Reigns and Daniel Bryan the two odds-on favorites to be the last man standing, IGN asked reigns what he thinks about Bryan’s involvement. Based on his comments, it doesn’t appear that Reigns views Bryan as much of a threat.
“It doesn’t change anything for me. He’s considerably smaller than I am and this match isn’t about submissions or pinfalls, it’s about throwing a guy over the top rope. So I clearly have a weight advantage. I’m far more explosive. I think, if anything, I have the upper hand in a Royal Rumble match.”
Head on over to IGN.com to read the full interview.Well Redskins fans, it's that time of the year again. The Redskins have been out of the playoff race since about October and Redskins nation has been thinking about the 2015-2016 season since about mid‑November.
With the combine underway in Indianapolis there's no better time for a mock off-season post! Using Fanspeak's manage the cap and on the clock tools, I have made my predictions for how McCloughan will handle his first season at the helm.
First things first, gutting the current Redskins roster. A roster that is filled with a lot of players over 30 and not a lot of depth. As a result I relieved the following players of their duties:
Cuts:
Kedric Golston
Barry Cofield
Stephen Bowen
Chris Chester
Logan Paulson
Tracy Porter
The common theme among these players is that they are either too old, ineffective, or a combination of both. In addition to these cuts, I also restructured Pierre Garcon's contract. After these moves I had roughly 33.5 million dollars to play around with. I made the following moves via free agency:
Free Agency:
Re-signed Colt McCoy and Niles Paul: McCoy grasped Gruden's offense well, and wasn't expensive to retain. Paul is underrated in my opinion and also wasn't expensive to keep around, with Jordan Reed's inability to stay healthy and Logan Paulson's cut I felt the Redskins needed to keep Paul around for depth reasons.
Signed:
Rob Housler TE:
At just 26 years old, 6'5", and 250 pounds Housler can help the Redskins in a variety of ways. Housler is big enough to be an in line blocker, and is a pretty good receiver as well. He isn't a Pro Bowl type player but he is consistent and does just about everything well.
Byron Bell T:
Bell is McCloughan's type of lineman, 6'5 and 340 pounds. Bell is the perfect fit for new offensive line coach Bill Callahan's power schemes, and can come in and start right away so that Morgan Moses doesn't have to rush back from injury and the Redskins don't feel the need to reach for a starting right tackle in the draft.
George Selvie DE:
While the Cowboys are busy trying to figure out how to re-sign Dez Bryant and Demarco Murry, I gladly stole their quietly productive defensive lineman George Selvie. Selvie will help add depth to a defensive line that desperately needs it, and will be a solid rotational player who came pretty cheap.
George Johnson DE:
Similarly, while the Lions try to figure out what to do with Ndamukong Suh, I quickly signed another solid defensive lineman in George Johnson, who enjoyed a bit of a breakout season, registering six sacks. Johnson had a long road to the NFL, and at 27 still has a lot of tread on the tires. Adding Johnson and Selvie adds quality players capable of starting, giving the Redskins a good defensive line rotation, something more and more defenses are using.
Dan Williams NT:
To finish up the defensive line over haul, I brought in Dan Williams, who will be the first legit 3-4 nose tackle to be a part of the Redskins roster since the team made the switch back in 2010. At just 27, Williams can be the anchor of the Redskins defense for at least a few years.
Malcolm Smith LB:
The former Super Bowl MVP comes to Washington to help in many different ways. I think Smith can make the shift inside and start beside Keenan Robinson, and would help by giving the Redskins another athletic linebacker capable of covering backs and tight ends.
Da'Norris Searcy FS:
For far too long, the Redskins have failed to properly fix the safety position. However, instead of bringing in a guy like Devin McCourty or Rahim Moore on some record breaking deal worth way too much money, I opted to sign one of the best up and coming free safeties in the league. While Searcy may not be the player McCourty is, I feel I got the better value, signing the 26 year old to a modest deal which he will likely out play by the time it is all said and done.
Ron Parker SS:
Ron Parker is a versatile player capable of playing either safety position and has some corner experience as well. I brought Parker in relatively inexpensively to likely start beside Searcy. Parker can compete against Phillip Thomas, Akeem Davis, and future draft picks, however, I feel much better going into 2015 with Searcy and Parker patroling the back end than I did entering 2014.
Kyle Arrington CB:
While the Patriots are trying to figure out how to keep Devin McCourty and Darrelle Revis in Foxborough I gladly signed Kyle Arrington away from the defending champs. A solid slot man as well as a very good special teams player, Arrington would be a welcomed addition along with Searcy and Parker to the Redskins secondary.
The theme of free agency? Young, up and coming, and cheap. The oldest player I signed was Arrington at 28. Considering the Redskins have 7 wins in the last two years, I didn't make a ton of signings trying to turn things around, because like McCloughan I believe that has to come through the draft, but I feel good leaving free agency believing that the Redskins are a better football team moving forward.
Draft:
In order to stockpile selections, I made a few trades, including trading back twice in the first round. When it was all said and done, I ended up with a total of eleven selections, and here's how I filled those eleven selections:
Round 1, Pick 19: Brandon Scherff, G, Iowa:
I was surprised to see Scherff still on the board at 19, although I do think with his skill set and the fact that he will likely play guard in the NFL the middle of the first is an appropriate place to select him. So, when he was still available at 19 I did not hesitate to add some beef and toughness to the interior of the Redskins line. Scherff is a mauler who can be a day one starter at guard.
Round 2, Pick 6: Paul Dawson, LB, TCU:
I recently did a draft profile of Paul Dawson, and if you read it you already know that I was thrilled to have Dawson on the board at the top of the second round. With Keenan Robinson, Malcolm Smith, and Dawson now on the roster, the Redskins have some of the most athletic linebackers in the league in DC. New defensive coordinator Joe Barry will have plenty of ways to use the athletic, over achieving linebacker.
Round 2, Pick 19: Cam Erving, C, FSU:
I was surprised to see Erving still on the board at this point, and was happy to select him here. Although Kory Lichtensteiger |
each bar will be one month.
Now we need just one small adjustment to the change list view:
class SalesSummaryAdmin(ModelAdmin):
...
def changelist_view(self, request, extra_context=None):
...
period = get_next_in_date_hierarchy(
request,
self.date_hierarchy,
)
response.context_data[’period’] = period
summary_over_time = qs.annotate(
period=Trunc(
'created',
period,
output_field=DateTimeField(),
),
).values('period')
.annotate(total=Sum('price'))
.order_by('period')
...
The period argument passed to Trunc is now a parameter.
The result:
That’s a beautiful trend…
Where can we take it from here?
Now that you have all this spare time from not rolling your own dashboard you can:Atheist Field Hospital
By Fr. Christopher Roberts - Union City, Indiana, USA - 1 March 2017
It is an exceedingly rare thing for me, a pastor of two parishes, to be present at Sunday worship where I am not presiding. Happily, family business recently took me away from my two parishes in rural Indiana to Oxford University. While there, I had an opportunity to learn from seeing others ply my trade. After celebrating Mass in the convent chapel where I was staying, I sampled Sunday worship in two different churches in Oxford and visited another. What I observed gave me a powerful illustration of two different approaches to proclaiming the Christian message and of which of the two corresponds more closely to effective pastoral practice as I have known it in my own experience.
My first stop was for choral Matins at Christ Church Cathedral, where Blessed John Henry Newman received his Anglican ordination. The choristers sang the appointed psalms, canticles, and hymns beautifully. The sermon was thoughtful and well-crafted. The preacher skillfully weaved in references to Queen (not the Queen, but the music group), Bono, the Syrian Civil War, his personal experience, Hayek’s economic theories, Trump, Brexit and even a few references to the Bible. His words presented a model of erudition and subtlety. For a moment, I felt a tinge of envy. I thought to myself, if only I could preach like that!
Yet, as I walked out of the cathedral to stop at a nearby café, a question lingered, “What did he actually say?” This Anglican clergyman, whom I had learned from his sermon was a Cambridge man, clearly had entered into dialogue with the contemporary world. He knew popular culture, politics, and economics quite well. But as I nursed my cappuccino, I mulled over what his unique contribution to this dialogue was as a believer in Christ. He mentioned the theological meaning of Advent and something about Jesus as an event in God that lies beyond the limits of human language. He referenced a miraculous birth. I got the impression that we who listened to him were somehow to make sense of the cacophony of his contemporary references by contemplating the Christmas mystery -- whatever that is.
Without a doubt, the service spoke to my aesthetic sensibility. The music was flawless, the church edifice hauntingly ancient, and the sermon sonorous. Despite all that, I could not help but walk away with a sense of hollowness. Almost all the sparse crowd of worshippers looked to be of retirement age or older. A searching inventory of those present taken from my seat uncovered only one family with children. For all of the fading beauty of holiness, what I had just seen was the portrait of a dying church.
Having finished my coffee, I decided to walk past the Eagle and Child Pub to Saint Aloysius, the Oxford Oratory Parish. I arrived thirty minutes late, just as the offertory had begun. The Mass was a Sung Mass in Latin, with a priest and two deacons. I thought it was the older rite at first, but in a few minutes it was clear that it was the newer rite in Latin, seasoned heavily with Tridentine affectations. The choir sang well, but not nearly as well as the choristers in Christ Church Cathedral. A decade ago, I had heard the Oratorian priest who was celebrating the Mass preach. My recollection was the he lacked the rhetorical polish that I had heard just an hour earlier.
Despite lasting nearly ninety minutes, the Mass at Saint Aloysius was standing room only. A spirit of worship saturated the church. Billowing clouds of incense filled the sanctuary with aromatic smoke. The priest stood in the breach facing the apse offering the Holy Sacrifice. The faithful knelt in adoration with their faces in their folded hands as the thrice-holy God descended. A wide range of age groups filled the church, from the elderly who needed canes to make it up to kneel at the communion rail to young children, cradled in their mothers’ arms. As I knelt in a cramped corner near a pillar, it dawned on me that those who had come to this church had not come to hear interesting and edifying religious ideas expounded from the pulpit or even beautiful music. They had gathered together to render worship to God because it is fitting so to do.
In the din that followed the dismissal, I heard several people speaking Spanish and Italian. Economic circumstances in southern European nations have brought many economic migrants to fill the service jobs in the Oxford area. Here, I thought to myself, was an inclusive congregation that welcomed across the entire socio-economic spectrum. Neither an appreciation for erudition from the pulpit nor musical taste brought them together. Worship did.
From Saint Aloysius, I walked to Saint Mary the Virgin, the Anglican Church where Newman preached many of his Parochial and Plain Sermons before his conversion. As I prayed in the church, I thought of his epitaph, ex imaginibus et umbris in veritatem (out from appearances and shadows into the truth). As I waited in the gift shop for my turn to go up to the bell tower and take in a panoramic view of Oxford, a book caught my eye, The Christian Atheist: Belonging without Believing. Intrigued by what seemed to me an oxymoron, I paused to thumb through the slender tome as the queue crawled forward. The incumbent vicar at Saint Mary the Virgin had written the book, which urged the church to accompany and integrate into its life those who are unable to believe in God but still desire to belong.
It is fashionable these days in the Catholic Church to talk about accompanying and integrating all different categories of persons whom the Church has allowed to linger on the margins in the past. Those who advocate such approaches do so largely because they see it as pastorally effective. The logic goes something like, “lower the bar far enough, and those who had felt excluded by this or that discipline of the Church will come in.” The doors should be open to all who are seeking God in good conscience. This theory holds an embedded assumption that clearly articulated doctrine and rigorous discipline drive people away from religious belief and practice.
As someone who has actually been a pastor of souls, I have reservations about such an approach. In my experience, it is hopelessly subjective and confusing for both the shepherd and the sheep. Seeking God with a good conscience necessarily includes the willingness to obey an authority higher than oneself. The process of embracing such obedience may be messy and complicated, but it remains indispensible. It is indispensible because worshipping God in spirit and truth is impossible without obedience.
I am a priest in the diocese where I was baptized, made my first communion, and was confirmed. In 1999, we had two seminarians. Parish closures and consolidations loomed on the horizon on account of a forecasted dire priest shortage. At the same time, some priests and lay faithful in my diocese made a concerted effort to revive what many saw as two antiquated, archaic practices, frequent confession and Eucharistic adoration. The plan was simple. If we improved both the quantity and quality of our worship, priestly vocations would surely follow. In recent years, my diocese has averaged more ordinations annually than the total number of seminarians that we had in 1999. This turnaround came from beginning to rediscover the meaning of worship, not from lowering the bar in an attempt to dialogue with and accommodate the world on the world’s terms.
My experience as a priest is that successful pastoral outreach is impossible without authentic worship that arises from obedience. Since my ordination nearly ten years ago, I have easily visited five hundred homes of families in parishes to which I have been assigned. Most of these visits took place during the first six years of my ministry. A prime motivation for making so many pastoral calls was to get beyond ideological presuppositions that I had acquired in seminary and see what actually works in a pastoral setting. One of the iron-clad truths that emerged from these experiences was that encouraging regular confession, commitment to spending at least twenty minutes daily in contemplative prayer, and regular Sunday worship was far more effective than playing the role of amateur therapist, conversing about hobbies, or discussing popular culture with the people I hoped to serve.
The most important dialogue that the Church can have in the modern world is with God Himself through worship rooted in obedience. For the past three and half years, I have been a pastor of two small parishes in one of the poorer parts of Indiana where the population declines annually about one percent. My pastoral focus during this period of time has been confession of sin, meaningful daily prayer, and the importance of Sunday worship. Some of my parishioners would probably call it an obsessive focus. By God’s grace, Mass attendance has increased by almost twenty-five percent in the past three years. Outreach to the poor has expanded dramatically in the same period of time. Conversation with God captivates and energizes the Church. The obedience necessary for authentic worship is demanding, but it points the only way toward growth in a secularizing culture. Conversely, worldly dialogue signposts a sure road to empty churches.
My experience in Oxford made clear the pitfall arising from pastoral approaches that place a high premium on dialogue with the world on the world’s terms. Not only does it risk compromising the integrity of the faith, it is also ineffective. That is, it is ineffective unless one sees living in a sparsely-populated church of “Christian Atheists” as an acceptable outcome.In 2014, Gallup ranked the great state of Vermont the "second-most liberal" in the country. On its surface, the label seemed to fit: 30% of people polled identified as "liberal." Progressive darling Bernie Sanders has represented Vermonters in the U.S. Senate for eight years as a "democratic socialist," and now spearheads one of the more galvanizing presidential campaigns in recent memory.
Vermont was the last state to let a Wal-Mart operate within its borders. Its banner export — Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream — routinely champions progressive causes. It was the first U.S. state to abolish slavery, award a college degree to a black man and establish legal same-sex marriage without court intervention.
But with a population that's almost entirely white — 95.2%, according to 2014 Census estimates — and consists of just over 626,000 people, the brand of sequestered, small-scale liberalism that Vermont represents has rarely been tested by the strains of racial diversity. As such, a question arises: How does the state's progressivism apply across racial lines?
One possible answer lies in the numbers: According to data from Vermont's Department of Corrections, this liberal enclave has one of the most disproportionate rates of black incarceration in the country.
TOBY TALBOT/AP 2001 file photo of the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, Vermont.
Black Vermonters make up just 1.2% of the state's general population, but 10.7% of its incarcerated population. This means that, proportionally, there are nearly 10 times more black people locked up in Vermont's jails and prisons on a given day than there are walking its streets.
Few criminal justice scholars or workers in Vermont seem able to explain how this happened. The black incarceration rate grew faster here than in any other in the state between 1993 and 2007, before it leveled out and stayed relatively constant. But shortly before its peak, the Sentencing Project reported that Vermont had the second-highest black-to-white incarceration rate in America — topped only by Iowa, another state with a small black population.
Monica Weeber, administrative services director at the Vermont Department of Corrections, said it's hard to parse where this disparity sources from. "I don't really have the knowledge to speak to it specifically," she said. "But it's clearly a systemic issue. Different people will give you different responses — but honestly, at the D.O.C., by the time people come to us the decision to incarcerate them has already been made."
Neither Matthew Valerio, Vermont's defender general, nor Robin Weber, director of research at the Crime Research Group — a Vermont criminal justice think tank — could point to specific policies that might have led to such rapid growth. "I have no information as to why," Valerio said. "The simple answer is that there's bias in the system. But it could also be coincidental."
Weber added, "We are concerned that there appears to be a racial disparity. But you're also working with really small numbers here, so it's hard to tell."
The confusion is felt on the ground level too. Curtiss Reed, executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, a state-wide racial advocacy group, said that it's hard to draw anything conclusive from these figures. "The devil is in the details," he said. "And we don't have all the details."
"Vermont reflects the same criminal justice trends as elsewhere. People of color still find themselves under the heavy scrutiny of the police." — professor Rashad Shabazz, Arizona State University's School of Social Transformation Tweet
Reed added that the data "needs some clarification." On a social level, he says, a culture of suspicion still defines many white Vermonters' attitudes toward black people.
But at the same time, internal diversity within this black population — "Republicans, fundamentalist Christians, refugees, liberal Democrats" and others — plus what Reed sees as a notable level of black representation in local politics, complicates the narrative of a segregated and heavily policed black underclass that defines many other American states and cities.
"For the most part, we are at the table when policies are drummed up," he said. "The data doesn't tell the whole story yet. Maybe it never will."
In spite of this confusion, familiar patterns persist in Vermont. Rashad Shabazz taught at the University of Vermont's geography department before becoming an associate professor at Arizona State University's School of Social Transformation. He says that black Vermonters' "hyper-visibility" in an extremely white context is a trump card, bringing its own set of concerns for black people, regardless of other social factors.
"Black people have not been spatialized [by segregationist policy] in Vermont the way that they have been in, say, Chicago or New York City," Shabazz said. "They don't have that same history. But Vermont reflects the same criminal justice trends as elsewhere. People of color still find themselves under the heavy scrutiny of the police."
"[There's] a major consistency: Black people are treated very differently than white people in Vermont." — Allen Gilbert, executive director of the ACLU of Vermont Tweet
The most telling trend in criminal justice encompasses more than just the corrections system.
"Each time you point out a data set individually, like the jail numbers, you have people saying, 'But we have so few people in these facilities — how can we know?'" Allen Gilbert, executive director at the ACLU of Vermont, said. "But when you look at the broader picture, there's a major consistency: Black people are treated very differently than white people in Vermont."
The evidence is damning: In 2009, apparent racial bias led the Vermont Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to recommend voluntary data collection by law enforcement divisions statewide. If nobody took the initiative, the advisory committee recommended imposing mandated collection anyway.
Some police departments responded. The Vermont State Police, the Burlington Police and four departments in Chittenden County all opted to collect their own data. Much of it is still being analyzed, years after the fact. But all exhibited clear racial disparities in traffic stops, meaning that black people were either more likely to be stopped, or more likely to be searched after being stopped.
Then there was USA Today's recent analysis of FBI arrest data from 2011 and 2012. According to that report, black people in Burlington, Vermont, were arrested at a rate of 243.2 per 1,000 people. The rate for Ferguson, Missouri — where similar disparities prompted uprisings and a Department of Justice investigation last year — was much lower, at 186.1.
And in January, Vermont Legal Aid released a report which found that black public school students were up to three times more likely to be suspended as white students in 2011-12, placing them at greater risk of exposure to the criminal justice system than their white counterparts.
Elaine Thompson/AP Black Lives Matter activists and Bernie Sanders supporters butt heads at an event in Seattle, WA.
It's worth noting that the small number of black people in Vermont does mean that even a tiny bump in arrests, for example, can have huge implications in terms of percentages. Yet from traffic stops, searches and arrests to school suspensions and incarceration rates, the sheer variety of these racial disparities remains undeniable as a whole.
This does not mean that Vermont is uniquely horrible for black people. It simply means that Vermont is not exempt from the same manifestations of racial inequality that define the rest of the country, even if many Vermonters have trouble agreeing how it came about. This is especially important to recognize in an era when Black Lives Matter activists are chastised for disrupting Bernie Sanders at rallies in Seattle and elsewhere, on the grounds that he is their "best friend" of the 2016 presidential field, and that his economic liberalism de facto translates to racial equality.
Considering the patterns, this much seems clear: "Liberal" does not automatically mean "good for black people." Vermont may be Vermont. But it is also still America.
Correction: Sept. 8, 2015
An earlier version of this article suggested that Black Lives Matter activists interrupted Bernie Sanders at his own candidate rallies. Activists have interrupted Sanders at rallies at which he was a guest, such as the Aug. 8 rally in Seattle commemorating the anniversary of Social Security and Medicare.New York Rangers vs. Montreal Canadiens – Game 5 – 8:00pm
Steve Kozari #40 Reg Season Playoffs Team Records – NYR 1-3 2-1 – MTL 2-1 0-2 Minors per game 4.0 4.2 PIM per game 11.6 12.8 % more minors on road team 15.4% -15.1% Home win % 47% 45% Calls/Pd (Avg)* 1st 2nd 3rd – Rd 1 2.2 4.0 2.4 – Rd 2 1.5 2.8 1.3 – Rd 3 2.0 2.0 1.5 Average Minors by Team: – NYR 2.3, Opp 2.1 (6% more on NYR) – MTL 2.2, Opp 2.0 (8% more on MTL) Kozari worked Rd 1 with Dean Morton. Worked Rangers/Flyers Game 65 (NYR W 5-2)
He’s worked with Watson since Rd 2.
Regular season games: 537. Playoff games: 50
From Penticton, BC
Power Plays per game (Playoff): NYR – 5.3 PP/gm. vs 3.3 times SH MTL – 2.0 PP/gm. vs. 4.5 times SH
Brad Watson #23 Reg Season Playoffs Team Records – NYR 3-1 3-0 – MTL 3-1 0-2 Minors per game 3.8 4.0 PIM per game 10.9 8.6 % more minors on road team 14.2% -17.7% Home win % 46.5% 40% Calls/Pd (Avg)* 1st 2nd 3rd – Rd 1 2.2 4.0 2.4 – Rd 2 1.5 2.8 1.3 – Rd 3 2.0 2.0 1.5 Average Minors by Team: – NYR 1.4, Opp 1.5 (9% more on Opp ) – MTL 2.0, Opp 2.3 (13% more on Opp) Watson worked Rd 1 with Justin St. Pierre. Worked Rangers/Flyers Game 5 (NYR W 4-2)
He’s been paired with Kozari since the start of Rd 2.
Regular season games: 1,029. Playoff games: 150
From Regina, SK
Watson calls more penalties on home teams (54% of all calls) than any other remaining playoff ref
Home teams have a lower win % under Watson (40%) than any other ref
Power Plays per game (Playoff): NYR – 4.7 PP/gm. vs 4.0 times SH MTL – 2.0 PP/gm. vs. 4.5 times SH
Notes Both refs call more penalties on home teams Home teams are a combined 8-11 (42% win) under Kozari/Watson
Past Games: Most recently officiated Game 3 of Blackhawks/Kings Kozari and Watson worked Game 1 of this series, a 7-2 Rangers win in Montreal Rangers/Penguins Game 1 (NYR W 3-2 OT) Canadiens/Bruins Game 4 (MTL L 1-0 OT)
Linesmen: Pierre Racicot #65, Steve Barton #59
Standby Officials: Dave Jackson #8, Jonny Murray #95 (Linesman)
Series Supervisor: Kris King
Anthems: Ginette Reno & Sara Diamond
*Calls per Period represents combined total (both refs) and excludes matching penalties and game misconducts
Follow us on Twitter for updates – @scoutingtherefsHome > Chords / Progressions > Diminished Chords
Diminished Guitar Chords in Theory & Practice
Diminished chord theory - how to construct them
°
Full chord name Abbreviations Intervals Hear it Diminished triad dim (Cdim, Edim)
° (C°, E°) 1 b3 b5 click here Half diminished chord m7b5 (Cm7b5, Em7b5) 1 b3 b5 b7 click here Diminished seventh chord dim7 (Cdim7, Edim7)
°7 (C°7, E°7) 1 b3 b5 bb7 click here
root
1
b3
b5
diminished triad
minor chord
flat 5th
half diminished
diminished triad
flat 7th
m7b5
diminished seventh
diminished triad
diminished 7th
Diminished guitar chords chart - how to play them
Half diminished chord chart
E string shapes
A string shape D string shape
Diminished seventh chord chart
E string shapes
A string shape D string shape
Diminished chords function - when to use them
triad
m7b5
dim7
Leading tone ( vii ) diminished chord
major keys
vii
I
Key / Tonic Chord Lead tone chord Examples C major Bdim F / Bdim / C
Dm / Bdim / C
Am / Bdim / C C# major Cdim F# / Cdim / C#
Ebm / Cdim / C#
Bbm / Cdim / C# D major C#dim G / C#dim / D
Em / C#dim / D
Bm / C#dim / D
minor keys
Key / Tonic Chord Lead tone chord Examples C minor Bdim7 F / Bdim7 / Cm
C# minor Cdim7 F# / Cdim7 / C#m
D minor C#dim7 G / C#dim7 / Dm
Half diminished iii chord
iii chord
iii
Em7b5
ii V I
Em7b5
iii
ii V I
Half diminished ii chord
ii
Minor key:
Bm7b5
Major key:
Dm7b5
Bdim7
Parallel diminished 7th chord
Edim7
Plugging whole step interval gaps
F#dim7
C#dim7
Ebdim7
Abdim7
The symmetry of diminished seventh chords
minor 3rd
equal spacing between each note of a dim7 chord
1
>
>
b3
>
>
b5
>
>
bb7
>
>
1
symmetry
1)
2)
3 frets
3)
Tip:
C#dim7
Edim7
Edim7 is actually the same as C#dim7
Was this helpful?
Share this with your fellow guitar enthusiasts...
Please support this site. I really appreciate it! Stay updated and learn more
Enter your email below for more like this and grab your free Uncommon Chords book...
Enter Your Email & Click Subscribe
Share your thoughts...
This lesson will explain the theory behind diminished guitar chords and their function.There's a lot of confusion around how diminished chords work in music. I often get asked the question of "when to use them" in a chord progression.As with music in general, there are no hard and fast rules (except "if it sounds good, play it!"), but I'll take you through some of the tried and tested functions diminished chords can serve in your music.Even if you were just looking for a chord chart (which is further down the page), read through the whole lesson, split over a few days, as it will prove very rewarding as far as developing your improvisation and songwriting skills.Diminished chords ("diminished" referring to the diminished 5th in the chord) have an unstable sound. They create an air of tension and unresolve (hear the examples below) which is what makes them wonderfully intriguing chords to use in your music.There are 3 main types of diminished chord, as shown in the table below.Note that if you see thesymbol after the chord letter (e.g. C°), it means "diminished". When typing, some people just use "o" as the proper symbol requires digging out the character map!As you can see, there's a common occurence of the),(flat/minor 3rd) and(flat 5th) in the three types. These are the most important tones in any diminished chord or scale. The flat 5th in relation to a minor 3rd is what gives it that unstable quality.So, acan simply be thought of as awith achord is the abovewith an added. This chord is also sometimes written as(minor 7 flat 5) e.g. Cm7b5.chord is awith an added. That's another way of saying "double flat 7th". So the only difference between a dim7 and m7b5 chord is the 7th is flattened another semitone in dim7 chords.First, just make clear in your mind these distinctions as each one has a different sound and function which we'll look at shortly.To help you play along throughout this lesson, here are the most common diminished guitar chord forms used in chord progressions with their fingerings. Download the printable chord chart (PDF)Note that I haven't included diminished triads, because these are most commonly extended to half diminished or diminished 7th. You can see how the triad exists in both these types.As mentioned earlier, occurences of the diminishedare often extended to half diminished or diminished 7th chords, because they sound more... interesting. Essentially, you're playing the diminished triad in both those variations anyway, so they're just a meatier, more colourful version of the triad.So, whenever there is an occurence of a diminished chord then you should try both(half diminished) orand go with the one that sounds best to you.Let's look at some typical uses of the chord.In, a half diminished chord naturally occurs on the 7th degree (called the leading tone or). In plain English that means whatever the major tonic () chord is, the diminished chord naturally sits one semitone/fret down from that.It's called a "leading tone" or "leading chord" because it naturally resolves or "leads" to the tonic. You can hear an example here. See the table below for a breakdown...That's just a few examples. You should be able to see this same leading tone chord - tonic relationship no matter what key you're in.In, and especially minor keys based around harmonic minor, a diminished 7th chord is the natural leading tone chord ( click to hear example ).In major key progressions, the(naturally minor) is sometimes replaced with a half diminished. You'll hear this most commonly used in jazz. For example...Cmaj7 - Dm7 -- A7 - Dm7 - G7 - Cmaj7 - click to hear It's also used in jazz to extend the(2 5 1) turnaround as follows...Dm7 - G7 -- Aaug7 - Dm7 - G7 - Cmaj7 - click to hear You can hear how the tension in that half diminishedchord is transferred to the augmented 7th chord before the naturalresolution.Half diminished chords are also often used as thechord of major and minor key progressions before the V chord. Take a listen...Am -- E7 - Am - click to hear C -- G7 - C - click to hear We can also use a dim7 chord on the same ii chord root in place of the V chord...Am - Bm7b5 -- Am - click to hear A diminished 7th chord can resolve to a chord with the same root (known as a parallel chord change). For example, if the tonic was E major...E major -- E major - click to hear You could also do the same with a minor tonic.What this does is destabilise the tonic for added interest.Essentially, you can fill any whole step interval between two chords in a scale with a diminished 7th chord.For example, the major diatonic scale is as follows...We can literally plug those whole step (W) gaps between the 1 and 2 chords, 2 and 3 chords, 4 and 5 chords, and 5 and 6 chords with a dim7. We can now visualize the scale as follows...If we were playing in the key of C, some examples of the above technique would be as follows...C - Em - F -- C - G - Fm - C - click to hear C -- Dm7 - G7 - C - click to hear C -- Dm7 - G - C - click to hear C - G -- Am - F - G - C - click to hear Those are pretty simple progressions, but using that diminished 7th "plugging" technique adds some spice and unpredictability.You can also do the same with minor key progressions or any progression that uses whole steps.If you look at the intervals of a diminished seventh chord, you'll notice that each one is separated by a. In other words, there isminor 3rdminor 3rdminor 3rdminor 3rdThis gives the chord what is known in music asIt means we can apply a pretty cool trick when playing the chord in a progression.Start by playing a Cdim7 chord (or any root).Keep that same chord form and move it up(that's the equivalent of a minor 3rd interval). So Cdim7 would move to Ebdim7.From that new position, move another 3 frets, again keeping the same dim7 form. From Ebdim7 we'd end up at F#dim7.Here's what we get ( click to hear )...Don't just move in minor 3rds using one root string. Try moving in minor 3rds from the E to A string and A to D strings, using the chord shapes you learned earlier.Because of the symmetry of the dim7 intervals, moving in minor 3rds like this produces exactly the same chord, but each new position is a different inversion of that original dim7 chord.Practically, that means whenever we choose to play a dim7 chord, using any of the functions covered in this lesson, we can also play any of its related positions based on its minor 3rd intervals.So let's take a progression from earlier using the whole step plugging technique...C -- Dm7 - G7 - C - click to hear We could also play...C -- Dm7 - G7 - C - click to hear Because of this minor 3rd symmetry,, its intervals are just inverted, changing its voicing.You can use this method to create more elaborate chord progressions, such as the following...All I'm doing there is moving in minor 3rd intervals (up or down the fretboard) whenever I use a diminished seventh chord. It was just an example, so don't overuse it!I hope this lesson has given you some fresh ideas for your songwriting. Keep experimenting with using diminished guitar chords in different ways.Have any questions, thoughts or ideas about this lesson? Let us know using the comments form below.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
Disqus
^ Back to Top
Related LessonPanthers coach Anthony Griffin reveals the latest injury news and how his side will line up against Sydney Roosters.
Get all your gameday information here
On Bryce Cartwright's injury:
We had to re-scan him as he was in a lot of pain. Fortunately for him it's come back the same (result).
It's just a really bad bone bruise above the plate in his leg which is just recovering a little slower than we wanted it to. There's no major damage there, it's just going to take a little bit longer than what we thought.
On Cartwright's replacement:
James Fisher-Harris will play at right back-row spot. He did a great job last week and that's where he played all of last year.
On the return to Pepper Stadium:
It's good to be home. It's been an up and down couple of weeks but it's nice to be playing at home here and we're looking forward to the game.
On the turnaround in performance against Wests Tigers:
Whenever you keep anyone try-less in a game is an achievement at this level. Even though the Tigers weren't at their best, I thought we had a really solid 80 minute performance last week which is what we needed after the first week.
How the team turned it around:
We didn't play our best but St George played some really good football. We had our own issues that we had to deal with and I think that's the main thing – everyone was very honest in our assessment of how we went in that first week and we came back and fixed it.
Whether the players bought in to the hype surrounding the team in round one:
If that is what happened for anyone individually then it's a good lesson. It certainly wasn't our approach as a team or club. As soon as you get comfortable at this level you're gone.
On the Roosters halves:
They're great. Mitchell Pearce, since he's come back, has been terrific. He's done everything in the game - won Premierships, played State of Origin and he's still relatively young. He's a great player.
Keary is an elite half and the two of them together blew the Titans away and then combined well early last week. They're obviously in great form and going to be a handful for us.
On the test the Panthers face against the Roosters:
It's a test for us and for them. They've always been strong and I’m sure it'll be a really good clash.
On the favouritism tag:
I don't feel anything (pressure). It doesn't mean anything and if anyone needed a reminder it doesn't mean anything, they got it in Round One.
On Tyrone Peachey’s performance in Round Two:
He was great. Put his body on the line a few times, a couple extra efforts with his quick restarts and different things like that. He’s developing in to a really good left centre.
On Peachey’s Origin prospects:
It’s too early to talk about Origin. He’s doing a good job for us. If you were picking it on form in Round One he wouldn’t have made too many Origin teams but he bounced back last week and did what he needed to do.
When can we consider Peachey as a permanent centre?
He keeps getting picked there every week, was player of the match last week and he’s left centre again this week.
On the potential return of Dallin Watene-Zelezniak:
He'll play. He got through Wednesday and today and it'll be good to have him back in the team.
On the halves battle:
It'll be a really good challenge for them (Martin and Cleary). They started to show glimpses in the second half last week and started to form an understanding with each other and how we want to play.
At times they'll get it right and at times they won't get it quite right but the only way to improve is getting out there in games like tomorrow night and doing their thing.
An update on Josh Mansour:
He's turned into a commentator – he's working for Channel 9! I haven’t seen him for a while…
He's going really well. He's on track for [returning in] round 12.
On Peta Hiku:
We got some really good news. He's got a hairline fracture in that eye socket area but didn’t require surgery and he’s getting close to being back on the field. We just have to be careful we don’t bring him back too early.As I await the arrival of SPECTRE, the fourth of Daniel Craig’s five contracted portrayals of James Bond, it seems many of the key elements of the franchise are working effectively, providing sufficient momentum to power through a writers’ strike and a studio bankruptcy, and delivering continued commercial success. But don’t be surprised if producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson make the tough call to recast after five films and bring on the next Bond era.
In this essay I’ll explore how a five film era for a Bond actor is the right number, the delicate balance the producers must strike between continuity and change and how a five-film over-arching journey might deliver benefits for the franchise and for audiences.
Not least of the current elements working well is Daniel Craig, who is contracted for five films. Five feels right to me, not too short and not too long. I’ve always felt |
for with job-killing tax increases, that is plain and simple a government takeover of health care,' he insisted.
'Before it was called Obamacare, it was called Hillarycare,' he recalled.
'We can't trust Hillary Clinton with our health care any more than we can trust her with classified information.'
Donald Trump, appearing after Pence, said he would ask Congress on his first day in office to convene a special session'so we can repeal and replace' Obamacare.
'We will do it, and we will do it very quickly, because it is a catastrophe,' he pledged.
'Obamacare is a catastrophic failure,' Pence agreed.
Samsung had to conduct an expensive recall after a number of its Galaxy Note7 phones caught fire
In its place, he said the Trump plan would'replace Obamacare with health care reform that lowers the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government.'
It would 'get rid of the individual mandate, because government shouldn't tell you how to spend your money and set priorities in your life.'
Americans could purchase policies across state lines in a Trump administration, 'just like you can your car insurance and your life insurance.'
He also touted the introduction of Health Savings Accounts that Americans 'can use to pay first-dollar expenses for their health.'
The presidential election, just seven days away, is a hotly fought contest that could result in a Democratic victory if the Republican rank-and-file that opposed Trump's nomination stays away from the voting booth.
'It's time to come home,' Pence urge them.
Trump said Obamacare represents 'higher prices, fewer choices, and lower quality. Yet Hillary Clinton wants to expand Obamacare and make it even more expensive.'
'She wants to put government totally in charge of health care in this country.'
'If we don't repeal and replace Obamacare, we will destroy American health care forever,' he said ominously.
A group of Republican members of Congress who are physicians, and one nurse, warmed up the crowd.
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon, complained that a Democratic majority in Congress passed the Affordable Care Act without a single Republican vote.
'For people who think government is the answer, this is their solution,' he said.
Georgia Rep. Tom Price had stronger language for Obamacare's rate hikes and contraction of health care services.
'Folks, this is lunacy. This is lunacy. This is what happens when you put the government in charge,' Price said.
Texas Rep. Mike Burgess said Republicans in Congress are 'chomping at the bit' to develop a replacement law 'that will then go down to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue to be signed by President Trump.
That, he said, 'will end Obamacare for once and for all.'
"No Republicans were consulted, and this thing was rammed through [Congress]," he said of the Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland said all but one insurer providing Obamacare medical policies in his district have dropped out of the government-managed exchanges.
President Obama lied to the American people, he charged, by saying that "if you like your plan you can keep your plan."
"Well, there's only one in my district right now," Harris said.ASSOCIATED PRESS Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Donald Trump's likely vice presidential pick, once criticized one of Trump's key proposals.
This could get awkward.
The man widely reported to be presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s chosen running mate once criticized Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
Trump is expected on Friday to name Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) as his vice presidential pick. Pence in December rebuked Trump’s proposal as “offensive and unconstitutional.”
Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional. — Governor Mike Pence (@GovPenceIN) December 8, 2015
As Pence began to emerge as Trump’s likely pick, he largely stood by his earlier remarks, telling reporters Tuesday at an event in Indianapolis that he’s “taken issues with the candidates from time to time.”
Pressed on how he could share a ticket with a candidate whose proposals he didn’t support, Pence stopped short of criticizing Trump as pointedly as he did in December.
“Look, I served in Congress for 12 years, I’ve been governor for three and a half years. I haven’t agreed with every one of my Republican colleagues or Democratic colleagues on every issue,” Pence said. “But I’m supporting Donald Trump because we need change in this country.”
Though Pence objected to the proposed ban on Muslims ― who comprise nearly one-quarter of the world’s population ― he aligned himself with Trump on the idea of barring Syrian refugees fleeing civil war from entering the country.
Following the deadly terror attacks in Paris, Trump said Syrian refugees could be a “Trojan Horse” for terrorists seeking entry to the U.S.
All of the attackers were found to be European citizens and not refugees, but Pence and more than 30 other governors still objected to letting Syrian refugees into the U.S. in the aftermath. A federal judge later blocked Pence’s move to have agencies who help resettle refugees financially cut off.
Pence’s disagreement with Trump’s Muslim ban isn’t the only issue that might cause awkwardness on the campaign trail: the governor in May pledged his support to former Trump rival Ted Cruz.First, with I believe a single exception (probably just an oversight) EVERY thread prior to the end of March has been closed. Which means it isn't even close to being limited to the rants section.
Second, while most locked threads are in Rants, in the last series of closings, it occurred in 7 different sections.
Third, most of them were closed after 10, 20, 30 or more days of inactivity. Yes, there were exceptions. But the two that had the shortest gap in postings were closed after a member's problem was solved.
Fourth, yes, most threads tend to be started by testers. Other than someone asking a question, if you think about it, it is the testers who are most likely to have something to add. I mean, maybe some thing we need more new threads calling WT liars or something, but somehow I don't think that is useful. And while most threads are started by testers, they don't represent most of the actual posts.
Fifth, sometimes they do seem to close a thread they just don't like. I may or may not agree - depends on what is being said in the thread. I've seen many complaints that strike me as fine. I've made some myself. But others, not so much.
Sixth, let's not forget that they do not remove those threads. They are still there for anyone to see.
Seventh, related to the fourth, there are over 80 members over on the reddit forums and almost all of them are critics. They can post their complaints all they want. Yet maybe a half dozen post regularly even though nothing is stopping them.Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in a Wednesday interview that “nobody knows” if the tax bill will create enough economic growth to negate its cost.
Ryan made the remark on "Today" as the House prepares for a final vote on the tax measure, which outside groups estimate will add $1 billion to the deficit, even accounting for economic growth.
The Speaker and other Republicans have suggested those scores underestimate the lift that the economy will receive from the tax bill, a point Guthrie pressed with Ryan in Wednesday's interview.
“Are you saying that the growth you’re going to get from this tax cut will equal the amount it would cost on the deficit side so that it’s a wash, so that you’re not adding to the deficit at all?” she asked.
“Nobody knows the answer to that question because that’s in the future,” he responded. “But what we do know is that this will increase economic growth … You have to get faster economic growth so that people can get ahead in America; that’s what we’re doing.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the bill would add $1.46 trillion to the deficit over the next decade before factoring in economic growth.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget in a separate report warned that the cost could be higher if tax provisions set to expire in the bill are instead extended — something Ryan has predicted will happen.
If lower tax rates for individuals and families are extended and not allowed to expire in 2025, the bill would add $2 trillion to $2.2 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, the report said.
The conservative Tax Foundation estimated the bill would add $1.4 trillion to the budget deficit over the next decade if the entire tax plan was made permanent. That estimate took into account faster economic growth under the plan.
Ryan said that Congress also needs to control spending, but that the economic growth from the tax bill was key to boosting the economy.
“We’ve got to control our spending, that — we have more work to do, we clearly have to go after spending control,” he said.
Both the House and Senate voted to pass the bill, but the House will have to vote again on Wednesday after the Senate ruled that two provisions in the bill did not comply with budget rules.By Aaron Kesel
As the war against the CIA heats up, masked intruders (likely belonging to the Central Intelligence Agency) broke into WikiLeaks’ head legal council law office, EL PAÍS reported.
A total of three people dressed in all black in hoodies entered the law office of former judge and WikiLeaks’ chief council, Baltasar Garzón.
The alleged thieves were “very professional” according to police sources; they blinded the security cameras with tape and didn’t steal anything from the offices. Apparently, they have not taken any money, because there wasn’t any on the premise, the publication went on to state.
However, according to a rough translation of the report, they scrummaged between documents, although it has not yet been determined what is missing.
The investigation is being carried out by the scientific police as if it were “an attempted robbery,” they added. They are waiting for technicians to check if copies of files have been made from the computers. Since he was removed from the judiciary, after being sentenced to 11 years of disqualification for ordering recordings – supposedly illegal at that time – between defendants of the Gürtel plot and his lawyers, Baltasar Garzón has directed, among other things, the legal defense of the founder Wikileaks, Julian Assange.
WikiLeaks and Julian Assange tweeted out the report today, expressing concern that the CIA was responsible for the break-in.
As CIA threats against @WikiLeaks heat up, at least three masked men dressed in black have broken into @WikiLeaks chief counsel Baltasar Garzón’s legal office, blinding security cameras with tape, in a “very professional” operation say police. https://t.co/ao3nD3bk2c — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 19, 2017
Notably, WikiLeaks has faced a number of suspicious circumstances happening to its organization; so much so they have released ominous tweets highlighting that none of the organization’s employees or volunteers have any psychological health problems or drug problems that could lead to sudden death.
NOTE: No present WikiLeaks staff, including our editor, have medical, psychological or drug conditions which could lead to sudden death. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 13, 2017
Not to mention that WikiLeaks – the recently recognized institution of journalism by UK tribunal – had an incident last year where someone tried to break into the embassy where its founder Julian Assange has been held for the past 5 years held illegally.
19 mins ago at 2:47am an unknown man scaled the side wall+window of the Ecuadorian embassy in London; fled after being caught by security. Download Your First Issue Free! Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free?
Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 22, 2016
Shortly before that, WikiLeaks did actually have two strange deaths of lawyers who represented Julian Assange within less than a month of each other: John Jones who died on April 18th 2016; and Michael Ratner who died May 11, 2016. Jones was found dead on the train tracks at West Hampstead Thameslink station. Ratner was said by the New York Times to have died of “complications of cancer.”
The official narrative being pushed on Jones’ death was a suicide. However, the publication has seemed to hint there was potential “foul play” involved, tweeting out a ruling by a court last year shortly after the unknown man tried to climb in Assange’s balcony. The inquest found that the death of Jones was not a ‘suicide’, which opens door to lawsuits.
Inquest rules that death of Julian Assange’s lawyer, John Jones QC, was not ‘suicide’, opening door to law suits https://t.co/WRJZLvT4S9 — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 21, 2016Mayor Rob Ford says he plans to try to privatize the Toronto Community Housing Corp. Asked by Newstalk 1010 host Jerry Agar on Wednesday morning whether he would “go so far as to say” that he would privatize the TCHC, Ford said, “Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. I’m going to look at every service, how we’re delivering it — garbage, as you know, we’re contracting it out. I have no problem looking at TCHC and how we’re delivering these services. And if contracting it out is the way to go, that’s the way we’re gonna go.”
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, pictured in January, said on March 2 that he is "absolutely" considering privatization for the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. ( CARLOS OSORIO / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO )
Ford did not say when he plans to pursue privatization, nor what his specific plans are. Asked if he had come to the belief that the TCHC should be privatized because of the two scathing audits released this week or if he held the same opinion before he saw them, he did not answer directly. The complete privatization of one of North America’s largest landlords would be a complicated and lengthy task; the TCHC houses 164,000 tenants and owns a $6 billion housing stock. Privatization would likely face a fierce battle on the floor of council. And provincial law imposes rules governing the size of the city’s social housing stock. Privatization may not necessarily mean the elimination of government-run housing in the city. Ford’s office is known to be exploring a change that would keep current tenants in TCHC buildings but give new tenants a subsidy to rent private apartments.
Article Continued Below
In the Newstalk interview, Ford said he would ask council to remove the seven civilian TCHC board members now that they have refused to heed his call to resign. Only a council vote can force their ouster. Ford confirmed that TCHC chief executive officer Keiko Nakamura had rejected his direct request to resign. He said she should be held accountable for the waste documented by auditor general Jeffrey Griffiths. “I can’t see any councillor defending how she’s run Toronto Community Housing,” Ford said. “When you list all these expenditures — and obviously, she was in charge of it, she oversaw this. How can someone stand up and justify it?” Nakamura was not the leader of the organization while much of the waste occurred. Derek Ballantyne, now chief operating officer of Build Toronto, was CEO of TCHC between 2002 and May 2009, when Nakamura took over. Nakamura was chief operating officer from 2005 until her promotion to CEO. On Monday, Nakamura said the audits had shown she had no role in the improper spending and procurement practices.
“As the audit reveals, I conducted myself with complete integrity in how I conducted my business,” she said. “Obviously, others were not held to the same standard.” In the 1010 interview, Ford also called on “Ford nation” to vote the Ontario Liberal government out of office if it doesn’t accede to his demands for increased provincial funding for Toronto.
Article Continued Below
On Monday, the Star revealed that Ford wrote to McGuinty in late January asking specifically for more than $150 million for road projects, transit, child care subsidies and a new Fort York visitors’ centre. Ford also renewed his predecessor David Miller’s call for the province to pay half of the TTC’s $429 million operating budget. McGuinty promptly said no, citing the province’s ballooning deficit. Ford told Agar: “If (McGuinty) says no, obviously there’s a provincial election coming up on Oct. 6 and I want to work with him, not against him. But obviously if he’s not helping out the city I’ll have no choice to work against him, to call Ford Nation, and make sure they’re not re-elected in the next election. But I do not want to do that.” Told of the comments at Queen’s Park, Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said: “That’s very interesting. There’s no more money.” With files from Rob FergusonCodeLurker Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 5
As above, mixed results Some mp3's I could not play, which were at 22050 Hz sampling rate, and others, at 44100 Hz and above, I could. This suggests that you need to be able to upsample to make some files play. I noticed you removed some sample rate conversion options from the ASIO plugin's dialog. The versions that could resample did work for me, as well; when I either resampled to a sample rate my driver could use, or had a file I could use. I was not able to get your version, which has had the resampling ripped from it, to work on 22050 Hz files, whatsoever; although, as I say, I could get older versions which could resample to 44.1 kHz to work on those files.
It appears that is what is needed, is to bring back the resampling options; but to have an additional option to say, "Upsample Lower Sample Rates Only". That way, you could set it to your lowest supported sampling rate, say 44.1 kHz, and anything that is slower will get upsampled so it would play; but things at higher sample rates would play at their superior quality rates as well. Better yet, might be a user-editable list of supported sample rates, which anything that wasn't on it would get upsampled if possible, or downsampled if required, so it would play. Maybe you could query the ASIO driver for such a list of supported rates; and resample accordingly, without additional user GUI.
As to the volume control, it would be nice if you could get the main one running. As a next best thing, I noticed that the "Preamp" vertical slider on the graphic equalizer DOES work. The downside of that, is that it only goes up or down +/- 12 dB, so you might not be able to get something as loud or as quiet as you'd like.
I'm using the native ASIO driver for a Presonus FP10, a low end professional audio unit. It can play DVD quality audio, which is to say, 96 kHz, and it does not choke on 192 kHz BlueRay audio. It must downsample that on the fly; although it can really play and record at 96 kHz. Your plugin works great, when it does work, as above. I'm really grateful that somebody is still working on it. Keep up the good work!Beaut, beauty! We’re stoked to announce Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 1, the first distro to ship a fair dinkum MATE Desktop implementation built entirely against GTK3+. Some thought we’d let the kangaroos loose in the top paddock by being the first distro to switch to GTK3+ and it would all come a gutser. But we put in big mobs of effort to ensure it’s not complete ball dust. Give it a burl!
The above statement is for the benefit of our friends at #systemau who lament the predictable and often dreary wording used in Linux distro release announcements. We hope we’ve helped restore balance to the force ;-)
Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 1
We are preparing Ubuntu MATE 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) for distribution on October 13th, 2016 With this Alpha pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next (stable) version.
As is now customary, our release artwork was made by Ghost Sixtyseven.
What works?
People tell us that Ubuntu MATE is stable. You may, or may not, agree.
Ubuntu MATE Alpha Releases are NOT recommended for:
Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
Anyone who needs a stable system
Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system
Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable
Ubuntu MATE Alpha Releases are recommended for:
Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
Ubuntu MATE, MATE, and GTK+ developers
What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 16.04 release?
First of all, Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 1 owes a debt of gratitude to:
Luke Horwell for developing Ubuntu MATE Welcome and Software Boutique.
for developing Ubuntu MATE Welcome and Software Boutique. Robin Thompson for migrating MATE Dock Applet to GTK3+
for migrating MATE Dock Applet to GTK3+ Alexei Sorokin for migrating MATE Menu to GTK3+
for migrating MATE Menu to GTK3+ Wolfgang Ulbrich for adding GTK 3.18 theme support to Ambiant MATE and Radiant MATE.
for adding GTK 3.18 theme support to Ambiant MATE and Radiant MATE. Mike Gabriel for reviewing and sponsoring uploads of MATE 1.14 to Debian.
for reviewing and sponsoring uploads of MATE 1.14 to Debian. Vlad Orlov for migrating MATE components to GTK3+ and fixing Indicator support in MATE Desktop 1.14.
What changed since Ubuntu MATE 16.04 was released?
Before we list what’s been added and updated, lets go over what has been dropped (for good) and what is temporarily missing.
GNOME Main Menu (as used in the openSUSE layout) has been dropped. * No one in the MATE team believes this applet is good enough to port to GTK3+. As it is GTK2+ only and has nobody to port or maintain it, this applet will be dropped for good.
* No one in the MATE team believes this applet is good enough to port to GTK3+. As it is GTK2+ only and has nobody to port or maintain it, this applet will be dropped for good. The openSUSE layout is currently missing, but will be re-instated in MATE Desktop 1.16. * This will feature a different menu applet.
* This will feature a different menu applet. The Mutiny layout is currently missing but will be re-instated when the topmenu-gtk MATE applet has been rebuilt for GTK3+
when the MATE applet has been rebuilt for GTK3+ Pidgin will no longer be installed by default Pidgin is now available in the Software Boutique.
Cheese is not currently installed by default but will be re-instated as a default application when merge proposal 298171 is merged and released. Cheese is available in the Software Boutique.
Indicator Session is not currently available in Ubiquity while installing Ubuntu MATE but will be re-instated when merge proposal 297183 is merged and released.
This is what have been updated or added.
All the Ubuntu MATE seeds and meta-packages have been completely overhauled**. Basically we’ve started over, and completely rebuilt Ubuntu MATE 16.10 from the ground up. It is now possible to safely uninstall all the default applications without the ubuntu-mate-desktop package also being removed. Memory consumption of Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Alpha 1 is lower than that of Ubuntu MATE 16.04.
New community contributed wallpapers from: Ghost Sixtyseven Jordyn Okinawa Per Andersson
Upgraded to MATE Desktop 1.14, which is now built entirely against GTK 3.18. Indicator support for MATE Desktop, when built against GTK3+, has been significantly improved. Ambiant-MATE and Radiant-MATE themes have been completely reworked to support GTK 3.18. We have initial HiDPI support (almost) working. Don’t get too excited, this is an all or nothing implementation. When enabled all GTK3+ applications (not just MATE) will be rendered using high quality pixel doubling. If you have a 2160p display, it looks ace :-D You can find out what changed in MATE Desktop 1.14 from the upstream release announcement.
, which is now. Upgraded Ubuntu MATE Welcome to 16.10.4 Ported to WebKit2 4.0. The transitions and animations are now hardware accelerated (where supported) and it looks very smooth indeed. Sports a new look and many visual and usability enhancements. Getting Started section offers much more assistance for a post install setup and configuration. (Some elements back ported to 16.04) Adds driver installer for Logitech’s Unifying Receiver peripherals. New builds are automatically tested. Testers can check out this daily PPA, including packages for Xenial users wanting to test new versions of Welcome. Detailed system specifications can now be copied to the clipboard. Assorted performance optimisations.
to 16.10.4 Upgraded Software Boutique. Adds News to inform you of additions/removals to the Software Boutique. (Back ported to 16.04) Adds Search facility so you can quickly find software by name, keyword and description. (Back ported to 16.04) Adds Bulk queue installs so you can queue up multiple applications to install at once. Adds a responsive design** so you can see more software listings when resizing or maximising the Software Boutique window. Software Boutique now stocks ~160 applications. (Back ported to 16.04) Introduces a new feature to display a complete list of all applications and the repositories they are sourced from. Support added for installing software for arm64 and ppc64el architectures. Software install and removal notifications now use the associated application icon.
Upgraded MATE Tweak Splits up the UI and introduces a new Panel section. Can now change icon sizes and menu item icon sizes in the panel, exposing a new MATE Desktop 1.14 capability. This has two benefits, bigger icons for high resolution displays and, if you are so inclined, large panels suitable for touch input but without changing the desktop metaphor. Supports enabling new style GTK3+ indicators. Supports xcompmgr compositor, the preferred compositor to use along side the Raspberry Pi hardware accelerated VC4 drivers. Tilda is no longer enabled by default. Tilda is still installed by default, but can now be optionally enabled via MATE Tweak.
Upgraded MATE Dock Applet which now supports GTK3+
which now supports GTK3+ Upgraded MATE Menu which now support GTK3+
Download Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Join the fun and experience a retrospective future. Download
Known Issues
Here are the known issues.
Ubuntu family issues
This is our known list of bugs that affect all flavours.
After complete an OEM install running “Prepare for shipping to end user” causes systemctl to segfault. #1597248
to segfault. Creating a btrfs or xfs partition fails during install. #1591851
or partition fails during install.
PowerPC
These issues are specific to PowerPC architectures.
R300 GPU accelerated graphics do not work on PowerPC #1432949, #1575391
Ubiquity installer Slideshows and Ubuntu MATE Welcome display a blank window on PowerPC. This is due to a bug in WebKit 2. #1561573, #1597764
Running Linux on PowerPC can require some tinkering and the following are useful references. PowerPC Known Issues PowerPC FAQ
You’ll also want to check the Ubuntu MATE bug tracker to see what has already been reported. These issues will be addressed in due course.
Feedback
Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please come and talk to us.For giant tortoises living in the tropics, you either find a way to get out of the sun, or you die.
Usually, that means waiting out the hottest part of the day behind a rock or beneath the shade of a tree or bush.
But on the Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean, Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) have another strategy never before documented in tortoises, giant or otherwise—hiding out in caves.
What’s more, there’s reason to believe that this behavior is quite ancient, says Dennis Hansen, leader of the team that discovered the cave-dwelling reptiles.
That's because, over the centuries, the tortoises have worn smooth previously craggy paths as they clamber down to the caves each day.
“The tortoises have used it for a long, long time,” says Hansen, a tropical ecologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland.
Give Us Shade or Give Us Death
During the rainy season from November to April, temperatures on Aldabra Atoll, part of the Seychelles, can soar upwards of 107 to 109 degrees Fahrenheit (42 to 43 degrees Celsius).
This means the 100,000 or so giant tortoises that call this raised coral reef home must find shade or risk overheating and dying.
Tortoises are "ectothermic," which means their bodies warm up and cool down with the environment around them, says David Steen, a wildlife ecologist at Auburn University in Alabama who was unaffiliated with the study.
“They can’t pant or sweat like mammals do to lower their body temperature,” he says. “They must find a cooler place to go.” (Also see "Watch a Tortoise Rescue Another in Distress—Was It Trying to Help?")
When the sun isn't blistering, the reptiles spend their time browsing through the atoll's grassy lowlands. Around mid-morning, the tortoises begin their descent to the cooler caves.
“They all typically go en masse,” says Richard Baxter, a field biologist with the University of Zurich who's part of the study team.
“It’s just this long stream of tortoises queuing up to get in, and it’s quite a slow process, as you can imagine.”
The largest of the two caves Hansen and Baxter discovered is nearly 16 feet (5 meters) deep and can shelter up to 85 jostling tortoises at a time.
However, the cave is 650 to 1,000 feet (200 to 300 meters) away from any other form of cover. That means relying on the small cavity for shelter is dangerous for the slow-moving tortoises, which are considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Indeed, there's evidence of the fate that awaits late-comers: Tortoise bones can be seen littering the cave entrances.
Slow Going
Stephen Blake, a National Geographic grantee who studies Galápagos tortoises on the other side of the world, suspects there are all sorts of interesting social phenomena at play in the caves. (Read “Is Exotic Diet Giving Giant Tortoises a Boost in Galápagos?")
“It would not be surprising to see... hierarchies here where dominant animals get the best spots,” says Blake.
For example, being first to enter the cave might be beneficial as far as keeping cool, but it may also mean you’re the last tortoise out of the cave—which could mean less time to feed on the nearby vegetation.
Imagine being hungry but having to wait for a few dozen giant tortoises to scuttle their way up a slope, single-file.
Ecosystem Engineers
The tortoises’ daily presence in the caves may also create a unique ecosystem, Hansen and Baxter add. (See National Geographic's amazing cave pictures.)
The animals have an enormous impact on the world around them—clipping vegetation low with their beaks into what's called "tortoise turf," wearing down rocks with their shells, and dispersing seeds in their dung.
The sheer amount of dung in the cave also seems to feed other Aldabra inhabitants, including crabs and insects.
“Like elephants in Africa, tortoises are ecosystem engineers,” says Hansen.1. The Founding Fathers were growers. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp on their plantations. TJ actually wrote the Declaration of Independence while high (that last part is not actually true).
2. Sinsemilla is the most potent form of pot. Sinsemilla (Spanish for "without seeds") is a female plant that is un-pollinated (no seeds!) to induce a high resin content.
3. Humans have been growing kindbud since the Neolithic era. Ha ha, Stonehenge stoners.
4. Cultivation (for medical purposes, with a doctor's note, killjoy) is legal in these 13 states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. p.s. "Cultivation" is a fancy word for "growing."
5. Otherwise, even SEED possession is illegal in the US. Pot life starts at conception!
6. Marijuana plants can grow anywhere corn can grow. If only the government subsidized weed as much as corn! Think about how much healthier we'd all be!
7. Growing pot is NOT for the disorganized, spacey stoner. Here is the Grower's Security Checklist, according to to Marijuana Horticulture; The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible by Jorge Cervantes.
8. Cops carry heat guns to detect UV lights in suburban homes. (This is why you should keep your electricity bill low.)
9. The US Postal Service is the most efficient way to ship your pot. You should use a fake return address and perhaps nestle it in some peanut butter.RABAT, June 2 (Reuters) - A Moroccan man wounded by security forces at a pro-democracy demonstration died of his injuries on Thursday, Moroccan opposition groups said. The government said the man’s death was unrelated to the street protest.
Al Adl wal-Ihsane (Justice and Charity), Morocco’s largest Islamic opposition group, and the February 20 movement, which is leading street demonstrations calling for more representative government, said Kamal Amari had died from wounds sustained in the May 29 clash in Safi, 200 miles (300 km) south of Rabat.
An interior ministry source told Reuters the authorities categorically denied the man’s death was related to the protest, one of several demonstrations that took place in Moroccan towns that day.
The source said the death certificate showed that Amari had died of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure. The attorney-general had ordered an inquiry and an autopsy would now be carried out, he said.
To date dozens of injuries but no deaths have been reported as a result of street demonstrations that have taken place at weekly intervals in the north African kingdom in recent months, inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.
The protests in recent weeks have seen a tougher response from security forces in contrast to an earlier hands off approach to the demonstrations for major constititional change.
The political landscape in the kingdom is dominated by a powerful dynasty that has ruled for 350 years.
In the latest round of protests on May 29, security forces used batons against demonstrators in several places.
Commenting on a demonstration in Casablanca, the government said it had been banned and that police had acted in response to what it described as provocative behaviour by the protesters.An event to celebrate women’s cycling that is hosted by Assos? Am I dreaming?
As a women’s cycling journalist, I’ve long been aware of cycling clothing brand ASSOS of Switzerland – I’d like to say it was because of the great product, but actually it was because of some of the cringe-worthy imagery that used to be on its website. To sum it up, think ‘Page 3 does bib shorts’.
So notorious was this site that, for me, ASSOS came to represent all that was wrong when it came to marketing our beloved sport to women. We wanted images that reflect the joy of being a female cyclist -ASSOS gave us a topless model in Lycra.
But there was a dilemma too: it would have been easy to ignore ASSOS in the hope that it would just quietly go away, had it not been for the fact that the brand actually makes really great product. They’re not a brand any of us wanted to boycott.
ASSOS was founded in the 1970s, and has always focussed on creating a premium (i.e. great quality but expensive) product based on technical innovation. Most famously, for example, they were the first to use lycra in cycling shorts.
The black and white Swiss giant makes kit for USA cycling, supplies the leaders jerseys for the Cape Epic, and developed specific new products for the Swiss Cycling Federation that helped Fabian Cancellara and Nino Schurter win gold at Rio 2016.
Speaking from rather more humble personal experience, my other-half has owned anASSOS jacket for over ten years. It’s admittedly the most expensive riding garment he’s ever possessed, but it is also the only garment in his kit that has lasted that long, and its still going strong.
So I’m very happy to report that it seems our protestations have not gone unnoticed.
ASSOS has changed…At some point in your life you’ve probably encountered a problem in the built world where the fix was obvious to you. Maybe a door that opened the wrong way, or poorly painted marker on the road. Mostly, when we see these things, we grumble on the inside, and then do nothing. But not Richard Ankrom.
In the early morning of August 5, 2001, artist Richard Ankrom and a group of friends assembled on the 4th Street bridge over the 110 freeway in Los Angeles. They had gathered to commit a crime — one Ankrom had plotted for years.
Twenty years earlier, Ankron, then living in Orange County, was driving north on the 110 freeway. As he passed through downtown Los Angeles, he was going to merge onto another freeway, the I-5 North. But he missed the exit and got lost. And for some reason, this stuck with him.
Years later, when Ankrom moved to downtown Los Angeles, he was driving on the same stretch of freeway where he’d gotten lost before. He looked up at the big green rectangular sign suspended above and realized why he missed the exit all those years ago.
The sign was not adequately marked.
The I-5 exit |
naturally, as you might expect, Deng Xiaoping materializes, hawking his Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. In Marc Vincenz’s revision, the superannuated dwarf must deal with a contingent of Shaolin monks who show up at the Tienanmen Square massacre “shooting thunderbolts from their fingers.” Deng’s dictum about the glory of getting rich inspires schemes of karaoke bars in Shanghai’s old alleys; but his touted modernization fails to confiscate shards of dragon eggshells from a rural child, urbanized but not cured of feudal superstition.
As always in any Marc Vincenz book there are the lovely women, fresh with “tiny pinprick breasts like ripe buds of corn,” and, of course, the food. In this case, it’s the street stall cuisine we China hands have known so well: spitting seeds and bits of rind, where fish heads and spines lay rotting amongst flies. Accommodations are provided courtesy of hotels with names like Red Star, where you must battle the rats for rights to the apple, compliments of the manager.
Mao’s Mole has much truck with factories and their managers, for our poet himself spent ten years in that purgatory, in cahoots with bankers and party muckety-mucks, steeped in corruption of such intensity as can only be achieved in the world’s oldest continuous bureaucracy. Naturally, as you might expect, the poetry achieves some of its highest pitches under these unpoetic circumstances:
…it’s all leaching under the foundations
can’t let the shareholders know or the factory would close
I just smiled back & cheered our good health—
The world was big & cancer was everywhere
in the meat, in the bread, the sky, the unflinching earth
only in Iceland will the volcanoes get you
& then there was factory kingpin Ying
with the blue phone glued to his ear—
he who rose from the communist earth
In his previous collection, Gods of a Ransacked Century (Unlikely Books), Marc Vincenz gave us a full cosmology, from the materia prima of tachyon waves to hydrogen bombs and rocket salads. He provides nothing less in Mao’s Mole. The people of the Flowery Middle Kingdom have long considered their walled world coextensively coterminous with the cosmos, relegating any outliers to triviality and irrelevance. Marc Vincenz is one of the few barbarians who has entered and encompassed their universe.
Having lived and wandered there for some years, I can affirm that Marc Vincenz’s is the clearest, most intelligent and emotionally intense evocation of that unfathomable place I’ve ever read in verse or prose. Everything is on these pages, the poisoned as well as the pristine, all presented with hallucinatory concision by easily the strongest living poet in our language.
I interviewed Marc Vincenz recently, as follows:
3:AM: China’s long, nearly static history, climaxed with the past hundred years of political and economic upheavals, make for what must be the world’s most difficult subject to treat exhaustively. But that is just what you have done in Mao’s Mole. Did you set out to deal with the subject of national, racial and tribal metamorphosis, using China as an especially vivid and extreme example?
MV: Not at first. Individual pieces arrived sporadically: on the edges of dreams, were clipped from conversations in karaoke bars, on noodle stands, at the train station, arose as flashbacks of memories and past lives. Although each voice or image is singular, they are also born out of a communal mythology, a common “becoming” — in a way, the various characters stitched themselves together (some zigzagged, others loosely tacked themselves on). I was taken aback myself when I observed from a distance and watched the bigger picture come into focus.
About halfway through, I realized that Mao’s Mole was about far more than just the individual narratives. Yes, there were individual stories, individual characters, but there was also a basso ostinato running through the heart of the book. Each of these individuals shared an embedded and deeply rooted commonality. It took me a while to figure out what exactly that was.
3:AM: Do you want to get explicit? Will you identify that ostinato for us, or are we on our own?
MV: I am little skeptical of delving into the theory of my own creative work, but, ok, let me give it a go.
As rituals, icons, philosophies and myths move into a technological, economically-driven future, intentions are diffused; they are amended to fulfill revised and cross-purposes; they become muddied or watered-down, reinterpreted or revised and evolve (or are evolved) to fit contemporary desires. In this manner, as civilizations evolve, so too do their mythologies — as their emperors, kings, priests, dictators and elected leaders reinvent religion and social structures. This mutated iconography (although seemingly from a distant past) embeds itself in a nation’s revised (self-) consciousness, promising a better, more-balanced future with a faint whiff of the past. Perhaps this is the great deceit of what we call “civilization.”
3:AM: Socialism with Chinese characteristics springs to mind.
MV: Yes, to cite one especially unsubtle example. In a layered papier-mâché of propaganda, rhetoric and perceived history, these symbols integrate into a single entity capable of feeding upon itself; just like the multiple-celled organism, civilization splits, conjoins, mutates and evolves with multiple adaptations on multiple islands.
Perhaps at its most basic level, Mao’s Mole is a cinematic journey through China’s last hundred-or-so years, offering snapshots, incidental reflections and moments of flux across a broad spectrum of the Middle Kingdom’s citizens and their foreign guests. On wider levels, the book poses deep questions of society, identity and culture; Mao’s Mole concerns itself with the development of icons, figureheads and modern mythology in today’s China; with the making of modern nations; with our dented twenty-first century mythologies.
3:AM: It’s an understatement to call Mao’s Mole ambitious; yet the book holds together miraculously well. Each of the individual poems moves to the next according to an organizing principle that is so organic as to be suspected rather than discerned. Clearly, historical epochs, dynasties, and Five-Year Plans are part of the structure, but you have dispensed with mere chronology, to offer a deeper series of connections. Can you reveal something of your framework here, to the extent it was consciously built?
MV: Although mostly portrayed as such, history, of course is actually non-linear — at the very least in the way we perceive it. Surely personal memory and “real” history are intertwined, become distorted or magnified. I mean how much do any of us remember of our earliest years of childhood? Perhaps we recall a handful of significant moments, but are these recollections really the way things happened?
Yes, it was very tempting to follow that straight arrow of time, but it’s really the crucial moments, the so-called epiphanies, the turning points that create change and paint a personal history in the mind’s inner eye.
On another level, I realized that each of these narratives represented some of those moments that were missing from documented history—moments that would likely never receive public attention, rather part of what someone once termed, “the big forgetting.” How could these multiple journeys of so many individuals be portrayed in a linear fashion? It seemed implausible; after all, it was these individual “little epiphanies” (or little deaths) that stitched the book together, that created what you have called the organic (or perhaps biometric) structure.
And yes, just as the Chinese Communist Party’s Five-Year Plan, Mao’s Mole is a work in five movements; each movement represents an era or a wave of social, economic or emotional transition that, in turn, is followed by singular passages of discord, dispersion, acceptance and assimilation. Underpinned by the faux poetry of Mao’s propaganda, each of these movements is expressed in a layering of reflections, narratives, slogans, images, quips and asides, as a multitude of individual voices merge into one tentative organism.
Another way of thinking of the structure is to envision Mao’s Mole as a Philip Stark score in five movements — with brief intermezzos between each major movement. Like Stark, these movements begin with a simple melodic phrase, but slowly, as more tones underlie the melody, it expands, divests, until, despite (or in spite of) the ambient noise (the background radiation), the original phrase reverberates somewhere in the subconscious.
3:AM: Mao himself is the Moses of this Pentateuch, the Christ of this Gospel. You don’t respect him overmuch as a poet, but you have spelunked his labyrinthine character and provided a psychological portrait that rivals any yet written in prose. Can you talk about your conception of him as man and myth?
MV: Even the most evil genius, is a genius. Aside from Confucius and Lao Tze, Mao is without a shadow of a doubt, China’s most famous son. He’s been compared to Hitler, Stalin, Bonaparte, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, yet he portrayed himself as a reactionary poet, a sensitive scholar and, at the same time, a man of the common folk. We know enough now from the multitude of biographies and a few dissident former Party members who have come out of the closet (and haven’t been “taken out”) that he was nothing like a common man. He lived the lush life of an emperor.
And even after all of his disasters and catastrophes, he’s still hailed as a demigod; the ultimate symbol of Chinese independence and nationalism.
Not so long ago, I asked a Beijing friend of mine if she thought his portrait might one day be taken down from Tienanmen Square. She smiled wryly and told me that it would be utterly unthinkable. Imagine if Hitler’s portrait still stared down at you from the Brandenburg Gate — that too is unthinkable. It would defy all moral sensibilities and common sense; yet Mao, the demigod, watches over his people, above the gates of the fallen “Emperor’s” Forbidden City. If you wouldn’t know better you’d think there was some kind of a sick inside joke going on.
3:AM: And Mao fuels the book’s momentum?
MV: Loosely speaking. Each of Mao’s Mole‘s movements is derived from Mao’s own propaganda machine — as his empire rises and falls, and rises and falls again. The book closes with the foreshadowing of a probable Second Coming — and just as other civilizations have begged their gods return, so too Mao’s spirit is requested to arise and lead his good comrades back into the red light, into the good fight.
3:AM: One of the great delights of this collection is the cast of characters, each drawn with the detail and depth one usually associates with novels. Of course, each story is unique and worthy of being told in its own right, but tell us who some of your favorite characters are, and what function you see them serving in the greater structure.
MV: I suppose it’s only through this wily and varied cast of characters that the true picture can emerge. No, no favorite. They all have their role to play.
3:AM: How about if I suggest some of my own favorites? I am thinking of the young man in “The Analects of Wu Wei: Virtuous Dog Meat,” who extolls the Taoist virtues of eating dog while driving to work in a Mercedes. Another vivid personage is the eponymous “Citizen Julius Wong,” the one-armed ex-Communist Party cadre now settled on the island of Fiji, who advises rebel generals and swims with parrot fish. There’s the “Tai Chi Master” who practices his art to produce nuclear fission; Lu Xi, the poor factory line worker in “Legs, Hands, Fingers,” who has lost the feeling in her hands and believes herself to be transforming into a serpent: and the businessman in “While Facing the Urinal” who is offered an assassin’s services while trying to urinate.
MV: Yes, these are all people struggling to come to terms with the same morphing mythology: five-thousand-plus years of history condensed in the metaphor of the Cultural Revolution — a quintessential “rethinking” of all that ever was.
Each character, phrase or passage is a symbolically linked thread of a continually evolving web of convention, misinformation and misconstruction — and yet, all of these individuals’ fates are reflected in some skewed sense of the primordial in a modern beauty: one among many nations facing a schizophrenic future.
3:AM: You know China at all levels, as only an expatriate can, and an adventurous expatriate at that. If you think it won’t taint readers’ enjoyment of Mao’s Mole, please tell us voyeurs something about any autobiographical truck you might have had with the Flowery Middle Kingdom: formative prepubescent traumas, travels, misadventures, Sino-fornication and so forth. For example, I have heard that you were actually born in the neighborhood, and at a key moment in their history.
MV: I don’t know about all levels. I don’t believe anyone can ever know a place, a race, a tribe or a nation, and particularly one as vast, varied and ancient as China. Expatriate? Maybe. But then again, I was born in the Middle Kingdom, so does that make me Chinese? If not in race or culture, perhaps in spirit? You’d have to ask my Chinese friends.
3:AM: Even John Paton Davies went to his grave a waiguoren.
MV: True. Shortly after I came into the world, Mao’s Cultural Revolution was in full-on class struggle behind the bamboo curtain. Even in our “colonial jewel” that was Hong Kong, Maoist separatists were chanting revolutionary slogans outside capitalist factories, planting bombs down at Victoria Harbor, tossing Molotov cocktails into bourgeois shop fronts.
Mum’s father (I called him Gung Gung, the Cantonese for grandfather) had been posted to the colony just after World War II. His official task was to map Hong Kong and all its outlying islands and territories; as I came to find out later, his unofficial detail was to keep an eye out for revolutionary activities in border areas. Gung Gung was one of the very few British government employees given permission to learn what the other civil servants called “a rather distasteful tongue.”
3:AM: Some of the most fascinating poems in the book pertain to the pursuit of capitalist enterprises deep inside the world’s hugest communist dictatorship. What is your background in this delicate field of endeavor?
MV: My own father entered into a business partnership with a Shanghai businessman who had a penchant for bloody steaks and Peking Opera, and, who had fled China’s Revolution in the 50s. Strangely, despite his having fled the Republic, this Shanghai businessman still had notable connections within the Party. He and Dad built a business selling raw materials (from as far afield as the US, Canada, Brazil, Chile, South Africa and Tasmania) to the Communist Party and its singular ministries. (In those days all business in China was centralized: one ministry, one commodity.)
No matter where we lived — Hong Kong, Zurich, New York, London — there was hardly a month we didn’t have a cadre or comrade visiting our home. (My mother made sure we had a good stock of corn on the cob. It seemed to be a Party favorite.) Already in these years, the late 60s and 70s, Mao’s Party Line crept surreptitiously into our daily conversations. And in the 80s, when we lived in Connecticut and Dad was working in New York, we were sure our phone lines were being tapped on both sides. At his offices, Dad received regular visits from Men in Black. An ongoing family joke was a question that had been frequently posed to Dad: “Mr. Vincenz are you a member of the Communist Party?”
In the nineties, after having worked for businesses in Hong Kong and China myself, I finally ventured it on my own. I spent the good part of the late nineties and early two-thousands living and working in and out of Shanghai and Beijing, where I reluctantly tumbled headfirst into the growing economic powerhouse that China was starting to become. Despite the echoes of Tienanmen, Deng Xiao Ping’s “Get Rick Quick” scheme had taken a firm hold. Possibly one of the first lessons I learned first-hand is that in China absolutely nothing is ever as it seems.
3:AM: Your poetry derives richness and energy from the gigantic contradictions China poses on the world stage. How do you manage to draw such immediate and personal poetry from these economic, political and historical tectonics?
MV: China is, of course, one of the most culturally and historically significant civilizations on our planet, and has much to offer the open-minded. Yet even now, the shadow of Mao’s legacy hangs heavy over the Middle Kingdom. Guy Sorman, French economist and sinologist has said: “The Propaganda Department functions with ruthless efficiency, making gullible foreigners accept unquestioningly whatever it chooses to put out: economic statistics that cannot be verified, trumped-up elections, blanked-out epidemics, imaginary labor harmony, and the purported absence of any aspiration for democracy.”
Of course, you can never know a people or a nation. And despite my many experiences within China and with her citizens, I will always remain an outsider; yet my impressions of these people, their landscapes, heartaches and laughter — and, above all, their ongoing attempt to come to grips with an ancient legacy, with Communist doubletalk and the current Party’s proto-Marxist capitalism (a dichotomy if ever there was one) — continues to baffle and astound me.
I lived close to my Chinese colleagues and friends, broke bread with them, shared tears with them, consoled and laughed with them. How could I not become personally entangled in their lives? Although few of the poems refer to specific people (you know who you are), all of them are shadows or ghosts of people I have known on some level.
3:AM: This personal and autobiographical element has an uncanny effect on your presentation of the nation at large. The intimacy crosses over, until the unimaginable is encompassed: China becomes a microcosm. It feels strange even to say that.
MV: Absolutely. I have come to see this ultra-rapid, development of the Chinese nation from a country of emperors and robber barons, through Mao’s Cultural Revolution, to its present “economic coming of age” as a metaphor for the development of modern “civilization.” In many ways what China has survived in the last forty years is much akin to Europe’s Industrial Revolution of the mid-Nineteenth Century. And despite the fact that much of the western world believes China is on a narrow path to taking over the global economy, one must bear in mind that eighty percent of China’s population still lives in abject poverty. The money and power remains in the hands of the few — most of them well intertwined in the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party — China’s modern emperors and warlords.
3:AM: One is put in mind of your Revolutionary Commander, merciful and jocular, who addresses his troops in the penultimate poem of section one.
MV: Right. In China today, you experience the greatest extremes of wealth and poverty, injustice and indifference. For me, Mao’s Mole is not just about China’s recent history, but about how time and again, myth is being reinvented to serve the purposes of the powers-that-be under the guise of modernizing a nation.
3:AM: Excellent. How about ending this interview with a sample from Mao’s Mole?
MV: Sure, Tom. Here’s an excerpt from “Why Yang Wants to Leave Wolf Mountain”
(2)
And Yang and I become the double-entendre of all Wu county,
that staccato at the end of a Peking opera played on fields of barley—
an embarrassment for those with no faith, but a miraculous creation
for those who worship the salacious Buddha with the pot belly
like faithful Grandpa Ye who Mother says is incorrigible.
Evenings when he sips dragon brew from his chipped red cup
he chortles in our ears—in those days we have only one little Red Book—
but he sits there plunked on the edge of our bed, stomping
to scare off night mice, to ease us into our dreams with ancient tales
of villagers passing through winter’s cold fingers, of fading
into the soft-snow of god-sky, only to remerge
as black-necked cranes under our mountain’s early haze.
(3)
Grandpa Ye claims he knows each crane by name,
every unique swell and swagger, each bellow and grunt;
who flutters brazen like Great Auntie Ma or sways
on one leg like Great-grandmother Shie, and he jests
that Uncle Fu always gobbled too many fried dumplings,
croaked & ruffled his wings in a huff, but just like any crane,
deeply admired the round paleness of our spring moon
over Wolf Mountain; perhaps because it reminded him
of the crisp butter pancakes Auntie Ma would roast
on freezing winter nights, stuffed with scallions,
raisins and that secret recipe of hers for sticky brown rice.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Tom Bradley has published twenty-five volumes of fiction, essays, screenplays and poetry. His latest collaborations with visual artists include Family Romance (Jaded Ibis Productions), Felicia’s Nose (MadHat Press), We’ll See Who Seduces Whom: a graphic ekphrasis in verse (Unlikely Books) and Elmer Crowley: a katabasic nekyia (Mandrake of Oxford).With three weeks to go before the Maryland primary, Donald Trump supporters at University of Maryland are now campaigning on sacred territory: Testudo the Turtle.
Last Friday, Trump’s senior advisor and social media manager Dan Scavino tweeted a photo of the 80-year-old statue decked out in a “Make America Great Again” hat with a copy of Trump: The Art of the Deal perched beside it. The act seems to be the work of student group “Terps For Trump,” which also tweeted out photos of Trump messages written in chalk at various places on campus.
The Testudo picture—retweeted over 900 times—is part of Trump’s new #TheChalkening Twitter campaign, which is centered around showing support for the GOP hopeful on college campuses in America. The campaign comes in the wake of recent controversy at Emory University, where students claimed to be upset by seeing “Trump 2016” scrawled in chalk.
Maryland students haven’t reacted in the same way yet, though some have tweeted their dismay in seeing pro-Trump messages on the way to class Monday.
How dare someone do that to Testudo with that #MakeAmericaGreatAgain / Trump propaganda?!? — NC (@_NikkiandCo) April 4, 2016
They really violated my boy Testudo by putting him in a Trump hat. That’s a fightable offense. — Wally West (@cuntrocity) April 4, 2016
Whoever wrote “terps for trump” & “trump 2016” is a disgrace to this university — Katherine (@_lKatherine) April 4, 2016
WHO THE HELL IS PUTTING #TERPSFORTRUMP ALL OVER CAMPUS? — Kenn (@Xvillainized) April 4, 2016
thank you to whoever wrote Terps for Trump in chalk on the sidewalk because it gives me a great place to spit my gum out — MetRoss Boomin (@asaprockytop) April 4, 2016
On my way to the gym and I keep seeing “Terps <3 Trump” chalked into the sidewalks.
Please stop trying to make me throw up before my workout — Aliza Silverman (@aliz_mealone) April 4, 2016
Vandalizing the Testudo statue is a time-honored tradition at Maryland. During finals week, students leave everything from snacks and cigarette cartons to lamp posts and stoves on the bronze turtle in hopes of receiving good marks on their exams. It’s not quite finals week yet, so whether or not the good fortune extends to the Trump campaign remains to be seen. A Baltimore Sun poll published March 11 put Trump in the lead with 34 percent of likely primary voters.Fed's Fake Recovery
The press attributed this week’s rise in gold to benign causes. The end of the world seems to have been postponed – indefinitely. Bloomberg reported that a clear majority of those polled thought the world economy was recovering. With no more fear of the deflation devil investors feel they are in the arms of angels. Surely Ben Bernanke watches over them even when they sleep. Even the President of the United States thinks he saved the nation.
As for Tim Geithner, he takes no chances; he sings his own praises. Speaking to a gathering of the G20, he congratulated them all:
“…facing the greatest challenge to the world economy in generations, the G-20 gathered here in London and committed to an unprecedented program of policies to restore growth and reform the international financial system. Those actions have pulled the global economy back from the edge of the abyss. The financial system is showing signs of repair. Growth is now underway.”
Stocks are still up. Commodities too. Oil is over $70. And most encouraging of all: the 10-year US Treasury note yields only 3.47%. So what evil sends investors running to the protection of gold? None at all, say the papers; investors buy gold in anticipation of better times. They see a recovery, bringing with it tightened supplies and rising demand. Every economist, investor and hair stylist knows what this means – inflation.
But if growth is underway, investors should be glad there is not more of it. The key indicators of real economic progress are negative. Unemployment is not rising; it is falling. Nearly 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began. In California, only 3 of 5 working age residents have a job. And those who are still working are putting in the shortest workweeks ever recorded. How could the economy be growing with fewer people earning money? The New York Times attempted to explain the enigma by calling it a “jobless recovery.” But a recovery without jobs is like a loveless marriage or a fat-free burger – it is disappointing.
Another key indicator is personal spending. Not surprisingly, that is down too. Personal spending has fallen in four of the last six quarters – something that has never happened before, since they began keeping records in 1947. The level of consumer spending is down 33% from a year ago – with discretionary spending in the United States now down to a level it hasn’t seen in 50 years. Consumers aren’t spending partly because they have no money…and partly because they apply what money they have left to relieving the headache from their previous binge. A report this week showed they had reduced their hangover of personal debt in July by more than $21 billion – four times as much as economists forecast. These are, of course, the same economists who pimp for the angels at Bernanke & Co. If they’re right, we have a spending-less, jobless recovery pushing up the price of gold.
We offer an alternate interpretation. We begin with a doubt about the one now on the table. In the popular version, the more the recovery seems real, the more investors fear real inflation. This drives them to buy gold. Of course, it should drive them to sell US Treasury bonds too – which hasn’t happened. Nor has inflation gone up. And if this view were correct, we should begin to see remedial measures from the US central bank. The Fed should soon begin to withdraw its monetary stimulus, returning the economy to a kind of normalcy it hasn’t seen in years. The risk, not insignificant, is that Fed economists will err. They may loosen monetary policy too slowly or too quickly. Asked about the risk, Janet Yellen, President of the Fed’s San Francisco branch, promised to avoid the error of 1937 – she will not “tighten policy too soon, aborting the recovery.”
Gold bulls are counting on her. And they may be right. But here on the back page, we add a nuance. We’re not surprised by an occasional Fed error. What surprises us is the rare accidental success. There are 500 basis points between zero and 5%. It would take a miracle for central bankers to find exactly the rate the market needs precisely when it needs it most. The ’37 error, for example, might have been a success. At least it sped up the process of liquidation so the decks were clear when the post-war boom finally came.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and the Fed will make the same error again. Not likely. This time they’ll make a different error – adding too much cash and too much credit for too long a time. Today’s ‘recovery’ is based on hot money from the feds. It’s a fake. It won’t cause real growth. When this becomes clear, commodities will sink – along with stocks…and gold. Central banks, ignoring the futility of their hot money program so far, will add even more hot money. Eventually, the hot money will cause inflation to rise and gold to ‘melt up.’ Gold bulls will be proven more right than they imagine. But they may be proven wrong first.
Enjoy your weekend,
Bill Bonner
The Daily ReckoningThe Center For Investigative Reporting has a scandalous expose on the hypocritical practices of public servants who waste millions of gallons watering their own desert lawns while demanding that other Californians conserve.
California is suffering one of its worst droughts, forcing lawmakers to make difficult decisions about water usage. But not everyone follows his or her own mandates. Meet Mike Soubirous of Riverside, Calif., who voted in the city council to limit lawn watering to four days a week. Nonetheless, reporters found the sprinklers running every night at Soubirous’ palatial home. How else is he supposed to maintain an acre of verdant lawns, shrubs and that giant weeping willow? “Do I have to sell my house to set that example, or do I have to just abolish all my shrubs?” he asked CIR.
According to the investigators, Soubirous was one of three officials who used more than a million gallons a year. The problem is more widespread than a few over-the-top bad actors.
Water bills obtained via the state’s Public Records Act show that in 2013, nearly half of the officials who supervise the state’s biggest water agencies used more water than the typical California household. And water officials tended not to cut back as the drought persisted. Even as their agencies scolded ratepayers on conservation, 60 percent of these officials used more water in 2013 than they had in 2012, records show.
Shame.
— Posted by Peter Z. ScheerOver the course of the 169 day 2013-14 NBA regular season, each franchise will play a game about every other day. Add cross-country travel and inevitable injuries to the already grueling 82-game schedule and it is an almost certainty that each team will experience nights where they perform significantly above and below their true talent level.
For instance, consider the January 8th contest between the Warriors and Nets. The Warriors had played the previous day and were concluding a 10-day, 7-game east coast road trip. Meanwhile, the Nets arrived at the Barclays Center rested and in the midst of a 4-game home stand.
Bottom line, the NBA schedule is littered with games where one team holds a situational edge over another. With these factors in mind, I examined how consistently each team has performed to date this season.
Standard deviation is a statistical measure that quantifies the degree to which data points deviate from the mean. In basketball terms, standard deviation measures the variability of each team’s individual game results relative to their average level of performance.
Because points for and points allowed tend to be normally distributed, standard deviation can also tell us what percentage of games will fall within a particular score differential; roughly 68% of game results will fall within one standard deviation from the mean, 95% within two standard deviations, and just about every final score will land within three standard deviations from average.
For example, the Miami Heat has an average margin of victory (MOV) of 5.4 points per game with a standard deviation 11.0. In other words, LeBron & Co.’s performance to date indicates that they defeat their opponents, on average, by 5.4 points per game and about 68% of their contests fall within the range of a 16.4 point victory and a 5.6 point defeat.
Above average teams like the Heat – those with a positive MOV – benefit from playing consistently night in and night out. At the time of this writing, the Warriors and Timberwolves both have a MOV of 4.1, but the former has played a more consistent brand of basketball than the latter (see table below). As a result, Golden State sits comfortably ahead of Minnesota in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
Conversely, below average teams are rewarded for playing a high variance brand of basketball. Given two teams with equal, negative MOV’s, the more inconsistent team will win more games. Overall, the relationship between winning and consistency is fairly simple: the more inconsistently a team performs, the closer its winning percentage approaches.500.
With these concepts in mind, below is table illustrating each team’s level of performance and consistency this season.
The Knicks have performed the most inconsistently by a considerable margin. New York’s relationship with the three-point shot probably contributes to a standard deviation of 16.0. 27.5% of the Knicks scoring comes via the long ball, per NBA.com, a percentage that is only surpassed by Mike D’Antoni’s three-point happy offense in L.A. Meanwhile, Mike Woodson’s club also allows the 5th most three-point attempts per game (22.9).
Contests with a disproportionate amount of three-point attempts produce more erratic outcomes because of the high risk, high reward nature of shots from beyond the arc. It may sound counter-intuitive, but given the team’s negative MOV, the Knicks erratic performance has actually been beneficial; if a lower standard deviation accompanied a -2.3 MOV, the team would have won fewer games. I take caution with this conclusion, however, because it is grounded in the assumption that MOV remains constant.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Mavericks have played the most consistent basketball to date. The Mavs boast a veteran-laden rotation led by reliable veteran Dirk Nowitzki. Jose Calderon orchestrates an offense that turns the ball over on just 14.1% of possessions, per NBA.com, good for 5th in the league.
Lastly, it’s important to highlight that the Heat – despite Dwyane Wade being in and out of the lineup – have played more consistently than 25 other teams. For a team with a lower MOV relative to the consensus of their true ability, it appears that the Heat may be taking their foot off the gas for a prolonged period rather than playing the more erratic, try hard here-and-there strategy that the media may portray.
So what does this all mean moving forward? Honestly, my first analysis of NBA team-by-team consistency breeds more questions than answers. Are these standard deviation numbers indicative of how consistently teams will perform the rest of the way? What metrics correlate best with a team’s standard deviation? Teams would also benefit from this information; large underdogs should embrace high variance strategies while big favorites should employ an approach that minimizes score variation.
Extracting predictive value is often the ultimate prize and while this article may not offer all the answers, I suggest that those who are interested in projecting NBA outcomes incorporate variance analysis in their work. The smaller a team’s standard deviation, the greater a bettor’s confidence level should be when determining its expected level of performance.President Donald Trump blasted North Korea as a 'grave and growing direct threat' to the world following its latest provocation – a ballistic missile launch over Japan.
In a return to the saber-rattling of the last flare up with North Korea, Trump is warning that 'all options are on the table' – an obvious reference to U.S. military might.
'The world has received North Korea's latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,' Trump said in a statement released by the White House.
'Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table,' he said.
In a press conference, presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said South Korean leader Moon Jae-in had wanted 'to showcase a strong punishment capability against the North.'
'The drill reconfirmed South Korea Air Force capability to destroy the enemy's leadership in cases of emergency.'
Show of force: South Korea launched military drills which included dropping eight bombs on a training field near the northern border, within hours of the North's missile test
U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump depart the White House in Washington, U.S., on their way to view storm damage in Texas
His tough words came as North Korea's latest launch, this time of a missile over Japan's northern island, terrified Japanese citizens and caused a sudden drop in financial markets.
Weeks ago, Trump had warned that North Korea would face 'fire and fury' if it issued threats to the U.S.
The U.S. led an effort for new sanctions against the rogue regime that were approved by the UN Security Council.
Within hours of Kim's missile launch, South Korea had responded with an 'overwhelming show of force' by bombing a shooting range near its border to the North as part of a military drill, launching footage which contained a stern warning to Kim Jong-Un.
Seoul dropped eight Mark 84 bombs with four F15K fighter jets near Taebaek, Gangwon-do province, and released footage of the drill along with a video of its own ballistic missile tests conducted last week.
Drills: South Korea's F-15K fighter jets drop bombs during a training at the Taebaek Pilsung Firing Range on Tuesday morning in Gangwon-do, South Korea
Warning: Colonel Lee Kuk-no of South Korea made it clear that Seoul would respond with full force is North Korea threatened the South
Response: U.S. President Donald Trump said he had received Kim Jong-un's message 'loud and clear' after North Korea's ballistic missile launch over Japan today
Response: A bomb hits a mock target at the Pilseung Firing Range in Gangwon-do, South Korea near the border to the North after on |
(Apple recently introduced a built-in feature that can do this with Apple Watch Series 1 and later). Killian experienced mild indigestion which can be a sign of a heart attack, but says he generally didn’t feel sick.
His Apple Watch charted his heart rate at around 121 beats per minute in the middle of the night while data previously captured showed his average resting heart rate at around 49 beats per minute. The data also showed that this was the first time his resting heart rate had reached this level since he began wearing Apple Watch, so he decided to go to the emergency room as a precaution.
Killian says he told his wife while they were waiting in the ER that he felt like they were wasting time and money, then the hospital connected him to an EKG machine.
While the results reported back as normal, he says he noticed his heart rate was still elevated. His Apple Watch was “dead accurate” with the beats per minute reported by the hospital’s machinery.
Then the hospital took a blood test and discovered an elevated enzyme that signals a heart attack has occurred or is occurring. Further testing revealed four blocked arteries which required the insertion of four stents (inflated titanium carbon fiber sleeves) to correct.
“Ten thousand dollars in tests. None of this came out,” Killian says. He told his surgeon that the Apple Watch is what prompted him to go to the ER, and his surgeon’s response was remarkable.
“He said had I kept sleeping, I probably wouldn’t have woken up. I would have died in my sleep.”
This especially struck me personally because my grandfather died at 55 from a heart attack in the middle of the night — 13 years before the Apple Watch existed. Now, this technology is accessible for a few hundred dollars and can actually save lives.
I asked Scott Killian why he originally bought an Apple Watch. His answer was not for health and fitness tracking, but instead for productivity. Now, he says every time he looks at his watch, it clicks in his head that it saved his life.
“I always wore good Swiss watches and the only reason I switched to an Apple Watch is because it sets alarms and timers that keep me on task at work. The thing actually saved my life. I think every man 50 years old should be wearing one of these things.”
Killian plans to stop boxing after his heart attack, but he purchased a home workout machine to maintain his physical activity. He also purchased AliveCor’s Kardia Band for Apple Watch — an FDA approved EKG reader — so he can have access to EKG readouts that can be shared with doctors in seconds without going to a hospital.
The combination of Apple Watch and Kardia Band, which costs $199 and requires a $99/year subscription for its medical service, is giving Scott Killian the chance to continue a healthy workout routine without unknowingly putting his heart in danger.
“There’s a really big psychological deficit to having a heart attack in that your feeling of being strong and healthy evaporates overnight,” Killian told me.
Any bit of discomfort understandably creates anxiety that your heart is failing. Apple Watch not only saved Scott Killian’s life, but now it’s empowering him to manage his life after the heart attack.
“How good is it to know that you’re having a problem right now? Whenever I feel a little bit unsettled, I can just press a button and get an EKG. That in itself is going to make me feel a lot better.”
Related:Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz is taking a page out of the Drew Brees playbook when it comes to preparation.
Or, more accurately, Chase Daniel ripped that page out while in New Orleans, brought it with him to Kansas City and has since passed the formula along to Wentz.
Daniel began his career with the New Orleans Saints in 2010. Upon arrival, Brees laid out a very specific and intensive schedule for the quarterback room to follow.
Chase Daniel, right, is credited for cutting down the learning curve of Carson Wentz. AP Photo/Michael Perez
"It honestly started my rookie year," Daniel remembers. "Drew was like, 'Hey, we're going to be here at 5:30 in the morning, and this is what we're going to watch on Wednesdays, this is what we're going to watch on Thursdays, this is what we're going to watch on Fridays.' And I was like, 'OK. Yes, absolutely. I'll do whatever you say.' I'm a rookie, he's throwing for 5,000 yards a season.
"As time progressed there, we sort of got into a routine. I have two pages of notes on the schedule of exactly what we're supposed to do, and I sort of brought that to Kansas City with us. Alex [Smith] really loved it, felt he was really prepared and that's sort of what I've tried to bring here with Carson."
Daniel didn't reveal everything about the blueprint, but did share some details. First, the quarterbacks are in the film room, clicker in hand, at 5:30 a.m. During the heavy days of prep, they remain in the building until about 7 or 7:30 at night. The "day off" -- Tuesday -- is a six or seven-hour day, as the quarterbacks get a head start on the film.
"We're always staying one day ahead of the team. [Thursday], we put base behind us and we started on third down. [Friday], we put third down behind us and we get started on red zone. We're always staying one step ahead and we're always going back and checking, 'OK, here's the base plan.' We have this schedule where it just fits. It works well for the mental reps and the mental side of things and so far Carson likes it, he enjoys it."
"There's a difference in preparing at the college level and preparing at the NFL level. I think you have to take it up a notch. Carson was already a film nerd, he was already diving into the film, you're just sort of taking it up a notch and you sort of have it structured in a way where you know exactly what you're doing at 6 a.m. on a Thursday, you know exactly what you're doing at 6 p.m. on a Thursday."
Wentz addressed the media Thursday, and was asked a thousand different ways about how he's handling the hype. The Presidential shoutout. The jersey sales. All the chatter and attention. He pointed out multiple times that it's not that tough to insulate yourself when you're buried deep in your work.
"I stay pretty focused on football. And at the end of the day you just go home and you relax. You block out a lot of it," he said. "Plus, we're so busy, you don't really have time to get caught up in too much other stuff."
Daniel called the night before the game -- when all that work is done and you're tucked away from the rest of the world in hotel room -- "the best sleep in the world." This week that rest will come in Chicago, before the next biggest moment of Wentz's young career.
"He's responded pretty well," said Daniel. "Obviously, the schedule is not what made him play well against the Browns. I think his superior athletic ability, his intangibles, his smarts, his arm strength, that's what made him play well, but you'd love to think that the preparation part is pretty important, too."This has to be the best thing in fast food convenience since the freakin' straw: A cup that holds your chicken nuggets AND your soda. Nuggets on top, soda on bottom—hand to nugget, straw to face. AT THE SAME TIME. Amazing.
Advertisement
Adam's vivisection of the Col-Pop shows that the material between the pops and the pop is a thin membrane, but he doesn't comment on the effectiveness of keeping the two separate. I mean, the obvious problem with this triumph of science over nature is that piping-hot chicken nuggets will water your Dr. Pepper down to Diet Coke-like consistency, while cold soda will turn your steaming nuggets into tough, lukewarm chunks of breaded styrofoam. The chain offering this plastic marvel, BBQ Chicken, has locations in NY, NJ and NC—can any Giz readers offer a review?
Update: Adam goes diving a little deeper for us, revealing that pokey eaters will indeed be dealing with some soggy chicken, especially on a hot day. Check it:
Advertisement
That said, I sooo hope Chik-fil-A is on this thing, pronto. [Serious Eats via BBG]Every share makes Black Voice louder! Share To Share To
Variety is set to host a conference on the importance of diversity and inclusion in Hollywood with several movie stars and executives in attendance.
Variety announced on Monday that it will be hosting the first-ever conference on inclusion and diversity in Hollywood at The Montage hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on November 1, 2016.
The conference labeled “Inclusion” looks to promote communication and diversity awareness in the areas of ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and aging, with the help of talents and senior executives from the creative community.
It will also include crucial conversations with Black record producer and singer Pharell Williams and Universal Studios chairman Donna Langley. The conference is going to have various panels dealing with matters ranging from LGBTQ rights to Latino entertainment.
AARP and PwC are among the sponsors for the conference; with PwC’s U.S. Board Chairman Brian Cullinan set to chair a fireside talk with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“There is no issue in Hollywood today more important and relevant than diversity and inclusion. It is Variety’s privilege and responsibility to lead an industry-wide dialogue and bring the decision makers of our community together to promote solutions to counter the lack of minority talent in film and television. This is an issue that transcends the entertainment business, and we are excited to play a role in the broader conversation,” said Michelle Sobrino-Stearns, Variety’s group publisher.
The issue of age discrimination will also be discussed, as it is seen as an important matter to be tackled in Hollywood.
“Age discrimination is an incredibly important issue, not just to AARP’s 38 million members nationwide, but across all facets of society,” Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP CEO added. “We hope the dialogue at the Variety conference will lead not only to greater awareness of the issue but to more and better opportunities for talented actors, producers, directors, and others in the creative community — whatever their age.”
In the modern world, the issue of inclusion is quite urgent for all walks of life. But still, it is a shame for such a giant industry as Hollywood to deny the benefits of diversity especially in terms of race. We welcome the long-awaited initiative of the famous magazine and hope that the voices of the Black celebrities invited to the event will be heard by their audience.It's one thing to read that foreclosures are "riddled with fraud." It's another to hear numbers like 84 percent. These are some seriously shocking numbers. Via Working America:
San Francisco recently carried out an audit on a number of foreclosures. Their findings were released in a report this week that shows just how rampant mortgage fraud has been. From Reuters:
The audit of almost 400 foreclosures in San Francisco found that 84 percent of them appeared to be illegal, according to the study released by the California city on Wednesday.
Similar studies around the country show comparable results. These numbers are astounding. And worse, they’ve essentially gotten away with it.
In many cases during the housing bubble that burst in 2008, original mortgages were repackaged and sold to so many investors that it is now unclear who actually holds the loans. O’Brien could only find the current owners of the mortgages he studied in 287 out of 473 cases. In the San Francisco study, which studied properties subject to foreclosure sales between January 2009 to November 2011, 45 per cent were sold to entities improperly claiming to be the owner of the loan. “It is not impossible that there are homeowners who are alleged to have defaulted on loans to which they never fully agreed to and, further, are being foreclosed upon by lenders that might not even own such loans,” the report stated.
This should be unimaginable. Instead it is chilling – the story of a largely unregulated financial industry gone amuck. The consequences to homeowners and their families is devastating. Of course the most chilling aspect of the whole mess is that the banks have never admitted to any wrongdoing. There have been no prosecutions. No banksters are wearing orange prison jumpsuits as a result of their role in defrauding millions of US homeowners.Our preview of the NCAA football season rolls on. After looking at the Big East Conference, and then the Big XII Conference, we move back East and look at the Atlantic Coast Conference or ACC. Last year the conference was won by the Clemson Tigers who blasted then #3 ranked Virginia Tech 38-10 in the ACC Championship game. The game was tied 10-10 at halftime, but Clemson Quarterback Tajh Boyd exploded in the second half leading the Tigers to a convincing victory.
As ACC Champion the Tigers would go on to play West Virginia in the Orange Bowl. This game did not go as well as the Mountaineers would shred the Clemson defence for 70 points, on route to the victory.
However those blowouts are ancient history now and a new season brings new hopes, and new dreams for Clemson, Virginia Tech, and all the ACC schools, so lets get to it and look at what the ACC has in store for fans in 2012.
BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES
2011-12 Record: 4-8 (3-5 ACC)
Returning Starters: 7 on offense, 7 on defense
Key Losses: LB Luke Kuechly (NFL), all-time BC leading rusher Montel Harris (removed from team for “repeated violation of team rules)
Player To Watch: Deuce Finch will be part of the committee at RB, but his ball security needs to improve.
Of Note: Four starters are returning on the offensive line.
Can’t-Miss Game: BC-Miami should be one of the better games on a weak slate September 1.
CLEMSON TIGERS
2011-12 Record: 10-4 (6-2 ACC)
Returning Starters: 7 on offense, 8 on defense
Key Loss: Electric RB Sammy Watkins- albeit only for two games- after an offseason drug arrest resulted in a suspension.
Player To Watch: QB Tajh Boyd had impressive numbers through the first three-quarters of the season, then cooled off considerably. Can he play up to his ability throughout this year?
Of Note: Only two starters return on the offensive line, a unit that struggled at times last year.
Can’t-Miss Game: September 22 on the road at Florida State
DUKE BLUE DEVILS
2011-12 Record: 3-9 (1-7 ACC)
Returning Starters: 7 on offense, 6 on defense
Key Loss: LB Kelby Brown to an ACL injury
Player(s) To Watch: Duke doesn’t have a clear #1 RB heading into the season. Who will emerge as that guy?
Can’t-Miss Game: November 26 at North Carolina. Just pretend they’re playing basketball.
FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES
2011-12 Record: 9-4 (5-3 ACC)
Returning Starters: 7 on offense, 9 on defense
Key Loss: Nigel Bradham (NFL)
Key Addition: Senior RB Chris Thompson, injured most of last season.
Player(s) To Watch: The offensive line. Four true freshman started in the Champs Sports Bowl, which the Noles won over Notre Dame, but will they have growing pains over the course of a full season?
Of Note: Florida State has more returning starters than anyone else in the ACC
GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS
2011-12 Record: 8-5 (5-3 ACC)
Returning Starters: 7 on offense, 6 on defense
Key Loss: RB Stephen Hill (NFL)
Player To Watch: QB Tevin Washington didn’t throw a single TD his last seven games last season, and he has a less experienced WR corps this year.
Can’t-Miss Game: October 6 at Clemson
Of Note: The Yellow Jackets open the season with a road conference game at Virginia Tech
MARYLAND TERRAPINS
2011-12 Record: 2-10 (1-7 ACC)
Returning Starters: 4 on offense, 7 on defense
Key Loss: QB Danny O’Brien graduated and transferred to Wisconsin for grad school
Key Addition: Five-star WR Stefon Diggs. The Terps don’t get top-notch five-star recruits every day. Must be the uniforms (or maybe not).
Players To Watch: The offensive line, with just two returning starters
NORTH CAROLINA STATE WOLFPACK
2011-12 Record: 8-5 (4-4 ACC)
Returning Starters: 7 on offense, 6 on defense
Key Losses: LBs Terrell Manning (NFL) and D.J. Green (suspended one year by NCAA for testing positive for a banned supplement).
Player(s) To Watch: The defensive backfield, especially if you’re an opposing QB. All four starters return, and NC State’s defense led the NCAA in interceptions last year with 27.
Of Note: NC State has only finished with double-digit wins once, in 2002, with San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers at the helm.
Can’t-Miss Game: October 27 at North Carolina
WAKE FOREST DEMON DEACONS
2011-12 Record: 6-7 (5-3 ACC)
Returning Starters: 3 on offense, 7 on defense
Key Loss: WR Chris Givens (NFL)
Players To Watch: A very inexperienced offensive line
Can’t-Miss Game: November 24 against Vanderbilt, the battle of the creepy humanesque mascots
MIAMI HURRICANES
2011-12 Record: 6-6 (3-5 ACC)
Returning Starters: 5 on offense, 5 on defense
Key Loss: LB Sean Spence, DE Olivier Vernon (NFL)
Key Addition: QB Ryan Williams, a transfer from Memphis who started 10 games there and sat out 2011
Of Note: The ‘Canes have tough non-conference games against Kansas State, Notre Dame, and South Florida. At some point they’ll likely have NCAA sanctions issued as well.
Can’t-Miss Game: October 20 vs. Florida State
NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS
2011-12 Record: 7-6 (3-5 ACC)
Returning Starters: 7 on offense, 5 on defense
Key Loss: None
Key Addition: K Casey Barth was granted a fifth year of eligibility by the NCAA after missing most of last season due to injury
Of Note: The Heels could be looking at more NCAA sanctions down the road due to the current academic fraud investigation, and are already banned from bowl games
Can’t Miss Game: October 13 at Miami. Call it the Sanctions Bowl.
VIRGINIA CAVALIERS
2011-12 Record: 8-5 (5-3 ACC)
Returning Starters: 6 on offense, 5 on defense
Key Loss: 3 of their defensive front 4
Of Note: True sophomore Demetrious Nicholson is the only returning starter in the defensive secondary
Can’t-Miss Game: November 24 at Virginia Tech
VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES
2011-12 Record: 11-3 (7-1 ACC)
Returning Starters: 3 on offense, 9 on defense
Key Loss: ACC Player of the Year RB David Wilson (NFL)
Player(s) To Watch: The RB corp attempting to replace Wilson
Of Note: The Hokies led the ACC with 41 sacks last year, and return almost their entire defense
Can’t-Miss Game: October 20 at Clemson is the only road game on the schedule that should be a challenge for VT
ACC OVERVIEW
Conference Champ: Florida State
Possible Dark Horse(s): Virginia Tech, Clemson
Offensive POTY: Virginia Tech QB Logan Thomas
Defensive POTY: Virginia Tech LB Bruce Taylor
Coach On The Hot Seat: David Cutliffe, Duke (15-33 in four years)Homeless man badly injured in SF paintball shooting
Emergency Sign Emergency Sign Photo: Paul Hart, Getty Images Photo: Paul Hart, Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Homeless man badly injured in SF paintball shooting 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
A homeless man suffered a possible brain injury after being hit in the head multiple times with paintball pellets early Monday in San Francisco, police said.
Prior to the Sunday night attack, police officers had contacted the 33-year-old victim and called the city’s homeless outreach workers to provide assistance to him, said Officer Giselle Talkoff, a police spokeswoman.
But between police leaving and anyone arriving, someone shot him with a paintball gun twice in the head, one of which landed near his eye socket, Talkoff said. The victim also suffered injuries to his hand and fingers.
Though no one reported witnessing the shooting, people told police the man was shouting in the street prior to the incident, Talkoff said.
Officers and paramedics found him covered in paint just after midnight on the 5800 block of Mission Street near Lawrence Avenue, with expended paintball capsules surrounding him. He was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Though the victim’s injuries were initially described as life-threatening, by Monday afternoon he was in stable condition, Talkoff said. He may have suffered brain injuries, she said.
“It may be paint, but those things hurt and will cause some damage,” Talkoff said.
Officials don’t have information on a suspect but were canvassing the area for video surveillance footage and other evidence.
Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerovThe ABS faced considerable unwelcome attention this week after it announced substantial revisions to the seasonally adjusted labour force figures for July and August. Reacting to the announcement, Treasurer Joe Hockey expressed dissatisfaction with the volatility in the labour force figures, suggesting funding constraints on the ABS were to blame, and indicating that a shift to a “user-pays” model may be a way of restoring the organisation’s financial position.
There are certainly indications the ABS is facing acute resource constraints. It is reportedly cutting 115 staff and former Australian statistician, Brian Pink, had blamed cuts to its survey program on funding cuts.
Ironically, the volatility in labour statistics that appears to have precipitated ministerial action to address the funding inadequacies does not seem to have had anything to do with those inadequacies.
There was no cut to the sample size, no change in fieldwork or data processing procedures to reduce costs and, indeed, no failure of systems or people that led to the wild fluctuations in employment and unemployment numbers in July and August.
In fact, the ABS has not revised the unadjusted (original) numbers. Rather, it is the series that is adjusted for the monthly seasonal variation in employment and unemployment that has been revised—because, for reasons unknown, the typical seasonal patterns of July and August (and September) appear to have changed this year.
That aside, it remains the case that all is not well at the ABS. But just how bad is the funding situation?
Keeping the lights on
The budget papers show the federal government allocating A$341 million to the ABS for fiscal year 2014-15. The ABS is expected to raise a further A$30 million from other sources, most of which presumably derives from data collections funded by other government departments and agencies.
To be sure, this a sizeable budget. But, as our national statistical agency, the ABS plays a critical role in the functioning of our society, supplying the economic and social statistics that are vital to policymakers at all levels of government and across a broad spectrum of portfolios. The data and statistical outputs are, moreover, extremely valuable to academic researchers, to various non-government organisations, and — ultimately — to the general public in understanding how Australia is faring and what needs our attention. Without the ABS, informed public debate and policy formulation are not possible, and forward planning by private businesses is severely hampered.
Of course, as is true of any publicly funded body, funding constraints are an ever-present issue, and it is very difficult to determine what is the “right” level of funding.
A basic economic principle is that funding be increased to the point at which the marginal benefit equals marginal cost (on the assumption of diminishing marginal benefits). However, while the marginal costs of the ABS’s activity should be reasonably easy to measure (albeit ignoring unexploited opportunities for improved efficiencies), the marginal benefits are extraordinarily difficult to gauge. In no small part, this reflects the public good properties of much of the statistical output – once the unemployment rate is measured by the ABS, we all benefit from the improved public policy that results.
Nonetheless, as the chart below shows, it is clear funding of the ABS has in recent years been relatively low and declining.
Author’s calculations based on appropriations reported in Budget Papers and ABS Wage Price Index (Catalogue No. 6345.0).
The figure presents a five-year moving average of direct federal government funding since 1997-98, deflated using the public sector Wage Price Index (a measure of labour costs, produced of course by the ABS) and indexed to 100 in the base period. A five-year average is presented because of the year-to-year variation in funding created by provisions for the census (conducted every five years).
Excluding the two funding years most affected by census funding (Figure 2) presents a much starker picture of funding decline: in real terms, funding received over the 2012-13 to 2014-15 period was only 85% of the funding received over the 1997-98-1999-2000 period. Significantly, all governments from the Howard Government on have played a role in the cuts to funding.
Author’s calculations based on Budget Papers.
While improved efficiencies, such as gained from use of new technologies, could justify some reduction in funding, it seems highly likely that, to accommodate the budget cuts, the ABS would have to be producing fewer outputs now than it was in the late 1990s. It is hard to view this as a good development: Australia is a larger and richer country now than in the late 1990s, and the needs for good economic and social data are more likely to have grown than decreased.
The possible solution to this funding predicament aired by the Treasurer is to move towards a user-pays system for ABS statistical outputs. While it is true that there are benefits of ABS statistics that accrue to private businesses, the public good properties of these outputs (and their subsequent uses by others) suggest this is not a wise strategy. It will reduce research activity using ABS data, it will reduce the degree to which public debate and indeed policy is informed, and ultimately it will reduce the value of the ABS to the Australian community.
Moreover, the available evidence is that the market for these products is relatively thin and therefore pricing these outputs is unlikely to raise much revenue. A user-pays regime was in place until 2005, when Treasurer Costello abolished it. Budget papers show ABS revenue (excluding direct allocations from the federal government), expressed in 2014 dollars, of $25 million in 2003-04 and $21 million in 2006-07, implying it could have had no more than a negligible impact in a budget of over $300 million.
The government is right to place pressure on the ABS to find ways to lower costs by doing things more efficiently. But if we want the ABS do keep doing what it is doing (and we probably should), let alone more, increased direct funding from the federal government will be required.NEW YORK: In a "bias" attack, a Sikh man lost three of his teeth after being sucker-punched in a moving train in the US by a man, who accused him of being related to slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.Jiwan Singh, who came to America 30 years ago and is an employee of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), was attacked on the US Memorial Day on May 30, The New York Daily News reported."He was saying, 'You are the brother of Osama,", the 59-year-old Singh was quoted as saying by the news website."I said, 'I am not Osama. I have nothing to do with him!"The daily said the Sikh MTA employee was riding a train to work in Brooklyn from his home in Richmond Hill on Memorial Day when a hate-spewing straphanger accused him of being related to bin Laden and then sucker-punched him.The father of five said his son, Jasmir, 23, had also lost an eye after being stabbed by attackers in 2009 who targeted him because of his turban and traditional beard."We are Indians," he said, recalling other "Osama" slurs he's endured because of his long, white beard."Due to that... I have suffered so much, my family has suffered so much, my community has suffered so much."Singh, an electrical engineer, said the recent attack happened about 11:30 pm and described the attacker as a black man in his late 20s.Talking about the incident, he said the car was half-empty, but the man walked right up to him and demanded he give up his seat.Singh said he was nervous, but pointed out that there were other open seats nearby.He said the man grabbed him by the shirt collar, picked him up and threw him into one of those seats."He said, 'Taliban, you sit there!'" Singh recalled. The attacker then stared down Singh - sometimes cursing him out loud, other times muttering under his breath.As the train pulled into the next station, Kingston Avenue, the man suddenly threw two quick roundhouse punches, Singh said. Both hit him square in the mouth."He said, 'This is for you, Osama!'" Singh recalled, the daily said.The New York Police Department hate-crimes task force is investigating it as a bias incident, an unnamed police official was quoted as saying.Root By Threetoe P anic took hold of the victim’s mind, compelling him to fight all the harder. The rope cut into his throat, holding back the fearful screams. He reached behind and grabbed the killer’s hands as they pulled the noose tighter. The victim tried to pull the predator over his shoulder but faltered as he felt the fangs sink into his long upright tail. Tears of pain and rage streamed from the squirrel man’s eyes as the werewolf pulled him up against a tree and squeezed out the last of his life. Evil glowing eyes scanned the nighttime forest. All around, in the bushes, rodents looked on as the werewolf fed. Unable to watch his master torn apart, a small red squirrel darted away into the brush. Not knowing where to turn, the little creature rushed to where all his instincts told him to stay away, the elven orchard. There dwelt the haughty ones, the ones that turned up their noses at the people of the forest. So his master told him, but always, he heard admiration in the squirrel man’s voice. Suddenly, the little squirrel stopped. Matagan was not dead a minute and already the predators were after him. High above, he heard the wings of an owl, barely perceptible above the silence. He dare not run across open ground, but if he stayed at the trunk of the tree, death was certain. Coyotes bayed in the distance. The dark wood was full of killers. Something moved in the tree above, an owl woman. Queen of the night, she scanned the forest floor with her all-seeing eyes, her talons gripping the tree branch. "I hear you little mouse," she said. "Come out, that I may eat you." The squirrel felt his chest tighten, his heart beating loud -- too loud. A light shone out into the forest. Someone behind it coughed twice. The squirrel looked up. The owl woman was gone. Quickly, he made his way toward the light. At the base of the mighty tree, an elf guard stood, picking grime from his ring with a shining blade. Animal people rarely came here, and the tiny squirrel had never been without his keeper. The elves believed they had lordship over the forest. The forest spirit proclaimed no such thing. The elves domain lay as far as an arrow’s flight from their orchard. At least that’s what Matagan told the squirrels, when they were young. After much consideration, the squirrel hopped out into the light of the glow-flowers. "What are you doing here, little guy?" asked the elf, sheathing his weapon and kneeling to inspect the creature. "You are one of Matagan’s charge, aren’t you?" "Come, let us sort this out." The squirrel was surprised by the kindness of the elf. For a moment he dared believe everything would be set right, that he could return home and the squirrels be safe. This elf seemed a brave one. He was broad of chest and wide of chin. His hair was as red as the autumn leaves and he wore it in a careless manner like that of an adventurer in one of Matagan’s stories. The elf carried the squirrel up the smooth trunk of the tree, using holds not even a squirrel could see. Guards saluted as the elf passed in onto the main dais of the elven home tree of Doulan. There he found Princess Cameda and her hangers-on were drinking deep from a ram’s horn. The latest tonic Druid Nthari had concocted, thought the elf. He frowned at that. It was wrong that they should act so, partying every night when others suffered. As for the druid, one could only wonder how he kept the spirit’s favor. "Captain Itho," shouted the princess from her pillowed seat, a hint of fierceness in her eyes, "why don’t you join us?" The captain’s hand jumped from the ring with which he had been fiddling and prodded the squirrel under the chin. The high elven nobles lounged on leafy couches. They laughed and pointed at him. The princess laughed with them, but when she turned to face him, she was no longer smiling. Itho bore a weary expression of frustration and pity. "I seek the druid," he said. The princess indicated the way with a bored gesture, taking care not to look at him. As Captain Itho carried the squirrel across the twisted branches he began humming an ancient tune. It was not unlike the songs Matagan used to sing to them at day’s end. How he wished the elf could hear his words. He seemed like he could truly be their champion. At last they reached it, a crude hut made of two great leaves. As Itho approached, the druid Nthari emerged. He was pale and stretched, his hand covered with a sticky blue substance. "What’s this?" demanded Nthari. "A red squirrel," said Itho, "one of Matagan’s tribe." The druid leaned in and squinted at the squirrel. He could sense the darkness all about it. Seeing the seriousness in Itho’s face, the druid frowned. "Bring it inside," said Nthari. Inside the magic fire burned, smokeless and bright. As Itho took his seat by the fire, Nthari fed it handfuls of dead grass he had collected from his garden. The flickering flame played across the druid’s stark features. He was skin and bones. The captain looked into the sunken eyes that were now staring back at him. "Yes Itho, I haven’t too many more years to live. The spirit told me so," said Nthari coughing into his shirt. "Do you think it so bad I give others the joy I was denied in life?" "What the princess does with her life is her business," said Itho. "Now tell of the little one." The sickly elf reached over and plucked up the squirming animal with a sticky hand. The squirrel cried out as the druid rolled it over and over in his hands, stopping to poke at it with bony fingers. Itho came to his feet and reached out to snatch away the squirrel from the sadistic elf. Suddenly the fire went dim. The captain froze, not daring to tempt the unseen forces. "Matagan is dead," said Nthari, "murdered by a wicked creature of the forest." The druid looked at Itho and laughed, dropping the squirrel and rising to fill another flask. Angered, Itho took him by the wrist. He stared into the elf’s wine-stained face. Nthari’s eyes were those of a dead fish. He had given up on life, on the wood. How then could he speak for the forest spirit, he who trafficked only in darkness? Itho slapped the drunken elf across the cheek. "The spirit told me," shouted the crazed druid. "You are to take up a quest for vengeance. As your shaman I must demand it of you." The druid laughed with mad glee. Itho could only hold his gaze so long before he released him and strode from the tent, stopping to gather up the little squirrel, clearly as frightened as he was. Itho didn’t stop as he passed by the princess’s party, deaf to the cat calls of the delinquent elf lords. The guards at the exit looked at him, questioning. Standing for a moment, Itho reached up onto his chest and plucked off his badge, dropping it at the guard’s feet. As he descended the tree, his mind burned with anger. He was bound to the quest, but he would no longer be bound to these people. The princess watched over her gilded wine glass as the elf disappeared over the side. The squirrel snuggled against Itho’s neck as he jogged through the dark forest. He fumed with anger, but as the squirrel clicked and purred he found himself at ease. As the first light began to peek through the leaves, it found the elf humming a merry tune. At last he came to rest against an old rotting stump. He released the squirrel and dropped a few seeds from his pocket. The squirrel looked up to see the elf once again fiddling with his ring. He looked down at the squirrel. "You are looking at this?" asked Itho. "This was given to me long ago, by someone very dear to me. Now it is all I have left." Itho gave the squirrel a curious look. "You know, we haven’t given you a name yet." The squirrel lifted up on its hind legs, gobbling a seed into its cheek. "You need a strong-sounding name," said Itho. "You shall be |
hit me over the head with a surprising truth: pregnancy can be a profoundly feminist experience after all. (Pro tip: If you want this, start by marrying a feminist. Or converting one.)
The Less Feminist World
But here is the catch (and isn’t there always a f*cking catch?): the world isn’t a very feminist place. And when you’re pregnant the world is really not a feminist place.
I wish I could make a list of all of the gender-based assumptions and comments that I’ve been hit with since becoming visibly pregnant, but really, who has the time? I’d like to tell you that as an ardently feminist woman who fills her professional life with writing about ways to upend the cultural narrative, the assumptions and comments didn’t build up like slow lead poisoning, causing me to crack under the pressure. But why bother lying to you?
What I can tell you is that the comments never seem to stop coming, and they are almost never directed at male partners. Questions like: Are you going to stop working? Are you going to take the kid to work with you? You don’t want someone else to raise your kid for you, do you? Since you’re pregnant, you’re feeling sort of dumb and incapacitated, so I should probably think for you, right? I can totally give you daycare suggestions—are you looking for one day a week daycare or two? What are you eating—is that good for the baby? Lady PUT DOWN THAT STARBUCKS CUP, you horrible person. Don’t hurt yourself, you might hurt the precious baby (forget about you). These days, you’re only interested in baby stuff, right? You are getting the most expensive possible crib, right? You’re not getting a crib at all, are you? WAIT LADY, I HAVE A QUESTION!
While your mileage (should you find yourself pregnant) on what questions want to make you gouge out your own eyes with a fork may vary (and perhaps you find all the questions suggested above to be charming), my mileage was pretty shitty. I wanted to know why David wasn’t being asked the same questions. It seemed bad enough that I had to be the one in maternity clothes, why couldn’t they at least bother the hell out of him with mildly offensive questions, and leave me alone?
Why did no one assume he’d be doing legal work with a baby minding itself in a playpen in the corner of the office? (You might answer: because that’s absurd! But it’s of course equally absurd to imagine the kid untended in a playpen in my office.) Why did no one assume that his life was suddenly consumed by shopping for baby stuff? (Fact: he actually cared more about shopping for baby stuff than me, because he actually likes shopping). Why was no one asking him to give everything up, while assuming that I had obviously given everything up already?
Of course the gendered flip side of this is equally shitty. Pregnancy (perhaps particularly egalitarian pregnancy, I don’t know?) is an emotional ride for both partners. You’re both standing on the edge of a cliff, with zero idea of what the next part is going to feel like, and no way to confirm that you’ll fly instead of fall. You’re both staring down one of the hugest changes in your life. But no one considers how this affects men. I mean, maternity leave is a terrible enough proposition in this country, but forget paternity leave—that’s not even part of our cultural conversation. Sure, the pregnant lady might have less energy to devote to things right before the birth, but the other partner has zero constraints on time and energy, right? Not to mention that the rituals of support for pregnant women in our culture rarely extend to men. They get a back slap and a cigar, and everyone moves on.
Women: We never stop talking to them about pregnancy. Men: Carry on as usual, and buck up about it.
Where Do We Go From Here?
I wish I could wrap this up for you with a kicky conclusion, or a nice solution. But I don’t have much.
What I do know is that I want to tell everyone I know about how egalitarian partnerships support pregnancies. I want to take out a (APW?) billboard that says “EGALITARIAN PREGNANCIES EXSIST!” Possibly the back of the billboard will say “YOU DON’T HAVE YOU TO GIVE UP WHO YOU ARE TO BE PREGNANT!” But I don’t want to drive up the birth rate or anything.
But as for changing the cultural narrative, I’ve got nothing. Yesterday’s post on name change suggested that we take up the mantra, “You don’t get a say,” when people try to intrude into our choices. And as much as I enjoy the image of yelling that at the next person who criticizes my… anything… that’s not quite what I want. I don’t want to shut people down; I want to change the conversation. I don’t want to tell people to shut up. I want to stop being treated as nothing but a vessel, like my person has ceased to exist, ceded entirely to the yet-to-be-born. I want to remind people that I’m still right here (and I’m allowed to buy cute maternity clothes damn it, without somehow damaging my future kid with my lack of womanly sacrifice. Don’t get me started on the zillion and one shaming conversations I’ve been subject of on that topic). I want the idea that we’re planning on using childcare to not be taboo or shameful. (I’m an ex-nanny for goodness sake. I don’t feel guilty about childcare, and I don’t want to have to pretend that I do.) I don’t want the assumption to be that everything is changing for me, but nothing is changing for my partner. I want David to be offered some damn support.
In the end, I always wanted to be a person that had a kid. I still want to be a person that has a kid (at least when I’m not freaking out). After all, I love kids more than anything. But I never had any desire to stop being Meg and start being Mother instead. And now, super pregnant, none of that has changed.
What should change, if you ask me, is the conversation.***Please keep this bumped.***
This will link to all of my current Champion Concepts. Please drop by at least one and leave reviews, even if they're negative. Any reviews I can get help with improving my concepts.
***Newest Champion: Nimue, the Bog Witch (REMAKE)***
Click here to reach my guide on Champion Concept Creation: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=806997
Active Concepts
Cath, the Swift Thief
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=669661
Melee DPS carry, chaser. Specializes in high speed and rapid skill-spamming. Gains more AD/AP by having higher bonus movement speed.
Yuurei, the Ghost Princess (formerly Yuyuko)
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=689648
Tanky mage, initiator. Good at utilizing spell vamp and dealing magic damage up close, while being quite durable. Powerful crowd control effects.
Rydia, the Dream Sylph
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=669812
Disruptor mage. Well-suited to harassment, disrupting enemy ganks and using mind-games. Powerful at range, while also fairly mobile.
Yue, the Priestess of the Ocean (formerly the Mermaid Priestess)
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=669758
Support caster, water-themed. Adept at supporting teammates via chill-based effects and has high utility. Synergizes well with ice-based Champions such as Anivia.
Kaguya, the Lunar Princess
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=669793
Magic-DPS carry. Powerful at reducing and bypassing enemy magic resistance, and is an adept melee DPS. Fast and synergizes strongly with AP and AS.
Brutus, the Bloodfire Hound
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=680855
Tough assassin. Extremely high AD stat and powerful at dealing AOE damage in a target direction. Powerful at offensive pushes. Uses Fury system.
Alia, the Desert Nomad
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=740051
Ranged DPS carry. Very good at kiting and mobile combat. Can temporarily gain the ability to attack and move simultaneously. Skill-shot oriented.
Mikoto, the Shrine Maiden
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=770733
Mage/support hybrid. Uses a unique Ying-Yang mechanic. Has no ultimate, but functions somewhat similarly to Karma. Skill-shot oriented.
Plagueis, the Dragon of Desolation
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=821421
Tank, disruptor. Various poison-based abilities and powerful crowd controls. Designed to be an offensive tank with good DOT effects. Uses health for costs.
Vector, the Cyber Marauder (V2)
http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1124300
Physical mage. Scales off AP, but deals physical damage. Excellent at dealing AOE damage and skirmishing. Uses Rumble's Heat system.
Penny, the Heiress of Fortune
http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1200515
Support caster. Designed to bring various types of special utility. Can summon minions, improve allied income, and apply various powerful crowd controls.
Nimue, the Bog Witch (V2)
http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1313624
Offensive support caster. Has large amounts of crowd control capabilities and is powerful when paired with other AOE Champions. Strong at AOE damage.
Benched Concepts (not being worked on, but not scrapped)
Alice, the Doll Master
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=84664
Support caster, minion summoner. Specializes in fielding her own private army and is incredibly strong at pushing. Dolls become stronger according to Alice's statistics.
Nephry, the Holy Shield
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=669626
Main-line tank, minor support. Meant to reduce the damage her teammates take and punish melee DPSers by taunting/counterattacking them.
Dart, the Dragonfly
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=720058
Ranged DPS carry. Excels at harassing, kiting opponents and dealing physical damage over time. Highly evasive and full of tricks. Very strong anti-chaser.
Scrapped Champions
Nimue, the Bog Witch
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=704437
Anti-support mage. Meant to inflict various debuffs on the enemy team and deal AOE magic damage. Introduces the Hex status ailment.
Noble, the Royal Griffin
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=782426
Bruiser, jungler. Specializes in blitzkrieg attacks and initiation. Very mobile. Gains more armor and magic resistance from bonus AD. Manaless.
Razor, the Wyvern Monarch
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=782431
Melee assassin, jungler. Powerful lifesteal capabilities, especially when at low health. Powerful against tower-huggers and resistant to CC. Uses health for costs.
Vector, the Cyber Marauder (V1)
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=905034
Ranged carry. Highly oriented around position-based ranged harassment. Very good at shoot-and-move gameplay. Powerful physical damage. Manaless.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check these out and post comments! Also post here who you like the most out of them!Our understanding of how markets and businesses operate was passed down to us more than a century ago by a handful of European economists—Alfred Marshall in England and a few of his contemporaries on the continent. It is an understanding based squarely upon the assumption of diminishing returns: products or companies that get ahead in a market eventually run into limitations, so that a predictable equilibrium of prices and market shares is reached. The theory was roughly valid for the bulk-processing, smokestack economy of Marshall’s day. And it still thrives in today’s economics textbooks. But steadily and continuously in this century, Western economies have undergone a transformation from bulk-material manufacturing to design and use of technology—from processing of resources to processing of information, from application of raw energy to application of ideas. As this shift has occurred, the underlying mechanisms that determine economic behavior have shifted from ones of diminishing to ones of increasing returns.
Increasing returns are the tendency for that which is ahead to get further ahead, for that which loses advantage to lose further advantage. They are mechanisms of positive feedback that operate—within markets, businesses, and industries—to reinforce that which gains success or aggravate that which suffers loss. Increasing returns generate not equilibrium but instability: If a product or a company or a technology—one of many competing in a market—gets ahead by chance or clever strategy, increasing returns can magnify this advantage, and the product or company or technology can go on to lock in the market. More than causing products to become standards, increasing returns cause businesses to work differently, and they stand many of our notions of how business operates on their head.
Mechanisms of increasing returns exist alongside those of diminishing returns in all industries. But roughly speaking, diminishing returns hold sway in the traditional part of the economy—the processing industries. Increasing returns reign in the newer part—the knowledge-based industries. Modern economies have therefore bifurcated into two interrelated worlds of business corresponding to the two types of returns. The two worlds have different economics. They differ in behavior, style, and culture. They call for different management techniques, strategies, and codes of government regulation.
They call for different understandings.
Alfred Marshall’s World
Let’s go back to beginnings—to the diminishing-returns view of Alfred Marshall and his contemporaries. Marshall’s world of the 1880s and 1890s was one of bulk production: of metal ores, aniline dyes, pig iron, coal, lumber, heavy chemicals, soybeans, coffee—commodities heavy on resources, light on know-how. In that world it was reasonable to suppose, for example, that if a coffee plantation expanded production it would ultimately be driven to use land less suitable for coffee. In other words, it would run into diminishing returns. So if coffee plantations competed, each one would expand until it ran into limitations in the form of rising costs or diminishing profits. The market would be shared by many plantations, and a market price would be established at a predictable level—depending on tastes for coffee and the availability of suitable farmland. Planters would produce coffee so long as doing so was profitable, but because the price would be squeezed down to the average cost of production, no one would be able to make a killing. Marshall said such a market was in perfect competition, and the economic world he envisaged fitted beautifully with the Victorian values of his time. It was at equilibrium and therefore orderly, predictable and therefore amenable to scientific analysis, stable and therefore safe, slow to change and therefore continuous. Not too rushed, not too profitable. In a word, mannerly. In a word, genteel.
With a few changes, Marshall’s world lives on a century later within that part of the modern economy still devoted to bulk processing: of grains, livestock, heavy chemicals, metals and ores, foodstuffs, retail goods—the part where operations are largely repetitive day to day or week to week. Product differentiation and brand names now mean that a few companies rather than many compete in a given market. But typically, if these companies try to expand, they run into some limitation: in numbers of consumers who prefer their brand, in regional demand, in access to raw materials. So no company can corner the market. And because such products are normally substitutable for one another, something like a standard price emerges. Margins are thin and nobody makes a killing. This isn’t exactly Marshall’s perfect competition, but it approximates it.
The Increasing-Returns World
What would happen if Marshall’s diminishing returns were reversed so that there were increasing returns? If products that got ahead thereby got further ahead, how would markets work?
Let’s look at the market for operating systems for personal computers in the early 1980s when CP/M, DOS, and Apple’s Macintosh systems were competing. Operating systems show increasing returns: if one system gets ahead, it attracts further software developers and hardware manufacturers to adopt it, which helps it get further ahead. CP/M was first in the market and by 1979 was well established. The Mac arrived later, but it was wonderfully easy to use. DOS was born when Microsoft locked up a deal in 1980 to supply an operating system for the IBM PC. For a year or two, it was by no means clear which system would prevail. The new IBM PC—DOS’s platform—was a kludge. But the growing base of DOS/IBM users encouraged software developers such as Lotus to write for DOS. DOS’s prevalence—and the IBM PC’s—bred further prevalence, and eventually the DOS/IBM combination came to dominate a considerable portion of the market. That history is now well known. But notice several things: It was not predictable in advance (before the IBM deal) which system would come to dominate. Once DOS/IBM got ahead, it locked in the market because it did not pay for users to switch. The dominant system was not the best: DOS was derided by computer professionals. And once DOS locked in the market, its sponsor, Microsoft, was able to spread its costs over a large base of users. The company enjoyed killer margins.
These properties, then, have become the hallmarks of increasing returns: market instability (the market tilts to favor a product that gets ahead), multiple potential outcomes (under different events in history, different operating systems could have won), unpredictability, the ability to lock in a market, the possible predominance of an inferior product, and fat profits for the winner. They surprised me when I first perceived them in the late 1970s. They were also repulsive to economists brought up on the order, predictability, and optimality of Marshall’s world. Glimpsing some of these properties in 1939, English economist John Hicks warned that admitting increasing returns would lead to “the wreckage of the greater part of economic theory.” But Hicks had it wrong: the theory of increasing returns does not destroy the standard theory—it complements it. Hicks felt repugnance not just because of unsavory properties but also because in his day no mathematical apparatus existed to analyze increasing-returns markets. That situation has now changed. Using sophisticated techniques from qualitative dynamics and probability theory, I and others have developed methods to analyze increasing-returns markets. The theory of increasing returns is new, but it already is well established. And it renders such markets amenable to economic understanding.
In 1939, English economist John Hicks warned that admitting increasing returns would lead to “the wreckage of the greater part of economic theory.” But Hicks had it wrong.
In the early days of my work on increasing returns, I was told they were an anomaly. Like some exotic particle in physics, they might exist in theory but would be rare in practice. And if they did exist, they would last for only a few seconds before being arbitraged away. But by the mid-1980s, I realized increasing returns were neither rare nor ephemeral. In fact, a major part of the economy was subject to increasing returns—high technology.
Why should this be so? There are several reasons:
Up-front Costs.
High-tech products—pharmaceuticals, computer hardware and software, aircraft and missiles, telecommunications equipment, bioengineered drugs, and suchlike—are by definition complicated to design and to deliver to the marketplace. They are heavy on know-how and light on resources. Hence they typically have R&D costs that are large relative to their unit production costs. The first disk of Windows to go out the door cost Microsoft $50 million; the second and subsequent disks cost $3. Unit costs fall as sales increase.
Network Effects.
Many high-tech products need to be compatible with a network of users. So if much downloadable software on the Internet will soon appear as programs written in Sun Microsystems’ Java language, users will need Java on their computers to run them. Java has competitors. But the more it gains prevalence, the more likely it will emerge as a standard.
Customer Groove-in.
High-tech products are typically difficult to use. They require training. Once users invest in this training—say, the maintenance and piloting of Airbus passenger aircraft—they merely need to update these skills for subsequent versions of the product. As more market is captured, it becomes easier to capture future markets.
In high-tech markets, such mechanisms ensure that products that gain market advantage stand to gain further advantage, making these markets unstable and subject to lock-in. Of course, lock-in is not forever. Technology comes in waves, and a lock-in such as DOS’s can last only as long as a particular wave lasts.
Some products—like the IBM PC—start in the increasing-returns world but later in their life cycle become virtual commodities that belong to Marshall’s processing world.
So we can usefully think of two economic regimes or worlds: a bulk-production world yielding products that essentially are congealed resources with a little knowledge and operating according to Marshall’s principles of diminishing returns, and a knowledge-based part of the economy yielding products that essentially are congealed knowledge with a little resources and operating under increasing returns. The two worlds are not neatly split. Hewlett-Packard, for example, designs knowledge-based devices in Palo Alto, California, and manufactures them in bulk in places like Corvallis, Oregon, or Greeley, Colorado. Most high-tech companies have both knowledge-based operations and bulk-processing operations. But because the rules of the game differ for each, companies often separate them—as Hewlett-Packard does. Conversely, manufacturing companies have operations such as logistics, branding, marketing, and distribution, which belong largely to the knowledge world. And some products—like the IBM PC—start in the increasing-returns world but later in their life cycle become virtual commodities that belong to Marshall’s processing world.
The Halls of Production and the Casino of Technology
Because the two worlds of business—processing bulk goods and crafting knowledge into products—differ in their underlying economics, it follows that they differ in their character of competition and their culture of management. It is a mistake to think that what works in one world is appropriate for the other.
There is much talk these days about a new management style that involves flat hierarchies, mission orientation, flexibility in strategy, market positioning, reinvention, restructuring, reengineering, repositioning, reorganization, and re-everything else. Are these new insights or are they fads? Are they appropriate for all organizations? Why are we seeing this new management style?
Let us look at the two cultures of competition. In bulk processing, a set of standard prices typically emerges. Production tends to be repetitive—much the same from day to day or even from year to year. Competing therefore means keeping product flowing, trying to improve quality, getting costs down. There is an art to this sort of management, one widely discussed in the literature. It favors an environment free of surprises or glitches—an environment characterized by control and planning. Such an environment requires not just people to carry out production but also people to plan and control it. So it favors a hierarchy of bosses and workers. Because bulk processing is repetitive, it allows constant improvement, constant optimization. And so, Marshall’s world tends to be one that favors hierarchy, planning, and controls. Above all, it is a world of optimization.
Competition is different in knowledge-based industries because the economics are different. If knowledge-based companies are competing in winner-take-most markets, then managing becomes redefined as a series of quests for the next technological winner—the next cash cow. The goal becomes the search for the Next Big Thing. In this milieu, management becomes not production oriented but mission oriented. Hierarchies flatten not because democracy is suddenly bestowed on the workforce or because computers can cut out much of middle management. They flatten because, to be effective, the deliverers of the next-thing-for-the-company need to be organized like commando units in small teams that report directly to the CEO or to the board. Such people need free rein. The company’s future survival depends upon them. So they—and the commando teams that report to them in turn—will be treated not as employees but as equals in the business of the company’s success. Hierarchy dissipates and dissolves.
Does this mean that hierarchy should disappear in meatpacking, steel production, or the navy? Contrary to recent management evangelizing, a style that is called for in Silicon Valley will not necessarily be appropriate in the processing world. An aircraft’s safe arrival depends on the captain, not on the flight attendants. The cabin crew can usefully be “empowered” and treated as human beings. This approach is wise and proper. But forever there will be a distinction—a hierarchy—between cockpit and cabin crews.
In fact, the style in the diminishing-returns Halls of Production is much like that of a sophisticated modern factory: the goal is to keep high-quality product flowing at low cost. There is little need to watch the market every day, and when things are going smoothly the tempo can be leisurely. By contrast, the style of competition in the increasing-returns arena is more like gambling. Not poker, where the game is static and the players vie for a succession of pots. It is casino gambling, where part of the game is to choose which games to play, as well as playing them with skill. We can imagine the top figures in high tech—the Gateses and Gerstners and Groves of their industries—as milling in a large casino. Over at this table, a game is starting called multimedia. Over at that one, a game called Web services. In the corner is electronic banking. There are many such tables. You sit at one. How much to play? you ask. Three billion, the croupier replies. Who’ll be playing? We won’t know until they show up. What are the rules? Those’ll emerge as the game unfolds. What are my odds of winning? We can’t say. Do you still want to play?
High technology, pursued at this level, is not for the timid.
In fact, the art of playing the tables in the Casino of Technology is primarily a psychological one. What counts to some degree—but only to some degree—is technical expertise, deep pockets, will, and courage. Above all, the rewards go to the players who are first to make sense of the new games looming out of the technological fog, to see their shape, to cognize them. Bill Gates is not so much a wizard of technology as a wizard of precognition, of discerning the shape of the next game.
Adaptation means watching for the next wave and positioning the company to take advantage of it. Adaptation is what drives increasing-returns businesses, not optimization.
We can now begin to see that the new style of management is not a fad. The knowledge-based part of the economy demands flat hierarchies, mission orientation, above all a sense of direction. Not five-year plans. We can also fathom the mystery of what I’ve alluded to as re-everything. Much of this “re-everything” predilection—in the bulk-processing world—is a fancy label for streamlining, computerizing, downsizing. However, in the increasing-returns world, especially in high tech, re-everything has become necessary because every time the quest changes, the company needs to change. It needs to reinvent its purpose, its goals, its way of doing things. In short, it needs to adapt. And adaptation never stops. In fact, in the increasing-returns environment I’ve just sketched, standard optimization makes little sense. You cannot optimize in the casino of increasing-returns games. You can be smart. You can be cunning. You can position. You can observe. But when the games themselves are not even fully defined, you cannot optimize. What you can do is adapt. Adaptation, in the proactive sense, means watching for the next wave that is coming, figuring out what shape it will take, and positioning the company to take advantage of it. Adaptation is what drives increasing-returns businesses, not optimization.
Playing the High-Tech Tables
Suppose you are a player in the knowledge-industry casino, in this increasing-returns world. What can you do to capitalize on the increasing returns at your disposal? How can you use them to capture markets? What strategic issues do you need to think about? In the processing world, strategy typically hinges upon capitalizing on core competencies, pricing competitively, getting costs down, bringing quality up. These are important also in the knowledge-based world, but so, too, are other strategies that make use of the special economics of positive feedbacks.
Two maxims are widely accepted in knowledge-based markets: it pays to hit the market first, and it pays to have superb technology. These maxims are true but do not guarantee success. Prodigy was first into the on-line services market but was passive in building its subscriber base to take advantage of increasing returns. As a result, it has fallen from its leading position and currently lags the other services. As for technology, Steve Jobs’s NeXT workstation was superb. But it was launched into a market already dominated by Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. It failed. A new product often has to be two or three times better in some dimension—price, speed, convenience—to dislodge a locked-in rival. So in knowledge-based markets, entering first with a fine product can yield advantage. But as strategy, this is still too passive. What is needed is active management of increasing returns.
One active strategy is to discount heavily initially to build up an installed base. Netscape handed out its Internet browser for free and won 70% of its market. Now it can profit from spin-off software and applications. Although such discounting is effective—and widely understood—it is not always implemented. Companies often err by pricing high initially to recoup expensive R&D costs. Yet even smart discounting to seed the market is ineffective unless the resulting installed base is exploited later. America Online built up a lead of more than 4.5 million subscribers by giving away free services. But because of the Internet’s dominance, it is not yet clear whether it can transform this huge base into later profits.
Let’s get a bit more sophisticated. Technological products do not stand alone. They depend on the existence of other products and other technologies. The Internet’s World Wide Web operates within a grouping of businesses that include browsers, online news, E-mail, network retailing, and financial services. Pharmaceuticals exist within a network of physicians, testing labs, hospitals, and HMOs. Laser printers are part of a grouping of products that include computers, publishing software, scanners, and photo-input devices. Unlike products of the processing world, such as soybeans or rolled steel, technological products exist within local groupings of products that support and enhance them. They exist in mini-ecologies.
This interdependence has deep implications for strategy. When, in the mid-1980s, Novell introduced its network-operating system, NetWare, as a way of connecting personal computers in local networks, Novell made sure that NetWare was technically superior to its rivals. It also heavily discounted NetWare to build an installed base. But these tactics were not enough. Novell recognized that NetWare’s success depended on attracting software applications to run on NetWare—which was a part of the ecology outside the company’s control. So it set up incentives for software developers to write for NetWare rather than for its rivals. The software writers did just that. And by building NetWare’s success, they ensured their own. Novell managed these cross-product positive feedbacks actively to lock in its market. It went on to profit hugely from upgrades, spin-offs, and applications of its own.
In the Case of Microsoft... What should be legal in this powerful and as yet unregulated world of increasing returns? What constitutes fair play? Should technology markets be regulated, and if so in what way? These questions have come to a head with the enormous amount of publicity generated by the U.S. Justice Department’s current antitrust case against Microsoft. In Marshall’s world, antitrust regulation is well understood. Allowing a single player to control, say, more than 35% of the silver market is tantamount to allowing monopoly pricing, and the government rightly steps in. In the increasing-returns world, things are more complicated. There are arguments in favor of allowing a product or company in the web of technology to dominate a market, as well as arguments against. Consider these pros and cons: Convenience. A locked-in product may provide a single standard of convenience. If a software company such as Microsoft allows us to double-click all the way from our computer screen straight to our bank account (by controlling all the technologies in between), this avoids a tedious balkanizing of standards, where we have to spend useless time getting into a succession of on-line connection products. Fairness. If a product locks in because it is superior, this is fair, and it would be foolish to penalize such success. If it locks in merely because user base was levered over from a neighboring lock-in, this is unfair. Technology Development. A locked-in product may obstruct technological advancement. If a clunker such as DOS locks up the PC market for ten years, there is little incentive for other companies to develop alternatives. The result is impeded technological progress. Pricing. To lock in, a product usually has been discounted, and this established low price is often hard to raise. So monopoly pricing—of great concern in bulk-processing markets—is therefore rarely a major worry. Added to these considerations, high tech is not a commodity industry. Dominance may consist not so much in cornering a single product as in successively taking over more and more threads of the web of technology, thereby preventing other players from getting access to new, breaking markets. It would be difficult to separate out each thread and to regulate it. And of course it may be impracticable to regulate a market before it forms—before it is even fully defined. There are no simple answers to antitrust regulation in the increasing-returns world. On balance, I would favor a high degree of regulatory restraint, with the addition of two key principles: Do not penalize success. Short-term monopolization of an increasing-returns market is correctly perceived as a reward or prize for innovation and risk taking. There is a temptation to single out dominant players and hit them with an antitrust suit. This reduces regulation to something like a brawl in an Old West saloon—if you see a head, hit it. Not a policy that preserves an incentive to innovate in the first place. Don’t allow head starts for the privileged. This means that as a new market opens up—such as electronic consumer banking—companies that already dominate standards, operating systems, and neighboring technologies should not be allowed a ten-mile head start in the land rush that follows. All competitors should have fair and open access to the applicable technologies and standards. In practice, these principles would mean allowing the possibility of winner-take-all jackpots in each new subindustry, in each new wave of technology. But each contender should have access to whatever degree possible to the same technologies, the same open standards, so that all are lined up behind the same starting line. If industry does not make such provisions voluntarily, government regulation will impose them.
Another strategy that uses ecologies is linking and leveraging. This means transferring a user base built up upon one node of the ecology (one product) to neighboring nodes, or products. The strategy is very much like that in the game Go: you surround neighboring markets one by one, lever your user base onto them, and take them over—all the time enhancing your position in the industry. Microsoft levered its 60-million-person user base in DOS onto Windows, then onto Windows 95, and then onto Microsoft Network by offering inexpensive upgrades and by bundling applications. The strategy has been challenged legally. But it recognizes that positive feedbacks apply across markets as well as within markets.
In fact, if technological ecologies are now the basic units for strategy in the knowledge-based world, players compete not by locking in a product on their own but by building webs—loose alliances of companies organized around a mini-ecology—that amplify positive feedbacks to the base technology. Apple, in closing its Macintosh system to outsiders in the 1980s, opted not to create such a web. It believed that with its superior technology, it could hold its increasing-returns market to itself. Apple indeed dominates its Mac-based ecology. But this ecology is now only 8% of the personal computer business. IBM erred in the other direction. By passively allowing other companies to join its PC web as clones, IBM achieved a huge user base and locked in the market. But the company itself wound up with a small share of the spoils. The key in web building is active management of the cross-company mutual feedbacks. This means making a careful choice of partners to build upon. It also means that, rather than attempting to take over all products in the ecology, dominant players in a web should allow dependent players to lock in their dependent products by piggybacking on the web’s success. By thus ceding some of the profits, the dominant players ensure that all participants remain committed to the alliance.
Important also to strategy in knowledge-based markets is psychological positioning. Under increasing returns, rivals will back off in a market not only if it is locked in but if they believe it will be locked in by someone else. Hence we see psychological jockeying in the form of preannouncements, feints, threatened alliances, technological preening, touted future partnerships, parades of vaporware (announced products that don’t yet exist). This posturing and puffing acts much the way similar behavior does in a primate colony: it discourages competitors from taking on a potentially dominant rival. No moves need be made in this strategy of premarket facedown. It is purely a matter of psychology.
What if you hold a losing hand? Sometimes it pays to hold on for residual revenue. Sometimes a fix can be provided by updated technology, fresh alliances, or product changes. But usually under heavy lock-in, these tactics do not work. The alternatives are then slow death or graceful exit—relinquishing the field to concentrate on positioning for the next technology wave. Exit may not mean quitting the business entirely. America Online, Compuserve, Prodigy, and Microsoft Network have all ceded dominance of the on-line computer networking market to the Internet. But instead of exiting, they are steadily becoming adjuncts of the Net, supplying content services such as financial quotations or games and entertainment. They have lost the main game. But they will likely |
his first visit to Beijing, for his standoffishness, political and opinion leaders in this country rushed to his side — the Chinese premier’s I mean, not the former prime minister’s.
Yet the Chinese dictatorship’s record on human rights is at least as bad as the Saudis’. It is very likely the world’s most prolific executioner, though it is hard to say as it refuses to provide figures. “Torture and other ill-treatment [remain] widespread,” according to Amnesty International: “China’s criminal justice system is still heavily reliant on forced confessions,” using instruments as crude as spiked rods. Meanwhile “there is systematic repression of minority groups, including Tibetans, Uighurs, [and] Mongolians.”
“China remains an authoritarian state,” Human Rights Watch observes, “one that systematically curbs fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion.” Overall, Freedom House assigns China a freedom rating of 6.5 on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being the best and 7 the worst. That’s better, marginally, than Saudi Arabia’s score: a perfect 7. But it hardly explains the very different responses they elicit.
To be sure, not every situation is the same. It might be argued, for example, that agreeing to trade freely with an odious regime is less objectionable than supplying it with arms. Or not: if Canada did not sell the Saudis LAVs, someone else would. If we are not directly supplying arms to China, we are providing it with the wherewithal, through trade, to buy them from someone else.
Indeed, the situations are arguably more similar than they are different. Our relations with both regimes are decidedly ambiguous. The Saudis are officially our allies in the war on terrorism, yet among the world’s largest sponsors of Islamic extremism. The same Chinese government with whom we are so eager to do business has made us the target of massive campaigns of espionage and cyber-warfare.
This may be nothing more than a statement that the world’s a complex place. No doubt some degree of hypocrisy is unavoidable in foreign affairs. There will always be a tension between our ideals and pragmatic necessities; the result may sometimes look a lot like selective morality. But we might at least acknowledge this, rather than pretending to a moral purity we do not possess or even aspire to.The CBS drama CSI once featured a transgender serial killer who murdered his own mother. Fox’s The Cleveland Show showed a man vomiting for a lengthy period of time after discovering he had slept with a transgender person. FX’s Nip/Tick had an entire season of a psychopathic trans woman depicted as a baby-stealing sexual predator who sleeps with her own son.
It’s examples like these that illustrate why US television has done such a poor job overall in its portrayals of transgender characters in the past decade, according to a study released Tuesday (20 November) by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
GLAAD went through 10 years of episodes of transgender-inclusive television episodes (102 in all) and found that more than half (54 percent) were negative representations of transgender people.
In addition, 35 percent were categorized at ranging from ‘problematic’ to ‘good’ while only 12 percent were considered groundbreaking, fair and accurate.
‘Media has a history of telling the world a story that transgender people are always victims or villains, instead of true depictions that show the transgender community as citizens worthy of equality and respect,’ says GLAAD President Herndon Graddick.
The shows of the US broadcast networks and seven cable networks were reviewed in the study which also found that transgender characters were cast in a victim’ role at least 40 percent of the time and were cast as killers or villains in at least 21 percent of the episodes.
In addition, the most common profession transgender characters were depicted as having was that of sex workers, which a fifth of all characters were depicted as (20 percent).
Anti-transgender slurs, language and dialogue was also present in at least 61 percent of the episodes.
‘We hope television networks will think about what they can do to combat ignorance by improving their depictions of trans people,’ adds Graddick who hopes the portrayals will ‘become as diverse, nuanced, and inspiring as the community those images reflect.’
The study was released on Transgender Day of Remembrance which is held on 20 November each year to memorialize those who have been killed as a result of anti-transgender violence.Riley's Picks, 405 Cavaliers View
#1, 390 Cavaliers View
A man can dream, 385 Cavaliers View
Homer Bias, 380 Cavaliers View
kishonath, 370 Cavaliers View
AJSOIN, 370 Cavaliers View
TheOne, 365 Cavaliers View
Northside, 360 Cavaliers View
Caleb's Bracket, 360 Cavaliers View
Bracket 101, 350 Cavaliers View
CLE2016, 345 Cavaliers View
RML2, 345 Cavaliers View
Frail's bracket, 345 Cavaliers View
Bron-Bron, 340 Cavaliers View
Hubert Bracket, 340 Cavaliers View
Champs cavs, 335 Cavaliers View
dms0912, 335 Cavaliers View
kanyeismydaddy2002, 335 Cavaliers View
probablywrong, 335 Cavaliers View
buckets, 330 Cavaliers View
These playoffs are making me thirsty, 325 Cavaliers View
LeBron James Finals MVP, 320 Cavaliers View
fluffyjdawg #1, 320 Cavaliers View
Plz no, 315 Cavaliers View
Cavs, 310 Cavaliers View
Odc Rahul, 300 Cavaliers View
ICE CUBE, 300 Warriors View
It's rigged idiots, 300 Cavaliers View
808's & Fastbreaks, 290 Warriors View
FUCKRUDYIBARRA, 290 Warriors View
Joey's Junkies, 290 Warriors View
nba, 285 Warriors View
HSM1, 280 Warriors View
Elton Brand, 280 Warriors View
, 280 Warriors View
Sutteyo, 280 Warriors View
Walk like a Warrior, 275 Warriors View
NBA-Simon, 275 Warriors View
Ryan3, 275 Warriors View
Cavs County, 275 Cavaliers View
Deez Nuts, 270 Warriors View
Hi, 270 Warriors View
reality bracket, 270 Warriors View
Raptors fan, 265 Warriors View
Taking Care of Biz, 265 Warriors View
Ma bracket, 265 Warriors View
JaredBusch62, 265 Warriors View
Trannys predictions, 265 Warriors View
Dubnation, 265 Warriors View
1, 265 Warriors View
yefim, 265 Warriors View
Dan and Drum, 265 Warriors View
/u/RGiss, 265 Warriors View
WCF is real Final, 265 Warriors View
Rematch!, 265 Warriors View
portland curse, 265 Warriors View
Luck or skill?, 265 Warriors View
The Great One, 265 Warriors View
The Truth, 265 Warriors View
PiersonKaye1, 265 Warriors View
200+ points, 265 Warriors View
¯\_(ツ)_/¯, 265 Warriors View
Rishabh's Bracket, 265 Warriors View
First Try, 260 Warriors View
Xpert Analysis, 260 Warriors View
JKL Playoffs 2016, 260 Warriors View
lakerswordenchamp, 260 Warriors View
Rosa's bracket, 260 Cavaliers View
#DunkonDrumpf, 260 Warriors View
http://forwardcenter.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/stotts_2880_030216.jpg, 260 Warriors View
6ix, 260 Warriors View
thecpkid, 260 Warriors View
lowk4y, 260 Warriors View
VC, 260 Warriors View
Patrick P #mamba, 260 Warriors View
Natheeshan's Bracket, 260 Warriors View
bball, 260 Warriors View
WINNER, 260 Warriors View
IamSkywalking, 260 Warriors View
true, 260 Cavaliers View
Bergs11, 260 Warriors View
OBOY 2016, 255 Warriors View
Back2back, 255 Warriors View
1, 255 Warriors View
Go raptors - for /r/nba, 255 Warriors View
StephCurryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, 255 Warriors View
/u/jaynay1, 255 Cavaliers View
Baby Faced Assassin, 255 Warriors View
The Wolfeman, 255 Warriors View
R/nba, 255 Warriors View
yawh, 255 Warriors View
BRACKETTT, 255 Warriors View
Romamba Out, 255 Warriors View
3Peat, 255 Warriors View
GOAT Bracket, 255 Cavaliers View
Bracket, 255 Warriors View
SeanDraper, 255 Warriors View
BUCKS IN 6, 255 Warriors View
dey-lose-shun, 255 Cavaliers View
1, 255 Warriors View
#WeTheECF, 255 Warriors View
1, 255 Warriors View
Lenny, 255 Warriors View
bm1225, 255 Warriors View
Two free lunches, 250 Warriors View
Sushane's Picks, 250 Warriors View
Ei ees paha, 250 Warriors View
Lykins, 250 Warriors View
FukDaLakers, 250 Warriors View
Ajmoooo, 250 Warriors View
The Milwaukee Bucks are a respectable basketball organization, 250 Warriors View
OKC needs George Karl back, 250 Warriors View
Warriors in 6, 250 Warriors View
NBA Savant, 250 Warriors View
Harden > Kobe, 250 Warriors View
swollencornholio, 250 Warriors View
bracket_a, 250 Warriors View
Raps in 6, 250 Warriors View
deboer96, 250 Warriors View
rubberdick, 250 Warriors View
el bracketto, 250 Warriors View
Rockhammerer, 250 Warriors View
The jews did 9/11, 245 Warriors View
ThinkFishTank's dope picks, 245 Warriors View
yumyum in the bumbum, 245 Warriors View
I Feel Like Pablo, 245 Warriors View
LuckTheFakers, 245 Warriors View
Dr. Bizzaro's Perfect Bracket 85% Of The Time, 245 Warriors View
Yeet, 245 Warriors View
Ryan2, 245 Warriors View
herecomesthewarriors, 245 Warriors View
Variant of 1st entry, 245 Warriors View
Free Donald Sterling, 245 Warriors View
Madetowin, 245 Warriors View
#BleedGreen, 245 Warriors View
DaPoint, 245 Warriors View
Ne parliamo a giugno, 245 Warriors View
abcd, 245 Warriors View
fluffyjdawg #2, 245 Warriors View
MastrOfNone, 245 Warriors View
Cocaine Cowboyz, 245 Warriors View
justin, 245 Warriors View
Kobe Bean Bryant, 245 Warriors View
gsw, 245 Warriors View
NBA 2016 GSW 2, 245 Warriors View
dubnation, 240 Warriors View
GSW fanboi, 240 Warriors View
The correct bracket, 240 Warriors View
#MambaIn, 240 Cavaliers View
GSW bandwagon, 240 Warriors View
MacQ32, 240 Warriors View
probably :(, 240 Warriors View
SreeG's bracket, 240 Warriors View
FuNnYbUnNy, 240 Warriors View
Ramy, 240 Warriors View
Main, 240 Warriors View
alexnoob, 240 Warriors View
pi 16, 240 Warriors View
The Primo Bracket, 240 Warriors View
Lone_f, 240 Warriors View
Steph Curry GOAT confirmed, 240 Warriors View
YoungTrece, 240 Warriors View
T3RRYH, 240 Warriors View
Bracket, 240 Warriors View
Real, 240 Warriors View
Hello2, 240 Warriors View
GW 16, 240 Warriors View
Back 2 Back, 235 Warriors View
JaredKing, 235 Warriors View
Jordan crying face, 235 Warriors View
Bucks in 6, 235 Warriors View
Ya boy HAM aka Yung Killa da Thrilla one and ONLY, 235 Warriors View
Dan gibson, 235 Warriors View
batista0001, 235 Spurs View
We the North, 235 Warriors View
Alex, 235 Warriors View
thebestbracket, 235 Warriors View
Get ready to buy me BAO, 235 Warriors View
fantasystation, 235 Warriors View
Blumpkinz4dayzzz, 235 Warriors View
kobe!, 235 Warriors View
Alina's penis juice, 235 Warriors View
Prestigious wankage, 235 Warriors View
Sam Kim, 235 Warriors View
'16 Playoffs, 235 Warriors View
-tydides, 235 Warriors View
Educated Guess, 235 Warriors View
hell ya playoffs!, 235 Warriors View
My Bracket, 235 Warriors View
/u/wollfsk, 235 Warriors View
Bracket 1, 235 Warriors View
BROOMS, 235 Warriors View
Warriors in 6!, 235 Warriors View
A Good Day to Draft Hard, 230 Warriors View
YooperStrong, 230 Warriors View
Wolfgang90, 230 Warriors View
playoff bracket, 230 Warriors View
Duncan Donuts, 230 Warriors View
VelvetChair, 230 Warriors ViewLotus' trackside operations director, Alan Permane says that Kimi Raikkonen demonstrated he is an exceptional talent almost immediately after he first stepped into a 2012-spec Renault R30 car during his re-acclimatization test in Valencia last month.
"I felt that from when he first ran. You can see that he's an exceptional driver. For example, when we go from low fuel to high fuel, we calculate what we believe the lap time difference should be and every time he hits it on his first lap. A lesser driver takes time to feel that," said Permane in an interview with Autosport.
Permane also reported no problems with Raikkonen's feedback to the Lotus engineers, contrary to what has been reported by the media in the past. "His feedback is excellent. His knowledge of different engine maps and differential maps is excellent. I see no reason to say that he isn't a good development driver."
What really impressed the Lotus team during the testing in Jerez was the Finn's consistency in lap times and not so much his single-lap pace, which is still difficult to judge this early in the season.
"One area where he is incredibly strong is his consistency on long runs," said Permane. "You can tell from that how good the driver is going to be, not just from outright pace but how he holds that pace. Often you see drivers do a fast lap, a slow lap and make mistakes on long runs, but not Kimi."
BBC Sport F1 journalist Andrew Benson was also impressed by Raikkonen's consistency during the Jerez pre-season tests. "Looking through the lap times from Jerez, one thing jumped out - Kimi Raikkonen's consistency. It was stunning, as it always used to be. Lap after lap was within a 10th of a second of the one before - and there were three separate occasions when he did three consecutive laps, all no more than 0.06secs apart," said Benson.
Lotus technical director James Allison said Raikkonen did not show any signs of physical fatigue during the test in Valencia. "Kimi was doing the business pretty much from lap one and he put a lot of laps in. We did much more than a grand prix distance on both days and he looked as fresh as a daisy. Particularly on the longer runs, he doesn't miss a beat," he said.
Permane has also dismissed the idea that a driver should function as a team leader as well. Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has justified his decision in the past to replace Raikkonen with Alonso by contending that the Spanish driver is better at being a team leader than the Finn.
"Drivers don't lead the team. He doesn't need to stand on a pedestal and tell us how to do our jobs. The sense of confidence is where the leadership comes from and he will get that respect and trust because we can see that he knows what he's doing," Permane stated.DON'T LIE. YOU LOVE THE BULGES! Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
THE BULGES SCARE ME. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Its all about the bulges for me. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
I'll see you that :( and raise you a D: Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
LMAO WHAT THE HELL
I LOVE IT Reply
Thread
Link
MTE Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
I'm cracking up so bad. It was...ok until it got to Dr. Sweet! Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
LMAO MTE! Going straight to my Memories! Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
haha i was seriously all like WTFFFFFF Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Icon twin, wheeeee. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
omg wut. Reply
Thread
Link
lol i love that u commented twice with :( hahahaha Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
NO Reply
Thread
Link
mte
ALSO PRINCE PHILLIP IS FROM SLEEPING BEAUTY. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
I JUST SAID THAT Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
I feel awkard. Reply
Thread
Link
this Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
ot but look at the sexy bamf in your icon Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
um... YOUR ICON... UNF! Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
yeeeahhhh Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
right? ugh Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
srsly. I'm in class too, and now I just feel like a total perv. Creepy, weird, perv. Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
We should start a club or something... Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
yeah i scrolled down really fast :/ Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
and totally turned off. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
I agree Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Same here. D: Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Definitely. But this is way less awkward than the time I was 11 and wanted to print a picture of Aladdin and Jasmine and google images turned up porn drawings of them and I mean, they were pretty graphic drawings. Now I think they're lol-worthy but I've had ten years to laugh about it... Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
ia
this is like homoerotic fanfic but in cartoon pictures Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Yeah ;-; Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
mte Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
that is EXACTLY what i said, LOL Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Eric was so my first crush. I don't know if I could have handle this at 3. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
mte Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
whaaat?! no way! I need to rewatch this movie asap! Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Do you mean Howl?
Howl > this mess Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
lmao yeah I remember when these were huge on deviantart a LONG time ago. Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
wait... i thought that was Mel Gibson D: Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
Ikr, this stuff is sooooooooooo oooooooooooold. It's been posted in ONTD before too... Or it's been in the comments before, I'm sure of that. Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
Old meme?
ikr? lol I've seen a lot of these before. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
whaaaaat Reply
Thread
Link
haha john henry's bulge is HUGE Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Can we say stereotypes? lol Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
And did you notice Gaston's got big balls and a little itty-bitty dick? Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Unf.
I don't even care that they are drawings of pictures. Reply
Thread
Link
lmao samesies Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
I also think that this may have destroyed something innocent from my childhood, but I really don't care. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
I always had a crush on Eric from The Little Mermaid. My inner perv and inner child are both celebrating right now.
Separately, of course. I don't have an inner Chris Hansen to handle that situation. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
LMAO....these are hilarious.
I've never gotten the hots for an animated character. Reply
Thread
Link
the only animated character i've ever been attracted to is robin hood... which is even weirder. Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
Was it the tights? Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
the fox? lol Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
... me too Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
me too.....yeah will never admit it to anyone else Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
Hmm Tuxedo Mask/prince Darien totally did it for me lol Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
Lol I was all about Gambit and Cyclopes when I was younger. :D Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
Trey from Daria. I used to think he was so hot, lol. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
UNTIL NOW YOU MEAN Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
for reasons unknown I used to think Max from A Goofy Movie was hot shit.
oh and Link from the Zelda games *swoon* Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
I love how everyone's freak side is coming out in this post lololol Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
lmao at age 6 I was in love with Timon from the Lion King. DON'T JUDGE Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
I totally wanted Trent from Daria to walk out of the TV and date me. Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
where is the riku love Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
i was always into prince eric, and the beast from beauty and the beast - but before he became human, cuz then he looked mad girly. Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
duuuude, Moses from Prince of Egypt.
that is all. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
ERIC ERIC ERIC. forever. even with that fug tattoo Reply
Thread
Link
icon lol Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
oopz i mean this one Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
lol i mean this one Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
Link
YESS Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
THE FUCK?! Reply
Thread
Link
um what the fuq I do not want any of these scantily clad men. this is such a turnofff omg. but I guess the princesses have been sexualized ever-so-much so it is only fair to do the same to the princes. but gross. that dude from atlantis's glasses are seriously turning me the fuq off idk idk get better taste in eyewear, hunnay Reply
Thread
Link
lol this comment made me lol so hard
and i dont even know why Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
hahahaha i know! awesome comment Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
I too laughed ridiculously hard at this. I am still laughing actually. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
why is the internet so perverted?
jfc. Reply
Thread
Link
and these pics are old Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
right? they've been around for years. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
seriously, this is some old weird deviantart shit. I don't get why its on here. Everytime I see a new one on the front page I feel embarrassed. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
& fanart to boot. Reply
Parent
Thread
Link
they really are, idg why these were posted randomly... Reply
Parent
Thread
Expand
LinkSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
The head of the Free Church of Scotland has slammed the official Church of Scotland – for taking a “stupid” and “suicidal” stance on gay clergy.
A number of congregations have publicly walked away from the Church of Scotland amid proposals to allow gay clergy – which passed a vote of presbyteries earlier this year.
Reverend David Robertson, who is set to take up the top role leading the Free Church next month, laid into Scotland’s national church for its “moral decline”.
He told the Aberdeen Press and Journal: “The truth is simply this – not one presbytery in the Church of Scotland saw growth last year.
“The Church of Scotland is literally dying.
“I pray that the Church of Scotland will be renewed and revitalised and that these figures will be reversed. But I also believe that the Church of Scotland is declining numerically because it is also in a theological and moral decline.”
He claimed that the church’s stance on gay clergy is “stupid as it is suicidal”.
Revrend David Arnott of the Church of Scotland retorted: “The gloomy picture painted by the Free Church bears little relation to reality.
“The official membership of the Church of Scotland has gently declined by 16,000 in the course of a year.
“It is a similar picture in many other mainstream churches. However with approaching 400,000 members the Church of Scotland remains one of Scotland’s largest and most robust organisations.
“Moreover without ever registering as members, countless thousands of Scots attend church services and are committed participants in church initiatives such as food banks.
“As regards ministers, 20 out of 800 have left because the church is considering allowing congregations the option of selecting a minister who is in a same-sex relationship.
“It is a cause of sadness when a minister leaves but the church continues in its work and service.”
Reverend David Robertson, who has previously warned that same-sex marriage will lead to “sexual confusion”, previously denied that he is homophobic.When people from Vancouver drive east through the Fraser Valley and on to the Coquihalla Highway or Crowsnest Highway, they sometimes quip that they are “beyond Hope”. However, the lovely mountain scenery that surrounds Hope, a district of 6,000 residents, is certainly no joke.
One of these peaks, rising to the southeast, is the municipality’s namesake, Hope Mountain. Getting there requires navigating the rough Mount Hope Forest Service Road, which leaves Highway 3 east of its junction with Highway 5. Only four-wheel-drive vehicles can make it all the way to the trailhead, shared by nearby Wells Peak.
The Hope Mountain trail begins by losing a bit of elevation before rising to the divide between Four Mile Creek and Alexander Creek. Then it’s a walk on an old, easy-going logging road before the trail climbs steeply to the 1,844-metre-high summit.
Although three radio repeaters litter the mountaintop, the panoramic views more than compensate. From the summit cairn, you can see the Fraser River emerging from the Fraser Canyon, Ogilvie Peak on the opposite side of Hope, and the mountains around Coquihalla Pass. An outcrop on the other side of a pond just below the summit offers a prime spot from which to admire the shapely Silverhope Creek valley and spot Mount Baker towering over the North Cascades.
From the trailhead, it’s a nine-kilometre round trip with 690 metres of elevation gain. In October, this took my party three hours up and six hours return, with a leisurely lunch on top.
Anyhow, Hope Mountain is a hike to put on your list for next summer. The recent snowfall on the mountains of southwestern B.C. means it’s time to get excited about snowshoeing — and to be aware of avalanche risk.Pakistan’s real terrorism problem
The brutal, execution-style attack on Shi’a Muslims in the Mastung area of Baluchistan this week was, at once, debilitating, shocking, and instructive.
It was debilitating because it reminded observers and Pakistanis alike that the threat of indiscriminate violence Pakistanis face as a result of domestic militant groups shows no signs of abating.
It was shocking because even by the standards of Pakistani society, where violence is accepted with nonchalance — or "resilience," depending on your point of view — the attack represented a new low, mainly because of the method of the killings. As multiple reports have indicated, the militants stopped a bus en route to Iran, forced the pilgrims off, lined them by the side of the road, and shot them. As Dawn noted in its editorial on the killings, the attack showed a "descent into new depths of savagery."
Finally, it was instructive because it shed light on the precise nature of the militant threat the Pakistani state and society face, and the long-term struggle ahead to adequately address the threat.
Since Pakistan’s alliance with the United States after 9/11 — I use the term "alliance" loosely here — Pakistanis have borne extremely high levels of violence; some 35,000 civilians, police and military officials have perished in the last seven years. Within the country, this has led to a sharp debate about the origins of the violence, and the advisability of the partnership with America.
The dominant narrative within Pakistan is that this war is not "our war"; that Pakistani leaders, both military and civilian, have allied with the United States out of a combination of greed and pusillanimity; that the militant violence directed at the Pakistani state and society would not have occurred had Pakistan not signed on to do America’s bidding in its war; and that the solution to the terrorist threat lies in the U.S. exiting the region.
The proposition that the death toll from terrorism would be lower had Pakistan not gotten involved in the U.S. war in Afghanistan is likely accurate. But to take that to mean that Pakistan would have been a peaceful society without U.S. intervention in the region is a step too far.
The gruesome events on Tuesday demonstrate this truth, because groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which claimed responsibility for the attack, existed well before 9/11 and will exist well after the U.S. draws down in Afghanistan. Indeed, rather than being strictly being an anti-American group, LeJ’s raison d’être is primarily sectarian — they are an offshoot of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, itself an anti-Shi’a terrorist group. The notion that groups such as LeJ did not threaten Pakistanis until the military and civilian leadership allied with the United States rests on a very narrow understanding of "Pakistani." Shi’a still count as Pakistani, despite the efforts of groups such as SSP and LeJ.
For more than fifteen years, LeJ has carried out attacks against Pakistani religious minorities. In April 2010, the group was responsible for a bombing in Quetta – in a hospital, no less – which killed 11 people. That same month, two LeJ female suicide bombers blew themselves up at a relief camp for internal refugees who were waiting to get registered and receive food, reportedly because Shi’a were receiving food aid. In September 2010, the group was responsible for a suicide bomb and grenade attack in Lahore, targeting a Shi’a procession that killed more than 40 people. This year alone, LeJ has been behind at least four different attacks on Hazara Shi’a in Baluchistan, resulting in dozens of casualties. And this is just a sample of the group’s activities in recent times.
LeJ is an extremely daring and dangerous organization. In the late 1990s, then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered a crackdown on it, a move that invited assassination attempts against him. In Pakistan: Eye of the Storm, Owen Bennett-Jones reports a remarkable incident of the group’s reach:
The police were told that anyone who managed to arrest or kill Riaz Basra [then head of LeJ] would be given a 5 million-rupee award.
Despite this, the security forces proved incapable of controlling the militants’ activities. Riaz Basra showed his contempt for the police’s capabilities when he turned up at one of Nawaz Sharif’s political surgeries [meetings with party supporters]. Having slipped in with the petitioners who wanted to see the prime minister, Basra positioned himself directly behind Nawaz Sharif and got one of his accomplices to take a picture. Three days later staff at the prime minister’s house received a print of the photograph. The faces of Sharif and Basra, within a few feet of each other, had been circled and underneath there was an inscription: ‘It’s that easy.’
Those claiming that widespread terrorism in Pakistan is solely a result of U.S. involvement in the region cannot address the existence of groups such as LeJ. Essentially all militant groups operating in Pakistan today, including LeJ, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Muhammad, existed in some form before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. That their activities were less widespread before Pakistan backed the United States is neither here nor there, because their very existence on Pakistani soil should be intolerable to Pakistani citizens and the state.
Unfortunately, the aftermath of the Tuesday attack itself sends a signal of the state’s woeful capabilities in tackling groups such as LeJ. The organization’s leader, Malik Ishaq, was meekly placed under house arrest for ten days due to "security reasons," and authorities followed the next day by placing his key aide Ghulam Rasool Shah under house arrest as well. Malik Ishaq was released from prison earlier this year, despite having 44 court cases against him (he was acquitted in 34, and granted bail in 10). His release was due to a lack of evidence.
Though outsiders may scoff at a publicly recognizable leader of a terrorist group not having sufficient evidence tying him to murder, it is actually quite understandable for those more aware of ground realities in Pakistan. First, witnesses are scared to death — literally — of coming forward and testifying. Second, judges themselves are unsafe, and afraid of handing out guilty verdicts in high-profile terrorism cases. Third, police procedures, investigative techniques and equipment are not advanced enough to tie individuals to specific incidents; even if police forces in an area know exactly who is behind a particular incident, proving it in a court of law is not easy, especially since Pakistan’s anti-terrorism laws remain flawed. Fourth, there exists a baseline of sympathy for such organizations and their actions even amongst the "educated" legal community, as the reaction to the Salman Taseer assassination so eloquently showed.
All this is to suggest that, unfortunately, the terrorism problem in Pakistan is not going to disappear as U.S. forces leave Afghanistan. To the contrary, it will take dedicated work and long-term reform in the Pakistani legal system, the courts, and the police to rid the country of this scourge.
Most pertinent of all, the Pakistani military must abandon the analytical distinction between "good" and "bad" militant groups, as well as abandoning the hope that "good" militant groups can fulfill regional strategic objectives, such as bringing India to the negotiating table on Kashmir or attaining "strategic depth" in Afghanistan. If nothing else, the last decade should have put paid to that theory of national interest. Notwithstanding the security establishment’s desire to play favorites, the array of militant groups in Pakistan have a lot more that unites them than divides them. Indeed, LeJ — to take one relevant example — has deep connections with the Pakistani Taliban as well as al-Qaeda, both of whom have used extraordinary levels of violence against Pakistani targets. The idea that the state can take on one set of elements and leave others untouched is, in the medium- and long-term, completely fanciful.
Ahsan Butt is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Chicago and blogs at Five Rupees.How we behave publicly is often in contrast with how we behave when all by our lonesome. In the presence of others, we are slightly more inhibited and self-aware and so any impulse we experience will be immediately screened through our built-in social filters so as to avoid humiliation or ridicule. The more comfortable we are with ourselves and the people in our company, the less inhibited we tend to be. However, it is likely there will always be aspects of our personality that we would prefer to keep behind closed doors. Here are the sneaky things each Myers-Briggs (MBTI) personality type is likely to do when they think no one is looking.
INTP
Talking to themselves – INTPs have an internal dialogue that can get so intense, they end up acting it out verbally. When there is no one else around to judge them, they may go ahead and think out loud, vent or rehearse an argument with an imagined adversary. As they go over ideas in their mind, they envision how a critic might reply and the possible counterpoints they might present. In the process, INTPs may gesticulate and pantomime in a very animated and unself-conscious way such that if anyone were to witness them, they would think the INTP were losing their mind.
INTJ
Fuming over their mistakes – INTJs pride themselves on their mental aptitude, but when they make a major mistake or experience failure, it can feel like an affront to their ego. INTJs can sometimes torture themselves over it or fall into depression. INTJs don’t like broadcasting or even showing signs of their inner turmoil. They try to resolve it themselves and are good at hiding their embarrassment and concealing their emotions and reactions away from public scrutiny. They could be seething inside but to the rest of the world may appear like normal.
ENTP
Drinking straight from the bottle instead of using a cup – It’s convenient but inconsiderate of others to drink straight from the carton, pitcher or bottle in the fridge. That’s what cups are for. For those who live alone, it doesn’t matter much although it could lead to a habit that continues even when they share residence with other people. Those who do it generally don’t see the big deal and only refrain from |
of the names in the intercepted communications were in fact masked.”
Wednesday evening, March 22: Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), in an MSNBC interview, calls for a select committee to investigate Russia, saying that “no longer does the Congress have credibility to handle this alone.”
Thursday morning, March 23: Nunes apologizes to his Intelligence Committee colleagues “in a generic way,” according to representative Jackie Speier (D-California), a fellow committee member. Nunes also tells the committee that they’ll see the documents on Friday. (This does not happen.)
Thursday afternoon, March 23: A Nunes spokesperson clarifies that Nunes does not know “for sure” whether Trump or his associates were on the phone calls that were being surveilled or whether they were just mentioned in conversations between two or more foreign nationals.
Thursday night, March 23: Appearing on Hannity on Fox News, Nunes explains his rationale for briefing Trump on sensitive information: "I felt like I had a duty and obligation to tell him, because, as you know, he’s taking a lot of heat in the news media," Nunes said. "I think to some degree there are some things he should look at to see whether, in fact, he thinks the collection was proper or not."
Friday morning, March 24: Nunes cancels a planned open Intelligence Committee hearing that was to feature former ODNI head James Clapper, former CIA director John Brennan, and former deputy attorney general Sally Yates. Schiff calls it an “attempt to choke off public info.”
Separately, representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, confirms that Nunes has not showed them the intelligence reports as promised, adding that “it looks like [Nunes is] running his own intelligence service at this point.”
Monday morning, March 27: A Nunes spokesperson says Nunes met his source at the White House last week "in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source." That’s apparently referring to a SCIF, a protected room used to share classified materials. But the need for a SCIF doesn’t explain the use of the White House; the Capitol building houses several of them and sits just 15 minutes away by car.
The spokesperson further clarifies that, “because of classification rules, the source could not simply put the documents in a backpack and walk them over to the House Intelligence Committee space.” That also seems unlikely, given that someone with access to that level of confidential documents would in most cases also be cleared to take them from one location to another.
Monday night, March 27: Schiff officially calls on Nunes to recuse himself.
Tuesday morning, March 28: Appearing on the Today show, senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) colorfully derides Nunes as running an "Inspector Clouseau investigation," referring to the bumbling detective in the Pink Panther series.
Later Tuesday morning, Nunes declines to recuse himself from the investigation. When pressed on Democrat concerns that he's too close to Trump, Nunes responds that it "sounds like their problem." House Speaker Paul Ryan also said he saw no reason for Nunes to step aside.
Wednesday morning, March 28: Nunes shifts blame to the Democrats, saying: "We’re beginning to figure out who’s actually serious about the investigation because it appears like the Democrats aren’t really serious about this investigation." Democrats on the panel respond by noting that it was Nunes who canceled a previously scheduled open panel scheduled with no explanation and no apparent intent to reschedule.
Thursday afternoon, March 29: The New York Times reports that National Security Council senior director for intelligence Ezra Cohen-Watnick and White House national security lawyer Michael Ellis provided Nunes the intelligence documents, indicating a direct thread between the administration and the original news conference. At his daily press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer declines to comment, saying he chooses to focus more on the "substance" than the "process."
Thursday morning, April 6: Due to an ethics complaint, Devin Nunes steps down from his leadership of the Russia investigation, leaving open the possibility of return after an inquiry. His statement reads, in full:
"Several leftwing activist groups have filed accusations against me with the Office of Congressional Ethics. The charges are entirely false and politically motivated, and are being leveled just as the American people are beginning to learn the truth about the improper unmasking of the identities of U.S. citizens and other abuses of power. Despite the baselessness of the charges, I believe it is in the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress for me to have Representative Mike Conaway, with assistance from Representatives Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney, temporarily take charge of the Committee’s Russia investigation while the House Ethics Committee looks into this matter. I will continue to fulfill all my other responsibilities as Committee Chairman, and I am requesting to speak to the Ethics Committee at the earliest possible opportunity in order to expedite the dismissal of these false claims."
Thursday night, April 11: CNN reports that, after having reviewed the same documents that prompted the original Nunes allegations, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers found nothing "unusual or illegal." Instead, the bipartisan consensus appears to be that Susan Rice was simply doing her job, and that no politically motivated attempts to unmask took place.
We will continue to update this post as the Nunes situation evolves.Why Are SF Apartments So Moldy? (And What Should You Do About It?)
The Bold Italic Editors Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 13, 2014
By Noah Sanders
If you’ve lived in San Francisco for any period of time, you’ve probably heard a horror story about mold in someone’s home. You’re familiar with tales of damp closets covered in spore-producing fungi. You’ve heard about Stachybotrys chartarum (or toxic black mold) causing asthma, headaches and melancholic bouts of lethargy. You know of walls being removed and homes being evacuated due to full-on fungal invasions. Mold is a dangerous beast, and San Francisco can feel like its primary point of attack. Dig a little deeper, and what seeps to the surface is something a bit scarier: mold is a naturally occurring phenomena, and most plus-size cities are fertile breeding grounds for the stuff.
Mold sucks—no two ways about it. But it is preventable, and if dealt with promptly and properly, it is also completely manageable. So what is San Francisco doing wrong with the result that so many of us are having problems with it? That answer ties back into this city’s current housing crisis.
The Horrors of Humidity
Molds are, to be frank, all over the place. The simple microscopic organisms help break down dead stuff, plants and animals, and facilitate the reuse of their nutrients. To do so, mold fires an innumerous amount of spores into the atmosphere, which float along looking for the aforementioned deceased matter to sup on. Don’t panic, but everyone inhales an acceptable number of these spores—for the most part without any health issues. It’s only when mold is left unchecked in dank, dark climes, where it can multiply to high and potentially unhealthy levels, that it’s a problem. Mold’s a tricky beast; allergy levels can vary greatly between those exposed, with some unlucky folks actually developing allergies. Side effects related to the fungal spores include mild hay fever, asthma, sinus infections, headaches, general depression and a host of other respiratory maladies. If you see discolored or splotchy patches, if your apartment smells musty, or if your home has experienced past or recent water damage, chances are high that you’re living with mold.
As Karen Cohn, a program manager for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, explains, San Francisco is a particularly fertile environment for mold: “We are in a moist, humid environment. We have an extremely old housing stock—the fourth highest number of pre-1978 housing in the country — and in old homes, windows were single pane, and walls were badly insulated.” That translates into hundreds of homes that don’t protect against the onset of moisture, which creates a tantalizing petri dish in which mold can form. I spoke to more than a few people in San Francisco who reported everything from a few splotches growing along their windowsills to outbreaks getting so bad that they had to throw out mattresses and entire collections of vintage clothing.
Two years ago, John Wilson* moved into a Tenderloin apartment built in 1911 and learned about mold intrusion firsthand. “It was one or two months into living there, and I couldn’t breath in my apartment,” he says. “Turns out I’m super-allergic to mold, so we started moving things around in our closet, and I was like, ‘Oh fuck.’” Wilson’s closet, which he described as feeling “wet” all the time, was covered in mold. “It was everywhere. On our clothes, our hats, our jackets. It was one of those moments where you feel like you’ve just lost the apartment contest.” He also suffered from a host of common mold issues — asthma, headaches and lethargy.
San Francisco is one of the few cities in the country that places mold in the same category as rats and trash as a legal nuisance, and landlords can be liable if mold issues are reported and aren’t taken care of promptly. Wilson and his partner called their building manager, took pictures and put in a work order for the apartment to be inspected and the mold removed. He also bought humidifiers, but the situation only worsened. “The apartment had no ventilation, and when we would cook, the moisture would just hang in the air,” he says.
At one point, the mold in his closet grew so bad that Wilson had to move all his belongings into the main room, effectively cutting the small studio he was sharing in half. In the months after the mold had been reported, Wilson’s building went through a management change. After a year, he complained to the Rent Board and learned that the new owners had no idea a work order had ever been filed. He was awarded three months’ worth of rent, and the management did what they could to remediate the mold. “We thought it was just in the closet, but it was everywhere. They tore down the walls and put in this special mold-resistant padding, re-sheetrocked the whole place, and in the end I actually ended up sleeping in that closet,” he says. When Wilson asked the workers removing the mold if the repairs would solve the problem, he was told they would eliminate the issue in the apartment, but that the mold was all over the building, so there was a potential for it to return. Almost a year later, when he was packing up to move to Oakland, Wilson saw the telltale multicolored splotches of mold.
Our Cramped City
If environmental dampness was the city’s only concern, the mold problem would definitely look less depressing. Cohn believes our issues are more than just damp climates and old buildings; they’re also economic and housing related. “We have a lot of overcrowding because of the cost of our housing,” she says. More people means more breathing, showering and cooking (and the creation of condensation). Even worse, more roommates invariably means more clutter, more beds and more junk pressed up against walls. This creates tightly packed spaces where the extra condensation has nowhere to go, opening the door for mold to creep in along the edges. “Over-occupied homes have an additional moisture source,” says Cohn, “and that moisture has to go somewhere. If people aren’t opening windows, you’re going to have mold problems.” While Cohn hasn’t seen a major spike in mold-related inquiries during the last few years, she has seen increasingly more people relegating themselves to mold-infested living situations.
A tighter rental market increases fears that if someone loses their apartment, they won’t be able to find another affordable rental within the city. As Wilson says, “We were initially nervous about bringing up our mold problem because we were worried that they’d choose to just remediate the whole building, and we’d get kicked out.” Even in San Francisco, where deferred maintenance of mold is a just cause to sue your landlord, Wilson says, “If I had a place now that had really bad mold, I wouldn’t say a word. I’d keep my mouth shut.” Education about renters’ rights is an important part of mold remediation. As Cohn says, “People are scared of this subject. If something leaks and it isn’t taken care of, this is the property owner’s responsibility. Tenants need to feel empowered to ask for that.”
Growing Mold Together
Unfortunately, mold is an environmental surety. If you live in a city with a damp climate, the potential for it to spread is there. With education, prevention and maintenance, mold becomes just another urban issue. But it’s also a symbol of the steadily changing nature of this city. San Francisco’s population is estimated to hit over a million people in the next 20 years (a million people spread out over a miniscule seven square miles). Rents are skyrocketing, and the ability of the middle and lower class to find affordable housing is becoming increasingly difficult. In effect, while shiny new condos are crowding out the skyline all over the city, the average renter is getting pushed down.
Which brings us back to mold. Sure, living with mold isn’t ideal, and no one really wants to do it, but on the other hand, with the rental market as it is, who can afford finding somewhere new to live? We fear mold because, yes, it can cause startling health effects and make for a shitty living situation, but some of us fear mold more because its presence indicates a reason why we might be removed from our current living situations, regardless of how substandard they might be.
DO IT YOURSELF: MOLD PREVENTION
Mold proliferates with moisture, so preventing it means preventing dampness in your apartment. Cheryl Pearce, a certified microbiologist and owner of Mold Busters (an inspection and mold-remediation business), recommends opening a window for five minutes every few hours to allow stagnant air out and cleaner, outdoor air in. If you have leaks or water damage, get them fixed as quickly as possible. If you think you have mold, call a recommended mold-inspection company like Mold Busters, and make sure you get both an air test, a visual inspection and a solid explanation of what you need to do to fix the current problem and to prevent the issue in the future.
*Name changed upon request of the intervieweeThe Islamic State responded to statements by Pope Francis that their war is not religious in nature.
ISIS disagrees.
ISIS tells the Socialist Pope that the Islamic State is in a war against the infidels approved by Allah.
Translated from FDESouche, Via Vlad Tepes:
The Islamic State has publicly responded to statements by Pope Francis that the war waged by the Islamic terrorists is not religious in nature. The article answers the pontiff that their only motivation is religious and approved by Allah in the Qur’an.
Highlights of the latest issue of Dabiq – the official propaganda magazine of the Islamic State – the terrorist group is criticizing especially the naivety of Pope Francis, who’s clinging to the belief that Muslims want peace and peaceful coexistence and that Islamic terror is motivated for economic reasons. In the article “By the Sword” ( “By the Sword”), the authors categorically state: “This is a divinely-sanctioned war between the Muslim nation and the infidel nations.” […]
“Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them”
The article laments that despite the clearly religious nature of their attacks, “many people in the ‘crusaders’ country’ (Western countries)” expressed shock and even disgust because the leadership of the Islamic State ” uses religion to justify violence … Indeed, jihad – the spread of the rule of Allah with the sword – is an obligation that we find in the Qur’an, the word of our Lord, “ says the magazine. “‘Pour the blood of unbelievers’” is a common obligation. The command is very clear: kill the unbelievers, as Allah says, “kill the disbelievers wherever you find them.” “[…]
The fact is that “even if you (the West) stopped bombing us, throwing us in jail, torturing us, to humiliating and driving you us out of our land, we would continue to hate you, because the main raison of our hatred will not disappear as long as you have not embraced Islam. Even if you had to pay the jizyah [tax for infidels] and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you. ” […]You would really think that by now companies in crisis could get it right the first time.
But no, as Equifax announced its epic Category 5 crisis — the cyberhack of 143 million consumers' social security numbers, drivers' license numbers, birthdates, addresses and credit card numbers affecting at least 44% of the American population — after stalling for over a month to stop the hack and prepare for the onslaught of a public announcement, it clearly got the apology algorithm all wrong. Did the company think no one would notice?
From CEO Richard Smith's tepid apology, which was totally incommensurate with the size of the crisis ("This is clearly a disappointing event for our company, and one that strikes at the heart of who we are and what we do. I apologize to consumers and our business customers for the concern and frustration this causes" ) to a completely botched announcement of remediation (tying use of the company's free credit monitoring to forfeiting the right of a trial and mandating arbitration), the company just got everything wrong.
Whenever you come out of the gate wrong in a crisis — minimizing the problem, putting forth a totally tone-deaf message, trying to pull a fast one on your consumers by limiting your liability or retaining some of your breezy marketing messages in the face of Category 5 devastation — you court the fury of your customers, the public, regulators and investors.
Here's what Equifax has done wrong — so far:
1. "Disappointed?" Disappointed? Really? How about saying you're devastated at the breach that just occurred, and you will not rest until you find out exactly what happened, and fix the situation to the best of your ability for each one of the 143 million American citizens affected? An apology must be all about the people hurt in the crisis, not about you! A weaker, more tone-deaf, corporate-speak apology we haven't seen... since United.
2. Then, in the same statement Equifax actually went on to include their brand messaging: We pride ourselves on being a leader in managing and protecting data. Again, really? This is at 180-degree variance from what just happened. The company immediately set up an internal and jarring dissonance between what it claims about itself, and what just occurred! If this is what it prides itself on, what is the company ashamed of? No better way to destroy any kind of trust, in the first 30 seconds. One must ask, Who is advising these folks? Their crisis management credentials should be revoked.
3. The subhead of the "apology" statement (now changed) originally said that no criminal use of the stolen data had been seen yet — well, by now everyone knows that criminal activity often doesn't even begin for months or years after the data theft. The company chose to emphasize the wrong things, and appears to deny the seriousness of the hack yet again, through misdirection of what is important. Often in a crisis, the ACT of trying to limit damage or liability in public statements only serves to exacerbate them.
4. The same goes for the "happy talk" that surrounded other Equifax messages on social media. While most of us were just trying to get a handle on the magnitude of the crisis, chatbots wished those frantically trying to find out if they had been hacked, a "happy Friday." Twitter erupted, and yet again, Equifax looked hapless.
5. Worse, the monumental miscalculation of trying to — sneakily — have victims forfeit their right to sue if they signed up for the free credit monitoring Equifax is offering, backfired horribly. Hidden in the fine print, victims found the clause of course and raised a holy firestorm on social media, leading to the New York attorney general and others demanding it be removed. This led to all kinds of needless wrangling, where Equifax appeared to be trying to put one over on its defenseless victims. And regardless of whether this was true or not, the company was forced to issue a statement saying that in this instance, victims are not obligated to arbitration. Some experts are still disputing the validity of that claim, however, because the language remains. This is such a needless compounding of the crisis, and of Equifax's reputational damage.
6. And the rest of the company's remediation is just plain insufficient, even when it took a month to plan it. Clearly, Equifax is working to limit its responsibility, not rise to it. Its call center — almost impossible to get through to — isn't even open 24 hours a day: "We are experiencing high call volumes, and we are working diligently to respond to all consumers. We recommend that you visit our website at www.equifaxsecurity2017.com to find more information. You may also try back after 5:00 p.m. Eastern time when call volumes may be lower. For your convenience, we are available from 7:00 a.m. until 1:00 a.m. Eastern time, 7 days per week." Best practice in a crisis of this magnitude, is a 24/7 customer service line, sufficiently staffed by employees throughout the company, with top executives staffing the lines on Sundays and in the evenings, to get a feel for the magnitude of customer distress and come up with further solutions. That's called customer care.
7. Even the answers in their published "Q&A" don't answer the questions! Q: "Why am I learning about this incident through the media? Why didn’t Equifax notify me directly?" A: "Equifax issued a national press release in order to notify U.S. consumers of this incident and has established a website, www.equifaxsecurity2017.com, where U.S. consumers can receive further information." They didn't answer the question!
8. And finally, in a mash-up of ironies it is hard to fathom, Richard Smith, Equifax's CEO, was named one of "Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs of 2017" and honored at a big gala on August 24, 2017. Smith already knew of the breach, but hadn't announced it yet. In an interview in The Atlanta Business Chronicle, on August 1st, two days after the breach was discovered, he was asked "What are the keys to CEOs building a high level of trust in their organizations?" And he answered: "Transparency, candor, consistency, and humility. Employees want an appropriate level of transparency about decisions and they expect us to be candid with them. Employees will detect a disconnect in a heartbeat, so we must be consistent in our words, our actions, and appearances. The final ingredient depends on the CEO. We have to remain humble if we’re going to build trust. That means not just listening to people at all levels, but trusting that what they have to say matters. Leaders in particular must build trust by giving trust."
Ironic.
What we are reminded throughout this crisis response is that consumers are not really Equifax's customers; companies extending credit are. Thus they are not treating their victims as their customers, and it shows. Were they wise, it would never show, and Equifax would be treating every one of their 143 million victims as honored, valued clients.
Long ago, the Institute of Medicine found that when doctors made clinical errors, even those causing the death of their patients, if they truly and honestly accepted the blame and apologized profoundly, they were far less likely to be sued than if they did not. Up until that point, their attorneys had been advising them to never admit guilt or remorse — which just infuriated patients and their families even more, pretty much assuring a lawsuit.
Why has Equifax not understood that such a tepid response, clear dissembling, and an unclear, limited remediation plan are infuriating the public more? They would have been far better served to be abjectly apologetic, and then focus on full remediation for their victims and their customers. But they did not.
Let the lawsuits begin.1. Snow White and the Seven-Floor-Walk-Up.
Premise: A doe eyed, innocent gal moves to New York with big dreams and empty pockets. She answers a Craigslist ad for a “Bright room for rent — lots of natural light!!!!” and finds herself living with a bunch of dudes in a seven-floor walk-up with no AC and only one bathroom. Are they all legal tenants? Absolutely not. But they give her her own room when she promises to make breakfast every morning, and for the most part they’re good about knocking. Eventually they bond and have a whole roster of inside jokes and nicknames for each other. Hilarity ensues while she teaches them the basics of things like flossing and not leaving on the gas stove overnight, and while they teach her about the metro system and the cross streets to avoid after dark.
2. Sleeping Blackout Beauty.
Premise: Aurora goes to a party to celebrate her 21st and, after accidentally mixing Xanax with champagne, she hits the deck and passes out for the next eighteen hours. The rest of the movie does not focus on her, but rather the shenanigans that take place around her at the party. Three bitches are caught in the same outfit and end up in a war of words in the bathroom – even though the outfits are not even in the same color family but *WHATEVER*. Twitter explodes over Philip, who couldn’t find Aurora, and ended up dancing with another girl. Meanwhile Aurora is just left on her side to sleep it off. When she wakes up with a hangover and some serious bedhead, she’s met with a slew of text messages.
3. Tinderella.
Premise: Shy girl Cinderella is coaxed (read: heavily forced) into downloading Tinder by her two manipulative and bratty stepsisters. They steal her phone — Cindy is WAY too trusting with her passcode — and message guys without her knowing when she isn’t around. Tables turn when Cindy gets a little push from a fairy godmother of sorts (re: the crazy naturopath next door who no one complains about because she’s nice and shares her produce) and ends up going out of with one of the guys her step-sisters have been text flirting with. Sparks fly and a whole make out montage happens to a Taylor Swift cover.
4. The Hipster King.
Premise: After a huge falling out with his family involving the death of his father (which no, would NOT happen on screen because we all remember how traumatic the animated version was) and the very bizarre relationship between his mother and uncle, adolescent Simba takes off on his own. He befriends quite a few misfits, grows his hair out so it tickles his eyes, and spends a good chunk of the film sighing dramatically and saying things like, “You just wouldn’t understand.” When his childhood sweetheart runs into him at the farmer’s market while he’s munching on dried green beans and writing in his moleskin, Simba is reminded of his life back home and is forced to choose if hipster-dom is really his destiny.
5. Beauty and the Beat.
Premise: This movie has already been done and it is called Save The Last Dance.
6. Frozen (Accounts).
Premise: Orphaned when they were very young, Elsa and Anna have finally reached an age where they are allowed access to their trust funds and the vast, Scandinavian wealth that was left for them by their family who probably descends from Vikings. Unfortunately their first order of business is doing too many lines of “snow” in the bathroom and making complete fools of themselves at a big, social event. Their last remaining family member (Let’s go with a Grandmother. Grandmothers are always good at laying down the law.) decides that until the girls can show they’re responsible, well-adjusted adults, they will have 0.00 access to the family money. They try to tell her to chill out and just let it go, but Grandma is NOT having it. Think The Simple Life but as a full-length, feature film.
7. Peter Pan Syndrome.
Premise: Annoyed with her very predictable life that has gone oh-so-according-to-plan, Wendy takes an unexpected semester off from college to “find herself.” Along the way she meets Peter, a dude who sleeps in hammocks, never wears shoes, has a dog that has never worn a leash, and just generally does exactly what he wants when he wants. As their relationship grows, Wendy is forced to really examine herself and to reevaluate what she wants out of ~LiFe~. This would be the type of movie that would absolutely premiere at Sundance and have a soundtrack that Tumblr kids would say “SPOKE TO THEM,” and would then wield into gifs with the hashtag “relationship goals.” Even though real relationship goals should include a roof and a savings account.One knock on Matt Ryan during his first years as a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons was that he could not throw the deep ball.
There was a consensus among writers and fans that he did not possess the arm strength to push the ball down the field. Others thought it was it
his then offensive coordinators Mike Murlarkey’s fault as he was more of a run first type coordinator.
Matt Ryan heard everyone’s complaint, but instead of running from the noise he simply worked on that portion of his game.
During the 2012 offseason Matt Ryan added some additional muscle most notably to his arms. He looked more athletic and his head coach Mike Smith acknowledged his arm had gotten stronger. His receivers also noted the ball had a little more zip on it that it had in recent seasons.
This season, Matt Ryan has proven that he can indeed throw the deep pass. In fact, Ryan leads the league in deep ball passing according to
advanced stats pro football focus utilizes. I am a big fan of PFF stats because it takes into account things such as passing under pressure,
drops by receivers, and accuracy. Ryan has attempted 67 passes over 20 yards and has completed 30 of those for a total of 820 yards. That is a 56.7 percent accuracy rate which also leads all quarterbacks in deep balls.
5 of those deep passes have gone for touchdowns. Ryan’s stats would be even better had his receivers not dropped 8 passes which is the
most in the league for passes over 20 yards.
Matt Ryan’s had definitely grown comfortable lately throwing the ball deep to Julio Jones. They have developed really good chemistry since Jones entered the league 4 years ago and have hooked up for some big plays for the Falcons to keep them in the playoff hunt. Julio is one of the best deep threats in the league.
Matt Ryan has been nothing but a true professional since he entered the league. The fact that he worked so hard on something that was once a
weakness of his, to turn it around and now leads the league shows that he is the consummate Pro’s Pro. Great job Matt Ryan. I’m sure the Falcons faithful would love to see a few more deep completions this Sunday against the Panthers in a must win game. Do you feel Matt Ryan throws the deep ball really well? Join the discussion below.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday proposed hiring more prosecutors to pursue intellectual property crimes in the new budget as the entertainment industry pressures the Justice Department to crack down on copyright infringement and counterfeiting.
The overall proposed 2013 budget for the Justice Department was flat, $27.1 billion in discretionary spending, with officials shuffling funds to address the biggest priorities since there is little appetite in Congress to increase spending in light of recent $1 trillion-plus deficits.
Still, the Justice Department asked Congress for $5 million to hire 14 new employees, including nine attorneys, to focus on intellectual property crimes. Last year, the administration sought $3 million for six new hires but Congress refused.
“We’ve had an increase in the number of cases that we’re dealing with in IP (intellectual property),” Deputy Attorney General James Cole told reporters. “We think this is an area that really needs some focus and some efforts and increases in the future.”
Last month U.S. prosecutors accused one of the most heavily-trafficked websites in the world, Megaupload, of peddling copyrighted movies, television shows and music and earning tens of millions of dollars from the alleged scheme.
If the budget request is approved by Congress, the team would grow to 34. The entertainment industry has been pushing the administration to do more, and efforts to pass new legislation to crack down further on such crimes has stalled.
Separately, the Obama administration dropped its previous budget request to buy a prison in Illinois that would have been used to house terrorism suspects currently incarcerated at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The White House and Congress have been at loggerheads over where to detain and prosecute the suspects, including the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The administration had hoped to buy a facility in Thomson, Illinois but Congress has refused to pay for it.
“We’re still trying to work with Congress to see if we can get funding for it and get approvals for it, it’s certainly still part of what we think is a necessary add-on to the Bureau of Prison system for high security and that kind of level of incarceration,” Cole said.Thomas Edsall writes in the NYT:
These families, 4604 of them, to be exact, were then divided into three groups. An experimental group of 1,819 families was offered “Section 8 rental assistance certificates or vouchers that they could use only in census tracts with 1990 poverty rates below 10 percent”; 855 accepted the offer and became part of the study. A second group of 1,346 families was offered more traditional “Section 8” rent subsidy vouchers that could be used in any neighborhood; 848 accepted.
A control group composed of 1,439 families stayed in public housing and became part of the study. The purpose of the relocation initiative, according to Department of Housing and Urban Development, was to test the “long-term effects of access to low-poverty neighborhoods on the housing, employment and educational achievements of the assisted households.” Researchers also studied how relocation affected the health of those who accepted vouchers.
A paper published in the May 2013 issue of the American Economic Review, “Long-Term Neighborhood Effects on Low-Income Families: Evidence From Moving to Opportunity,” found that after 10 to 15 years, moving out of high-poverty public housing through the M.T.O. program showed mixed results.
There were some positive developments, according to the primary author of the paper, Jens Ludwig, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and the project director for a final assessment of the M.T.O. program. Ludwig and his six co-authors found improvement in “several key adult mental and physical health outcomes.” These included significantly lowered risk of diabetes and obesity, as well an improved level of “subjective well-being.”
But the Ludwig study also found that “changing neighborhoods alone may not be sufficient to improve labor market or schooling outcomes for very disadvantaged families.” Ludwig reported that this particular form of assistance from HUD –a housing voucher that allowed recipients to move into a “low poverty” area – had “no consistent detectable impacts on adult economic self-sufficiency or children’s educational achievement outcomes, even for children who were too young to have enrolled in school at baseline.”
Ludwig reported similar findings in a follow-up essay published this week by Third Way, a Democratic think tank.In the middle of the hoopla surrounding Ben Affleck and Batman, it would appear that Bryan Cranston has accepted the role of Lex Luthor in Man of Steel 2.
The Breaking Bad star’s involvement with the picture should come as no surprise to those who have been following the project since its announcement. The actor was asked about the sequel last week, though he refrained from spilling any beans on the subject.
Of course, no one from Warner Bros. or Bryan Cranston’s camp has confirmed the news about his casting as Lex Luthor just yet. According to Zap2It, there’s a chance the announcement won’t arrive until the Breaking Bad series finale rolls around. In other words, you may have to wait until the end of September for confirmation.
If news of Cranston’s involvement with the Man of Steel sequel turn out to be true, then the actor could play the villain in approximately six films. The folks at Cosmic Book News seem to think this number might be as high as ten. That’s definitely a lot of Luthor in our collective future.
“Cranston truly is a dream casting for Luthor,” an anonymous source told the site.
Another intense actor who was reportedly in the running for the villainous role was Green Lantern star Mark Strong. However, it’s possible that his turn as Sinestro ultimately worked against him. Insiders believe there’s a chance that Strong might return as the evil alien at some point in the future.
Bryan Cranston’s involvement with Superman vs. Batman has been overshadowed by Ben Affleck’s casting in the film. Although fans have been livid about the actor’s role in the project, Man of Steel star Henry Cavill is apparently thrilled to work with the guy.
“Henry Cavill seen here tells me that he is ‘more than excited’ working with Ben Affleck the new Batman,” BBC presenter Kevin Pamplin recently shared on Twitter.
Do you believe that Bryan Cranston is the right person to tackle the role of Lex Luthor in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel? Who would you like to see play the villain?
[Image via AMC]Share. Available from January 22 in North America and January 23 in Europe. Available from January 22 in North America and January 23 in Europe.
Konami has announced a playable demo of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be available for Xbox 360 and PS3 next week.
The three-stage demo will be made available via PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace from January 22 in North American and January 23 in Europe.
A new trailer has also been released to accompany the announcement, which you can check out below. It shows off Raiden and the game's Zan-Datsu combat system in impressive form, even if they do rather worryingly only manage to net a B for the performance.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be available from February 19 in North America, February 21 in Australia and February 22 in Europe.
Exit Theatre Mode
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and still prefers the Raiden from Mortal Kombat. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.DCStarcraftGall Profile Joined October 2015 102 Posts Last Edited: 2015-12-01 04:57:50 #1 Link
(link has pictures of sOs holding a probe plushie in various ways)
[Park Sang Jin’s EStory]
sOs, the Last HOTS Protoss Talks About LOTV
Until the end of 2011, having an international Star |
30.2 °C
86 F 29.8 °C
86 F 28.6 °C
83 F 29.8 °C
86 F Maximum: 31.2 °C = 88 F
Average: 30.1 °C = 86 F 31 °C
88 F 32.8 °C
91 F 32.6 °C
91 F 29.8 °C
86 F 32.2 °C
90 F 30.4 °C
87 F 29.6 °C
85 F 29.8 °C
86 F 29.8 °C
86 F Maximum: 32.8 °C = 91 F
Average: 30.9 °C = 88 F Power Supply (max.) 45.8 °C = 114 F | Room Temperature 24.3 °C = 76 F | Raytek Raynger ST (±) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 34.6 °C / 94 F, compared to the average of 30.7 °C / 87 F for the devices in the class Subnotebook.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 38.6 °C / 101 F, compared to the average of 35.8 °C / 96 F, ranging from 22 to 57 °C for the class Subnotebook.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 45.6 °C / 114 F, compared to the average of 40.2 °C / 104 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 30.1 °C / 86 F, compared to the device average of 30.7 °C / 87 F.
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are reaching skin temperature as a maximum (34.6 °C / 94.3 F) and are therefore not hot.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 28.6 °C / 83.5 F (-6 °C / -10.8 F).
Stress Test Full CPU stress Full GPU stress GPU and CPU stress Our stress test involves using Prime95 and FurMark to simulate CPU/GPU stress and evaluate a machine’s ability to handle it by way of processor frequencies, temperature, and TDP. In the case of the Folio 1040, we suspected some degree of throttling was at play due to artificially low scores in some of the heavy GPU tests we performed earlier. Now is our chance to investigate these sentiments. First, under full CPU stress, the CPU immediately drops down to the 2.2—2.3 GHz range, which is above the base clock rate of the Core i7-4650U (1.7 GHz), but which is well below the maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 2.9 GHz for two active cores. Nevertheless, this does not qualify as throttling, but rather simply an inability to maintain full Turbo Boost frequencies. Next, under full GPU stress, the GPU clock rate immediately lowers to 450 MHz and remains there throughout the duration of the test. Again, while it’s well below the max rate of 1100 MHz, it still isn’t technically throttling. Finally, under both CPU and GPU stress, we finally find immediate and consistent throttling of the CPU to just 800 MHz while the GPU drops its Turbo rate to just 350—400 MHz. This is far below the maximum potential of the Core i7-4650U, which is disappointing to be certain. It also helps explain why we witnessed such lower values earlier in our synthetic testing than we would have expected given the Folio 1040’s exalted specifications. It’s interesting to note that temperatures nonetheless remain manageable at 60 °C maximum throughout all of this, suggesting that thermal throttling is not the issue (rather firmware/TDP-limited instead).
Speakers The Folio 1040’s speakers are hardly anything special, with or without the included Dolby DTS post-processing software involved. The volume level is hardly loud enough to fill a medium-sized room, and the audio quality is predictably tinny and hollow-sounding. For speech, it’s fine, but for anything else, the user will want to have a pair of headphones handy.
Battery Life Under minimal load (minimum brightness, Power Saver profile, wireless off), the notebook achieved a perfectly respectable 11 hours and 22 minutes of runtime, which is around half an hour longer than the i5 model we reviewed. On the opposite end of the spectrum, full load (high brightness, High Performance power profile, wireless on, Battery Eater Pro Classic Test) left the device with just 1 hour and 33 minutes of total life, which is a full hour less than the i5 variation. Our Surfing with Wi-Fi test paints a more balanced picture of its longevity. Here, we set brightness to 150 cd/m² and load a web surfing script, under which circumstances the Folio 1040 managed 6 hours and 10 minutes. That’s not bad, though it’s certainly below some other notebooks in the category, such as the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which lasted for nearly 8 hours. Minimal stress (maximum runtime) Maximum stress (minimum runtime) Surfing with Wi-Fi
Battery Runtime
11h 22min 6h 10min 1h 33minAlexander Semin apparently appeared on tickets to Wednesday’s Montreal Canadiens-Boston Bruins game at the Bell Centre.
The problem: The Canadiens waived Semin two days earlier.
Just realized that Semin is the player featured on CH tiks for tonights MTL/BOS game. What are the chances of that. pic.twitter.com/zW1UQgJiRg — CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) December 9, 2015
Semin cleared waivers Tuesday, and multiple reports Wednesday indicated his career in Montreal is over, and that his time in the NHL might very well be, as well.
EDM puts Mark Fayne on waivers. Alex Semin (MTL) is on unconditional waivers, likely for mutually agreed termination of contract. — Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) December 9, 2015
Semin on unconditional waivers for purpose of his release. His agent Todd Diamond talking to teams overseas. Could be a deal by week's end — Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) December 9, 2015
The events of this week represent a swift fall from grace for the Russian winger, who was a 40-point scorer for the Carolina Hurricanes just two seasons ago. He was a massive disappointment this season for the Canadiens, managing just four points (one goal, three assists) in 15 games after signing a one-year, $1.1 million contract this past summer.
Semin’s best years to date came with the Washington Capitals. The 31-year-old topped the 50-point plateau five times in six seasons with the Capitals and scored a career-high 84 points in 2009-10.
Thumbnail photo via Jean-Yves Ahern/USA TODAY Sports Images
Thumbnail photo via Montreal Canadiens right wing Alexander SeminFrom inmate to pastry chef, a cooperative in Padua has opened Italy’s only bakery behind bars.
They start to change, they become the type of good worker that it is hard to find even outside, because they regain their dignity.
Those serving time are serving up 70,000 Pannetonni cakes each year to 200 shops in the country in time for the festive season.
Repeat offenders are a real problem in Italy whose prisons are amongst the most crowded in Europe.
The scheme aims to build skills and confidence to avoid re-offending.
The man behind the operation Nicola Boscoletto explains that, “they start to change, they become the type of good worker that it is hard to find even outside, because they regain their dignity, self-esteem.They are able to send home money to their families.”
“It’s luck that I was assigned to Padua, where there is this model to follow. Now I have a job, I’ve learnt an art,” said Marco one of the prisoners on the baking scheme.
Re-offending rates dropped to 1-2 percent from a national average of 70 percent showing the proof is in the pudding.WARNING: This is a review for Wilson’s Heart. We’ve done our best to keep things spoiler-free but some very light story elements and a few gameplay surprises will be revealed.
Do you know that feeling you get when you’re standing at the end of a long, dark hallway by yourself? That constant buzz that tickles the primal parts of your brain and makes you wonder if anything is waiting at the other end?
In the back of your mind you know it’s silly to think anything might come around that corner. But for Robert Wilson those fears aren’t silly. They’re real. And they are coming straight for him.
Wilson’s Heart is the debut virtual reality game from Twisted Pixel. The studio describes the title as a “psychological thriller,” but don’t let that fool you. Wilson’s Heart is scary. And bloody. And sometimes gross.
But what it is most, is wickedly enjoyable.
In the game you take on the role of Robert Wilson, an elderly man who wakes up one stormy night inside what appears to be an abandoned insane asylum. However, as you begin to explore your surroundings you’ll quickly learn that the hospital is full of inhabitants. And most of them want you dead.
Visually, Wilson’s Heart is an absolute treasure. The black and white aesthetic was used by Twisted Pixel to evoke the familiar feelings of an old time monster movie and it creates an unforgettable atmosphere that pulls you into Robert’s horrifying world in an instant. Technically, the absence of color also allowed the studio to use larger texture sizes which makes the carefully crafted characters and environments look more striking than most fully-colored VR experiences. Everywhere your eyes go there’s something new to drink in. Just be careful, some things might be watching you back.
The only method of locomotion possible for Wilson’s Heart is node-based teleportation. Silhouettes of Robert will let you know where you can travel to and provide a hint as to what to do when you arrive. In most VR games, this would be an annoyance but in this one it feels like a smart decision.
This game is all about experiencing a specific story. Being able to walk into each and every corner of the asylum might feel more freeing, but it really wouldn’t add much to an experience built around storytelling and would have actually disrupted the constant flow of intrigue that kept us so steadily entertained as we played.
Limited locomotion doesn’t mean that there’s no exploration here, however. There’s plenty of little Easter eggs and environmental storytelling devices scattered around across the map. You may find a telephone to pick up, a newspaper to consult or a radio to switch on. All of these moments provide non-essential, but delightful moments of supplementary storytelling so be sure to check your surroundings carefully.
Your primary goal as Robert Wilson is to figure out what you’re doing in this hospital, how to escape and (perhaps most importantly) what happened to your heart? You learn fairly early in the story that you’re human heart has been replaced by a surrogate that is equal parts mystical and mechanical. This false organ will become accessible to you at key points in the game when it can be used to solve puzzles or fight enemies with a variety of different powers.
The puzzles you encounter are mostly based around progressing deeper into the bowels of the asylum. None of the puzzles are too challenging but they will require you to think and remember what resources in your environment you may need to move forward. One thing these challenges have in common is some sort of supernatural twist that get steadily more insane as the game wears on. We won’t spoil anything hear but you’re going to see and do some seriously messed up stuff if you manage to make it through to the end.
Many of these messed up things want to attack you, but thankfully Robert still packs a punch in his old age. That’s right, this game has combat and you’ll often find yourself slugging away at fiendish ghouls, blowing them away with environmental weapons or zapping them with a specific heart power.
Combat is one of Wilson’s Hearts rare weak moments. The enemies all look terrifying at first, but defeating them can feel repetitive. There’s a definite “rinse and repeat” feel to fighting in this game, which is disappointing for a title that’s so magnificently engaging in just about every other area.
One such area is the game’s audio. The sound design, music and voice acting are without question the best we’ve ever seen in a VR game. All star performances from bona-fide stars like Peter Weller, Rosario Dawson and Alfred Molina take the cinematic nature of Wilson’s Heart to a whole new level. The score is unnerving without being overbearing, and the sound effects are perfectly placed to make you check over your shoulder at just the right moments.
In the end, what makes Wilson’s Heart truly unforgettable is simply how amazing it is to experience. There’s a real story being told here and it’s being told with more technical skill and narrative charm than any other VR game to date. You’ll be thinking about this adventure long after the credits roll and the headset comes off.
Final Score: 9/10 – Amazing
Despite the occasionally repetitive moment of combat, Wilson’s Heart is a must-play game that elevates narrative, visuals, sound, and gameplay for VR experiences to an entirely new level. Your time as Robert may have been a nightmare, but it’s a nightmare you’ll be eager to revisit again, and again, and again.
Wilson’s Heart is available starting today for the Oculus Rift with Touch. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
Tagged with: twisted pixel, wilson's heartGet the biggest money 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
There may still be 191 shopping days until Christmas but the battle for top toys has already begun with Argos unveiling its list on Thursday.
According to the catalogue giant, parents are in for a seasonal headache as must-haves include a doll that has a distinctive “newborn” smell.
And there’s a SelfieMic which allows karaoke kids to copy their favourite pop idols from Little Mix and Taylor Swift to Justin Bieber by making music videos as they belt out songs.
For £19.99, the selfie stick with sing-a-long microphone, ear piece and music app is being tipped as a best seller along with the £40 Tiny Treasures Baby Doll.
Traditional favourite Lego makes the list with its City Volcano set but hi-tech toys are also in the top 11.
A remote control BB-8 droid from the blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens film, a Fisher Price Codeapillar which allows children to programme it to move around obstacles and a pricey robot Zoomer Chimp for £120 are all set to drive parents nuts.
Cash strapped mums and dads should start saving now as only one of the top toys is under £20, three are almost £50, three are up to £60 and one is more than £100.
Linzi Walker, chief toy buyer for Argos said: “This year’s list shows just how much toys are evolving - lots of our top toys have their roots in parents’ Christmas past. Now they’ve truly moved on, with more sophisticated tech, realistic life-like functions and up-to-date pop culture references.
“We’ve progressed from the toy caterpillar that toddlers could pull across the floor, to one that starts infants on the road to clever coding.
“Where once there was a baby doll that simply looked like the real thing, we now have one that smells as sweet as a newborn. And while past festivities might have featured a karaoke machine, 2016’s budding Beliebers will be making and sharing their own pop videos with a SelfieMic.”
And according to an Argos survey of 1,000 children aged five to 13, by Christmas 2026 toys will be even more advanced with a quarter predicting no more puzzling over Lego plans as construction sets will build themselves.
Four in ten reckon shops will be stacked with talking robots, virtual reality games and toys with everlasting batteries.
And one in five brought up on hit Disney film Mary Poppins believe in ten years time playrooms will have toys that tidy themselves away.
Argos top toys for ChristmasBollywood actor Akshaye Khanna duped of Rs 50 lakh, files complaint
Mumbai
oi-PTI
By PTI
Mumbai, Oct 20: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police on Saturday launched an investigation into a complaint of cheating filed by Bollywood actor Akshaye Khanna against a firm.
In his complaint, Akashaye alleged he invested Rs 50 lakh in the firm on the advice of its president and his wife and director who assured him of doubling the amount by investing it in the commodity market, sources said on Saturday night.
Akashaye said he invested Rs 50 lakh in the firm on the advice of its officials
Akshaye, son of Bollywood actor of yesteryear Vinod Khanna, approached EOW through his lawyer and filed a complaint as the firm failed to return the amount promised, they said.
Following the plaint, the EOW on Saturday registered a case of cheating with Malabar Hills police station.
PTITalks on ending the government shutdown and preventing default have once again deadlocked, but this time it is Democrats who are demanding changes to current law as a condition for ending the impasse.
With the two sides now negotiating to extend government funding until at least January 31, Democrats are now insisting on spending increases - they want to end most of the cuts put in place as part of the so-called sequester. Democrats are still willing to accept a short-term deal to reopen the government at sequester spending levels (the Senate, of course, passed a 6-week extension on those terms), but now that talks are centered on funding the government into 2014, they are insisting on undoing some of sequester cuts. To Republicans, this is a non-starter, unless the sequester spending cuts are replaced with cuts to entitlement programs - and that is a non-starter for Democrats.
The impasse makes it more likely there will be no agreement when markets reopen Monday morning. If an agreement is not soon reached, it may be impossible to pass anything before October 17, the day the Treasury Department says the government risks default if Congress does not extend the government's ability to borrow money.
Talks in the Senate began on an optimistic note Saturday when Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell - two men who have been barely on speaking terms over the past several weeks - took the lead on crafting a deal that would reopen the government and extend the nation's ability to borrow money until at least January 31. Republican leaders, beaten and battered in the polls and eager to end an impasse of their own creation, had dropped almost all their demands. Major changes to Obamacare, the Republican demand that started the mess in the first place, are now off the table.
Going into talks with Reid, McConnell was already preparing to deal with a backlash from tea party Republicans. In an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper, McConnell said it was time for a "come together" moment with Democrats to prevent default and get the government reopened.
"As much as I would rather have a Republican president and would rather be the majority leader of the Senate, I am willing to work with the government we have - not the one I wish we had," McConnell told the newspaper.
But while McConnell is prepared to give up on the Republican demands that started the crisis, he does not appear ready to agree to spending increases as well.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the House are watching all of this warily. Speaker of the House John Boehner's last offer, of a six-week extension of government funding and borrowing authority in exchange for budget talks, was rejected by the White House on Friday. Anything the Senate ultimately passes, will likely be opposed by the majority of House Republicans. Boehner would need to make an 11 th hour decision on whether to bring a Senate bill opposed by his members up for a vote or to attempt to change it once again.Seriously. No sooner do I recover from my pulled solar plexus (see previous issues, ed.) than I am now battling a lower back “thing”. Specifically, a lower right hip ache that flares up whenever I shift my weight a certain way – or not. I don’t remember doing anything that could have caused it – outside of those heavy deadlifts – but that’s not really the point. The POINT is that I have never been the type of guy to suffer from back issues. That has always been the “other guy” – you know, the little guy in the office next door who occasionally slips a disc and then either has to sleep on the coffee table or standing up. Not me!
Today, I received a request for some Atlantis blueprints. I explained that my collection of blueprints, part of the various art department packages from past Stargate episodes, are incomplete. Some episodes have plenty of supporting docs, everything from schematics to colorful designs, while others only have a sketch or two. I’ve been meaning to digitize these files for a while now (maybe a year) but just haven’t had the opportunity to get around to doing so. I figure the next best thing is to just scan and upload the various packages for your entertainment and edification.
Would you all happen to remember a little Stargate: Atlantis fifth season episode called Remnants?
0 0
Share this: Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Print
More
Tumblr
WhatsApp
Pocket
LinkedIn
Reddit
Like this: Like Loading...IF YOU THINK THE BATTLE RIFLE IS COOL, CLICK HERE
The Danger of Your Rising Tide
Hitscan and Velocity
Support and Networking
Bulletology
Math Class
Special thanks to Jon Cable, Tyson Green and Luke Timmins for answering about a million questions of mine this week regarding the iterations of the BR.
Denouement
San Diego Comic-Con
Save the Date s
Dude You Really Need to…
Hi-res versions will be in the
Hi-res versions will be in the Gallery shortly.
Finally, Waaaaaaaaaahmbulance
Even though you quit us, Dan91, we still love you.
When games have as many passionate users as Bungie’s Halo games do, it’s perfectly understandable – and as I’ve said in this space before – and appreciated that they offer feedback as often as they do. That said, there’s also a tide-like behavior about the way these issues seem to surface – and for Halo 3’s Battle Rifle, the moon was certainly hovering in the sky. As early as the Halo 3 beta (roughly a year ago), we talked about how the Halo 3 Battle Rifle was changed from the Halo 2 post-1.1 update. There’s a number of factors to consider when you’re comparing the Halo 2 1.1. BR to the Halo 3 BR and today, before we get to the sweet, sweet Chill Out/Cold Storage images (scroll down if you don’t care about BR and networking techno babble) we're looking at the Battle Rifle.Halo 2’s Battle Rifle was a hitscan weapon, which is fancy terminology for “instant-hit” which is slightly less fancy terminology for “if the reticule is red when you pull the trigger (in good networking conditions) the bullet packet will hit the target.” Additionally, in Halo 2’s BR the “spread” for the three bullet fire package was reduced in the 1.1 patch, focusing the bullet delivery into a tighter packet than when the game originally shipped.The result of the “tweaked” Halo 2 Battle Rifle was a weapon that functioned astonishingly well at short, medium and long range. It was utilitarian and when coupled with a mountain of button combinations, astonishingly lethal. Arguably too lethal.Halo 3’s Battle Rifle, as we’ve discussed before, while similar in some respects to Halo 2’s – it is still the Battle Rifle, it still fires three-round bursts, has had its functionality changed and now the Rifle performs much differently from its H2 predecessor.Admittedly, it can certainly be jarring to see the weapon look nearly identically to a previous iteration and have its performance be different from what you’d expect. That is the case in Halo 3, and it is the case for a number of reasons.Unlike the Halo 2 Battle Rifle, the Halo 3 Battle Rifle is not a hitscan weapon. There are technically no hitscan weapons in Halo 3. The closest a projectile is to hitscan in Halo 3 is the Spartan laser, which instantly checks for a collision within the weapon’s maximum range (that range is the largest of any weapon in Halo 3). The Sniper Rifle bullet is a high velocity round and covers that same distance in somewhere between two and three ticks. What that means, is that at a certain range, the Sniper Rifle behaves like an instant hit weapon, but at longer ranges it takes two to three frames for the bullet to arrive. Keep in mind that the initial range for the Sniper Rifle is huge.On the contrary, the Halo 3 Battle Rifle’s bullet velocity is significantly slower than both the Sniper Rifle round and the Spartan Laser beam – this was a decision made by design because the high level goal for the weapon included it requiring players to lead their targets at range. Just like the Sniper Rifle in the example above, at certain ranges, the Rifle will behave like an instant hit weapon – this would be at distances at or inside the range that a three round burst can travel in a single frame. Outside of that relatively small distance – the Battle Rifle changes considerably from its Halo 2 predecessor.Halo 2’s networking model gave clients a distinct advantage against the host with the Sniper Rifle (See: Any number of swipe-sniping clips on the Internet from H2). In Halo 2, when the client aimed at the host (and hits on his screen) the data is packed up and delivered to the host saying “I shot, and here is where I hit this player.” This allows hits to occur despite minor differences between player location in the gamespace (i.e. on my box you’re directly in front of me and on your box, I’m ever so slightly to the right, [see: fig.1]) and still correctly register the hits on and off host. The system was imperfect (which isn’t to presuppose that Halo 3’s is perfect, there’s always stuff we’re going to be improving on) and those imperfections were exposed with the Sniper Rifle, giving the client sniping advantages against the host.When rebuilding Halo 3’s networking model, alleviating that advantage was one goal.In Halo 3, a similar networking model is used, where regardless of where the client and the host are to one another on the monitors the host and client are looking at in their living rooms, the client and host are still transmitting data back and forth. In the example below, the top player is moving to the right (indicated by the black dotted arrow) and the bottom player is firing the Battle Rifle at the trajectory marked by the black and red arrow. The black part of the arrow is the distance that the bullets will travel in a single frame and the rest of the shot is marked by the red arrow.The blue line is the distance from the moving player to where the bottom player is shooting (that player is accounting for the top player’s movement when lining up the shot). In this example the blue line is critical, that distance, which is calculated on the client box (the distance from where the player is aiming to where the player is moving from), becomes key information on both the host and client box.If the projectile hits the enemy within the black line, we can send the message, “I fired, and here is where I hit” (so with the Halo 2 BR this happened all the time). In Halo 3 clients send “I fired, here is who I was aiming at, and here is how far in front of the enemy I was aiming.” The host lines up the shot using the blue line transmitted from the client, leading in front of him just like the client did and fires. What results is that two ticks (frames) later, the bullets hit the enemy on the host just like they do on the client. But we don’t send a “I will hit the enemy in two ticks” message from the client. We just try and line up the shot and let the host recreate what is happening.If the host finds that yes, the player aimed at this distance from me, but I’m not at that point when the bullets would arrive (via the red arrow), no hit is detected.In Halo 3, each bullet from the Battle Rifle’s three-round burst is networked individually under the cases outlined above. Additionally, each bullet has a different margin of error, with the first round from the Battle Rifle being the most accurate of the three bullets. The first bullet can have an error between 0 and.15 degrees off of the true aiming vector. The third bullet is between 0 and 0.38 degrees, the second bullet falls somewhere between the first and third. It is a mistake to look at where the third bullet lands and assume all three bullets are that inaccurate. The outliers (0.15 on bullet 1 and 0.38 on bullet 3) are the absolute worst-case scenarios. In that context those numbers don’t mean a whole lot – but in the grand scheme thing of how the Battle Rifle operates, they are pretty meaningful.The Battle Rifle works this way because after Halo 2 it was retuned to be a reliable headshot and anti-sniper weapon (in terms of pinging Snipers at distance from their scoped-in state). The first bullet in the burst fills this role – it is quite accurate (identical to the Halo 2 BR, but with a travel time), and will kill an unshielded unit with a headshot or ping a sniper.Another design goal with the Battle Rifle in Halo 3 was to bring the kill-range closer. One way this was achieved was by giving bullets 2 and 3 from the BR a wider error, which makes them less likely to land outside of the BR’s intended effective range. Summarily, this reduces the BR’s effectiveness AND damage output at those ranges, without compromising its ability to finish a target at the same range.This change allows the Battle Rifle to be competitive in terms of damage output at closer-than-Halo 2-levels, without being so effective at longer range, that players caught in the open are gunned down too quickly (that task in Halo 3’s sandbox belongs to the Sniper Rifle. If you need to control a space 30wu [world units] away, use it instead).Over distance, the three BR bullets spread further than they are during the black line (see: fig 2) in the initial burst. In order to solve for how much a bullet’s flight will vary over distance – the aforementioned margin of error are used in this equation:SIN(Bullet’s Margin of Error)xDistance to Target in WU(world units) = Actual margin of error from targetFor the first, and most accurate bullet coming from the Battle Rifle here’s the equation:SIN(.15)xDistance in World Units = Error margin for a given bullet at a specific range.In the case of the Battle Rifle on Guardian, the approximate distance from Snipe 2 to Gold 2 is roughly 18 world units. Plugging those numbers into the equation yields a value of.047 world units in the absolute worst case scenario for that bullet. Since one world unit is equal to 10 feet, the variation on that bullet is 0.047 world units, or roughly half of a foot. Considering that the Spartan model is 0.75 world units (the Chief is 7 and a half feet tall) you can get a pretty good idea of what kind of variation will come from that bullet, that works out to roughly a half a foot of variation at that distance. The Chief’s helmet is approximately 0.094 world units wide, so if the shields pop, that bullet – aimed and fired accurately – under reasonable network conditions yields a kill.Aesthetic similarities aside, the Battle Rifle in Halo 3 is a far different weapon from its Halo 2 predecessor. Despite what segments of the player population believe or want to believe, it is no longer a mid-to-long range killing machine. It is an anti-long range weapon with a focus on mid-range combat that ends up being utilitarian and functional, but not optimal at close range. The reasons for this are obvious – there is no designed one-weapon-to-rule-them-all in Halo 3 and that is a decision made by design to encourage all of the aspects of the sandbox to be used in gameplay.Much of the fervent debate comes from players who simply want the weapon to perform differently than it was designed to perform. The bullet variation in the Battle Rifle’s three-round bursts is a design choice that further defines the weapon's role in the Halo 3 sandbox.Welcome to the June 20th edition of the Weekly Update. The update is a short stack of pancakes, but it has pictures – and if we’re not announcing a project, pictures are the next best thing.And no, we’re not announcing a project.We have no plans to have a Bungie presence at the Comic-Con down in San Diego in July, but our lil homies from Microsoft – Frank and company – will be down there holding a panel on Halo fiction and introducing Tobias S. Buckell, author of upcoming Halo novel The Cole Protocol.Additionally, they’ll be peddling Halo bobbleheads. Have Frank sign yours!, here in Seattle. Be there. We will be.… is 17 days away.Last weekend, Shishka and I put down the banhammers and bullying of Bungie.net users to head over to MLG’s event in San Diego (there’s a briefly exhaustive write-up here) with the main purpose of the being a live exhibition of Cold Storage, a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved map Chill Out.Next week we’ll have a bit more about Cold Storage, but for now, just take a look at the map you’ve known as Chill Out, and more recently knew “Smuggler.”After a thread on the BR got accidentally nuked by yours truly, the creator of said thread had a full-on four-wheels-aflame-sirens-blaring meltdown.We screenshotted and repurposed it for posterity and eternium.Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold,
But the Ale-house is healthy & pleasant & warm;
Besides I can tell where I am use'd well,
Such usage in heaven will never do well.
But if at the Church they would give us some Ale.
And a pleasant fire, our souls to regale;
We'd sing and we'd pray, all the live-long day;
Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray,
Then the Parson might preach & drink & sing.
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring:
And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church,
Would not have bandy children nor fasting nor birch.
And God like a father rejoicing to see,
His children as pleasant and happy as he:
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel
But kiss him & give him both drink and apparel.Roush Enterprises Inc. will assemble 100 Google Inc. self-driving prototype vehicles with the support of metro Detroit’s supplier base as the tech giant looks to expand its automotive project, sources told Crain’s.
Livonia-based Roush is expected to retrofit an unknown existing model at its Allen Park prototyping facility.
Roush and Google declined to comment on the topic.
While specific suppliers were not confirmed, the project is expected to include the “top players” in automotive safety and technology in the region, a source said.
Google made the announcement Tuesday that it plans to launch its own fleet of driverless vehicles, with no steering wheel, gas or brake pedals, to establish the software company as a player in automotive.
in Auburn Hills anddeclined to comment. Both work on autonomous technologies. Google designed the car and plans indicate the cars will be fully autonomous with extra safety features, company co-founder Sergey Brin said during a conference Tuesday hosted by technology blog Re/code in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Automotive News reported.
Google could become a “serious competitive threat” to the auto industry if it continues to push its self-driving cars, said Mark Reuss, product-development chief at General Motors Co.
GM, which is developing its own autonomous vehicle technology, isn’t in a race with Google to create driverless cars, he told reporters Wednesday in Detroit.
“Anybody can do anything with enough time and money,” Reuss said. “If they set their mind to it, I have no doubt” that they could become “a very serious competitive threat.”
Google has been developing self-driving vehicle technology since 2009, using a fleet of test vehicles equipped with sensors, lasers, radar and computers that process mapping and driving software to allow their vehicles to be driven autonomously. Google says its test fleet has racked up about 700,000 miles of autonomous driving so far.
The Google prototypes are small pod-shaped cars that appear to be the size of a Smart ForTwo with two seats and two doors. The cars are powered by an electric motor and have a top-speed limited to 25 mph. The vehicles are expected to be acquired from an unidentified manufacturer and retrofitted with autonomous technology, according to a source.
The cars don’t have steering wheels, brake pedals or accelerator pedals “because they don’t need them. Our software and sensors do all the work,” according to the company’s blog post.
The prototypes, which have safety items such as additional foam at the bumper and a plastic-like windshield, are part of the company's research laboratory called Google X, which is led by Brin.
“We took a look from the ground up as to what it would be like if we had self-driving cars in the world,” Brin said. “We've worked with partners in the Detroit area, Germany and California,” he said without giving specifics. The prototypes let users ask for a destination address and then drive them to it, Brin said.
Over the next two decades, self-driving cars are going to get a bigger share of the market. Such vehicles will reach 11.8 million in 2035, according to Egil Juliussen, an analyst at IHS Automotive. And by 2050, he expects almost all cars to become self-driving. They are estimated to fetch premiums that will start at $7,000 to $10,000 in 2025, he said.
Automotive News reporter Ryan Beene and Bloomberg News contributed to this story.In this Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 photo, Nick Popaditch, a congressional candidate for the 53rd district in Southern California and a United States Marine veteran who suffered serious injuries in Iraq, talks about his candidacy in his office in La Mesa, Calif. During the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, hundreds of thousands of veterans have come home and laid aside their uniforms. But not all have |
a vast improvement from practice.
But one podium doesn’t make a summer. It’s certainly too soon to tell what’s really going on. Grip at Termas de Rio Hondo this weekend may also be sketchy, then MotoGP travels to COTA, which has never been kind to Yamaha, so it will most likely be several more races before we know whether Rossi, Galbusera and Norton have escaped the curse of front-tyre squish and low corner-entry speed. This is both a matter of machine and rider; in others words, Rossi must reinvent himself once again if he is to challenge for the 2017 title.Ultimate things to see in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park was the first National Park in the United States and the world. It is most famous for its geothermal activity and especially Old Faithful Geyser. Half of the world´s geothermal features are here in Yellowstone, which is located over the Yellowstone Caldera, considered the largest supervolcano on the continent. Yellowstone National Park not only has geothermal features but also has lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountain ranges. Its name is coming from ´Roche Jaune´, the name given by French trappers to the Yellowstone River. Later, this French name was translated into Yellow Stone.
During our visit, we were amazed by the size of the park. It spans 3 states, although it is mainly located in Wyoming. You have to be aware that there will be a lot of driving when visiting the park.
Here we share our top things to do while visiting Yellowstone National Park
Go to Old Faithful
A visit to Yellowstone National Park wouldn’t be complete without seeing an eruption of its most famous geyser. It is one of the most predictable geothermal features on earth, hence the name. In the visitor center, there is a display showing the time of the next eruption.
If you time it right, you can hike up to Observation point to have a view from above. Unfortunately, we were just too late to see it.
Visit the rest of Upper Geyser Basin
Old Faithful is not the only geyser in this park. Although the other ones are not so predictable, there is a chance you might see them erupt. And it is also a nice walk along all those steaming geysers.
When we were there, we saw the eruption of the Riverside Geyser (with the rainbow) and the Grand Geyser.
If you walk all the way to the end, you come at the Morning Glory Pool. The colors here are amazing but they are less bright than in the beginning because of all the trash people throw into the pools and geyser.
Visit Grand Prismatic Spring
Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the United States. The colors ranging from green to red are the result of microbial mats around the edges. The center of the pool is sterile due to the extremely high temperatures.
The colors are more visual when you can look from above, which is not possible but from up close you can see the microbial mats.
See the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
There are not only geothermal features in Yellowstone National Park but also canyons. From a number of observation points, you can watch the Lower and Upper Falls.
We took a hike along the canyon following the Ribbon Lake Loop Trail, which follows a section of the South Rim Trail along the Canyon.
At the end of the South Rim Trail, we hiked through the forest towards Ribbon Lake.
The trail takes us to the shore of the small Clear Lake. You pass along a white ground with steaming vents and boiling mud.
It is a very nice walk, away from the busy crowds at the viewpoints along the canyon.
Visit West Thumb Geyser Basin
West Thumb Geyser Basin is located on the shores of Yellowstone Lake.
For a nice view of Yellowstone Lake, you can walk the Yellowstone Lake Overlook trail.
Visit Norris Geyser Basin
This is the hottest geyser in the park and you can follow a path that wanders through Norris Geyser Basin. We were there in the late afternoon and were practically alone. And this is also the time when the light is the most beautiful.
Spot wildlife
In Yellowstone National Park, there are a lot of animals and the chance of seeing one is big. But, always keep a safe distance when you encounter wildlife. To be sure, we bought bearspray to take with us on our hikes.
We saw bison, deer, moose, and a grizzly bear.Proposition 19, the initiative to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana in California, is still holding on to a very narrow lead according to a new SurveyUSA poll.
SurveyUSA (10/15-10/18)
California voters may also vote on several propositions. On Proposition 19, which would change California law to legalize marijuana and allow it to be regulated and taxed, are you … Certain to vote yes? Certain to vote no? Or not certain? {Not Certain voters were asked: At this hour, on Proposition 19, do you … lean toward yes? lean toward no, or do you not lean?}
Certain Yes 48
Certain No 44
Not Certain 8
A SurveyUSA poll from early this month found Prop 19 winning 48 percent “yes,” -41 percent “no.” As expected with most ballot measures, it appears the undecided are breaking toward “no,” although the change is within the margin of error.
Importantly, the number of likely voters who plan to vote for Prop 19 seems to be holding remarkably steady. Almost every poll has found the percentage of voters planning to vote for the initiative hovering right around 50 percent.
Given the remarkable lack of movement in the polls, the incredibly high voter awareness of the ballot measure and the tendency for undecideds to break against an initiative, it’s passage or failure is going to come down to turnout. The young people who overwhelming support Prop 19 don’t tend to turnout in midterm elections, but if they do, they could put the initiative over the top. Either way, it will likely be an extremely close vote.Buy Photo Fans of “The Hobbit” wait for “The Desolation of Smaug” to begin at the midnight showing Dec. 12, 2013, at Penn Cinema Riverfront. Penn Ketchum says the theater’s IMAX screen helps draw fans and keep their losses lower than the rest of the theater industry. (Photo: KYLE GRANTHAM/THE NEWS JOURNAL)Buy Photo
When "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" came out in December 2012, the Penn Cinema Riverfront had just opened, offering Middle Earth in IMAX to area viewers.
When the second "Hobbit" movie, "The Desolation of Smaug," came out a year later, fans could see it on another huge screen with the opening of Westown Movies in Middletown.
And when the final installment of the trilogy, "The Battle of the Fire Armies," arrives in December, there will be yet another colossal screen on which to see Bilbo, Smaug and the rest of the gang.
With the opening of the Cinemark Christiana and XD on Nov. 20, the state will have welcomed three new theaters in as many years.
All with massive screens and top-of-the-line sound systems.
All with comfier seats than those old itchy, squeaky ones.
And all serving alcohol.
Well, not yet.
The bill allowing alcohol to be sold in theaters was signed into law in July, so you could soon carry a cold one instead of a soda to your seat.
Changes like these are making new theater owners confident they can draw people away from their couches and Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon streaming services.
"If you have nice, new theaters that are run well, people will tend to go to the movies more often," says Rick Roman of Roman Theatre Management, Westown's Ohio-based theater manager. "You have to create the night-out experience."
That was the goal for the new Cinemark at Christiana Mall, which will bring an entertainment element to the complex for the first time in more than a decade.
Long-time residents will remember Christiana Mall's former movie theater, run by General Cinema. That theater closed with the company in the early 2000s. Although the company was bought by AMC Entertainment, the theater remained shuttered and was demolished in 2008.
So with the opening of the Cinemark Christiana and XD, shoppers will once again be able to escape the hectic holiday scene for a couple of hours in the dark, sans cellphones.
CLOSE The new Cinemark theater at the Christiana Mall is slated to open on Thursday for the premier of the new Hunger Games edition, "Mocking Jay," and is set to stand out from other theaters in the region.
The theater is across the parking lot from Nordstrom and next to the outdoors wonderland Cabela's. Cinemark Marketing Manager Madelyn Rybczyk says the high-traffic area is a good fit for the 12-screen theater that opens just in time for "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1."
Rybczyk says customers expect an immersive experience at the movies. They want all digital, surround sound – things they can't have by watching on their smartphones.
At the new theater they'll get the Cinemark XD: Extreme Digital experience. That means one theater with wall-to-wall and a ceiling-to-floor screen. All the theaters will have 4K digital projection with RealD 3-D capability.
A rendering of the new theater at Christiana Mall. (Photo: Cinemark graphic)
Marketing Director Bryan Jeffries says they're not worried about nearby competition from more-established Westown Movies, which boasts a GTX Theatre with Dolby Atmos Sound System, and Penn Cinema Riverfront IMAX.
"It probably is a head start for letting customers know what kind of experience they can expect," he says.
The first entry to the new wave of theaters was the Penn Cinema Riverfront IMAX, which opened in 2012 with the help of Penn Ketchum, managing partner and co-founder.
Ketchum says he saw a hole in the market and decided to enter it.
So far, it's paid off.
In the Philadelphia market, his two theaters – the other is in Lititz, Pennsylvania – were the two highest-grossing independently owned theaters in the market.
"We do business like the big boys," he says.
When he talks to people in the industry, they expect him to own a Mayberry-style theater. Not one with a 75- by 45-foot IMAX screen.
"When you talk to an independent theater owner, he owns a cute little theater with two screens and a house dog that walks up and down the aisles," he says.
Not on the Riverfront. The theater boasts 14 auditoriums, one of which has IMAX, relaxed faux leather chairs and stadium seating.
According to Ketchum's math, the Philadelphia movie market was down about 30 percent in 2014. His theater was down 15 percent. He thinks that without the IMAX draw, it would have been more.
People like to predict where the movie business is going, but Ketchum thinks only one thing really matters: The movies.
"People like to read the tea leaves, but really, I am 100 percent convinced that the only thing that matters is if there are good movies."
Roman agrees that people will always come out to see a film on the big screen. When they have theaters with the latest technology and creature comforts, that is.
THEATER BASICS
The holiday movie season is about to explode. If you're trying to decide where to see your next movie, check out what you can expect from each of the state's newest theaters.
Westown Movies
150 Commerce Drive, Middletown; (302) 378-2436, www.westownmovies.com
Date opened: December 2013
Advanced technology: GTX Theatre with Dolby Atmos Sound System
Biggest screen: Over 61 feet tall
Concessions: Some from local vendors, with a self-serve element.
Special events: The theater prides itself on being family friendly. It offers sensory-friendly movies as well as mommies, daddies and babies screenings, where soothing a crying infant is not shunned.
Penn Cinema Riverfront IMAX
401 S. Madison St., Wilmington; (302) 656-4314, www.penncinema.com
Date opened: December 2012
Advanced technology: IMAX
Biggest screen: 75-by-45 feet
Concessions: All the regular goodies, including butter-your-own popcorn, soda and candy.
Special events: The theater hosts a Monday Night Movie series that features new classics. At last week's showing of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," about 150 customers showed up, says Penn Ketchum. Coming up are "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," "Gone With the Wind," "Airplane" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." See the lineup at www.penncinema.com.
Christiana Mall 12
Christiana Mall, Newark; www.cinemark.com
Date opened: Nov. 20
Advanced technology: Cinemark XD: Extreme Digital Cinema, 4K digital projection, RealD 3D capability
Biggest screen: Wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor
Concessions: Self-serve concessions with popcorn, Coke products, candy.
Special events: The theater opens Nov. 20, in time for opening weekend of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1." For the opening, the theater is hosting the first two "Hunger Games" leading to the latest. "The Hunger Games" starts at 2:30 p.m., "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" at 5:15 p.m. and the latest, "Mockingjay," at 8 p.m. Tickets are on sale at www.cinemark.com.
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1u41SrnFed up with government’s apathy, the residents of Aleeka and Panihari villages in Haryana’s Sirsa district have built their own bridge. The villagers have been waiting for a bridge for almost four decades. The bridge they have successfully built will now cut short their journey to Sirsa town by over 30 kilometers.
The villagers had to travel 40 kilometers every day to sell their farm produce. “Governments came and went. They all promised, but no help came. We met ministers, parliamentarians, chief ministers, leaders from the Congress, BJP and INLD, but all we got were assurances,” Major Singh, secretary of bridge construction committee, told the NDTV. The 214-feet long, 16-feet wide steel and concrete bridge over river Ghaggar has become a lifeline for over 1.25 lakh people, mostly farmers. They collected funds of about one crore from among themselves, making it India’s first crowdfunded bridge of such scale.
“We have no place for politicians or bureaucrats in our list of invitees for the bridge’s inauguration,” Hardev Singh of Panihari village told the Economic Times. “For us, a labourer who contributed Rs 500 and a widow who contributed her pension of Rs 1,000 are more important than those who fooled us for more than three decades.” The villagers have decided to allow no VIP or politician to ever use the bridge. It will remain of the people, by the people and for the people.
To stay updated with more positive news, please connect with us on Facebook.Monsanto has engineered new strains of cotton and soybean that are able to tolerate multiple herbicides.
But critics and activists see it as one more link in the deadly daisy-chain that supplants one engineered crop with a new set of more intractable weeds that must then be controlled with even more potent herbicides.
The agrochemical giant’s press release (following recent USDA approval) claims that “these weed management solutions will provide farmers with more consistent, flexible control of tough-to-manage broadleaf weeds.”
That argument isn’t likely to stop the protest the Monsanto brand is facing with a famous face attached who’s better known for caring about a different kind of weed—Willie Nelson. [more]
On May 23, the international March Against Monsanto aims to shame the global agrochemical giant, and it’s already plastering the country singer’s face on posters and social media callouts. Its website is rallying protesters by citing the recent FDA approval for the company’s GMO cotton and soybean plants, among other news.
The company, undeterred, is pressing its case that its cotton—MON 88701, or Bollgard II XtendFlexCotton—can survive exposure to three herbicides: dicamba, glufosinate and glyphosate.
It’s also standing firmly behind its soybeans—MON 88708, or Roundup Ready 2 XtendTM Soybeans—which can withstand dicamba and glyphosate.
However, as Wired reported, the genetic mutations that helped weeds survive glysophate have resulted in “superweeds,” which now infest “at least 61 million acres of US farmland, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Michigan.”
The new crops are ready for commercial deployment, pending review by the US Environmental Protection Agency. If approved, it will “demonstrate once again that biotechnology in agriculture is all about increasing pesticide use and dependence,” said Bill Freese, science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that opposes the crops.
Roundup has been an linked to an extensive list of chronic conditions and diseases, according to Truthout, including ADHD, Alzheimer’s, autism, birth defects, cancer, heart disease and respiratory illnesses, among others.
At Monsanto’s annual meeting in St. Louis on Feb. 2, CEO Hugh Grant faced criticism from advocacy groups such Moms Across America, whose founder, Zen Honeycutt, took to the microphone and told Grant, “Stop poisoning our children.” Grant replied he was a father of three and that studies had shown “no linkage” between Roundup and the ills Honeycutt described.
The battle lines are drawn—and it’s not likely that Willie’s gang will see things the way Grant & Co. do, or vice versa.A "devil worm" has been discovered miles under the Earth—the deepest-living animal ever found, a new study says.
The new nematode species—called Halicephalobus mephisto partly for Mephistopheles, the demon of Faustian legend—suggests there's a rich new biosphere beneath our feet.
Before the discovery of the signs of the newfound worm at depths of 2.2. miles (3.6 kilometers), nematodes were not known to live beyond dozens of feet (tens of meters) deep. Only microbes were known to occupy those depths—organisms that, it turns out, are the food of the 0.5-millimeter-long worm.
"That sounds small, but to me it’s like finding a whale in Lake Ontario. These creatures are millions of times bigger than the bacteria they feed on," said study co-author Tullis Onstott, a geomicrobiologist at Princeton University in New Jersey.
"Shocking" Worm Evolved For Harsh Depths
Onstott and nematologist Gaetan Borgonie of Belgium's University of Ghent first discovered H. mephisto in the depths of a South African gold mine. But the team wasn't sure if the worms had been tracked in by miners or had come out of the rock.
To find out, Borgonie spent a year boring deep into mines for veins of water, retrieving samples and filtering them for water-dwelling nematodes. He scoured a total of 8,343 gallons (31,582 liters) until he finally found the worm in several deep-rock samples.
What's more, the team found evidence the worms have been there for thousands of years. Isotope dating of the water housing the worm placed it to between 3,000 and 12,000 years ago—indicating the animals had evolved to survive the crushing pressure and high heat of the depths.
"This discovery may not surprise passionate nematologists like Gaetan, but it’s certainly shocking to me," Onstott said.
"The boundary of multicellular life has been extended significantly into our planet."
Worm Inspires Search for Extreme Life
Onstott hopes the new devil worm will inspire others to search for complex life in the most extreme places—both on Earth and elsewhere.
"People usually think only bacteria could exist below the surface of a planet like Mars. This discovery says, Hold up there!" Onstott said.
"We can't negate the thought of looking for little green worms as opposed to little green microbes."The 35-year-old would be surprised if his international team-mate joined Los Blancos and says the striker is nearing full fitness ahead of Uruguay's first game of the World Cup
Luis Suarez is very happy at Liverpool. They are all rumours for now. If at any time he signs for Real Madrid, I will answer that question."
Oscar Tabarez's men kick off their World Cup campaign with a Group D clash against Costa Rica on Saturday evening without Suarez in their starting XI.
That means Forlan and Edinson Cavani will start in attack as their talisman continues his recovery from keyhole knee surgery, but the 35-year-old still expects Suarez to play his part in the tournament.
" Luis Suarez is much better," he added. "He is taking steps to recover well. Hopefully he recovers well and could be ready to play."
The former Atletico Madrid man also spoke of his admiration for Diego Simeone after the coach guided the club to the La Liga title and the Champions League final.
"Simeone has contributed a lot," said Forlan. "The team is in great form, fighting for championships with powerful teams that have a budget three times greater than that of Atleti. You can only admire what they are doing, the coaching staff and players."
By Alvaro Jimenez Uruguay star Diego Forlan believes Luis Suarez will spurn the advances of Real Madrid and stay at Liverpool.The striker handed in a transfer request last summer in an attempt to force through a move away from Anfield, before scoring 31 goals in 37 games to fire the club into the Champions League.However, that has failed to end speculation regarding his future, with Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti believed to be firm admirers of the 27-year-old's talents.But Forlan, who is set to star alongside Suarez for Uruguay at the World Cup, would be surprised to see his international team-mate depart.He told: "Good afternoon, gentleclones!
Having had a quick chat with Mr Wallis today, we can report that a development schedule should be in our hands next week - from here, we can start making plans of what goes to print and when!
In the meantime, I have a feeling you will all want another sneak peek at the rules for Paranoia (such as they are) and, as always, things begin with character creation. This is another excerpt from the player's book...
As before, this is all very much subject to change but it should give you a good idea of the general tone of the game and where the mechanics are headed.
Character Creation
In our experience, here’s how character creation goes in most RPGs:
1. Invite some players round one evening to play Paranoia. Let’s call them A, B, C, D and E.
2. Belatedly remember that A and D aren’t talking after that thing. Try to casually disinvite D. D refuses to take the hint. Try to casually disinvite A. A won’t take the hint either. Sigh.
3. B can’t make it but really wants to be involved and emails everyone asking to reschedule. A says rescheduling is fine, but C and D can’t. E is mysteriously silent. Say no to rescheduling. B is in a huff.
4. C asks if they can bring F. F is a colossal dick who always plays assassins, and who you suspect stole that blue dice. B is loudly enthusiastic about F coming. Remind B that they’re not playing and they’re only getting the message because people won’t trim their CC lists. D messages you to say that if F is coming then they’re out. That would resolve the A/D thing at least but D is a good player and you’d like them there. B doubles down on having F to take their place. Realise B is just being a dick because you wouldn’t reschedule. Start a new email list without B on it and claim your cat is allergic to F. Hope that won’t put C off, because C is brilliant. Really you only arranged this whole thing to have an evening with C.
5. Still no word from E. C points out you’re using an old email for E. Try again with a more recent email. E is enthusiastic but is going to be two hours late because of a thing and is that a problem? Yes, that’s a problem. E says sure, fine, completely understand.
6. Bump into local legend G in a game shop and mention the game. This sort of becomes an invitation. G would love to come, but G is old school and wants to use the original rules. G will only play if you are using the original rules. G wants to bring the character they played for six years in the early 90s, and is it okay if G’s partner H comes too? H is not a gamer, and has a sketchy grasp of English and hygiene. Sigh. Okay. Rebuild the game around G.
7. The evening rocks around. A and D arrive, won’t look at each other, and are both in a foul mood. B arrives because the thing fell through and is that okay? B has brought beer so it’s okay right up to the moment you realise B is still going to be a dick. F arrives, drunk, without C. No sign of C. C is not answering messages. Is C coming? F doesn’t know, and throws a dice at your cat. Cat hides under your bed. G drops off H but has to run because G is going to a Wormharmer game across town. Realise G is an ass. Still no sign of C.
8. Begin character generation. No wait, E’s arrived, didn’t realise they’d been disinvited. Recall that E and H had a thing and it didn’t end well. There is glowering to match A and D’s glowering. All sectors of the room are now radioactive.
9. Everyone is sullen. There aren’t enough chairs, all the crisps have gone already, you realise F has actually eaten one of your dice, and you’re pretty sure the cat has taken a dump in your shoes. C’s babysitter has fallen through and C isn’t coming. The evening is already ruined.
10. Begin character generation.
Skills
Every Paranoia playercharacter begins the game with five different skills, rated from 1 to 5, to indicate things they're good at doing. They also get five antiskills rated 1 to 5 for things they're really bad at. But it’s not as simple as just putting numbers by things. Here’s how it works.
a. The player to the left of the GM – call them I – begins by choosing one of the skills listed on their character sheet to take at level 1. Write a ‘1’ by it. The player on their left – J – automatically gets the same skill, but at 1.
b. J chooses a different skill to take at +1, and the next player – K – gets it at 1.
c. Keep going round the group, slowly building the simmering resentment – ‘What do you mean, I’ve got a negative guns skill?’ until everyone has one +1 and one 1 skill.
d. Then J starts the next round, taking a new skill at +2 and passing a 2 to K; K takes a +2 and passes a 2 and so on until everyone has skills at that level
e. K starts the next round with +3s and 3s.
f. Keep going until everyone has five positive skills and five negative skills, and is drawing little skulls and lightning bolts and decapitated heads in the margins of their sheet..
Some ground rules:
Each skill can only be chosen once per round.
You can’t choose a skill that you already have.
If the players ask why you’re using this system, tell then it’s to create a balanced party group, not because you’re enjoying their squeals of anguish.
Stats
Add up the number of positive skills you have in each of the four skill groups. Ignore skills at zero or below. That will give you four numbers rated from 0 to 4. Pass your character sheet to the dude on the left, who you just watertortured by dripping negatives all over their skill list. They get to choose which of the four numbers goes onto which of your four attributes.
Optimising
Players can boost their characters’ justcreated abilities in two ways:
● They can spend up to XXX Moxie points to raise their skills
● They can burn up to 5 clones to raise their stats
We will have another preview, along with news on production, next week! Until then: Stay alert! Trust no one! Keep your laser handy!Apple's much rumored larger iPhone is said to be a variation on the iPhone 5c rather than the iPhone 5s, according to a new report from Mac Otakara. Sources indicate that the larger iPhone would be an expansion to Apple's lineup rather than replacing the positions currently held by the iPhone 5s and 5c.'s sources claim Apple has decided on 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch displays as potential candidates for new iPhone models that would launch later this year. These two sizes originally were singled out by Reuters in a report published last year.This new iPhone model may keep the basic design of the iPhone 5c such as the rounded back edges, button designs, and speaker/microphone hole designs, with some inspiration from the seventh-generation iPod nano. The latest iPod nano models are available in a range of colors like the iPhone 5c, but feature an anodized aluminum design instead of polycarbonate.Sources also claim the 4.7-inch iPhone will measure at 14x7 cm, while the 5.7-inch model will be larger with dimensions of 16x8 cm. Possibly both models will be 7 mm thick with a protruding rear camera as seen on the current iPod touch models, although it the report indicates that the final version of the phone could be expanded to 7.5 mm thick to match the thickness of the camera module. The design for the phones should already be complete for a launch later this year, so it is unclear if's sources are sharing information from earlier in the design process or if there is simply still some uncertainty in the sources' information.Rumors about Apple's next generation iPhone have been scattered, with reports suggesting the iPhone 6 will adopt a "bezel-free" display and a 10-megapixel or higher camera module with an improved filter. A sketchy report from earlier this year also claimed Apple was working on an iPhone with a 5.6-inch display that would not be marketed with the iPhone name because of its experimental nature.has a reasonably strong rumor track record, correctly predicting the dual-LED flash for the iPhone 5s and the designs for the fifth-generation iPod touch and seventh-generation iPod nanoSINGAPORE: Two Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers have been sent to hospital after fighting a fire at a waste management plant at Tuas on Wednesday.
A Facebook Live video posted at 6.55pm showed thick smoke emerging from the upper levels of the Greenway Environmental building at 6 Tuas South Street 8 as firefighters worked to put out the blaze.
Advertisement
The SCDF said in a Facebook post at 7.25pm that it was responding to the factory fire.
SGSecure mobile application users and StarHub mobile subscribers within the immediate vicinity of the fire incident received an advisory message urging members of public to stay away from the area, it added.
.@SCDF sending unmanned vehicle into Greenway Environmental Waste Management, where fire broke out. Officers putting out small flames now pic.twitter.com/gz7SexoSax — Leong Wai Kit (@LeongWaiKitCNA) June 7, 2017
Advertisement
Advertisement
At 8.50pm, SCDF said the fire was extinguished with the aid of two unmanned firefighting machines. The blaze involved general waste in an area about the size of a basketball court, it said.
It added that firefighters were damping down the affected area so the fire would not rekindle. As of 11.40pm, damping down operations were still underway.Amidst Broad Community Opposition, Shell Anacortes Drops Plans for New Crude Oil-by-Rail
In another sign that crude-by-rail is a losing proposition, Shell Puget Sound Refinery in Anacortes today announced that it is dropping its plans to construct a crude-by-rail facility. Originally proposed in 2014, community opposition and legal challenges forced Shell and Skagit County to undertake a full environmental and public health review under the State Environmental Policy Act. That delay, growing local and regional opposition, and uncertain economics contributed to Shell’s decision.
“This is an extraordinary victory for the people of Skagit County and Washington State,” said Kristen Boyles, an attorney at Earthjustice who represented conservation groups in their legal challenge. “Having a full and transparent public process exposed everyone – including apparently Shell itself – to the risks and harms of this project.”
Skagit County joins two California communities (Benicia and San Luis Obispo) celebrating decisions to stop further crude-by-rail facilities in the last month.
“The writing was on the wall for Shell,” said Alex Ramel of Stand.earth. “Public opposition to this project was strong and getting stronger in communities along the rail routes. The environmental review released this week was bad news for Shell: it highlighted the unavoidable risk of an oil train derailment and fire. In the last two weeks two oil trains projects have been denied by city and county decision makers in California. From California to the Northwest, communities are saying no to dangerous oil trains. This project was going to be stopped, it was only a matter of when.”
“Communities from Skagit County to Spokane can breathe a little easier knowing they won’t be subjected to more dangerous oil train derailments, oil spills into our waterways, pollution, and blocked traffic. There is overwhelming opposition to these types of projects, and today we celebrate the power of people,” said Rebecca Ponzio, Washington Environmental Council. “This is a win for our communities, our waterways, and our climate.”
“Shell Oil decision to withdraw its permit application may be a win-win outcome,” said Tom Glade of Evergreen Islands. “Shell avoiding a premature financial decision and myriad communities avoiding an increased risk of disastrous crude oil train derailments. Evergreen Islands is willing to work with both the Shell Puget Sound Refiner and the Tesoro Anacortes refinery to achieve a just transition towards a low carbon economy.”
“This is a historic victory for the people of Skagit and across Washington,” said Stephanie Hillman of the Sierra Club. “The people of Washington continue to lead the charge to keep dirty fuels in the ground, with tens of thousands of people blocking this dirty and dangerous project.”
“RE Sources and our partners in the Stand Up to Oil coalition have been working toward this victory for the past two years,” said Crina Hoyer, Executive Director of RE Sources for Sustainable Communities. “When we fought for a full environmental and public health review, we did so because oil by rail threatens the health and safety of communities all along the rail lines. We are proud of the strong citizen voices and grassroots efforts that are defeating dangerous fossil fuel projects up and down the West Coast.”
Contact: Rebecca Ponzio, Oil Campaign Director, rebecca@wecprotects.org, 206.240.0493Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders narrowly finished second this winter in the state’s Democratic caucuses, then left Iowa in a February snowstorm as a contender. He returned Saturday on a warm autumn day to Iowa State University as a surrogate, offering his young, fervent supporters a more difficult pitch -- vote for Hillary Clinton.
Some of his devotees remain unconvinced, even those the Clinton campaign selected to speak at this Clinton campaign event.
“She doesn't care about us. Voting for a lesser of two evils, there's no point,” Kaleb Van Fosson, a sophomore and Sanders supporter, said to the small crowd.
After drawing light applause, Clinton campaign staff quickly escorted Van Fosson from the stage, as he criticized Clinton for her ties to financial institutions.
“I got a call the other day asking me if I wanted to speak for Hillary, basically they wanted to use me like a puppet,” Van Fosson told Fox News. “Trump’s not any better, but Hillary Clinton is still terrible.”
Others in attendance agreed with Van Fosson, though most in the crowd appeared supportive of the Democratic nominee.
"He's made it evidently clear that Hillary Clinton is the right choice and over the summer,” said Devon Graham, a local Sanders supporter. “I went fully behind Hillary and I'm really excited for her as a candidate but also excited that Bernie is supporting her as well.”
Sanders used much of his speech to bring attention to his signature issues -- corporate oversight, climate change and income inequality. In endorsing Clinton, he acknowledged those who dislike both nominees.
“Get beyond personality,” he told the crowd. “Alright, you don’t like Hillary Clinton, you don’t like Donald Trump fine. You like yourselves. I hope so, if that means taking a hard look at the issues the candidates stand for. We’re not running here for class president of the local high school. This is not a popularity contest. We are electing the most powerful individual in the world.”
Yet many still see Clinton’s positions as too centrist and her remarks to Wall Street firms, provided by WikiLeaks, too deferential to financial firms’ interests.
“This is home of rural populism and it manifests in very different ways on theft and the right,” said Rachel Caufield, an associate professor of political science at Drake University in Des Moines.
“On the left if manifests as a distrust of corporations and economic power. And Hillary Clinton’s message isn’t resonating with those folks in the same way that say Barack Obama’s did. You still have a lot of those folks who were diehard Bernie supporters who will continue to be Bernie supporters and they’re not sure that Hillary Clinton embraces some of the ideological positions that they want to see in their Democratic Party.”
Clinton trails Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, in Iowa by less than 3percentage points, according to an average of polls provided by Real Clear Politics.
The latest state-provided returns show Iowa Democrats and Republicans have submitted fewer absentee ballots than they did by the same point in 2012. Thus far, Republicans have returned a larger share of ballots, and Democrats a smaller percentage than they did in the last presidential election |
with Tucker. They’ll lift up his ear and tell him secrets. It’s not just ‘cute.’ There’s something going on at a much deeper level.”1 / 5 Florida Eliminates Early Voting On Sundays
Tensions run high in Florida, a critical battleground state that passed an election law last year with several contested provisions. One bans a decade-long practice of early voting on Sundays before the election -- a window when as <a href="http://www.postonpolitics.com/2012/03/black-dems-trying-to-change-sunday-pre-election-voting-restriction/" target="_hplink">many as 30 percent</a> of black voters have previously cast ballots after attending church in a "souls to the polls" movement. Republican lawmakers claim the provision is meant to reduce election fraud, but some black Democrats say the calculation is more sinister. "It's my feeling it was done deliberately, a premeditated design, to suppress the vote of African-Americans in this country because it's playing out all over the nation in every state. It was intentional," Florida Sen. Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa) said.
GettyJust a few kilometers away from the Turkish border, the war is raging. In the Kurdish city of Kobani, US jets bomb Islamic State positions while the town's last defenders, equipped with more grit than guns, fight the jihadists on the ground.
As the Turkish army impassively watches the deadly battle from its side of the boundary with Syria, it has opened its own mini-front on the outskirts of Suruç, a Turkish border city. A young policeman, his finger on the trigger of his automatic weapon, stands in front of the town's sports club, a second officer next to him holding a grenade launcher for tear-gas cartridges. Behind them are two dozen soldiers and policemen, and armored vehicles bearing mounted machine guns and crates of ammunition.
Since Oct. 6, the jittery unit has been detaining a number of Kurdish civilians who fled across the border from Kobani. In the beginning, they numbered 160 -- most of them were young men, though there were also women and children. The guards in front of the gate are not allowed to say why the civilians are being held and they point their weapons at everyone who approaches.
Suddenly, a group of boys from a local team appears. A boy of about 10 explains that they're arriving for weekly soccer practice, held on the field next to the gymnasium. A man in uniform searches through their gym bags, one after the other, while the others look on nervously.
The scene is prosaic and absurd. But it is, for that very reason, symbolic of what is taking place on the Turkish side of the border these days. The fight for Kobani -- which, thanks to its proximity to the border, is being filmed and watched around the world in real time -- is no longer exclusively about control of the city. The desperate defense mounted by the Kurds embodies their decades-long struggle for an independent country.
Kobani was a city where a Kurdish government sprouted and flourished, a fulfillment of dreams in miniature. Now that the city is being threatened with destruction by Islamic State Ankara is doing nothing to prevent it, and thus putting the future of Turkish-Kurdish reconciliation in danger -- and domestic peace along with it.
Incomparable Triumph
The fight for Kobani also of outsized importance for the jihadists. Should Islamic State win despite US airstrikes, it would be an incomparable triumph.
From a geopolitical perspective, the town's strategic importance is limited. But because camera teams can easily monitor Islamic State advances -- machine-gun bursts and mortar strikes can be heard from across the border, and the clouds of dust and smoke from the airstrikes are easily visible -- Kobani has become a stage and the entire world its frightened audience.
Turkey, however, is primarily concerned with chasing away onlookers. Last Wednesday afternoon, a column of army vehicles sped to the top of a hill west of Kobani where residents and journalists were watching events unfold across the border. The first Jeep came to a halt at the summit and a man clambered through the rooftop opening, cocking his teargas launcher like a shotgun. The soldiers then proceeded to chase everybody off the hill.
The security personnel behave like manic town sheriffs. On Wednesday evening, 15 armored vehicles rolled into Mahasir, a border town populated by Turkish Kurds. The soldiers announced via loudspeaker that the village was being cleared and that all residents had 10 minutes to leave their homes. Those who refused would be fired at with teargas. After an hour, the soldiers left.
The high-strung behavior of Turkish security personnel stands in direct contrast to their moderate approach to Islamic State, which is on display 60 km east of Suruç, at the next border crossing in Akçakale.
Two years ago, the town on the Syrian side, Tell Abiad, was home to a functioning town council comprised of opposition leaders and representatives of several rebel groups. But now the black flag of the Islamic State is flying on the Syrian side of the border. The Islamist fanatics have controlled Tell Abiad for almost a year and have murdered or driven out all of their opponents. The town council is gone, replaced by a dictatorship that keeps the population in its place by way of spies and capriciousness.
'They Won't Pay Any Attention'
Turkey seems to prefer a neighbor like Islamic State to the Kurds. The border gate to the sleepy town opens at 9 a.m. "Syrians may come and go," says the Turkish official manning the guard house. For everyone else, there is a trafficker standing in plain sight a few meters away. "How many? Two men? Three? No problem," he says, without inquiring about nationality. "They won't pay any attention."
There isn't much going on at this particular entrance to the caliphate, just a couple of women fiddling inexpertly with the required face veil as they prepare to cross the border. But after about half an hour, a truck arrives and unloads some pallets loaded with first-aid supplies: bandages, rubber gloves, disposable drape sheets and collapsible wheelchairs.
An elderly man with a long beard monitors the reloading operation as the supplies are packed onto handcarts. Just before he crosses the border with his cargo, a young man rushes up to him, hands him a Saudi Arabian passport and asks him to take it across for a friend, who will be waiting. The older man takes it and, together with his four companions, pushes his load of medical supplies across the border into the caliphate.
Such a delivery would be a godsend for the Kurds of Kobani. They have been begging the Turkish authorities to open the border crossing near the town and to allow medical supplies to pass, with no success. Here in Akçakale, however, those kinds of crossings are no problem whatsoever.
That is one of several reasons Kurdish distrust of the Turkish state is growing. The almost 100,000 refugees from Kobani and surrounding villages have thus far been almost exclusively provided for by private aid organizations, which have set up tent camps in and near Suruç. The municipality, led by the Kurdish party BDP, has transformed the community center into an emergency shelter. One aid worker from Diyarbakir says that the state is doing almost nothing compared to agencies from Kurdish-governed cities. Indeed, many Kurds, including parliamentarians and city officials, firmly believe that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is working together with Islamic State.
The heightened suspicion means that the peace process between Turkey and the Kurds -- which aims to resolve the decades of violent animosity between the two groups -- could very well have come to an end.
Another source of the intensifying tension between Kurds and Ankara: the Kurdish media's tendency to exaggerate Turkey's dubious behavior. Police buses, which often have tinted windows and lack license plates, are filmed from afar and described as "Islamic State transports."
Lacking Ammunition
In Kobani itself, the war against Islamic State is being waged by just over 1,000 guerilla fighters and the most powerful air force in the world. The US planes fly more than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from bases in the Persian Gulf and are refueled mid-air before they arrive in Kobani. According to Kurdish claims, target coordinates are then radioed in by Kurdish commanders on the ground. Indeed, the fact that the Kurds have been able to hold out, and even to win back some territory, is entirely due to these US airstrikes.
US strikes in Kobani have thus far largely focused on the thousands of Islamic State foot soldiers in the city, and not on the Islamist convoys in the surrounding countryside or their approaching tanks. In recent days, columns of smoke have been rising from strikes on the heart of the dense city center. The fact that US strikes last Wednesday night hit a position held by Kobani's defenders, apparently killing several Kurdish fighters, was as tragic as it was inevitable.
By the end of last week, the defenders of Kobani were lacking ammunition for almost all of their weapons. "We are now sharing a single Kalashnikov, each person fights for two hours and then it is the next fighter's turn," one Kurdish fighter said over the phone. "We have pushed our Dushka" -- a heavy machine gun -- "into a garage and hidden our anti-tank weapons. We don't have any more ammunition for them. We only have shells for the Kalashnikovs." The situation was so dire that the US began air-dropping weapons, ammunitions and medical supplies for Kurdish fighters over the weekend.
Turkey, though, continues to prevent the Americans from using their nearby base in Incirlik for airstrikes. Last week, Ankara and Washington arrived at a bizarre compromise instead, permitting the US to only use the base as a take-off and landing site for drone flights. It was only on Monday of this week that a fisrt shipment of weapons, ammunition and other supplies was dropped from US planes and that Ankara saw fit to budge slightly from its increasingly untenable position, announcing that it would allow Iraqi Kurds to cross into Syria to help defend Kobani.
Primary Enemy
Turkey also wants to help the US arm and train moderate Syrian rebels to fight against forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. But Ankara remains opposed to any move that could strengthen PKK, which it continues to see as its primary enemy in the region, alongside the Syrian president.
It is doubtful that Kobani can be saved with airstrikes alone and even more unlikely that the Islamic State can be defeated from above. Exhibit one remains the Sinjar Mountains in northern Iraq, where tens of thousands of Yazidis sought safety fromthe Islamic State onslaught in August before being rescued there by troops from YPG, the Syrian offshoot of PKK. Today, hardly anyone is paying much attention to Sinjar, where Islamic State managed to take control of the last access road two weeks ago, despite occasional airstrikes. Now, the jihadist group is besieging well over 1,000 fighters -- a group made up of troops from YPG as well as the recently-formed Yazidi militia "Angel Peacock" and the Peshmerga, the fighting force of Iraqi Kurds -- there.
As the world looks to Kobani, the jihadists in Iraq have been able to advance toward the western Iraqi towns of Hit and Ramadi. Iraqi informants also say Islamic State is currently gathering fighters for a possible assault on Kirkuk, the oil rich city in northern Iraq under Kurdish control.
Islamic State now controls an area stretching to within 25 kilometers of Baghdad and the Sunni group is also responsible for a series of attacks that killed more than 70 people in the city's Shiite quarters last week. A political solution to the conflict remains remote. Indeed, instead of making concessions to the Sunnis, new Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has nominated a leader of the Shiite militia Badr Corps for the post of interior minister.
Waiting
The sparse US airstrikes have thus far had minimal effect, to the point that top US military officials have reportedly been pressuring US President Barack Obama to increase the number of sorties flown from the current five to seven per day to 150 or more. Some also say that Special Forces are needed on the ground to assist with targeting. But so far the US has only significantly increased its engagement in Kobani itself, partly due to massive international pressure.
Significant assistance from the Turkish side, though, remains unlikely. On the contrary: Last week, the Turkish military flew airstrikes against PKK positions in southeastern Turkey, the first such attacks in some time. It seemed to be sending a clear message as to who Turkey sees as being the worse terrorists.
Last week, a group of fathers gathered in front of the sports club in Suruç. Some of them were the fathers of those being held inside, and all of them, aging farmers with deeply furrowed faces, had the same story to tell: At first, Turkish officials had told them they would be able to bring their cars, tractors and other vehicles across the border when they fled Kobani. Aside from their land, these vehicles were their most important possessions.
But at the border crossing, they were told they could only come across by walking, so their sons stayed behind to keep an eye on the vehicles. Ultimately, though, they too had to flee on foot -- and were arrested when they arrived in Turkey.
"We are farmers, damn it. What do they want from us?" implores Salih Nuri, who is standing together with his two youngest sons. "Why are they tormenting us like this? They should at least give us a reason why they are holding my son and the others. One reason."
Nuri isn't alone in waiting for an explanation from Turkey. The rest of the world is too.Battling one of the worst forest fire seasons the Northwest Territories has seen in decades has not been cheap.
“At one point we were going through a million dollars a day,” says Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger.
The costs accumulated as firefighters tackled multiple fires around the community of Kakisa, the Taltson hydroelectric dam, the Reid Lake territorial park and campground, and along the highways that connect Yellowknife to the rest of Canada.
Miltenberger says this year's firefighting budget has already been spent, and he has had to go back to the Finance Department to get permission to borrow more money.
“We're going to have to borrow the money, but we're not going to stint on protecting values at risk and the people and property in the Northwest Territories.”
Miltenberger says he's well aware of the territory’s borrowing limit.
The government has a $100-million cushion for this type of emergency.
“We’ve been really pressed this year, but the issue of money: We’ll spend the money because the No. 1 job, of course, our commitment, is to protect the values at risk and make sure we work with the communities to do that.”
Fires rage throughout the N.W.T.
On Thursday, fire officials warned people at Plummer’s Lodge on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake it may be time to leave, as winds pushed a 72,000-hectare fire close to the fishing lodge.
Judy McLinton, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, says there’s no relief in sight.
“It’s going to start heating up again and heat up during the weekend. And it’s going to be hot again even all the way to Inuvik and the Sahtu.”
McLinton said one crew was working the fire near the lodge.
She says no other crews will be sent, because they are working on other priority fires, such as the one near Reid Lake.
Forest fires have now burnt more than 800,000 hectares of land.Police departments nationally scrambled furiously in the aftermath of the chokehold death of Eric Garner and the non-indictment of the officer that applied the hold to publicly declare that they do not use the chokehold. They waved and cited inter-department regulation after regulation to prove that they bar the use of the hold, don't teach it to officers, and that many officers themselves say they wouldn't know how to use it anyway.
That's not the end of the chokehold story. Periodic lawsuits brought by victims of the chokehold against departments at various times over the years show that some departments and officers do use the chokehold or a variant of it to subdue suspects. The U.S. Supreme Court made that possible. Nearly four decades ago it could have ended the chokehold use. It didn't. In 1976, Adolph Lyon, a young African-American motorist was stopped by the LAPD. Lyon offered no resistance but was still wrapped in a chokehold by an officer. Lyon was severely injured as a result of the hold. He promptly sued and sought a court injunction against the hold.
The case appeared solid on several grounds. He could show a disparate use of the hold against African-Americans. The LAPD had used the chokehold with impunity for years, and in one span the majority of the 16 of the victims that died as a result of the chokehold were black. This appeared to fall under the purview of the constitutional provision barring cruel and unusual punishment. In sworn testimony officers made jokes and wisecracks about how some suspects placed in the chokehold danced, and squirmed uncontrollably. The officers admitted that they had no knowledge of the lethal effect of the hold and that their training officers did not bother to tell them of the life threatening danger of the hold.
The case meandered through the courts for years. Meanwhile, the LAPD publicly claimed that it had temporarily suspended the use of the hold pending a high court decision. But other police departments continued to use the chokehold with no legal or departmental restraints. The death toll continued to mount. One of them was the New York police department which also had a massive number of complaints about the hold and the injuries it caused.
In 1983, the court finally spoke. In a stunning majority opinion it flatly said that federal courts had no power to prohibit the use of the hold. It didn't stop there. It added that "there was a real and immediate threat that Lyon would again be stopped... by an officer who would illegally choke him into unconsciousness." Translated, a victim could be subject to its use again if stopped by a police officer and it posed no threat to him. This was an open license to continue to use the chokehold. In a blistering dissent, Justice Thurgood Marshall blasted the absurdity of the legal logic behind use of the chokehold: "Since no one can show that he will be choked in the future, no one -- not even a person who, like Lyons, has almost been choked to death--has standing to challenge the continuation of the policy."
An exultant LAPD chief Daryl Gates claimed victory and said that it vindicated his contention that the chokehold was an appropriate tactic to be used. Gates then transformed himself into a medical anatomical scientist and claimed that maybe there was something in the physical make-up of blacks that was different from that of "normal people" that predisposed them to drop dead from the hold. Gates's over the top racist, inflammatory gibe ignited a storm of protest, and a red faced Gates slightly back pedaled on it. The same year the LAPD officially barred the use of the chokehold. The NYPD followed suit and in the next decade other departments fell in line and officially banned the use of the hold.
In the three decades since the court refused to bar the use of the hold the record still is that there is nothing in law or public policy that officially precludes any police department from putting the chokehold or a variation of it back in its weapons arsenal. In fact, a decade after the LAPD officially barred the use of the hold it was back on the table again following the beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1991. The LAPD debated whether to reinstate the chokehold again on the grounds it was a less lethal way to subdue a suspect. Though it chose not to, surveys then found that the overwhelming majority of officers backed the use of the hold and said they saw no danger in its use.
The double tragedy in the Garner slaying was, of course, his senseless death but also that his death does not alter the fact that the chokehold still remains on the official books as a weapon that police officers can use. For that thank the U.S. Supreme Court.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour heard weekly on the nationally network broadcast Hutchinson Newsmaker Network.Remember how we're always talking about how great Alex Galchenyuk is? Well turns out that the OHL has finally come aboard the bandwagon by naming Galchenyuk their player of the week.
Galchenyuk played 2 games last week, recording 5 goals and 3 assists for 8 points, bringing his season total to 61 points in just 33 games with the Sarnia Sting.
Next up for Galchenyuk will be leading Team USA at the World Junior Hockey Championships. He is likely to be their go to offensive guy in the tournament, and is bound to see plenty of minutes in all situations.
The hard working American/Russian has done everything that could be asked of him to prove that he's fully recovered from knee surgery that caused him to miss nearly all of last season, and should the NHL and NHLPA grow up and get their CBA settled by the end of the World Juniors, expect him to wear a Habs jersey instead of a Sting jersey in January.The Machete
The machete is a long knife with a single edge, particularly intended for opening a way when you find yourself surrounded by a hostile environment that prevents you from going down your path, paralyzing all movement. The Machete isn’t elegant; it doesn’t have the discretion of the dagger or the precision of the scalpel. When it strikes, it doesn’t distinguish between the innocent flower and the noxious weed, and it destroys both without distinctions. Heavy and uncomfortable to carry, the Machete can prove indispensable in difficult situations, when there is no time to lose in scientific calculations, exploratory reconnaissance, diplomatic consultations. If need be, it can even be used as an offensive tool. And then — it is said — it can become a terrifying weapon.
This is why we have chosen it as the title for our magazine. Because our compass — rational, emotional and visceral at the same time — continues to point out to us the path to follow, but all around us we perceive ever higher, thicker and more treacherous obstacles. Having no intention of turning back on our steps (trading our dreams of adventure for a more comfortable, organized voyage towards some pleasant locality), not wanting to adapt ourselves to astatic survival in a collective make-shift encampment (even merging in the meantime into the environment), not trusting the expectation of more favorable conditions (fruit of propitiatory activist rituals, through daily repetition), all that is left to us is to go on. To go on, despite everything, against everything. Renouncing this would be damaging, since not a day passes in which we don’t feel ourselves gripped by realism, bridled by politics, infected with militancy. We are suffocating from a lack of air, of fantasy, of play — and this form of respiratory impatience of ours requires Utopia, the oxygen of the future freeing the nose from the stench of the present.
Grasping the Machete and neatly cutting through all convenience, we will try to become large in the midst of this foul good sense that would like to draw us into the vortex of its mediocrity, made up of just democracies and neutral technologies, ethical markets and tactical alliances, traditions of respect and enemies to tolerate. At the cost of causing public scandal and risking ending up in some quicksand, we will not give up the irreverence, blasphemy and iconoclastic fury that today, like yesterday and tomorrow, is flung against this world based on voluntary slavery and repugnant domination. A world that we want to bring to ruin, not to a wiser management.
Machete... is not intended to be a receptacle of oppositional antagonism with its specialization, and so it will not host communiqués, flyers, declarations. There are already handouts, bulletins, blogs and so on that provide, in more or less real time for this still necessary function. What is lacking instead are places for fanning the scorching fire of critique, for preparing the corrosive acid of satire, and also — why not — practicing the tenacious cannibalism of polemics.
To achieve this rascally goal, we will make use of the collaboration of many demolishers of certainties and commonplaces. They may be famous or unknown, from the present or the past. We will loot their theoretical arsenal without embarrassment, telling their name, but without specifying their contribution. The articles will therefore all be rigorously anonymous.
Thus, confusing so much the paths of the practitioners of adulation and prejudice, Machete> is not the mouthpiece of any area of the movement, the organ of any current, the bulletin of any group. It is the expression of a few specific individuals, enraged at this world and at those who make agreements with this world, which they can share with other specific individuals. Its print-run will be limited because — we won’t hide it — the interest that a tool of this sort can currently awaken is limited. But luckily the effects and consequences of an act, any act, escape all statistics and enumeration.
Individuals or Citizens?
”[Worldless men] were and still are those who are forced to live in a world that is not their own, (...) in a world for which they are present, on whose terms they are considered and used, but whose models, aims, language and taste are still not their own, and are not granted to them.” — Günther Anders
Worldless individuals, we are alone with ourselves. Our critics shake their heads before our meager results and scold us for our lack of willingness. But in the end, let’s admit it, one gets bored. Is it possible that there isn’t some small place in the sun for us as well? If many consider extremism an infantile disorder, it is by virtue of this banality: only in youth do we feel capable of refusing the world, this world that is not our own. When we are full of strength, with the entire future before us, we fear nothing, neither police charges nor sleeping under the stars, and so even less, disdaining compromises. In this perpetual childhood, everything seems possible and within reach. This is why we refuse to throw our life to the bookkeepers of survival. We love with passion, we hate with fury. And if this exuberance, this proud love of ourselves, has the consequence of exiling us with our solitude, so be it! But then as the years pass, something intervenes. Energy is used up, stockpiles are reduced, ammunition is lacking, we notice that we have very little within reach for confronting what is left of the future.
Meanwhile, the social winter advances, covering the landscape with frost. In some way, it is necessary to put forth a remedy. Then staying at the margin of this world is not so very comfortable; perhaps at times the heart warms up, not the bones. Community will even be a therapeutic place, curing and removing “deviance”, but that torpor within it, the guaranteed meals, the dry beds! And so, bit by bit, with almost unnoticed movement, we approach the polis. If earlier this world could not count on our sympathy, if earlier it drew all our hostility, now it can rely on our understanding: the critical eye has given way to the entranced gaze, the biting word has been replaced by persuasive discourse. And once one has entered the polis, it is necessary to lose all the old habits and acquire new ones. Life in community requires respect for schedules and good manners. It is necessary to know how to tolerate if one wants to be tolerated. It becomes indispensable to to avoid behaviors that might provoke public indignation and to close one’s eyes before the unwelcomed behavior of others. “The one who does is always right,” says a widespread commonplace. It is like maintaining that “the one who speaks is always right”. What is valued is not the intrinsic quality of the movement or speech, but their mere existence. And yet silence is revealed to be golden when you don’t know what to say: better to remain silent than to let yourself go on in endless, idiotic babbling. If this is so, then why fret so much when one doesn’t know what to do? Why dedicate oneself to activism, to this compulsory doing, to this constant, omnipresent mobilization, which, indeed, fills the emptiness of our existence, but without giving it a meaning that our own, that is autonomous, that bears the mark of the difference, the uniqueness, that stands at the origin of every true action?
The fact is that outside the philosophical fogs, there is a horror of the “creative nothing”, in which we do not see the opportunity for reaching our fullness, but only the promise of falling headlong into the void. Better then to trust in the perpetual motion of the urgency of things where there is no time to reflect on ends because it is necessary to think about how to organize means. Utopia is beautiful, but it really isn’t practical.
The Practice
In France, it is called citizenism, a term that indicates a movement made up of a vast and multiform archipelago of associations, unions, collectives, press organs and political currents, whose aim is to fight for the restoration of “democracy betrayed”. The fact that our planet is at the end of its rope from the social, political, economic and ecological point of view, is now not hidden from anyone. The citizenists trace the cause of this situation back to a lack of respect for the “popular will” which — once it has fallen into the hands of politicians hungry only for power, in cahoots with businessmen greedy only for profit — would be disregarded, manipulated, denied.
Enemies of these politicians and businessmen (more than of the social system of which they are mere expressions), the citizenists are convinced that democracy — in its most genuine, roughest form — is effectively the best of all possible worlds and that it is possible to improve and moralize capitalism and the state, by opposing their obvious harmfulness and abuses effectively. But on two conditions: that this democracy expresses itself through a political rebirth that is modeled more after Pericles’ Athens than Machiavelli’s Florence, or with greater direct participation of the citizens, who should not just elect their representatives, but should also constantly act to put pressure on them so that they truly stick to what they were elected to do. This pressure can be exercised in the most varied manner, including those acts of “civil disobedience” that make the most loutish reactionaries spit venom and that cause so much admiration in the movement.
One could say, in a certain sense, that citizenism is born of disappointment. In its most reformist variant, disappointment about the distance that increasingly separates those who are sent to the Palace from those who remain on the streets. There are many respectable people — to be clear, those who are convinced that it is power that creates and safeguards freedom, that the market should be based on ethical principles or that the military should respect a moral code — that no longer feel that they are represented by a ruling class which is openly accused of forming a privileged caste, of being deaf to the interests of the common people, of being concerned only with maintaining their positions. These respectable people firmly believe in the state, in the necessity of the state, in the usefulness of the state, in the justice inherent to the state, but they are temporarily disappointed with it, holding that today it isn’t guided by competent, honest, upright, loyal politicians. This is the source of their distrust for professional politicians, parties or unions, while still not abandoning their search for someone who will meet their highest demands.
Feeling neglected, the citizenists find themselves constrained to go down into the streets to defend their “rights”. Their struggles always have precise objectives, are limited to saying a sharp NO to a specific state project that jeopardizes their health, without in the least wanting to call the social organization that produced it into question. They don’t concern themselves with radical moments, subversive tensions. They are honest citizens, not “hooligans” or “terrorists”. It goes without saying that, though they are ready to carry out formally illegal acts like street blockades, they are declared enemies of violence. They don’t support the truncheon of the riot cop that suppresses any more than the sabotage of the rebel who rises up. The only acts of force that they accept are the controlled, minimal, integrated ones that they occasionally carry out to draw the attention of the adversary, or rather of the authorities. The acts of force can sometimes even be quite spectacular, but that wouldn’t prevent the one who carries them out from competing in presidential elections in the future. In its less reformist variant, citizenism is the fruit of disappointment in a revolution whose historical project has been revealed as bankrupt. Despite different expressions, in its principles, this project aimed at a reappropriation of the capitalist means of production by the proletariat. In this perspective, the proletariat is seen as the authentic creator of social wealth, which is, nonetheless, is enjoyed exclusively by the bourgeoisie; to the proletariat the effort of sowing, to the bourgeoisie the fruit of the harvest. With such a premise, social change could only be considered as a mere suppression of the usurping class. Therefore, the expansion of the production forces was seen as a step forward on the road to revolution, going along with the real movement through which the proletariat was constituted as the future revolutionary subject that would have realized communism and anarchy. The bankruptcy of this perspective began to peek out in the first half of the twentieth century, with the defeat s of the revolutions in Russia, Germany and Spain. The final shock was the French may of 1968, which opened another decade of bitter conflict. The 1980s put an end to the last great assault on the heavens, marking the irretrievable decline and disappearance of this project of social liberation in conjunction with the restructuring of capital, which, through the introduction of automation, set up the end of the centrality of the factory and the myths linked to it. The orphans of proletarian revolution found a form of protest in citizenism that could console them in their mourning. Some of the ideas that circulate in it, like those about the “redistribution of wealth”, come directly from the old workers’ movement that planned to manage the capitalist world on their own behalf. In such concepts, one can glimpse a return, a continuity and even a hijacking” of former ideals by citizenism. This is what is called “the art of arranging the remains”.
Whether it is enlightened members of the bourgeoisie demanding more transparency in public affairs or disappointed proletarians wanting to fill the void left by the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fact remains that citizenists, incapable of having a unique thought, at least have a common thought: another state is possible. If in this vast cloud, it is possible to find so many minds, sometimes even in contradiction, it is because citizenism expresses an integrated form of protest that hopes to be able to put the malfunctions of the economic system back into balance or to readjust its drifts through greater citizen participation. In this way, citizenism manages to cut across party lines, keeping protest and collaboration together. The protest spurs the collaboration; the collaboration satisfies the protest.This explains its success and its certain future. It is the only mediation that allows you to obtain immediate “victories”, however partial, through coming to terms with the institutions.
Something Has Been Lost
In Italy, citizenism took its first step in Val Susa, with the struggle against the high speed train (TAV). To tell the truth, the struggle against the TAV in the Piedmontese valley began more than ten years ago in a completely different way, with some acts of sabotage against the earliest construction sites. Small actions brought into the limelight of the newspapers with the arrest of those presumed responsible, three anarchists who later proved to be unconnected to the events. In the course of the investigation, two of them committed suicide. The clamor these events provoked at the time, sufficiently well-known that we don’t need to go over them, drew attention to the state project in Val Susa. This gave birth to a protest movement that — though it met with quite a bit of sympathy — remained limited, for the most part, to the militant milieu for several years. But starting in November 2005, when the real work on the TAV line began, this movement managed to break the dam, assuming a mass character. What happened in Val Susa provoked a general enthusiasm that led many to think that they had finally discovered the magic formula that merely had to be repeated in other contexts to get the same results. From this came the spread of committees, assemblies, popular initiatives against “harmfulness” that are filling the agenda of the movement throughout Italy. But what is behind all this unbridled activism that in July 2006 was coordinating in the Pact of Solidarity and Mutual Aid? The primary discourse is that of creating a “new” and “real” democracy, i.e., the citizenist discourse. The Pact is presented by many as a liberatarian text, but its text is a perfect example of a political document, marked by the ambiguity of those who have a foot in each camp in order to satisfy all palates (and if seeing that so many citizens have taken a step outside the institutions can only bring us joy, what are we to think of those rebels who, in solidarity, take a step into the institutions?). There are anarchists who exult in reading “The National Pact of Solidarity and Mutual Aid is certainly not an attempt to stealthily infiltrate into the politics of the palace, nor does it intend to get hosted in the palaces of politics. It has no friendly governments to which to look with trust. It has no parties to which to give a blank slate delegation, and it certainly has no intention of going down a road that would lead it to becoming a part itself”, without noticing that this merely affirms the cross-party and lobbyist nature of citizenism. Citizenists are balanced people, they don’t want to become a party, but rather to put a certain type of pressure on parties. They are well aware that fighting in the political arena is not exempt from unpleasant consequences. And the way to avoid this risk is to assume the form of a pressure group that is careful not to directly exercise power. This is why they cannot present “blank slate delegations”, since they don’t want to talk with a favored few. Anybody who listens to them may be okay. This is why it is pointed out immediately afterwards that the Pact “does not, for this reason, avoid politics and confrontation, and is able to distinguish those who operate with transparency from those who try to contain struggles. The model that it proposes is at the same time the only method that it is willing to accept; that of the |
and Paris inspired interior design. What makes this cafe even more unique is you can have your photo taken by a professional photographer on the spot.
Bars and Clubs [ edit ]
Melbourne nightlife is 24 hours, loud, colourful and anything goes. Door policies can be strict but once inside high quality entertainment is guaranteed. DJ's, live music, artists and beautiful people can be found. There truly is something for everyone and every taste. It has a massive live music scene, with many inner-suburbs pubs catering many genres, with drink and food specials all week. The key is to find one you like the most!
Alongside it's many clubs, Melbourne is also a fast-rising festival city. Global event companies such as ID&T, Global Gathering, Ministry of Sound and Trance Energy have begun taking notice of the city and bringing their events. Upcoming electronic music events are well catalogued on [4]
Gay, lesbian and transgender party goers are welcome everywhere as Melburnians are on the whole very tolerant and welcoming people. Perhaps the one bad thing is that nothing really starts happening until midnight!
The city centre has a number of pubs, the most famous being the Young and Jackson. Melbourne is also famous for its many trendy bars in the CBD. Most of these, however, are down narrow alleys and streets, and are therefore hard to find unless you know where you are going.
The inner northern suburbs, such as Collingwood and Fitzroy cater for the young, laid-back, and bohemian crowd. Here you will find lots of live music, cheaper prices, and a relaxed atmosphere. Head for Brunswick and Gertrude Streets in Fitzroy and Smith Street, Collingwood for cafes, bars and live music, while Lygon Street, Carlton has a range of Italian restaurants and cafes with a student vibe, as it's located near the University of Melbourne. Victoria Street, North Richmond is the heart of Melbourne's Vietnamese community, with many cheap and cheerful restaurants serving good food.
Chapel Street/ Toorak Road in South Yarra and Prahran has the most glamorous bars and clubs. Here, expect high prices, strict dress codes, and beautiful people who want to be seen partying with the best. St. Kilda has a little bit of everything. With its proximity to the beach, it is often regarded as the Melbourne suburb that feels most like Sydney.
The past decade has seen a revival of Melbourne's inner-city bar scene, with dozens of weird and wonderful watering holes opening up within forgotten alleyways and anonymous lanes of the City Centre (CBD). Melbourne also has its fair share of stylish places to drink, although the better ones can be hard to find. The theory seems to be: the harder your bar is to find, the more people will talk about it. Secrets are tucked around areas like Prahran, South Yarra and many other areas. However there are plenty of alleyway bars, once you find one they seem to pop up everywhere you look. Melbourne's clubs often market a members only rule which can upset your more upmarket traveler. The rule is in place to prevent fighting and unappealing groups of men entering a nice club and destroying the atmosphere.
Australian licensing laws are very similar to those in the UK, i.e. you are not allowed to be drunk on licensed premises. In practice though, Melbourne venues and bouncers draw the line very low. Ejection from a premises can be expected for fighting, vomiting, or frequent falling over. Some pubs and clubs are quicker to eject patrons than others, but it's only ever a short walk to another. Licensing is more liberal than what one may be used to, as you can still expect to find a drink past 2AM. This has lead to a culture of late night drinking where some venues won't get busy until some time after 11PM, especially true during summer.
Melburnians often draw a distinction between 'bars', meaning the small watering holes described above, and 'pubs' which are larger establishments in the usual Australian or British sense of the word. Melbourne's pubs, particularly those in the city and inner suburbs, usually serve restaurant-standard food and a wide range of local and imported beers. Pubs usually offer lunch from approximately midday to 2PM, and reopen their kitchens for dinner from approximately 6PM-10PM
Sleep [ edit ]
Melbourne Southbank
Budget [ edit ]
Melbourne's budget accommodation options can be found in two main areas, namely in the City Centre and in the seaside suburb of St Kilda. However, outside these two areas, there are also several popular budget options in bohemian Fitzroy, South Melbourne, and Windsor.
Claremont Guest House, in an historic 1886 building. Rated a 3-Star Guest House by AAAT, and is a multiple winner of Hostelworld's monthly 'Best Hostel in Australia' award as voted by backpackers. Free Wi-fi. Free breakfast. Public transport at the door.
, in an historic 1886 building. Rated a 3-Star Guest House by AAAT, and is a multiple winner of Hostelworld's monthly 'Best Hostel in Australia' award as voted by backpackers. Free Wi-fi. Free breakfast. Public transport at the door. CityTempo Apartments, compact CBD apartments on Queen Street near the Queen Vic Markets. 4 Stars (AAA Tourism), all linen/towels provided with kitchenettes. Some apartments include clothes washer/dryer. 353 Queen Street, Melbourne. Free call within Australia:☎ 1800 248 983
Around the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix (late March) and other international events, hostel accommodation is booked out and some hostels raise their prices. Be sure to book ahead.
Accommodation in this price bracket can mostly be found in the city centre. There are however options scattered throughout the suburbs.
Jika International Motel – Melbourne – Fairfield. [5] ☎ +61 3 9481-2822 Fax +61 3 9489-8819 [6].
– Fairfield. [5] ☎ +61 3 9481-2822 Fax +61 3 9489-8819 [6]. Golden Chain Motels – Melbourne has many locations in Melbourne and surrounding area serving quality accommodation at affordable prices. [7]
Splurge [ edit ]
The City Centre remains the main area for this category of accommodation.
Connect [ edit ]
Post [ edit ]
Former Melbourne GPO, now an H&M store.
After a fire gutted the original building in 2001, most of Melbourne's grand General Post Office (250 Elizabeth St; ☎: 13 13 18; Fax: 9203 3078; M–F 8:30AM–5:30PM, Sa 9AM–4PM, Su 10AM–4PM; [8]) has now been turned into an upmarket retail precinct. The main post office in the Melbourne CBD is situated at the corner of Elizabeth and Little Bourke Streets. Poste restante services are also located here.
Phone [ edit ]
Coin operated payphones can still be found around the city. Near stations and post-offices are the usual places to look. International calling cards are also available at these outlets. Using a payphone to make a local call will cost you $0.50 (untimed, although some phones limit your call to 15 minutes).
Mobile phone coverage within the CBD and surrounds is usually good-to-excellent. 3G and 4G services are available throughout the city. You will require some identification to purchase a prepaid (PAYG) SIM card, which are sold at most convenience stores, newsagents and supermarkets. This may be requested at time of purchase, and/or time of activation.
The largest companies are Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. Amaysim, which uses the Optus network is the best value, and can be picked up from any 7 Eleven store; note that to activate it you will need a full Australian address and access to email; in addition, it doesn't allow tethering for new activations. If you wish to make cheap international calls, Lebara and Lycamobile are the best choices.
Melbourne's area code for landline telephones is 03 (internationally dial +613). To make an international direct dial call, the trunk line access code is generally 0011 or simply add a + in front of the number if your phone allows.
Internet [ edit ]
Melbourne offers a free public WiFi which allows for up to 250 MB per device, per day and does not require personal information or feature pop-up advertising in the Melbourne CBD including CBD train stations, Bourke St Mall, Queen Victoria Market and South Wharf Promenade at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, aditionaly Internet cafes are dotted throughout the city, especially near the backpacker enclaves of St Kilda and Flinders Street. Speeds are usually excellent and rates range from $2.50–12 per hour, the cheapest usually found in combination market/internet cafes in the Asian parts of town.
e:FiftyFive ( 55 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne ) is like a huge basement lounge room that feels more like a bar than an internet cafe. Great DJs, comfortable couches and dirt-cheap $2/hour internet access when you buy a drink attract plenty of travellers and will make writing that email home an enjoyable experience.
( ) is like a huge basement lounge room that feels more like a bar than an internet cafe. Great DJs, comfortable couches and dirt-cheap $2/hour internet access when you buy a drink attract plenty of travellers and will make writing that email home an enjoyable experience. VA (Bourke Street, Melbourne) is one of the countless but arguably the best internet/LAN gaming cafes in Melbourne, which is packed full of "hardcore gamers" on Sunday afternoons (sponsored competition day). Non-member rates start at $3.50/hour while membership costs a mere $15 (includes $12 credit) and benefits include play offers such as $4/2 hours, $5/3 hours and $6/4 hours, as well as day and night packages.
is one of the countless but arguably the best internet/LAN gaming cafes in Melbourne, which is packed full of "hardcore gamers" on Sunday afternoons (sponsored competition day). Non-member rates start at $3.50/hour while membership costs a mere $15 (includes $12 credit) and benefits include play offers such as $4/2 hours, $5/3 hours and $6/4 hours, as well as day and night packages. Cydus (Victoria Street, North Melbourne) large range of internet usage services every day and at any time (including most public holidays). Non-member rates start at $3/hour while membership costs $10 (includes 2 hours free play) and membership rates are $2/hour while member offers include "Endurance Pass" (5 hours play + $2.80 snack voucher) and "Survival Pass" (10 hours play).
large range of internet usage services every day and at any time (including most public holidays). Non-member rates start at $3/hour while membership costs $10 (includes 2 hours free play) and membership rates are $2/hour while member offers include "Endurance Pass" (5 hours play + $2.80 snack voucher) and "Survival Pass" (10 hours play).
The State Library [9]. Offers free internet at many workstations and does not require membership (limited to 15 minutes or 1 hour per session, no session limits). You can get a free membership for access to free wireless web access, however, the wireless access is limited and you may not be able to access some sites and services. Printing facilities are also provided for a fee.
[9]. Offers free internet at many workstations and does not require membership (limited to 15 minutes or 1 hour per session, no session limits). You can get a free membership for access to free wireless web access, however, the wireless access is limited and you may not be able to access some sites and services. Printing facilities are also provided for a fee. Melbourne Central shopping centre (corner of Swanston and La Trobe St) has free wireless internet access.
(corner of Swanston and La Trobe St) has free wireless internet access. Australia on Collins shopping centre (on Collins St) has free wireless internet access.
(on Collins St) has free wireless internet access. Federation Square (corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street, outside Flinders Street railway station) is supposedly Australia's largest free outdoor wireless hotspot.
(corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street, outside Flinders Street railway station) is supposedly Australia's largest free outdoor wireless hotspot.
Cope [ edit ]
Consulates [ edit ]
Stay safe [ edit ]
Melbourne is generally a very safe city for its size, although some parts of Melbourne are best avoided at night; these include parts of the western suburbs around Footscray and Sunshine, some northern suburbs such as Broadmeadows and southern suburbs like Frankston and Dandenong. The city centre, particularly the area around the nightclub and strip club district of King Street, can be a hotspot for alcohol-fuelled violence late at night. However, you are more likely to be heckled by drunken revellers and street walkers than you are to be actually threatened or randomly attacked. Demonstrating normal safety precautions and staying to well-lit streets is a good way to avoid trouble.
Protective Services Officers (PSOs) patrol Melbourne's railway stations from 6PM to the last train, with all stations possessing a'safety zone' with increased lighting, CCTV cameras and easy access to the red emergency button. Trains also contain buttons in the case of an emergency, while it's a good idea to sit close to the driver while on a train, tram or bus late at night. The public transport network is generally safe, although drug or alcohol affected travellers occasionally give other commuters grief.
If driving a car, beware of car theft or break-in. Keep valuables out of sight when parked, always lock the car and leave the windows up before you leave. If you are waiting in your car, lock the car as well. A police officer will always show ID before asking you to open your door or window.
Pickpocketing is rare in Melbourne, but be aware of your belongings in and around Flinders Street Station and the crowded block between Flinders and Collins Streets on Swanston Street. Beggars frequent the southern ends of Elizabeth and Swanston Streets, although are unlikely to give you trouble.
Although scams are rare in Melbourne, some real estate agents attempt to prey on foreigners by deducting costs for non-existent reparations and cleaning from the bond. The Tenants Union of Victoria can help with these issues when moving in and out.
It is important to take care around tram lines. Trams are heavy and it can take over 100 metres for a tram to safely stop. Even if a tram has passed, look carefully both ways, as trams will often run nose-to-tail on busy corridors like Swanston Street. If driving, it is illegal to U-turn across tram tracks or pass a tram while the doors are open and passengers are disembarking.
Go next [ edit ]
Beacon Cove Beach, Port Melbourne
Melbourne is fairly centrally located on the coast of Victoria, and there are many natural and man-made attractions that make for a nice day trip. Another way to visit regional Victoria is utilising the VicLink public transport system. Regular train journeys leave from Southern Cross station. Regional attractions include:
Melbourne outskirts [ edit ]
South Melbourne Town Hall
These places are within an hour's drive of central Melbourne.
Werribee — historic mansion and open-range zoo
Dandenong Ranges — national park, gardens, historic steam railway
Wine-tasting in the Yarra Valley, Healesville and the Healesville Sanctuary
Port Phillip Bay scenic drive and the Mornington Peninsula — the seaside resort locations of Sorrento and Portsea, offering both bayside and surf beaches
Warburton and Mount Donna Buang — winter sightseeing snow
Northern Victoria [ edit ]
Eastern Victoria [ edit ]
Western Victoria [ edit ]
Tasmania [ edit ]
From Port Melbourne, take the Spirit Of Tasmania to Devonport, the gateway to Tasmania. Crossings take approximately 12 hours.
Routes through Melbourne
This city travel guide to Melbourne is an outline and needs more content. It has a template, but there is not enough information present. Please plunge forward and help it grow!It’s here! Steelheart is out!
The trailer is here, if you haven’t seen it. Also, if you live in Utah, please come see me tonight at the Orem Barnes & Noble! 5–8:00 p.m., with signed and numbered copies. Yesterday I talked about the tour and the Steelhunt I’m doing along with it.
Now, I’ve got to admit something to you all. I might have made a bit of a rash bet regarding this book.
When I was looking for a publisher for Steelheart, one of the first things I did was call my friend (and sometimes rival) James Dashner. He had been publishing with Delacorte, a Random House imprint, and he mentioned how much he loved his editor there. I asked him to give me an introduction.
In the end, I ended up going with his editor Krista Marino for the book. (The team at Delacorte really impressed me.) This meant that Dashner and I were now with the same editor and publisher. We started doing some publicity interviews together, as he’s launching a new series in the next few weeks as well: The Eye of Minds comes out on October 8th.
One thing led to another, and during one of our taped interviews, I kind of ended up making a friendly wager with him based on whose book sold the most its opening week. The loser has to, ahem, change his Facebook and other social media pictures into images of Justin Bieber.
Now, I’m not 100% sure who Justin Bieber is—only that tween girls really seem to like him and he tends to wear very strange pants. I’m sure he’s a nice guy with nice music. I’m also sure my Facebook page will look remarkably silly as a Justin Bieber fan page.
I’m also reasonably certain this is going to backfire on me, as a lot of my fans are probably very eager to see me have to do this. However, for the sake of my pride, don’t let it keep you from looking into the book today.
In all seriousness, a book’s first-week sales are one of the most important litmus tests the industry uses to determine success. Up-front sales will encourage more reorders from bookstores and help a lot with book placement. So if you’re considering Steelheart, it would mean a lot to me if you’d drop by your local bookstore this week and check it out. Give the prologue and first few chapters a browse (or listen to the Audible preview below); I think you’ll like what you see.
Anyway, this bet with Dashner is actually a real thing. Our editor gets to choose the pictures of Bieber we have to use if we lose. Though many of you might not realize it, I am quite the underdog in this contest. Dashner’s Maze Runner books have a film coming out early next year, and his books sell a lot of copies. Let’s give him a run for his money, though, and see how many we can sell of Steelheart opening week. I’m counting on you, guys!
So if thinking of me being forced to become Bieber makes you laugh, please consider how much more funny it would be if Dashner had to do it.
I’ll be back in the coming days with some fun blog posts, as well as some spotlights on the various editions of Steelheart out there. (A few of the retailers have editions you can find that have an extra art page or the like inside.)
BrandonIt’s official: 3D printer manufacturer Tiko 3D is closing down. Most of the 16,538 Kickstarter backers won’t ever see a working printer. But there‘s a small chance for a refund.
Update 11/27/17: Tiko 3D have sent an update to their backers explaining how the money was spent. If you want to jump to the section directly and want to apply for a partial refund, please click here. If you want to get the whole story, just continue.
It wasn’t exactly a surprise.
First, there were delays. Then, there were rumors. In early 2017, the 3D printer company that collected nearly $3 million on Kickstarter, had run into deep financial trouble.
Tiko 3D had shipped 4,151 semi-operational units to backers in Canada and the US, but they couldn’t manufacture and ship the 3D printers to the remaining 12,387 backers anymore. The development came to a halt, as the company was now focussing on looking for investors – without success.
Tiko 3D folds operations. If you have backed the printer, you won’t get your money back.
On November 21, 2017, they now officially closed down the company.
In a statement to its Kickstarter backers, Team Tiko made it clear that, accordingly to Section 4 of the Kickstarter Terms of Use, they are no longer obliged to complete the project and fulfill rewards.
This a sad day for the Tiko Kickstarter backers: They have invested in a company, its team, and the product. They become “part of the company”, so to speak – and are also sharing its risks. Meaning: It is highly unlikely there will ever be a refund.
The Search For Investors Turned Out To Be Unsuccessful
A then enthusiastic Team Tiko, renting a hall for assembly before things turned sour (image: Tiko 3D)
The backers were informed about the situation on November 21, 2017. In the verbose statement, Tiko talk about out they were looking hard for investors.
First, they contacted Venture Capital companies. But a pattern soon emerged: “Our capital requirements were too large for Angels, but our operation was too risky for Venture Capital. We had scaled up too soon, and sought capital too late.”
After being turned down by investors, they talk about turning towards distributors and even local distributors – and finally tried to sell the company and its technology as a whole.
“There are some rather powerful technologies within Tiko’s hardware and software – technologies we believed could be of value to established manufacturers. Even if a company didn’t wish to manufacture the Tiko printer, the technologies inside could be of interest to them. As such, we pursued a number of leads to sell the company/IP in exchange for the minimum funds required to ship Tiko (or a substitute printer) to backers, or otherwise offer a full. We received some interest, but nothing that would completely satisfy Tiko’s obligations.”
As the last potential investor shied away, Team Tiko had to admit the project had failed. “With deep sadness in our hearts, and much to our disappointment, we are officially closing the company. It’s over.”
How did Tiko Spend the Backer’s Money?
Tiko sent their last update (#29) to the backers explaining how the company’s money was spent.
41 percent of the Kickstarter money went into manufacturing, transporting, storing and assembling the printer’s components. Most of the printer components (in batches of 15,000-20,000 units) are still stored in inventory and will be liquidated in the next months.
24 percent went to into payroll of the #20 employees for two years. According to the update, no bonuses were paid, the founders were paid a “humble salary”.
R&D and the initial marketing campaign add up to 13%.
Tiko 3D and its assets have been placed in the hands of a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (BDO Canada Limited). They will handle the liquidation. Also, they will “ensure a fair and impartial re-distribution of realized funds to backers and other creditors”, says Tiko’s last official statement. Technically, the founders are not involved with the company anymore.
If you want to see a partial refund, you have to secure your status as a creditor.
If you are a backer and your printer wasn’t shipped, you will receive an email containing instructions for filling out a creditor application. Make sure you complete and return this application to secure your status as a creditor.
The trustee will then begin liquidating the assets. Tiko 3D estimates the process could take 9 to 12 months to complete. The trustee will then communicate with the backers via email once the assets have been liquidated and funds are ready for distribution.
According to the update, “the goal is to reach a 10-15% refund, however, this is only a goal. The realized amount could vary substantially.”
It is unclear how the money will be divided among the creditors (i.e. banks, parts manufacturers, backers).
Foul Play Regarding Additional Shipping Funds?
One thing backers complain about are the shipping fees. Tiko had collected a significant fee for shipping from the backers in advance. It‘s not clear if this money legally was a part of the investment or if it should be refunded. The comments on Kickstarter got increasingly annoyed about this topic (“Matt Gajkowski, Sharon Charitar, and Michael Zhang took our 3 million dollars + collected shipping (easily > 0.5 million) and laughed out loud.”)
Tiko 3D collected money for shipping cost. It’s yet unclear if that money has to be refunded.
The founders have replied in their current statement:
“Shipping funds were a pre-agreed-upon portion of the Kickstarter pledge, and were collected a year before the company became insolvent. At the time of collection, tests were going well and it appeared that shipping could begin within a couple of months. This was openly communicated to backers at the launch of shipping surveys in Update #15.
There were no statements implying printers were finished or ready to ship. The shipping survey was opened early as it was deemed prudent to collect and organize shipping information/payments well ahead of the actual ship date, given that full containers had to be booked. The company simply had no way to predict the financial and technical difficulties that lay ahead.
In the final weeks before full-scale shipping, a portion of these funds was diverted toward operational costs in response to a cash flow issue leading up to pre-orders. This decision was made in a good faith effort to deliver printers to all backers and pre-order customers. Unfortunately, this strategy was not successful, and operations had to be frozen before fulfillment could be completed.”
It is yet to be determined if the last word is spoken here – probably only a lawsuit can clarify the case.
How Could This Debacle Happen?
After the closing of their Kickstarter campaign, Tiko 3D had collected $2,950,874 from 16,538 backers. The small delta 3D printer looked very promising and went for an incredible price of $99. These units were gone fast; the average backer paid $179.
As with most Kickstarter projects and hardware development in general, Tiko 3D ran into technical problems. Due to extrusion problems and chassis production failures, the 3D printers shipped a year late. Tiko 3D admits:
“We had no idea how difficult it would be to go from a prototype to mass production. We learned along the way, but most mistakes were costly and irreversible. Our greatest mistake was committing to inventory too soon. We didn’t realize it at first, but by ordering components in bulk, we had backed ourselves into a corner.”
Also, the software was more difficult than expected.
If you start looking at the Tiko User Group on Facebook, Twitter, and Kickstarter comments, you discover that some of the 3D printers had serious issues. Backers found out there were mainly software problems causing bad prints: Tiko uses a combination of flashable firmware and a web-based slicing software, which didn’t come up with the right settings. Some prints turned out nice; others were just horrible to look at.
While battling with these problems, the backer’s money burned away. In November 2016, hit a “breaking point,” while the financial resources were running thin.
“We gave it everything we had, and we made great progress, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. Software had improved, but not enough. Same with hardware and quality control. Pre-orders streamed in, but they too were just not enough. We were right at the finish line, and yet, we were miles away.”
Looking for a Tiko 3D Alternative?
When Tiko 3D launched its Kickstarter campaign, it offered an unbeatable low price. In 2015, it looked like it could disrupt the market – like the Commodore C64 did with the home computer market.
Nowadays, prices for comparable 3D printers and 3D printer kits have dropped significantly. You can get a decent budget 3D printer for a low price, starting from $220.
So, what are the alternatives to a Tiko 3D? Fortunately, there are good, reliable and affordable 3D printers to choose from.After a disappointing west coast road trip, the Washington Wizards haven’t gained much ground in the playoff standings and have to find a way to win games they’re supposed to win as they’ve dropped multiple contests that they should’ve gotten wins for. Squandered double-digit leads against the Sacramento Kings, Denver Nuggets and another loss against the Portland Trail Blazers have left the Wizards with a 1-3 record to complete their road trip instead of putting themselves in position to potentially move up in the standings.
Washington is currently sitting in the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference, but are just two games above.500 while the Charlotte Bobcats look to take advantage of their relatively easy schedule. Charlotte has the second easiest schedule remaining in the NBA, and have won 7 of their last 10 games, including dominant wins over the Indiana Pacers, Portland Trail Blazers, and of course, the Wizards. Besides having home court advantage, being placed anywhere in the 3-6 slots won’t make much of a difference for the teams, especially since the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers are the only legitimate championship contenders in the conference. With that said, match ups and personnel will play a big part in the results of the first round series’, so upsets and unexpected outcomes will definitely take place in this year’s playoffs. Regardless, the Wizards have to do a better job of taking care of games against teams below.500 in order to stay in the 3-6 range, since the Bobcats and even the Atlanta Hawks have gained ground over the past few weeks.
Here’s a look at Washington’s upcoming games for this week:
March 26th: vs. Phoenix Suns
March 28th: vs. Indiana Pacers
March 29th: vs. Atlanta Hawks
March 31st: at. Charlotte Bobcats
After a quick look at the upcoming games for the Wizards, I think it’s safe to say that they’ll be viewed as the underdogs for the first two games and the potential favorites against Atlanta and Charlotte. The Suns are looking to sneak into the playoffs in the very tough Western Conference and they can’t afford to lose to middling teams like Washington. Indiana has struggled recently, but they’ve dominated their match ups against the Wizards this season. The Wizards have pulled off some upsets this season, including one against the Suns, but considering how inconsistent they’ve been at home this season, I wouldn’t expect them to knock off two teams looking to secure spots in the playoffs.
The games against Atlanta and Charlotte should be considered must wins. Of course, like the rest of the playoff bound teams in the East, both Atlanta and Charlotte are looking to secure spots and games against Washington are considered winnable for each opponent.
Washington still has a 100% chance of making the playoffs according to odds, but the next stretch of games are going to be very important for playoff positioning. It’s been a long time since the NBA Playoffs were a topic of discussion for the Wizards in March, and even though the team hasn’t been playing good basketball as of late, I think the fans will appreciate the suspense moving forward.Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Hagerstown, Md., on April 24. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
This post has been updated.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, whose campaign has struggled in the delegate-selection process, will appear at a party convention in California later this week to personally court activists and address the gathering.
But Trump’s plan to speak at the Virginia GOP convention in Harrisonburg on Saturday — reported Monday by The Washington Post as part of the candidate’s ramped-up delegate efforts — was scrapped Tuesday afternoon after logistical concerns were raised following The Post report.
“The Republican Party of Virginia has confirmed that Donald J. Trump will NOT be attending the 2016 RPV Convention in Harrisonburg this weekend,” the Republican Party of Virginia said in a statement Tuesday. “Despite media reports to the contrary, Trump was never scheduled to speak at the convention.”
“We are honored any time any of our candidates visit the Commonwealth. Donald Trump has already visited Virginia on many occasions, and will no doubt return again in the near future,” the party added. “RPV looks forward to working with our Presidential nominee to secure Virginia's 13 Electoral Votes and ensuring that Hillary Clinton returns to the private sector. We hope this clarifies the situation.”
The decision to cancel the Virginia trip was made in a series of campaign calls Monday and Tuesday where the prospect of disruptive protests and the benefits of an appearance were discussed and debated, according to three people close to the Trump campaign.
The Virginia Republican convention will be held at the James Madison University convocation center, with the state party renting space from the university. In a Twitter message Monday, JMU quickly distanced itself from Trump, saying on Twitter that there is "no contact between JMU & Trump campaign. The event referenced not a JMU-sponsored event."
The people who told of Trump’s planned appearances requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The Post learned of Trump’s desire to attend more state GOP conventions late Sunday after talking with campaign sources, who said the billionaire mogul personally asked his political high command to add more delegate-targeting events to his schedule, confident that his presence and overtures could convince some delegates to get behind his campaign.
When asked early Monday for comment, a Trump adviser confirmed that the billionaire would be traveling to California and Virginia but would not provide details of his schedule. The California GOP later Monday formally announced that Trump would deliver the convention's keynote luncheon speech as its proceedings begin.
The proposed travels are part of an evolving strategy with Trump’s inner circle about how to counter Sen. Ted Cruz’s highly organized efforts at recent state Republican conventions, where the Texas senator accumulated a growing number of delegates because of his team’s ability to navigate the events and rules.
And they come as Paul Manafort, Trump’s newly enlisted confidant and convention manager, is bringing on new personnel and attempting to bolster the campaign’s delegate operation. On Monday, Ken McKay, the former campaign manager for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination, signed on as a senior adviser, a hire first reported by Bloomberg.
Over the weekend, for example, Cruz won 95 percent of Maine’s 20 delegate seats at the state’s convention, a percentage far more than the proportion he won in the state’s caucuses.
[Cruz dominates, Trump falls short again as more states pick delegates]
But in Maine, Trump did not speak or hold meetings as he plans to later in the week. Instead, a leading supporter, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, spoke there, as did another ally, Gov. Paul LePage (R).
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz defended his alliance with rival John Kasich April 25. Cruz said their attempt to block front-runner Donald Trump from winning the party's nomination "makes sense." (Reuters)
Trump was said to be fuming Monday about the move over the weekend by Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich to cut an unusual deal – agreeing to divvy up three upcoming primaries. Cruz will concentrate on Indiana, Kasich on New Mexico and Oregon as they try to deny Trump victories.
[Cruz and Kasich devise strategy to keep Trump from clinching three primary states]The prestigious George Washington University here is contemplating a ban on swastika, a sacred symbol for Hindus and Buddhists, as authorities believe it resembles the Nazi symbol and may hurt the sensibilities of some Jewish students.
The move came after an unidentified student, who is Jewish, returned last month from a trip to India with a swastika image. He placed it briefly on the bulletin board at his predominantly Jewish fraternity's residence hall.
One fraternity member who saw the swastika on the bulletin board thought it was some kind of threat and informed police.
Everything was sorted out in a few hours after the complaining student realised that there was no threat. Police quickly closed their investigation.
However, the student who placed the symbol on the bulletin board now faces permanent expulsion, The Daily Caller reported.
Steven Knapp, president of the George Washington University, said in a statement that the intentions behind the on-campus Nazi motif will not affect his determination to call it a hate crime.
"While the student claims his act was not an expression of hatred, the university is referring the matter for review by its Hate Crimes Unit," Knapp said.
John Banzhaf, a famed public interest law professor at the George Washington University Law School, has taken up the cause of the embattled Jewish student.
If the student suffers expulsion or any kind of discipline, the effect will be to ban a sacred religious symbol from the George Washington campus, Banzhaf said.
University officials have "seemingly taken the position that posting anything which could be mistaken for a Nazi swastika" is prohibited, he argued — "even by students who are Hindus or Buddhists."
First Published: Apr 24, 2015 20:20 ISTCredit: Kacper Pempel / Reuters An alleged CIA black site in a Polish village. Two CIA-contracted psychologists accused of helping create the CIA's torture program are suing the agency for documents about the program's inception.
WASHINGTON ― The two CIA-contracted psychologists accused of crafting the spy agency’s so-called “enhanced interrogation program” want the U.S. government to turn over documents they hope will show the torture program wasn’t their fault.
The motion to compel the documents, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, alleged that the CIA and Justice Department had been uncooperative in supplying James Elmer Mitchell and John “Bruce” Jessen with “documents critical to their defense.”
Their request is related to a separate ongoing lawsuit in Spokane, Washington, where the American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of three former CIA detainees, is suing Jessen and Mitchell for their alleged role in creating and implementing an interrogation program that used techniques now considered to be torture.
The pair was hired by the CIA as contractors in 2002, as the agency was rounding up individuals suspected of having ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban and interrogating them in secret black sites around the world. Jessen and Mitchell’s company ultimately collected $81 million for their work.
The two psychologists have argued that they should have immunity from prosecution over the enhanced interrogation program because it was authorized by the executive branch during a time of war.
Mitchell and Jessen initially sought to have the lawsuit against them thrown out ― which is what has happened with past attempts to hold the CIA |
’ve watched it about three times, you know? So it’s definitely something you can grab and hold onto in that sense.
(EM): On a personal note, what do you think a role like this has the potential to do for you career? Have you gotten more offers or been more recognized overall since the release of Sense8?
(AA): I’ve definitely been more recognized, I had a very good career in London since I was 19-years-old. I did films like “Kidulthood” which is a cult classic where I’m from. I’ve kind of gotten used to fans and being recognized since I was 19, but not here in America. When I moved here when I was 24, I kind of got a sense of normality, like, okay, well, you’re not very good-looking, or no one’s talking to you, they’re not that interested. But now, people are coming up to me impassioned about the show, about my performance, about the performances of the other actors, the themes, and how it’s touching their lives, and I think that is the best case scenario. I was quite recognized for a certain demographic, you know? Teens, for “The Maze Runner.”
In terms of potential for my career, I’ve done two films since doing Sense8, a war film where I play a guy from the Bronx (New York), and he’s totally the antithesis of a character like Capheus – he’s a bit of a prejudiced guy, he doesn’t believe that people from certain cultural demographics should be in America, that kind of guy, you know? And right now I’m working on a film about a Nigerian-American Financier on Wall-street battling with relationship issues and identity issues, and prescription drugs. For me, what’s nice is that Sense8 provided the platform for people to see my work. I play a character that’s very varied in Sense8, they get to see a light, but they also get to see pain, and action, and drama, and its definitely elevated my notoriety in some sense and made people more aware of me. I’m the kind of person where I’m out there pursuing the right kind of work for me, and, after working with the Wachowski’s, if I can hope to live in only half of their shoes, then I’d be happy, you know? It’s yet to be determined how this will change my career completely, but what an opportunity this has been, and I’d love another opportunity to do it again with them.
(EM): In keeping with the globe-trotting theme of Sense8, I just want to get an idea of what it was like for you to transition from life in London to living in America.
(AA): For me, when I got to Los Angeles, I went straight into work, so I never really got a sense of America straight away, because I was in LA, and LA is quite specific, I think. Also, we grow up in your culture so heavily, so it’s kind of easier to assimilate. There are certain things like pronunciation issues. I’ll be like “Can I have a water?” and they’ll be like “I’m sorry?” Or I’ll be like, “Where’s the toilet?” and they’ll be like “The toilet?” Places like Louisiana, New York, and LA to some degree, those places really form American culture and life. I’m still discovering America is what I think I’m saying, and when I’ve been going around, I’ve been able to really appreciate America. In LA, there’s phenomenal opportunity, but, I don’t know if history outside the movie business is here, but it’s been nice to go and get a sense of American history traveling to places like New York and New Orleans.
(EM): As a final question, will Van Damme come back for Season 2?
(AA): [laughs] I have no idea what’s what. I would love to be able to shed some light on it, but I’m waiting like the fans are waiting to know what’s happening. All I can say is that we all love the show, the support of the fans has been absolutely tremendous, really passionate fan-base, and so, lets do what Capheus would do, and say: “As long as we’re together, something good will happen.” So, as long as the fans are together, I think something good will happen.
(EM): That’s amazing. Thank you so much again for taking the time, its been awesome and a great experience, thank you so much!
(AA): Thanks mate, thank you very much, you take care.
Follow Aml on Twitter and FacebookThe Asus Transformer Prime: the first Android device to ship with a quad-core chip, courtesy of NVIDIA's brand new Tegra 3 (Kal-El) CPU. But there's more of a hook here than power alone - Asus has gone back to the drawing board for the Prime (model number TF201) and revamped the device from nearly head to toe compared to its predecessor, the TF101. It's substantially thinner, lighter, and more attractive than the rather portly 101, while packing a much more powerful CPU, better display, and reportedly better battery life. But can they really improve upon all those aspects without cutting any corners? I've spent a few more days with the TP since posting my initial impressions on Wednesday - enough time to get a solid feel for the ups and downs of the new tablet.
"... Don't act like I neva' toldja'."
The Specs
Before moving on to the positives and negatives, let's look at the specs once more.
Price: $499 for 32GB model, $599 for 64GB, and $149 for the dock
$499 for 32GB model, $599 for 64GB, and $149 for the dock Availability: North American availability is expected to begin the week of 12/19, though that date may change in either direction as possible/needed
North American availability is expected to begin the week of 12/19, though that date may change in either direction as possible/needed 10.1-inch 1280x800 Super IPS + display with Gorilla Glass
1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 Processor with 12-core GPU (up to 1.4GHz in single-core mode)
1GB RAM
microSD slot and microHDMI port (with support for 1080p video output) on tablet
SD card slot and USB port on dock
8MP F2.4 rear shooter with 1080p video recording and continuous flash, 1.2MP front camera
Tablet: 8.3mm thin, 263mm wide, 180.8mm tall, 586g (1.29 lbs)
Dock: 8 - 10.4mm thin, 263mm wide, 180.8mm tall, 537g (1.18 lbs)
12 hour battery life playing 720p video, 18 hours with keyboard dock
Metallic spun finish
Two available colors: Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold
Android 3.2.1 - will be updated to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) as soon as possible after release
The Good Thin and light - roughly the same as the Galaxy Tab 10.1 - which makes it a joy to hold and use for extended periods (especially in comparison to the original Transformer).
Power... good Lord, the power. Transitions are smooth as can be, browsing never stutters or lags, and games look gorgeous.
Three different performance modes mean you can sip the juice when doing basic tasks, or crank up the power (and consumption) as needed.
The screen is very bright and offers better black levels and viewing angles than its predecessor. There's less glare, and coupled with Super IPS+ mode, it's great even in bright light.
When the tablet is placed appropriately, the speaker offers good quality audio, and can be quite loud. However, it's also once of the biggest facepalms on the tablet - more below.
With an HDMI cable, HDTV, and controller, the Prime effectively becomes a portable console, and it's awesome.
Speaking of controllers, the TP natively supports the Wii, PS3, and wired Xbox 360 controllers, in addition to the Logitech F710.
The dock is as beautiful and sleek as the tablet, and it's functional and well-integrated to boot.
Bloatware is kept to a minimum, and Asus' included proprietary apps are pleasantly good.
The Bad Some backlight bleeding. Not as bad as the TF101 and not noticeable often, but it's still annoying.
Only one speaker, placed in what is quite possibly the worst spot imaginable. It's almost as if they sat down and said, "What's the stupidest place to put a speaker?" and then put it there.
The TF101 dock is not compatible with the TF201 (Prime) and vice-versa. (Personally, I wouldn't want to mix the docks since the 201 dock is slimmer, lighter, and looks different... but some people would rather save a few bucks, which I can certainly relate to.)
As with the original TF, It's damn near impossible to type on the keyboard without hitting the touchpad. The only real solution is to use the hotkey to turn off the touchpad when you're not using it, and it's unfortunate that the oversight wasn't addressed this time around.
A few more force closes than normal - possibly because it's brand new hardware.
In A Nutshell: Without a doubt the best Android tablet on the market today. Fast, sleek, light, beautiful... you could throw just about every superlative in the book at the Prime.
You Should Buy If: You're in the market for a new portable computing device - the TP makes few sacrifices and packs a ton of power in an ultra-slim, ultra-light package.
Still with me? Great, let's take a deeper look at the Prime to see what makes it so special.
Deep Dive
Design And Build
The TP reeks of quality. With an all-aluminum chassis and a spun pattern on the back, the package is extremely attractive. When I reviewed the Galaxy Tab 8.9 last month, I was thoroughly impressed by the size and appearance, apparently to the point that it mortified a few readers. And you know what? I find the Prime to be even more of a looker - it's slightly thinner and just has a better looking design, resulting in an even sexier package.
More importantly, the design is incredibly sturdy. Picking up the tablet by the corner alone produces no give and feels as sturdy as picking up from the center. The Prime is also extremely well-built; seams (of which there are really only two - one between the back and the side band, and one between the side band and the screen) are so snug that they're difficult to feel with your fingers.
In fact, the only real downfall of the Prime's styling is that the aluminum apparently marks fairly easily. Despite being babied since opening the box, my unit somehow picked up a fairly large scratch across the back. Then again, it's not noticeable at a glance thanks to the design style and it's not enough to even catch a fingernail, so it's realistically not a big deal.
Otherwise, I have only two complaints about the Prime. First, the (sole) speaker is placed on the back of the tablet, meaning that the sound is basically on the other side of a barrier (the screen) and going out the wrong direction (facing the away from you). On top of that, it's placed exactly where your right hand is during use in landscape - absolutely terrible design decisions, presumably because one or two sacrifices had to be made in order to make it so much smaller and more powerful. The second complaint is that there's some backlight bleeding. It's not as bad as it was on the TF101 and it's rarely noticeable, but it's still annoying, and I feel like it shouldn't be happening in 2011.
Hardware, Performance, And Benchmarks
More casual consumers may come to know the TP for its ultra-sleek profile and docking abilities, but it is most anticipated among nerds thanks to the brand new Tegra 3 CPU inside. The quad-core monster brings a ton of new power and features to the table, and reportedly even improves efficiency, and thus battery life.
With that additional power in mind, I ran a suite of benchmarks - Smartbench 2011, Linpack, Quadrant, CF-Bench, and Vellamo - on both the TF201 (TP) and TF101 (original Transformer). In each case, I ran 5 trials, and the average and highest scores are shown in the chart below.
In all benchmarks, higher is better. Quadrant isn't compatible with the TF101. A custom Vellamo benchmark was run. The Prime was in high-performance "Normal" mode during testing.
Unsurprisingly, the Prime scored higher in Smartbench, though not by as much of a margin as might be expected. Surprisingly, in the multi-threaded Linpack test, it scored substantially lower. In Quadrant, which doesn't test multiple cores, scores were good - certainly better than average - but not record breaking. CF-Bench was where the Prime really shined, though, beating the TF101 by a wide margin in every test (more than doubling it in 2 of the three). Finally, in Vellamo (which includes Sunspider), it bested the TF101 by about 21% - though it couldn't run the first 2 tests in the standard benchmark. Instead, we disabled the first 2 and added the 3 "Advanced" tests. One interesting note: even on "Balanced" mode, the Prime tended to score within about 90% of the averages above.
So, at least on paper, when multi-core support is there, the Tegra 3 CPU virtually demolishes the competition. How does that play out in practice? Quite well, actually. Basic system tasks such as swiping between homescreens and opening menus are instantaneous and experience no lag during transitions. Apps are quick to launch and load, and games look absolutely gorgeous. Even using live wallpapers has little-to-no effect on performance.
Display
Another of the features that Asus touts as setting the Prime ahead is the Super IPS+ display, which offers up to 600nits of brightness (as compared to 380 for the TF). According to the company, the extra brightness makes it much easier to read the Prime in direct sunlight... and you know what? It does - big time. In fact, the screen is so bright that if you crank it all the way up, it's already better than most other portable displays even without enabling Super IPS+. Flip the switch and it gets even better. Naturally, the added brightness takes quite a toll on the battery, so don't expect to spend long stints outdoors using your tablet.
The display also offers better black levels and the screen just seems to "pop" more. On top of all that, they have managed to keep glare to an impressive minimum, compared to the competition. Viewing angles are also very impressive - definitely some of the best I've seen, though not quite SAMOLED-good.
Dock
While the layout (keys/trackpad) are virtually identical to what was found on the TF101-dock, the design and size are completely different. The 201 dock has just one USB port and an SD card slot, and the keys themselves are thinner and feel slightly rubberized. It's also substantially thinner and lighter, and rather than being a uniform thickness, it's thickest at the back (about 1cm) and tapers off to 8mm at the front.
Gaming
To put it lightly, gaming on the Prime is pretty damn impressive. The graphics look great, with Glowball standing out the most - the reflections and lighting are truly amazing. Looks aren't the only major feature, though; the Prime natively supports the Wii, PS3, and wired Xbox 360 controllers, as well as the Logitech P710. Coupled with an HDMI cable and HDTV, it forms a great portable console (except, you know... only one controller and one player.)
Battery Life/Performance Modes
NVIDIA claims that the Tegra 3 boasts some of the best battery life in the business, while packing added power. We've already seen that their claims on power are right, but what about the improved battery life? I'm happy to report that their claims seem to hold merit, thanks in part to a fifth core dubbed the "companion core." (For more details on the T3's tech specs, hit up our primer.)
On top of the more efficient processor, Asus has packed in three performance modes: "Normal" mode is effectively high performance, with everything capable of running at full speed as needed (up to 1.4GHz for a single core and 1.3GHz for multi-core). "Balanced" caps the CPU at 1.2GHz, and "Power saver" mode sets the ceiling at 1GHz for single/dual-core modes, 700MHz when three cores are being used, and 600MHz when all four main cores are active. Presumably other tweaks are made as well - in power saver mode, the screen dims and adjusts brightness based on what's displayed on the screen (though that can get just a bit annoying - scrolling up and down quickly on a site with images will visibly brighten/darken the screen).
Unsurprisingly, the performance modes are also pretty effective at controlling battery consumption, and balanced mode seems to handle just about everything thrown at it with only negligible (if any) effect. On balanced mode, expect about 8 hours of reasonable use (browsing, gaming, social networking), or at least 6 hours of heavy use. On normal, perhaps slightly less, and on power saver, quite a bit more thanks to the lower brightness and substantially slower CPU clocks. Also, note that I kept brightness at 40-50% during my testing, which was brighter than necessary. Lower brightness would result in even better battery life.
Software
By now, we've all got a pretty good feel for what to expect with Honeycomb. In a nutshell, things are smooth, beautiful, and pretty well tablet-optimized. As for Asus' modifications, their custom UI additions are sleek, minimalistic, and take no toll on performance.
As for bloat, the company keeps it fairly low: Polaris Office, SuperNote, App Backup, App Locker, Asus Sync, Asus Webstorage, MyCloud, MyLibrary, MyNet and Netflix come preinstalled. Happily, the apps feel well coded and are relatively unobtrusive - and, believe it or not, many are actually useful. For example, using MyCloud, you can remotely connect to Splashtop (a VNC client) without having to pay for the Splashtop app. The company offers 8GB of free cloud storage for the lifetime of the Prime upon registration, as well.
Camera
Asus claims the Prime is the first tablet to feature a quality camera, and after using the camera for a bit, I feel safe in saying they're right... technically. Because really, it's not hard to be the best when the competition is all basically crap. Put another way: does the TP have the best camera on a tablet? Yup. Is that saying much? Not really.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the Prime's camera isn't good, because it is. In fact, it's better than most phone cameras. But it doesn't best, say, the Galaxy S II or Amaze 4G by any stretch.
So, to the point: images are good, especially considering they could've slapped another crap-tastic camera on the back and nobody would care since people rarely use tablets for taking pictures. In the Prime's case, shots are fairly sharp, lighting is good in the standard deviation of situations (that is to say, roughly 68% of the time), and colors are generally accurate. When things get too bright or too dark, though, image quality drops (as is normal for cameras of this nature).
Conclusion
There's a lot to take into consideration here. First, we're looking at a lot of all new technology and some impressive capabilities that heretofore haven't been seen. Not only does it pack more power and new features, but it manages to do so in an even smaller package than we're used to, and at a decent price point, to boot. On the one hand, a starting price of $500 seems like a weakness... until you consider that a 32GB Galaxy Tab 10.1 costs $600 despite no longer having the lead in sex appeal, and being blown out of the water on the hardware front. Then again, a lack of a $400 16GB model could put the Prime above what some people can afford, and that's unfortunate, because it's quite the tablet on its own - throw the $150 dock into the equation, and you've got a hell of a device on your hands.The central commandments of the Principled Documentation movement are as follows:
There is only one audience and their name is Developers. It's critical to choose your audience with care and to write solely for that audience. The developers who will be using your system are drastically different from just about everyone else, especially the people in suits who make purchasing decisions. You can have as much marketing material as your budget permits, but you should not confuse such material with system documentation, or vice versa. Mixing the two heralds the end times, like breaking down the barriers that hold back Yajuj and Majuj, Gog and Magog.
Thou shalt view thy documentation as a specification instead of a description. The documentation forms the contract between a system and its users. Like any good contract, system documentation must specify what both parties expect from each other and can count on in return. This requires describing what software needs, what it does, and what it provides -- the three angels that fit on the head of a pin, assuming that the pin also holds some RAM, for they typically need to appear in a PDF file or web server. A holy book that simply provides a description of, say, the various machinations among the gods on Mt. Olympus, is of little utility. The successful books have a prescriptive specification for what their users ought to do. Phrases such as "thou shalt," "thou shalt not," "we shall provide," "we guarantee" and "surely, you can count on" are part and parcel, not just of a religious manifesto such as this one, but every holy book.
Thou shalt specify thy assumptions. First, the docs must specify all the contractual obligations that the users must fulfill to use the system correctly. That is, all assumptions of the system about the inputs must appear in the documentation. Does an input array need to be sorted? Must a netmask parameter be large enough to accommodate the number of hosts passed in another parameter? Should the caller be holding a special lock when calling that routine? Perhaps a call to a function needs to be bracketed in some special way or else it will never work and all the multithreaded code in the world that uses it will be broken? The documents must enunciate these preconditions. If it's not in the docs, the system developers do not get to blame their users.
Thou shalt specify thy functionality. Second, the docs need to spell out the functionality that the code carries out. This typically comes naturally to most seasoned programmers. For instance, this is a good specification: "given an unsorted array, this function returns the median." So is "this function will issue an eventual update to the database." A good rule of thumb is that every such specification should have a verb in it. Strange as it may seem, it is possible to find documentation, issued by large companies even, where the API description gets hung up on all kinds of irrelevant details without concisely specifying what it is that the API does. This kind of oversight marks the footsteps of Beelzebub, for how can the code be correct if there is no indication as to what it does? Worse, how can it even be incorrect? If the documentation does not actually say "here is what this function promises to do," then it could be replaced with a NOP, or the universal answer 42. In fact, there is plenty of NoSQL documentation out there that is so non-specific that it does not say what the "read data from database" function will or will not return. This is a clear sign that at least the docs, and perhaps the project, have failed. It's just a matter of time before a bright developer, having improved benchmark scores by considering a write finished before it has been written anywhere, will want to improve the read path by returning 42. Such a database is, after all, eventually consistent.
Thou shalt honor thy invariants. Finally, the docs need to specify the guarantees the code provides and the invariants it upholds. This clearly telegraphs to the developer additional facts about the universe she can count on. So if your code always ensures that, say, there will be at most N outstanding operations written to a journal, or that journalled operations will spend at most tau seconds before being committed to the main store, the documents need to spell this out (I have taken it as a given here that the concept of a journal is something your system must expose to the user; its exposition actually violates some of the other commandments). Undoubtedly, the code went to great lengths to maintain that invariant. Incorporate it into the contract to make it useful. Say it out loud and proud, then make sure your code lives up to it. Perhaps one can build additional functionality, such as a consistent backup mechanism, based on this invariant. Conversely, if the docs leave out an invariant, clear-thinking users must assume that the software will fail at maintaining that invariant, probably at the most precarious moment when the going gets tough. If an invariant is not in the contract, it's just happenstance. Only a fool would count on it. What is unacceptable is to imply an invariant without actually having the conviction to say so openly. Does a database ensure that an object is resilient against F faults? If so, the documentation needs to clearly say this aloud. For instance, no one knows if some very popular NoSQL stores actually offer a fault-tolerance guarantee. Certainly, there is no shortage of implications that they do, and certainly, all the language points to it, but the documentation is often, at best, mercurial. Being clear about your invariants in your documentation has the crucial side-effect of keeping them front and center in the developers' minds, so later modifications to the code base will continue to maintain the same invariants. Documentation that implies fancy, desirable features without actually clearly offering them bears the footprints of the great shapeshifter Loki, and Ragnarök is just around the corner when Loki has been unchained.
Thou shalt write complete, self-contained documentation. The docs constitute the sole and full agreement with the user. They cannot assume that the user has read or will read any and every blog entry, press release and tweet issued by a company. They most certainly cannot depend on information in transient, ephemeral media. Docs are like the newspaper of record: everyone may well have watched OJ slowly run away in a white Bronco on TV, but the documentation needs to clearly describe what happened for posterity. But it is possible for documentation to incorporate other documents by reference, same as with contracts. So long as these documents are as permanent, uniquely identifiable, and referable as the documentation itself, this is a fine practice. It's perfectly acceptable to say that a compiler implements the ANSI C standard or that a database implements a particular SQL variant, with a reference to the appropriate text. Note the insistence on unambiguous, specific references. What documentation cannot do is incorporate vague notions or collections of utterings from corporate twitter feeds, or else the trickster Nanabush will sneak into applications.
Thou shalt cover thy naked mechanistic descriptions. It is a cardinal sin to describe the behavior of a complex piece of software in lieu of its contract. It is a dishonest cop out to explain, even in great detail or especially in great detail, the complex machinations the system performs with data, and then to say "well, we described what we do in great detail, and if you got caught by an edge case and lost data, well, it's your fault for not reading our description carefully enough." This is at best lazy, some might say duplicitous, but in any case not the way smart people conduct their affairs. Dante undoubtedly has a special level of hell dedicated to people who practice it. A plumber who fixes a tap is legally obligated to not leave that house with a leak; he doesn't get to say "well, my routine involves spinning the nut 5 turns no matter what and if it leaks after that, it's your problem." Similarly, a software engineer cannot pre-issue a disclaimer that goes: "well, I developed a weird interpretive dance routine (European high art, NSFW) for your data that looks like this," and thereafter make fun of you when he loses data, saying "it's your own fault! it's not like I geared up to guard Ft. Knox! I was skateboarding in a loincloth all along, and yet you entrusted me with your data." Our current laws do not compel the software engineer to behave better, but engineering pride must. There are good reasons why smart developers will avoid mechanistic descriptions. The users adopt a component because they do not want to understand the complexities that go into its internals. Butler Lampson observed in the mid-90's, when Sun was making a lot of noise about how Java would herald in a new age of reusable applets and microcomponents, that the metric that determined software reuse was the complexity of the component divided by the complexity of its documentation. So, components that perform complex tasks behind a relatively simple interface provide better value to their adopters than small components with complex descriptions. He boldly predicted that Sun's component reuse model would fail. There is some information in the fact that no Java Beans were involved in serving this page, or, roughly speaking, any other page on earth. So if a system forces its users to have to understand its internals before it can be used competently, it is in a losing predicament. Let's do an optometrical test. Is the documentation more useful like this: This code goes through an array pair by adjacent pair, compares each, and swaps the pairs where the latter element is larger than the former element, repeating the process until no swaps are performed on a complete pass through the array. or this: Returns a sorted array. And did you catch the bug in the mechanistic description? Just imagine how much worse the description would have been, and how many little things could have gone wrong, if the implementation had been based on quicksort. Now imagine a NoSQL store trying to maintain consistency and fault-tolerance invariants, which it cannot even articulate concisely, by describing its own operation from the ground up. Shouldn't it just offer an API, perhaps named safe_write, whose description is that data written with it can be retrieved after a failure? Of course, the tricky extra credit question for advanced players is: what if the same data store provides 5 different kinds of SAFE writes, each with a complex mechanistic description -- which one is the proper safe write you want when you don't want your data lost? Every time a user reads the manual for a NoSQL system and is forced to go through a gory description of various-things-they-do-to-your-data-which-you-must-master-or-else-they-will-lose-your-data-haha-just-kidding-they-are-going-to-lose-your-data-anyway-even-after-you-mastered-their-inner-workings-because-they're-broken-by-design, she thinks "Cool story, bro, what with all those implementation details and everything. Now give me an actionable guarantee." A side effect of principled documentation is that it creates manoeuvering room to change the implementation later. You want quick sort instead of bubble sort? No problem. The documentation doesn't need to change.
Thou shalt use existing, well-known terminology and concepts wherever possible. It's not easy expressing all the invariants that complex software maintains. If I had to describe everything that HyperDex does to ensure fault-tolerance in a mechanistic fashion, it would easily take dozens of pages of English text. But luckily, we do not exist in a vacuum -- we all have a shared geeky background, with well-defined terms that are so well-known that even academics have gotten to know them intimately and teach them to new generations of programmers. So, documentation must take advantage of this common heritage by using concise, well-understood terminology. Thanks to the work of dozens of database and systems researchers, I can specify HyperDex's guarantees for NoSQL transactions very simply, like this: it provides one-copy serializability and ACID guarantees for transactions. There, anyone who is familiar with the area can immediately build services on top, without me having to describe, and them having to master, anything about the internal implementation. An inability to use existing terms for existing concepts demonstrates that the developers are not familiar with the topic, that what is elementary to others was new material to them, which is fine, but it often indicates that they may not have thought about all the well-known edge cases. As a certain mystic poet put it, they are like fish in water, who know not of the sea. A corollary to this is that documentation should not invent new terms unless necessary to clearly mark, and refer back, to new concepts introduced uniquely in that system. Minor tweaks to known concepts, or combinations of two well-known concepts, do not get new names. For instance, no one, except perhaps Dilbert's boss, is impressed by the mumbo jumbo names NoSQL developers have invented for age old concepts such as delayed writes, quorums and gossip protocols. We're not at the weekend SCA meeting, these devs are not Prince Bromir, son of Nohsiquel, and they do not need to sound medieval or learned. My anthro colleagues would call the made-up 4-word dual-hyphenated special phrases "in-group identification" and point out how it's primarily used for exclusion. He who controls the language frames the debate, and keeps out critics who use standard terms everyone can understand. And sometimes, groups of developers will develop their own language, repeating each others' non-sensical words in the blogosphere, like unsupervised twins inventing their own lingo. "Water," the mother points out. But the twins spend much more time with each other reinforcing their words than they do with the mother. "Gaga" twin #1 calls it. "Gaga" twin #2 repeats. So gaga it is. Or perhaps it is "Mongo.WriteConcern," and no one can remember if the original concept was "fault-tolerance" or "durability" or "consistence."
Thou shalt not covet existing terminology and assign it new meaning. A related cardinal sin in this space is to co-opt existing terms, but to slightly re-define them. The more subtle the redefinition, the more possessed the documentation. I once reviewed an academic paper which was evaluating a particular approach to routing and wanted to compare their routes to the optimal path possible. Optimal paths are NP-hard to compute, so they didn't compute them; the authors picked a good path using a simple heuristic and called it OPTIMAL throughout their write up. The peer review process pointed this out, and instead of fixing this oversight, the authors just dropped a sentence into the introduction of their paper that says "In the remainder of this paper, the word optimal refers to heuristically determined paths, which may not necessarily be optimal." Their conclusions section argued that their idea was successful because the "system is within a few percent of optimal." Science is hard when words don't have any meaning. That's why people get very upset when system documentation redefines terms. This is especially true for words like "consistency" which have both a colloquial usage and a technical definition. System documentation should be written for a technical audience; any mixing and matching, especially when it can lead to misunderstandings, is unacceptable. A document that uses technical terms with their colloquial meanings is like a medieval leprosy patient mixing in with the general population; that document needs to shout UNCLEAN every few sentences. Such usage must be avoided at all costs, and, ever the optimist, I will ignore the possibility that the documents are purposefully written to mislead the audience, for surely those authors are destined for hellfire. When someone uses pre-defined words, they implicitly import their connotation. For instance, the term "ACID transactions" has a very specific and well-defined connotation. And data stores that perform transactions on at most one object at a time come nowhere near that connotation. Technical terms mean something to people who know the area. The people coopting a phrase might perhaps not know the area, and that's totally ok, but they sure as hell know and are taking advantage of the positive connotation the word carries. Such behavior dumbs down the entire industry; bad science drives away good science, it also drives away the smart developers, and it even drives away business. And this kind of behavior will earn a well-deserved slap on the wrist. Why? Because the Followers of Principled Documentation are too nice to cut off hands.
Thou shalt specify performance expectations whenever possible. Performance properties often get short shrift. It often matters to the user of an interface whether they can expect an operation to take a while, or whether it'll be fast. So it's invaluable to document such expectations. One of my favorite theses of all time is Sharon Perl's PhD thesis from MIT. She built a system by which developers not only express their expectations of the performance of different API calls, but can convert that specification into performance unit tests. Sadly, I know of no such open source tools available at this time, and expressing performance properties formally is still quite difficult. But simple English specifications of "this operation takes time linear in X" or "this operation may block until Y is completed" go a long way in letting developers use an API in an informed manner. The state of the art is so backwards at the moment that many developers will happily take, and thank you for, imprecise specifications of the expected case. Worst-case bounds are not necessary, though, of course, it helps if the system can provide them.
A few fully-defined parables are as good as many small detailed microspecifications. There are two main ways of writing API specifications. The first approach is to go interface by interface, call by call, and specify at the micro level the assumptions, functionality and the upheld invariants of each function. This provides a micro-level, bottom up description of the contract to which users can hold the system. Think of these as micro-theorems. Such micro-theorems are excellent for reference, but reasoning bottom-up from tiny factoids is difficult. The second approach is to provide examples and tutorials. Think of tutorials as macro-theorems. Properly done, a tutorial states that "if you follow these steps, our system is obligated to produce |
Ilkhanate, was under the leadership of Genghis Khan's grandson Hulagu. He continued to support his brother, the Great Khan, and was therefore at war with the Golden Horde, while at the same time continuing an advance towards Persia and the Holy Land.[15]
Papal overtures (1245–1248) [ edit ]
The first official communications between Western Europe and the Mongol Empire occurred between Pope Innocent IV (fl. 1243–1254) and the Great Khans, via letters and envoys that were sent overland and could take years to arrive at their destination. The communications initiated what was to become a regular pattern in European–Mongol communications: the Europeans would ask the Mongols to convert to Christianity, and the Mongols would respond with demands for submission.[9][16]
The Mongol invasion of Europe ended in 1242, in part because of the death of the Great Khan Ögedei, successor to Genghis Khan. When one Great Khan died, Mongols from all parts of the empire were recalled to the capital to decide who should be the next Great Khan.[17] In the meantime, the Mongols' relentless march westward had displaced the Khawarizmi Turks, who themselves moved west, eventually allying with the Ayyubid Muslims in Egypt.[18] Along the way, the Turks took Jerusalem from the Christians in 1244. After the subsequent loss at the Battle of La Forbie, Christian kings began to prepare for a new crusade (the Seventh Crusade), declared by Pope Innocent IV in June 1245 at the First Council of Lyon.[19][20] The loss of Jerusalem caused some Europeans to look to the Mongols as potential allies of Christendom, provided the Mongols could be converted to Western Christianity.[4] In March 1245, Pope Innocent IV had issued multiple papal bulls, some of which were sent with an envoy, the Franciscan John of Plano Carpini, to the "Emperor of the Tartars". In a letter now called the Cum non solum, Pope Innocent expressed a desire for peace, and asked the Mongol ruler to become a Christian and to stop killing Christians.[21] However, the new Mongol Great Khan Güyük, installed at Karakorum in 1246, replied only with a demand for the submission of the pope, and a visit from the rulers of the West in homage to Mongol power:[22]
You should say with a sincere heart: "I will submit and serve you." Thou thyself, at the head of all the Princes, come at once to serve and wait upon us! At that time I shall recognize your submission. If you do not observe God's command, and if you ignore my command, I shall know you as my enemy. Güyük Khan's letter to Pope Innocent IV, 1246[23]
A second mission sent in 1245 by Pope Innocent was led by the Dominican Ascelin of Lombardia,[24] who met with the Mongol commander Baiju near the Caspian Sea in 1247. Baiju, who had plans to capture Baghdad, welcomed the possibility of an alliance and sent a message to Rome via his envoys Aïbeg and Serkis. They then returned a year later with Pope Innocent's letter, Viam agnoscere veritatis, in which he appealed to the Mongols to "cease their menaces".[25][26]
Christian vassals [ edit ]
As the Mongols of the Ilkhanate continued to move towards the Holy Land, city after city fell to the Mongols. The typical Mongol pattern was to give a region one chance to surrender. If the target acquiesced, the Mongols absorbed the populace and warriors into their own Mongol army, which they would then use to further expand the empire. If a community did not surrender, the Mongols forcefully took the settlement or settlements and slaughtered everyone they found.[27] Faced with the option of subjugation to or combat with the nearby Mongol horde, many communities chose the former, including some Christian realms.[28]
Christian Georgia was repeatedly attacked starting in 1220, and in 1243 Queen Rusudan formally submitted to the Mongols, turning Georgia into a vassal state which then became a regular ally in the Mongol military conquests.[29] Hethum I of Cilician Armenia submitted in 1247, and over the following years encouraged other monarchs to enter into a Christian-Mongol alliance.[30][31][32][33][34] He sent his brother Sempad to the Mongol court in Karakorum, and Sempad's positive letters about the Mongols were influential in European circles.[35]
Antioch [ edit ]
The Principality of Antioch was one of the earliest Crusader States, founded in 1098 during the First Crusade. At the time of the Mongol advance, it was under the rule of Bohemond VI. Under the influence of his father-in-law, Hethum I, Bohemond too submitted Antioch to Hulagu in 1260.[30][36][37] A Mongol representative and a Mongol garrison were stationed in the capital city of Antioch, where they remained until the Principality was destroyed by the Mamluks in 1268.[38][39] Bohemond was also required by the Mongols to accept the restoration of a Greek Orthodox patriarch, Euthymius, as a way of strengthening ties between the Mongols and the Byzantines. In return for this loyalty, Hulagu awarded Bohemond all the Antiochene territories which had been lost to the Muslims in 1243.[40] However, for his relations with the Mongols, Bohemond was also temporarily excommunicated by Jacques Pantaléon, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, though this was lifted in 1263.[41]
Around 1262 or 1263, the Mamluk leader Baibars attempted an attack on Antioch, but the principality was saved by Mongol intervention.[42] In later years the Mongols were not able to offer as much support. In 1264–1265 the Mongols were able to attack only the frontier fort of al-Bira. In 1268 Baibars completely overran the rest of Antioch, ending the 170-year-old principality.[43][44]
In 1271, Baibars sent a letter to Bohemond threatening him with total annihilation and taunting him for his alliance with the Mongols:
Our yellow flags have repelled your red flags, and the sound of the bells has been replaced by the call: "Allâh Akbar!"... Warn your walls and your churches that soon our siege machinery will deal with them, your knights that soon our swords will invite themselves in their homes... We will see then what use will be your alliance with Abagha. Letter from Baibars to Bohemond VI, 1271[45]
Bohemond was left with no estates except the County of Tripoli, which was itself to fall to the Mamluks in 1289.[46]
Saint Louis and the Mongols [ edit ]
Louis IX of France had communications with the Mongols throughout his own crusades. During his first venture to Outremer, he was met on December 20, 1248 in Cyprus by two Mongol envoys, Nestorians from Mosul named David and Marc, who brought a letter from the Mongol commander in Persia, Eljigidei.[47] The letter communicated a more conciliatory tone than previous Mongol demands for submission, and Eljigidei's envoys suggested that King Louis should land in Egypt while Eljigidei attacked Baghdad, as a way of preventing the Muslims of Egypt and those of Syria from joining forces.[48] Louis responded by sending the emissary Andrew of Longjumeau to the Great Khan Güyük, but Güyük died from drink before the emissary arrived at his court. Güyük's widow Oghul Qaimish simply gave the emissary a gift and a condescending letter to take back to King Louis, instructing him to continue sending tributes each year.[49][50][51]
Louis's campaign against Egypt did not go well. He successfully captured Damietta, but lost his entire army at the Battle of Al Mansurah, and was himself captured by the Egyptians. His release was eventually negotiated in return for a ransom (some of which was a loan from the Templars) and the surrender of the city of Damietta.[52] A few years later, in 1252, Louis tried unsuccessfully to ally with the Egyptians, and then in 1253 he sought allies among both the Ismaili Assassins and the Mongols.[53] When he saw a letter from Hethum's brother, the Armenian noble Sempad, which spoke well of the Mongols, Louis dispatched the Franciscan William of Rubruck to the Mongol court. But the Mongol leader Möngke replied with only a letter via William in 1254, asking for the King's submission to Mongol authority.[54]
Louis attempted a second crusade (the Eighth Crusade) in 1270. The Mongol Ilkhanate leader Abaqa wrote to Louis IX offering military support as soon as the Crusaders landed in Palestine, but Louis instead went to Tunis in modern Tunisia. His intention was evidently to first conquer Tunis, and then to move his troops along the coast to reach Alexandria in Egypt.[55] The French historians Alain Demurger and Jean Richard suggest that this crusade may still have been an attempt at coordination with the Mongols, in that Louis may have attacked Tunis instead of Syria following a message from Abaqa that he would not be able to commit his forces in 1270, and asking to postpone the campaign to 1271.[56][57] Envoys from the Byzantine emperor, the Armenians and the Mongols of Abaqa were present at Tunis, but events put a stop to plans for a continued crusade when Louis died of illness.[57] According to legend, his last word was "Jerusalem".[58]
Relations with the Ilkhanate [ edit ]
Hulagu (1256–1265) [ edit ]
Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was an avowed shamanist, but was nevertheless very tolerant of Christianity. His mother Sorghaghtani Beki, his favorite wife Doquz Khatun, and several of his closest collaborators were Nestorian Christians. One of his most important generals, Kitbuqa, was a Nestorian Christian of the Naiman tribe.[4] Military collaboration between the Mongols and their Christian vassals became substantial in 1258–1260. Hulagu's army, with the forces of his Christian subjects Bohemond VI of Antioch, Hethum I of Armenia, and the Christian Georgians, effectively destroyed two of the most powerful Muslim dynasties of the era: the Abbasids in Baghdad and the Ayyubids in Syria.[15]
Fall of Baghdad (1258) [ edit ]
Mongol attack on Baghdad (1258)
The Abbasid Caliphate, founded by Abu al-‘Abbās ‘Abdu'llāh ibn Muhammad as-Saffāḥ, the great-great-grandson of Muhammad's uncle Abbas, in 749, had ruled northeastern Africa, Arabia, and the Near East, even though their rule had by 1258 shrunk to only southern and central Iraq. The Abbasids' seat of power for almost 500 years was Baghdad, a city considered to be the jewel of Islam and one of the largest and most powerful cities in the world. But under attack from the Mongols, the city fell on February 15, 1258, a loss often considered in the Muslim world as the single most catastrophic event in the history of Islam, the end of the Islamic Golden Age. The Christian Georgians had been the first to breach the walls, and as described by historian Steven Runciman, "were particularly fierce in their destruction".[59] When Hulagu conquered the city, the Mongols demolished buildings, burned entire neighborhoods, and massacred nearly all the men, women, and children. But at the intervention of Doquz Khatun, the Christian inhabitants were spared.[60]
[61][62] Hulagu and Queen Doquz Khatun depicted as the new "Constantine and Helen", in a Syriac Bible
For Asiatic Christians, the fall of Baghdad was cause for celebration.[63][64][65] Hulagu and his Christian queen came to be considered as God's agents against the enemies of Christianity,[64] and were compared to the influential 4th-century Christian Emperor Constantine the Great and his revered empress mother, Saint Helen, an icon of the Christian church. The Armenian historian Kyrakos of Gandzak praised the Mongol royal couple in texts for the Armenian Church,[61][63][66] and Bar Hebraeus, a bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church, also referred to them as a Constantine and Helena, writing of Hulagu that nothing could compare to the "king of kings" in "wisdom, high-mindedness, and splendid deeds".[63]
Invasion of Syria (1260) [ edit ]
After Baghdad, in 1260 the Mongols with their Christian subjects conquered Muslim Syria, domain of the Ayyubid dynasty. They took together the city of Aleppo in January, and in March, the Mongols with the Armenians and the Franks of Antioch took Damascus, under the Christian Mongol general Kitbuqa.[15][38] With both the Abbasid and Ayyubid dynasties destroyed, the Near East, as described by historian Steven Runciman, "was never again to dominate civilization."[67] The last Ayyubid sultan An-Nasir Yusuf died shortly thereafter, and with the Islamic power centers of Baghdad and Damascus gone, the center of Islamic power transferred to the Egyptian Mamluks in Cairo.[15][68] However, before the Mongols could continue their advance towards Egypt, they needed to withdraw because of the death of the Great Khan. Hulagu was needed back at the capital and took the bulk of his forces with him, leaving a small force under Kitbuqa to occupy Palestine during his absence. Mongol raiding parties were sent south into Palestine towards Egypt, with small Mongol garrisons of about 1,000 established in Gaza.[38][69][70]
Battle of Ain Jalut [ edit ]
Kitbuqa besieging Sidon after his nephew's murder by Julian Grenier
Despite the cooperation between the Mongols and their Christian subjects in Antioch, other Christians in the Levant regarded the Mongol approach with unease. Jacques Pantaléon, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, saw the Mongols as a clear threat, and had written to the Pope to warn him about them in 1256.[71] The Franks did, however, send the Dominican David of Ashby to the court of Hulagu in 1260.[54] In Sidon, Julian Grenier, Lord of Sidon and Beaufort, described by his contemporaries as irresponsible and light-headed, took an opportunity to raid and plunder the area of the Beqaa Valley in Mongol territory. One of the Mongols killed was Kitbuqa's nephew, and in retaliation, Kitbuqa raided the city of Sidon. These events added to the level of distrust between the Mongols and the Crusader forces, whose own center of power was now in the coastal city of Acre.[72][73]
The Franks of Acre did their best to maintain a position of cautious neutrality between the Mongols and the Mamluks.[5] Despite their long history of enmity with the Mamluks, the Franks acknowledged that the Mongols were a greater threat, and after careful debate, chose to enter into a passive truce with their previous adversaries. The Franks allowed the Mamluk forces to move northward through Christian territory to engage the Mongols, in exchange for an agreement that the Franks could purchase any captured Mongol horses at a low price.[74][75] The truce allowed the Mamluks to camp and re-supply near Acre, and engage the Mongols at Ain Jalut on September 3, 1260. The Mongol forces were already depleted due to their main force withdrawing, so with the passive assistance of the Franks, the Mamluks were able to achieve a decisive and historic victory over the Mongols. The remainder of the Mongol army retreated to Cilician Armenia, where they were received and re-equipped by Hethum I.[43] Ain Jalut marked a major turning point in the history of the Mongols, as it was the first major battle that they had lost, and set the western border for what had seemed an unstoppable expansion of the Mongol Empire.[5]
Papal communications [ edit ]
In the 1260s, a change occurred in the European perception of the Mongols, and they became regarded less as enemies, and more as potential allies in the fight against the Muslims.[76] As recently as 1259, Pope Alexander IV had been encouraging a new crusade against the Mongols, and had been extremely disappointed in hearing that the monarchs of Antioch and Cilician Armenia had submitted to Mongol overlordship. Alexander had put the monarchs' cases on the agenda of his upcoming council, but died in 1261 just months before the Council could be convened, and before the new crusade could be launched.[77] For a new pope, the choice fell to Pantaléon, the same Patriarch of Jerusalem who had earlier been warning of the Mongol threat. He took the name Pope Urban IV, and tried to raise money for a new crusade.[78]
On April 10, 1262, the Mongol leader Hulagu sent through John the Hungarian a new letter to King Louis IX of France, again offering an alliance.[79] The letter explained that previously, the Mongols had been under the impression that the pope was the leader of the Christians, but now they realized that the true power rested with the French monarchy. The letter mentioned Hulagu's intention to capture Jerusalem for the benefit of the pope, and asked for Louis to send a fleet against Egypt. Hulagu promised the restoration of Jerusalem to the Christians, but also still insisted on Mongol sovereignty, in the Mongols' quest for conquering the world. It is unclear whether or not King Louis actually received the letter, but at some point it was transmitted to Pope Urban, who answered in a similar way as his predecessors. In his papal bull Exultavit cor nostrum, Urban congratulated Hulagu on his expression of goodwill towards the Christian faith, and encouraged him to convert to Christianity.[80]
Historians dispute the exact meaning of Urban's actions. The mainstream view, exemplified by British historian Peter Jackson, holds that Urban still regarded the Mongols as enemies at this time. This perception began changing a few years later, during the pontificate of Pope Clement IV (1265–68), when the Mongols were seen more as potential allies. However, the French historian Jean Richard argues that Urban's act signaled a turning point in Mongol-European relations as early as 1263, after which the Mongols were considered as actual allies. Richard also argues that it was in response to this forming coalition between the Franks, Ilkhanid Mongols and Byzantines, that the Mongols of the Golden Horde allied with the Muslim Mamluks in return.[81][82] However, the mainstream view of historians is that though there were many attempts at forming an alliance, the attempts proved unsuccessful.[2]
Abaqa (1265–1282) [ edit ]
Hulagu died in 1265, and was succeeded by Abaqa (1234–1282), who further pursued Western cooperation. Though a Buddhist, upon his succession he married Maria Palaiologina, an Orthodox Christian and the illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.[83] Abaqa corresponded with Pope Clement IV through 1267 and 1268, sending envoys to both Clement and King James I of Aragon. In a 1268 message to Clement, Abaqa promised to send troops to aid the Christians. It is unclear if this was what led to James's unsuccessful expedition to Acre in 1269.[13] James initiated a small crusade, but a storm descended on his fleet as they attempted their crossing, forcing most of the ships to turn back. The crusade was ultimately handled by James's two sons Fernando Sanchez and Pedro Fernandez, who arrived in Acre in December 1269.[84] Abaqa, despite his earlier promises of assistance, was in the process of facing another threat, an invasion in Khorasan by Mongols from Turkestan, and so could only commit a small force for the Holy Land, which did little but brandish the threat of an invasion along the Syrian frontier in October 1269. He raided as far as Harim and Afamiyaa in October, but retreated as soon as Baibars' forces advanced.[36]
Edward I's crusade (1269–1274) [ edit ]
In 1269, the English Prince Edward (the future Edward I), inspired by tales of his great-uncle, Richard the Lionheart, and the second crusade of the French King Louis, started on a crusade of his own, the Ninth Crusade.[85] The number of knights and retainers that accompanied Edward on the crusade was quite small, possibly around 230 knights, with a total complement of approximately 1,000 people, transported in a flotilla of 13 ships.[46][86] Edward understood the value of an alliance with the Mongols, and upon his arrival in Acre on May 9, 1271, he immediately sent an embassy to the Mongol ruler Abaqa, requesting assistance.[87] Abaqa answered positively to Edward's request, asking him to coordinate his activities with his general Samagar, whom he sent on an offensive against the Mamluks with 10,000 Mongols to join Edward's army.[36][88] But Edward was able only to engage in some fairly ineffectual raids that did not actually achieve success in gaining new territory.[85] For example, when he engaged in a raid into the Plain of Sharon, he proved unable to even take the small Mamluk fortress of Qaqun.[36] However, Edward's military operations, limited though they were, were still of assistance in persuading the Mamluk leader Baibars to agree to a 10-year truce between the city of Acre and the Mamluks, signed in 1272.[89] Edward's efforts were described by historian Reuven Amitai as "the nearest thing to real Mongol-Frankish military coordination that was ever to be achieved, by Edward or any other Frankish leader."[90]
[91] Pope Gregory X (1210–1276) promulgated a new crusade in liaison with the Mongols in 1274.
Council of Lyon (1274) [ edit ]
In 1274 Pope Gregory X convened the Second Council of Lyon. Abaqa sent a delegation of 13 to 16 Mongols to the Council, which created a great stir, particularly when three of their members underwent a public baptism.[92] Abaqa's Latin secretary Rychaldus delivered a report to the Council which outlined previous European-Ilkhanid relations under Abaqa's father, Hulagu, affirming that after Hulagu had welcomed Christian ambassadors to his court, he had agreed to exempt Latin Christians from taxes and charges, in exchange for their prayers for the Khan. According to Rychaldus, Hulagu had also prohibited the molestation of Frank establishments, and had committed to return Jerusalem to the Franks.[93] Rychaldus assured the assembly that even after Hulagu's death, his son Abaqa was still determined to drive the Mamluks from Syria.[36]
At the Council, Pope Gregory promulgated a new crusade in liaison with the Mongols,[91] putting in place a vast program in his "Constitutions for the zeal of the faith", with four main elements: imposing a new tax for three years, forbidding trade with the Sarazins (Muslims), arranging the supply of ships by the Italian maritime republics, and the alliance of the West with both Byzantium and the Mongol Ilkhan Abaqa.[94] Abaqa then sent another embassy, led by the Georgian Vassali brothers, to further notify Western leaders of military preparations. Gregory answered that his legates would accompany the crusade, and that they would be in charge of coordinating military operations with the Ilkhan.[95]
However, the papal plans were not supported by the other European monarchs, who had lost enthusiasm for the Crusades. Only one western monarch attended the Council, the elderly James I of Aragon, who could only offer a small force. There was fundraising for a new crusade, and plans were made, but never followed through. The projects essentially came to a halt with the death of Pope Gregory on January 10, 1276, and the money which had been raised to finance the expedition was instead distributed in Italy.[46]
Invasion of Syria (1280–1281) [ edit ]
Defeat of the Mongols (left) at the 1281 Battle of Homs
Without support from the Europeans, some Franks in Outremer, particularly the Knights Hospitaller of the fortress of Marqab, and to some extent the Franks of Cyprus and Antioch, attempted to join in combined operations with the Mongols in 1280–1281.[95][96] The death of the Egyptian leader Baibars in 1277 led to disorganization in the Muslim territories, making conditions ripe for a new action by other factions in the Holy Land.[95] The Mongols seized the opportunity, organized a new invasion of Syria, and in September 1280 occupied Bagras and Darbsak, followed by Aleppo on October 20. The Mongol leader Abaqa, taking advantage of his momentum, sent envoys to Edward I of England, the Franks of Acre, King Hugh of Cyprus, and Bohemond VII of Tripoli (son of Bohemond VI), requesting their support for the campaign.[97] But the Crusaders were not organized enough themselves to be of much help. In Acre, the Patriarch's Vicar replied that the city was suffering from hunger, and that the king of Jerusalem was already embroiled in another war.[95] Local Knights Hospitaller from Marqab (in the area which had previously been Antioch/Tripoli) were able to make raids into the Beqaa Valley, as far as the Mamluk-held Krak des Chevaliers in 1280 and 1281. Hugh and Bohemond of Antioch mobilized their armies, but their forces were prevented from joining those of the Mongols by Baibars' successor, the new Egyptian Sultan Qalawun. He advanced north from Egypt in March 1281, positioned his own army between the Franks and Mongols,[95][96] and then further divided the potential allies by renewing a truce with the Barons of Acre on May 3, 1281, extending it for another ten years and ten months (a truce he would later breach).[97] He also renewed a second 10-year truce with Bohemond VII of Tripoli on July 16, 1281, and affirmed pilgrim access to Jerusalem.[95]
In September 1281 the Mongols returned, with 50,000 of their own troops, plus 30,000 others including Armenians under Leo III, Georgians, and 200 Knights Hospitaller from Marqab, who sent a contingent even though the Franks of Acre had agreed a truce with the Mamluks.[97][98][99] The Mongols and their auxiliary troops fought against the Mamluks at the Second Battle of Homs on October 30, 1281, but the encounter was indecisive, with the Sultan suffering heavy losses.[96] In retaliation, Qalawun later besieged and captured the Hospitaller fortress of Marqab in 1285.[98]
Arghun (1284–1291) [ edit ]
[100] 1289 letter of Arghun to Philip IV of France, in the Mongolian script, with detail of the introduction. The letter was conveyed to the French king by Buscarel of Gisolfe.
1290 letter from Arghun to Pope Nicholas IV.
Abaqa died in 1282 and was briefly replaced by his brother Tekuder, who had converted to Islam. Tekuder reversed Abaqa's policy of seeking an alliance with the Franks, offering instead an alliance to the Mamluk Sultan Qalawun, who continued his own advance, capturing the Hospitaller fortress of Margat in 1285, Lattakia in 1287, and the County of Tripoli in 1289.[46][95] However, Tekuder's pro-Muslim stance was not popular, and in 1284, Abaqa's Buddhist son Arghun, with the support of the Great Khan Kublai, led a revolt and had Tekuder executed. Arghun then revived the idea of an alliance with the West, and sent multiple envoys to Europe.[101]
The first of Arghun's embassies was led by Isa Kelemechi, a Nestorian scientist who had been head of Kublai Khan's Office of Western Astronomy.[102] Kelemechi met with Pope Honorius IV in 1285, offering to "remove" the Saracens (Muslims) and divide "the land of Sham, namely Egypt" with the Franks.[101][103] The second embassy, and probably the most famous, was that of the elderly cleric Rabban Bar Sauma, who had been visiting the Ilkhanate during a remarkable pilgrimage from China to Jerusalem.[101]
Through Bar Sauma and other later envoys, such as Buscarello de Ghizolfi, Arghun promised the European leaders that if Jerusalem were conquered, he would have himself baptized and would return Jerusalem to the Christians.[104][105][106] Bar Sauma was greeted warmly by the European monarchs,[101] but Western Europe was no longer as interested in the Crusades, and the mission to form an alliance was ultimately fruitless.[107][108] England did respond by sending a representative, Geoffrey of Langley, who had been a member of Edward I's Crusade 20 years earlier, and was sent to the Mongol court as an ambassador in 1291.[109]
Genoese shipmakers [ edit ]
Another link between Europe and the Mongols was attempted in 1290, when the Genoese endeavored to assist the Mongols with naval operations. The plan was to construct and man two galleys to attack Mamluk ships in the Red Sea, and operate a blockade of Egypt's trade with India.[110][111] As the Genoese were traditional supporters of the Mamluks, this was a major shift in policy, apparently motivated by the attack of the Egyptian Sultan Qalawun on the Cilician Armenians in 1285.[101] To build and man the fleet, a squadron of 800 Genoese carpenters, sailors and crossbowmen went to Baghdad, working on the Tigris. However, due to a feud between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Genoese soon degenerated into internal bickering, and killed each other in Basra, putting an end to the project.[110][111] Genoa finally cancelled the agreement and signed a new treaty with the Mamluks instead.[101]
All these attempts to mount a combined offensive between the Franks and Mongols were too little and too late. In May 1291, the city of Acre was conquered by the Egyptian Mamluks in the Siege of Acre. When Pope Nicholas IV learned of this, he wrote to Arghun, again asking him to be baptized and to fight against the Mamluks.[101] But Arghun had died on March 10, 1291, and Pope Nicholas died as well in March 1292, putting an end to their efforts towards combined action.[112]
Ghazan (1295–1304) [ edit ]
After Arghun's death, he was followed in rapid succession by two brief and fairly ineffective leaders, one of whom only held power for a few months. Stability was restored when Arghun's son Ghazan took power in 1295, though to secure cooperation from other influential Mongols, he made a public conversion to Islam when he took the throne, marking a major turning point in the state religion of the Ilkhanate. Despite being an official Muslim, however, Ghazan remained tolerant of multiple religions, and worked to maintain good relations with his Christian vassal states such as Cilician Armenia and Georgia.[113]
In 1299/1300, the Mongols engaged in battles for cities in Syria, and engaged in raids as far south as Gaza.
In 1299, he made the first of what were to be three attempts to invade Syria.[114] As he launched his new invasion, he also sent letters to the Franks of Cyprus (Henry II, King of Cyprus; and the heads of the military orders), inviting them to come join him in his attack on the Mamluks in Syria.[115][116] The Mongols successfully took the city of Aleppo, and were there joined by their vassal King Hethum II, whose forces participated in the rest of the offensive. The Mongols soundly defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, on December 23 or 24, 1299.[117] This success in Syria led to wild rumors in Europe that the Mongols had successfully re-captured the Holy Land, and had even conquered the Mamluks in Egypt and were on a mission to conquer Tunisia in northern Africa. But in reality, Jerusalem had been neither taken nor even besieged.[118] All that had been managed were some Mongol raids into Palestine in early 1300. The raids went as far as Gaza, passing through several towns, probably including Jerusalem. But when the Egyptians again advanced from Cairo in May, the Mongols retreated without resistance.[119]
In July 1300, the Crusaders launched naval operations to press the advantage.[120] A fleet of sixteen galleys with some smaller vessels was equipped in Cyprus, commanded by King Henry of Cyprus, accompanied by his brother Amalric, Prince of Tyre, the heads of the military orders, and Ghazan's ambassador "Chial" (Isol the Pisan).[119][120][121] The ships left Famagusta on July 20, 1300, to raid the coasts of Egypt and Syria: Rosette, Alexandria, Acre, Tortosa, and Maraclea, before returning to Cyprus.[119][121]
Ruad expedition [ edit ]
Ghazan announced that he would return by November 1300, and sent letters and ambassadors to the West so that they could prepare themselves. After their own naval raids, the Cypriots attempted a major operation to re-take the former Syrian Templar stronghold of Tortosa.[6][116][122][123] They prepared the largest force they could muster at the time, approximately 600 men: 300 under Amalric, and similar contingents from the Templars and Hospitallers. In November 1300 they attempted to occupy Tortosa on the mainland, but were unable to gain control of the city. The Mongols were delayed, and the Cypriots moved offshore to the nearby island of Ruad to establish a base.[122] The Mongols continued to be delayed, and the bulk of the Crusader forces returned to Cyprus, leaving only a garrison on Ruad.[6][123] In February 1301, Ghazan's Mongols finally made a new advance into Syria. The force was commanded by the Mongol general Kutlushka, who was joined by Armenian troops, and Guy of Ibelin and John, lord of Giblet. But despite a force of 60,000, Kutluskha could do little else than engage in some raids around Syria, and then retreated.[6]
[124] In a miniature from a 15th-century Travels of Marco Polo, Ghazan orders the King of Armenia Hethum II to accompany Kutlushka on the 1303 attack on Damascus.
Plans for combined operations between the Franks and the Mongols were again made for the following winter offensives, in 1301 and 1302. But in mid-1301 the island of Ruad was attacked by the Egyptian Mamluks. After a lengthy siege, the island surrendered in 1302 or 1303.[122][123] The Mamluks slaughtered many of the inhabitants, and captured the surviving Templars to send them to prison in Cairo.[122] In late 1301, Ghazan sent letters to the pope asking him to send troops, priests, and peasants, to make the Holy Land a Frank state again.[125]
In 1303, Ghazan sent another letter to Edward I, via Buscarello de Ghizolfi, who had also been an ambassador for Arghun. The letter reiterated their ancestor Hulagu's promise that the Ilkhans would give Jerusalem to the Franks in exchange for help against the Mamluks. That year, the Mongols again attempted to invade Syria, appearing in great strength (about 80,000) together with the Armenians. But they were again defeated at Homs on March 30, 1303, and at the decisive Battle of Shaqhab, south of Damascus, on April 21, 1303.[54] It is considered to be the last major Mongol invasion of Syria.[126] Ghazan died on May 10, 1304, and Frankish dreams of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land were destroyed.[127]
Oljeitu (1304–1316) [ edit ]
Oljeitu, also named Mohammad Khodabandeh, was great-grandson of Ilkhanate founder Hulagu, and brother and successor of Ghazan. In his youth he |
.S. dollars.[44] The highest price for a single cricket was recorded in 1999 at 100,000 yuan ($12,000).[36] The lowest price, of around 1 yuan, is for the mute and shy females that still have some value as consorts to the fighting males. The cheapest males sell for five yuan.[36]
Betting on cricket fights is outlawed throughout the PRC but widespread on the streets. In 2004 Shanghai police reported that it had raided 17,478 gambling places involving around 57,000 people. One such place specializing in cricket fights was located in an old factory building and had around 200 patrons, men in their forties and fifties, when the police arrived.[60] Bets at this place started at 5,000 yuan ($600).[60] According to an anonymous source of China Daily, secretive and elusive "luxury games" take place not in Shanghai but in the outlying provinces.[36] Official attitudes about fighting vary from region to region: Hong Kong banned fights altogether; Hangzhou regulates it as a professional sport.[44]
Cricket homes [ edit ]
Suzumushi (Homoeogryllus japonicus) ( help · info )
Male crickets, whether held for fighting or for singing, always live in solitary individual homes or containers. Laufer in his 1927 book wrote that Chinese people sometimes hoarded hundreds of singing crickets, with dedicated cricket rooms filled with many rows of cricket homes. Such houses were filled with "a deafening noise which a Chinese is able to stand for any length of time".[61] Present-day cricket containers take three different shapes: cages are used for trapping and transportation, ceramic jars or pots are used in the summer and autumn, and in the winter the surviving crickets are moved into gourds.[62]
Wooden cages made of tiny rods and planks were once the most common type of insect house. The people of Shanghai and Hangzhou areas still use stool-shaped cages for keeping captive grasshoppers. Elsewhere, cages were historically used for keeping captive cicadas. They were suspended outdoors, at the eaves of the houses and from tree branches. Their use declined when the Chinese concentrated on keeping crickets. Small cages are still used for transporting crickets. Some are curved to follow the shape of a human body; crickets need warmth and prefer to be kept close to the body. The cage is placed in a tao, a kind of protective silk bag, and is ideally carried in the pocket of a shirt.[63] A special type of funnel-shaped wire mesh cage is used to temporarily contain the cricket while its main home is being cleaned.[6]
Ceramic jars or pots with flat lids, introduced in the Ming period, are the preferred type of container for keeping the cricket in summer. Some jars are shaped as a gourd but most are cylindrical. Thick clay walls effectively shield the cricket from excessive heat. Ceramic pots are used for raising cricket larvae until the insect matures to the point when it can be safely transported in a cage or a gourd. The bottom of the jar is filled with a mortar made of clay, lime, and sand. It is levelled at a slant angle of about thirty degrees, smoothed, and dried into a shiny solid mass. In addition to shaping the cricket's habitat, it also defines the acoustic properties of a cricket house. Inside, the jar may contain a cricket "bed" or "sleeping box" (lingfan) made of clay, wood, or ivory, and miniature porcelain "dishes".[64]
Pet crickets spend winters in a different type of container made of a gourd (the hard-shelled fruit of Lagenaria vulgaris). The bottoms of the gourds are filled with lime mortar. The carved lids can be made of jade, coconut shell, sandalwood and ivory; the most common motif employs an ornament of gourd vines, flowers, and fruits. The thickness of the lid and the configuration of vents in it are tailored to enhance the tone of a cricket's song.[65] The ancient art of growing molded gourds was lost during the Cultural Revolution, when the old pastime was deemed inappropriate for Red China. 20th-century cricket enthusiasts like Wang Shixiang had to carve their gourds themselves.[66] Contemporary cricket gourds have carved, rather than naturally molded, surfaces. Molded gourds are being slowly re-introduced since the 1990s by enthusiasts like Zhang Cairi.[67]
Pet crickets in Japan [ edit ]
Japanese market scene by Torii Kiyohiro, around 1750. The trader on the right sells cages for crickets.
The two species most esteemed in Japan, according to Huber et al., are the Homoeogryllus japonicus (bell cricket, suzumushi) and the Xenogryllus marmoratus (pine cricket, matsumushi).[68][note 6] Lafcadio Hearn in his 1898 book named the third species, kirigirisu (Gampsocleis mikado).[69] The Japanese identified and described the most musical cricket haunts centuries ago, long before they began keeping them at home.[70] According to Hearn, the Japanese esteemed crickets far higher than the cicadas, which were considered "vulgar chatterers" and were never caged.[71]
The first poetic description of matsumushi is credited to Ki no Tsurayuki (905 A.D.).[72] Suzumushi is featured in an eponymous chapter of The Tale of Genji (1000–1008 A.D.) which, according to Hearn, is the oldest Japanese account of an insect hunt.[73] Crickets and katydids (mushi) were the staple symbols of autumn in haiku poetry.[74] The Western culture, unlike its Japanese counterpart, regards crickets as symbols of summer. American film producers routinely insert clips of cricket sounds to tell the audience that the action takes place in summer.[75]
Cricket trade emerged as a full-time occupation in the 17th century.[74] The poet Takarai Kikaku complained that he could not find any mushiya (cricket dealers) in the city of Edo; according to Hearn this meant that he expected to find such dealers there.[76] Tokyo lagged behind other cities; regular trade there emerged only at the end of the 18th century.[77] A food vendor named Chuzo, who collected crickets for fun, suddenly discovered considerable demand for them among his neighbors and started trading in wild crickets.[78] One of his customers, Kiriyama, succeeded in breeding three species of crickets. He partnered with Chuzo in the business, which was "profitable beyond expectations".[79] Chuzo was flooded with orders and switched exclusively to wholesale operations, supplying crickets to street dealers and collecting royalties from cage makers.[80] During the Bunsei period the government contained competition between cricket dealers by limiting them to thirty-six, in a guild known as Ōyama-Ko (after Mount Ōyama) or, alternatively, the Yedo Insect Company.[81] At the end of the 19th century cricket trade was dominated by two houses: Kawasumo Kanesaburo and his network supplied wild-caught insects, and the Yumoto house specialized in breeding crickets off-season. They dealt in twelve species of wild-caught and nine species of artificially-bred crickets.[82]
This tradition, which peaked in the 19th century, is now largely gone but crickets are still sold at pet shops.[68] A large colony of suzumushi crickets thrives at the altar of the Suzumushi Temple in Kyoto. These crickets have no particular religious significance; they are retained as a tourist attraction.[74]
Pet crickets in the West [ edit ]
European naturalists studied crickets since the 18th century. William Gould described feeding ant nymphs to a captive mole cricket for several months.[83] The European approach to cricket breeding has been popularized by Jean-Henri Fabre. Fabre wrote that breeding "demands no particular preparations. A little patience is enough."[84] According to Fabre, home breeding may start as early as April or May with the capture of a couple of field crickets. They are placed in a flower pot with "a layer of beaten earth" inside, and a tightly fitting lid. Fed only with lettuce, Fabre's cricket couple laid five to six hundred eggs, and practically all of them hatched.[85]
Crickets are a common subject of children's books on nature and advice on keeping pet crickets are plentiful. An ideal home habitat for a cricket is a large transparent jar or a small terrarium with at least two inches of damp soil on the bottom. There must be plenty of shelter where the crickets can hide; children's books and industrial breeders recommend egg-crate shells. The top of the terrarium must be tightly covered with a lid or nylon mesh.[86]
Drinking water is supplied by offering crickets a wet sponge or spraying their container, but never directly: crickets easily drown even in small dishes of water. Crickets feed on all kinds of fresh fruit and greens;[1] industrial breeders also feed bulk quantities of dry fish food – Daphnia and Gammarus.[86] Contrary to the Eastern approach of keeping males in solitary cells, keeping males together is acceptable: According to Amato, protein-rich diet reduces the males' drive to fight.[87]
Industrial cricket farming [ edit ]
Gryllus campestris was saved from extinction through deliberate breeding at the The British population ofwas saved from extinction through deliberate breeding at the London Zoo
Chinese breeders of the 21st century strive to extend the fighting season to the whole year. They advertise farm-bred "designer bugs" as super-fighters and agree that their technology is "completely counter to the natural process". However, they refuse to use hormones or the practice of arming crickets with steel implants.[44] As of 2003, these farm-bred crickets retailed for only around $1.50 a head, ten times lower than average wild-caught Shandong cricket.[44] Breeding is a risky business: Chinese cricket farms are regularly wiped out by an unknown disease.[44] Fungal diseases are manageable,[88] but crickets have no defenses against cricket paralysis virus (CrPV), which almost certainly kills the entire population. The virus was first isolated in Australia around 1970. The worst outbreak in Europe occurred in 2002. The cosmopolitan virus is carried by a multitude of invertebrate hosts, including drosophilae and honey bees, which are not affected by the disease.[89][note 7]
Almost all crickets farmed in the United States are Acheta domesticus.[74] The American cricket industry does not disclose its earnings; in 1989 Huber et al. estimated it at $3,000,000 annually.[74] Most of these crickets were not pets, but fish bait and animal food. The largest shipment, of 445 metric tons, was reported by Purina Mills in 1985.[74] A decade later individual cricket farms like the Bassett Cricket Ranch in Visalia, California easily surpassed the million-dollar mark. By 1998 Bassett shipped two million crickets a week.[90] The Fluker Cricket Farm in Louisiana exceeded $5,000,000 in annual sales in 2001[91] and became a staple subject of American business school textbooks.[note 8]
The zoos of the Old World breed Acheta domesticus, Gryllus bimaculatus, and Gryllus assimilis. Their cricket farms usually rotate four generation ("four crates") of insects. One generation or one physical crate is used for mating and incubation of eggs, which takes from seven to twelve days. One male usually mates to three or four females. Females are discarded (and fed to zoo animals) immediately after laying the eggs: their life span is too short to give them a second chance. Three other generations, spaced by the same seven to twelve days, are for raising the larvae, which takes 4–5 weeks. Thus the zoos restock their live food supply practically every week.[92]
British zoos breed crickets in deliberate attempts to restore the nearly extinct wild populations. In the late 1980s the British population of Gryllus campestris shrunk to a single colony of around 100 individual insects. In 1991 the species became the subject of the national Species Recovery Program. Each year, three pairs of subadult crickets were caught in the wild and bred in a controlled lab environment to preserve the gene pool of the mother colony. The London Zoo raised 17,000 crickets; the field biologists laid down seven new cricket colonies, four of which survived into the 21st century. The program became a model for similar efforts in other countries.[93] In the same period the London Zoo bred the more demanding wart-biter (Decticus verrucivorus), also resulting in the establishment of persistent colonies in the wild.[88]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Yutaka Suga, p. 79, discusses another theory dating cricket fights to the 8th century. However, the earliest reliable evidence is dated 12th century. ^ Levchenko, p. 125, warns against uncontrolled feeding of crickets to spiders immediately before and during moulting. A cricket will eagerly attack a much larger but defenseless moulting spider. ^ Teleogryllus commodus behaviour. Huber et al., pp. 48–54, discuss various other means of sexual recognition in different species. This is a simplified model ofbehaviour. Huber et al., pp. 48–54, discuss various other means of sexual recognition in different species. ^ See Suga, pp. 77–78, for a review of the evolution of flower, bird, fish, insect culture. ^ Burrowing crickets use funnel-shaped entrances to their nests as natural resonators to amplify their songs. A singing cricket literally faces its own burrow and can instantly hide underground. – Huber et al., p. 44. ^ Contemporary English translators renders suzumushi as bell cricket, matsumushi as pine cricket – see translator's notes to The Tale of Genji, pp. 445 and 1135. ^ Honey bees suffer from two related but different viruses – acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) and chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV), discovered in 1863. – Christian and Scotti, p. 310. ^ Organizational Behavior. Prentice Hall. Enterprise. Cengage Learning. ISBN Excellence in business communication. Prentice Hall. ISBN The Fluker case studies are discussed in Steven P. Robbins (2001).. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-189095-6.; Garnter and Bellamy (2009).. Cengage Learning. 0-324-13085-6 ; Thill and Bovee (1999).. Prentice Hall. 0-13-781501-8 etc.
References [ edit ]The European Union's climate chief, Miguel Arias Canete, is optimistic that the world's governments can reach an “ambitious” climate deal in Paris, he told journalists at a press conference on Thursday afternoon (10 December), but he said the agreement should ask commitments from all countries.
“We cannot repeat the experience of Kyoto,” the European commissioner said in Paris, referring to the 1997 climate conference in Japan, where only 38 countries signed up to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which cause global warming.
Canete (with beard) talks to Dutch environment minister Sharon Dijksma (Photo: European Commission)
Canete said this time around, 185 countries already submitted pledges to reduce emissions in the past year.
“In Kyoto, we only covered 12 percent of global emissions. Today … we are covering more than 96 percent of global emissions. This is an astounding story of success.”
He added: “The most important thing is that the agreement is inclusive. We need all emitters of the world together in this agreement. We cannot lose China, which is responsible for 23 [percent of emissions]. We cannot lose United States, which is responsible for 12 percent.”
However, he also noted several sticking points remain.
Referring to a draft version of the treaty, released by the French presidency of the summit on Wednesday, Canete said “more progress is needed.”
“[The text] did not reflect either the progress made in the ministerial consultations this week, or the political momentum we’re seeing.”
At another press conference, which started at noon on Thursday, the head of the EU delegation echoed Canete, her boss.
“The outlook is good,” said Elina Bardram.
“There is a lot of hard work, long hours to go, but I remain very confident that the political determination will also be projected in the negotiating rooms and that it will end with a very solid and ground-breaking agreement as we leave Paris,” she said.
Friday, maybe Saturday
Bardram shared the podium with Gao Feng, China's special representative for climate change. He said “success” is possible, but he indicated that the conference may be extended beyond Friday, the last officially scheduled day.
“I remain optimistic. Let's see on Friday, or maybe Saturday, we will get there. I think we will get it,” said Gao.
“We’re still at the most difficult part of the negotiations. We have still 48 hours, maybe a little bit longer. So it’s not a surprise that we’re still facing all those difficult issues.”
Canete said three elements are “essential” for a “robust” agreement: a long-term goal; a review cycle, which allows for ambition to be scaled up over time; and “transparency and accountability.”
He’s also being urged to pursue other issues.
Shipping and aviation
Sitting next to him at the press conference, Italian MEP Giovanni La Via said the aviation and shipping sectors should be specifically mentioned.
“I want to insist on the necessary inclusion of international aviation and shipping in the Paris deal. So far, no effort is requested from them,” noted La Via, a member of the EU Parliament's largest group, the centre-right EPP.
“Those two sectors could represent up to 40 percent of all global emissions by 2050 if they are left unregulated, according to a study published by the European Parliament service. I ask Miguel [Canete] to push for it. We, as members of the parliament, strongly request to reconsider the text.”
Canete said aviation and shipping “cannot be off the radar,” but cited a different estimate.
“Their emissions are growing significantly, and account for as much, will account for as much, as one third of all global emissions in 2050 if nothing is done,” he said.
Negotiating tactics
The EU Commissioner could not guarantee the two sectors will be in the final deal, amid speculation the EU may trade them in exchange for concessions in other areas.
He also wouldn’t say the EU would walk away from an agreement if it doesn’t get the five-year review cycle.
“The speeches in the public plenary are one, but when you go to the negotiating table are others. Because the rooms have different moods, you know. In the negotiating tables we are finding compromises,” he noted.
“We worked through the night to make substantial improvements to the text. We hope the new version we will receive later today will address the gaps that we’ve identified.”
That new version is due Thursday afternoon, but had not been published by 6.51pm.
“We have another long day and night ahead of us,” Canete said earlier on Thursday.A Clemson student was charged with attempted murder after officers say he stabbed someone at a party early Sunday morning. Clemson City police officers said they arrested Logan Jacob Simon, 19, after an investigation into a stabbing reported at a house party in Clemson. The incident happened at a fraternity house off-campus, according to Robin Denny, director of Media relations at Clemson University. Officers said they responded to the home around 2:20 a.m. Sunday in reference to a stabbing. When they arrived, officers said they learned that someone had been stabbed while asking another person to leave the party.The victim was taken to the hospital for multiple stab wounds, officers said. An investigation into the stabbing led to the arrest of Logan Jacob Simon, who was charged with attempted murder, possession with intent to distribute illegal narcotics and possession with intent to distribute illegal narcotics within proximity of a school.Simon was released from the Clemson City jail on $36,000 surety bond, according to officers. Clemson City police officers said both individuals involved in the incident were students at Clemson University. Robin Denny said Logan Simon has been placed on interim suspension and there will be an administrative hearing on his status at Clemson.
A Clemson student was charged with attempted murder after officers say he stabbed someone at a party early Sunday morning.
Clemson City police officers said they arrested Logan Jacob Simon, 19, after an investigation into a stabbing reported at a house party in Clemson. The incident happened at a fraternity house off-campus, according to Robin Denny, director of Media relations at Clemson University.
Advertisement
Officers said they responded to the home around 2:20 a.m. Sunday in reference to a stabbing. When they arrived, officers said they learned that someone had been stabbed while asking another person to leave the party.
The victim was taken to the hospital for multiple stab wounds, officers said.
An investigation into the stabbing led to the arrest of Logan Jacob Simon, who was charged with attempted murder, possession with intent to distribute illegal narcotics and possession with intent to distribute illegal narcotics within proximity of a school.
Simon was released from the Clemson City jail on $36,000 surety bond, according to officers.
Clemson City police officers said both individuals involved in the incident were students at Clemson University. Robin Denny said Logan Simon has been placed on interim suspension and there will be an administrative hearing on his status at Clemson.
AlertMeJacques Gounon, the firm's chief executive and chairman, said Brexit had given migrants a 'clear signal' that the Anglo-French border would become 'a huge wall, similar to the Berlin Wall, almost impossible to overcome'
Britain's decision to quit the EU could lead to a summer surge in illegal migrants trying to enter the country from France, the head of Eurotunnel has warned.
Jacques Gounon, the firm's chief executive and chairman, said Brexit had given migrants a 'clear signal' that the Anglo-French border would become 'a huge wall, similar to the Berlin Wall, almost impossible to overcome'.
He spoke in Calais as the company unveiled new aerial drones armed with cameras to boost security on the French side of the tunnel by spotting potential trespassers.
Mr Gounon told the Press Association: 'I'm afraid that any Brexit consequences could give a threat to migrants that they could be prevented from going to the UK - definitively going to the UK - in the years to come.
'This could generate an additional new migrant pressure, in order for such people, desperately, to reach the UK before Brexit is enforced.
'So I do think and I'm afraid that we could have an increased migrant pressure during this summer, as a Brexit consequence.'
Immigration was a key battleground in the EU referendum campaign, with Nigel Farage unveiling a Ukip poster showing a queue of hundreds of immigrants arriving in Europe with the slogan Breaking Point.
The Calais end of the Channel tunnel has been the focus of attempts by migrants to stow away on vehicles headed for Britain.
Earlier this month aid charities reported that the population at the Jungle camp had risen to 6,123 - up from 5,178 in May - including 700 children.
L'Auberge des Migrants and Help Refugees, which collected the data, said refugees from Afghanistan were the largest national group in the camp, making up 36% of its inhabitants, while those from Sudan made up 32%.
In May Downing Street said improved security measures at the tunnel and ferry port in Calais, was behind attempts by migrants to cross the Channel in boats.
The areas around the Channel Tunnel in Calais have long been a focus of unrest and disputes among migrants
Mr Gounon said the firm did not support the idea of moving the UK border from its current locations, as set out in the 1986 Treaty of Canterbury and Protocol de Sangatte in 1991, after Brexit.
He added: 'We are working very efficiently, jointly, with UK Border Force on the border issues for 25 years and so I don't believe that for the shuttle, for the fixed link, there is any interest to change the way the controls are working.
'Because it is very efficient, we are catching and giving to the police force all the information in order to protect the site and to capture the migrants. I don't see what could be done more.
French police forces spend much of their time dispersing migrants and refugees from illegally entering the Euro-tunnel
'The drones are of course the way to increase the speed. We are working with these border issues, but definitively I think there is no interest at all, from the shuttle point of view, to have an additional border control in Folkestone, at the exit of the tunnel.'
Last week Abdul Rahman Haroun, 40, walked free from court after pleading guilty to an obstruction charge brought when he trekked through the Channel Tunnel
Haroun was granted permission to stay in Britain after being caught walking near the end of the 31-mile (50km) sub-sea tunnel at Folkestone, Kent, on August 4 last year.
Judge Adele Williams sentenced him to nine months in jail at Canterbury Crown Court but freed him due to time he has already spent in custody.published in The Draft Horse Journal, Autumn, 2001 by Maurice Telleen Grantland Rice was wise to stick to prosecolor commentary and straight reporting on the people who play games seriously, rather than betting his considerable talent on poetry. I include this little piece of rhyme to make the point, as he did, that one reason our country went bananas over athletes in the so-called roaring 20s was the desire to turn our backs on the old hatreds and conflicts of Europe. The horrors of World War I had proven to be a powerful antidote to romantic notions of war as a glorious adventure. So, we turned inward with a let them stew in their own juices attitude. Not that we didnt have considerable juices of our own, but we chose to ignore those, too. It was, as Rice said, a time to play forever where a fellow might forget. It didnt work but I suppose that is as good an explanation as any for the extravagant attention we devoted to sports figures in the 1920s. I dont know what our excuse is now. We started with Grantland Rice so we will continue on with athletes for a while. On August 6 of 1926 a young woman from New York named Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Men had been doing this, off and on, for a half century. Not only was she the first woman to do so, she did it faster than had any of the men. This 19 year old girl did it her way. Instead of finding a deep place to dive in, for the benefit of the press and public, she simply waded in from a beach in France. No fanfare. The place she lost the most time was on the English side where, believe it or not, customs officials insisted on interrogating her before permitting her ashore. Perhaps they wished to check her passportsuch is petty officialdom. That never changes. Anywhere. Well, Gertrudes crossing was kind of a kick in the pants to some notions of manhood. Swimming the channel in better time than Gertrude suddenly became the thing to do. She did it in 14 hours and 31 minutes, cutting two hours off the best previous time. And that little nerd in customs probably cost her another half hour. The first to restore self-respect to maledom was a German named Ernst Vierkoetter. He did it on August 30 in 12 hours and 43 minutes. He was quickly dethroned by a Frenchman named Georges Michel on September 10. He cut the time down to 11 hours and 5 minutes. We will leave swimming the channel there. I have no idea what the current best time is, nor whether it is held by a man, woman or dolphin. I would bet on a dolphin. Anyhow, Gertrude, who is now 94 if she is still alive, is the one who stirred all this up 75 years ago. Here in the U.S., Babe Ruth, outfielder and great home run hitter for the New York Yankees, caught a baseball dropped from an airplane. It was a planned and publicized event, not just a random baseball falling out of a passing plane. I suppose there was some money in it for the Bambino. Serious money was getting more commonplace in sports. In August of that year Suzanne Lenglen, great tennis player from France, announced her plans to tour the U.S. playing as a professional for $200,000. That was probably more than the French treasury had at the moment. More on that in a bit. With a crowd of 130,000 to witness the Jack Dempsey/Gene Tunney boxing match in Philadelphia on September 23 for the worlds heavyweight boxing championship, you can bet there was serious money involved there, too. Tunney, the challenger, won on a decision and Dempseys reign as the heavyweight champion was over. Tunney, an ex-marine, had the crowd on his side. Dempsey had been their favorite a few years prior, but living in luxury had taken its toll on him and in terms of public esteem. Tunney, a little smaller man, wore him down. Following the fight Dempsey said, I have no alibi. I lost to a good man, an American, who speaks the English language. A rather strange comment but this was in white supremist, isolationist 1926. Tunneys comment made more sense. He said, I never fought a harder socker. In less than two years, after defending the title successfully a few times (including one rematch with Dempsey), Tunney announced that he was retiring from the boxing ring and planned to study philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. What do you make of that? To wrap up the sports news we will now go to the 7th game of the 1926 World Series; the New York Yankees (of course) and the St. Louis Cardinals. The aforementioned Babe Ruth hit four home runs in that series including one in that final game. The Cardinals were led by player/manager Roger Hornsby, who was also no slouch with a bat. He had won six straight National League batting titles from 1920-25. With a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning, bases loaded and two outs, Hornsby sent his pitcher (Haines) to the showers and brought in the aging (almost 40!) Grover Cleveland Alexander to the mound. The old man struck out the next batter, retiring the side, and the Cardinals went on to claim their World Series victory. And that, Mr. Rice (wherever you are) is enough for games in the late summer and early fall of 1926. Europe, meanwhile, was confirming what a lot of Americans thought of it. As for the other side of the globe, Asia and the Pacific rim, it appears that we thought relatively little about it at all. Let National Geographic cover that. Just send more missionaries to China. Britain continued its long summer of labor unrest with coal mining being the sorest spot, as that strike drug on and on. Poland gave up on representative government and opted for a dictator, a guy named Pilsudski, who would have liked to invade Russia but he didnt have a powerful army. Germany, of course, had been going through a very nasty stretch of inflation, unemployment and general bitterness ever since their defeat in 1918. All of which was exacerbated by harsh terms imposed by the treaty of Versailles. Mussolini was strutting around Italy like a rooster, saying it had to either expand or explode. He must have seen himself as the successor to the Caesars. And France was flat broke. Without transfusions from the House of Morgan in New York and London, their treasury would have been bankrupt. France had a different government every six months or so. By 1926, it was such a shambles that when Poincare formed a new one (it was his fourth time as head dog in the kennel), he had five former premiers serving as ministers. They ranged from left to righta coalition to end all coalitions. France was experiencing gridlock and flirting with bankruptcy. Imagine, if you can, a Bush government with Bill Clinton, Jerry Ford, Jimmy Carter, his father and Ronald Reagan in the cabinet. No, Dad, I dont think that will work this time around. No, Jimmy, I will not turn down the thermostat in the White House and wear sweaters. No, Bill, we dont need to fund a new dictionary. Most people know what is means. Sure, Ronnie, go ahead and make that speech about winning one for the Gipperpeople love it. By the way, who was the Gipper? In September, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations. I suppose that was a positive thing but in this case, it really didnt matter. For a couple of months prior to this, the Nazi party had held its first Congress. This political party, created by Adolf Hitler, had been banned when he was sent to jail in 1924. Paroled after serving just eight months, he quickly went to reorganizing and in July of 1926, they were cocky enough to hold their first party congress. He, and his supporters, couldnt have cared less whether Germany was in or out of the League. So, both north and south of the Alps, you had spellbinding and dangerous nutcases on the loose. They would rearrange and orchestrate the lives of all of us on both sides of the Atlantic, in ways no one could imagine in 1926. Compared to Europe, our problemsat least the ones we chose to deal withcertainly did appear more manageable. The prohibition of intoxicating liquors, mandated by a constitutional amendment, had been in effect for six or seven years. It wasnt working well. When liquor was driven underground, it was appropriated by mob and gangster elements. Private clubs, moonshine, speakeasies and bootlegging became almost commonplace. If all the violators of the law had been put in jail simultaneously, they would have had to appropriate college dormitories to hold them all. And that would have thrown professors out of work. The thing to do was have a congressional hearing. So that is what was done. Among those testifying were officials of state insane asylums (the language was less sanitized in 1926) who claimed that the number of demented persons due to alcoholism had increased tenfold since 1920. I find that tenfold business mighty hard to believein six years! That was even worse than compound interest. Which is bad enough. It was a strange decade, sort of a collision of huge social tectonic plates, stirring up a witches brew that would engulf us all. The movies had created their version of sports heroes in matinee idols. One of them, a 31 year old actor named Rudolf Valentino, died suddenly as a result of a ruptured appendix and a gastric ulcerneither of which would be a big deal today. He was one of the first of many such creations by the silver screen. Thousands of women were beside themselves. Their make-believe lover was dead. One sent 4,000 roses to the funeral. What a waste. She could have sent five roses to 800 women with guess who cards and made their day. Or, at least, piqued the curiosity of their husbands. Might have caused a lot of trouble too, arousing suspicions that were groundless. I guess a couple women killed themselves. They were making a statement. One missed and shot her cat instead, and she felt really bad about that, too. As you might surmise, I didnt regard 1926 as any prize, at least not up at the level where people were making a lot of noise and grabbing headlines. I doubt that any of this, except perhaps for the deadly politics of Europe, was of much interest to my parents and their neighbors. They were too busy farming, raising kids, raising stock and maybe even taking a few to the fair, to be mesmerized by the big picture. Real life was happening one day at a time, right outside their doorstep. And it still ison to the livestock and farming scene, as it looked in 1926. Some of the heavy duty politics on this side of the water concerned agriculture. Farming, somehow got left out of the roaring part of that decade. It had recovered some from the tailspin it went into shortly after the war, but was still on the sickly side. So there were a good many congressional hearings on farming, as well as prohibition. The farm block in Congress packed a pretty fair wallop. Our population was smaller and we had a lot more farmers than we do now. So the equation was quite different from today. President Coolidge, temperamentally, was more like a farmer than any other we had in that period or up until we had Harry Truman who had actually farmed, spending many hours looking at the south end of a mule going north. The McNary-Haugen bill for farm relief never made it past Silent Cal Coolidge and the Republican right wing, but it wasnt for lack of trying. One short paragraph from the speech President Coolidge made at the 1924 International Livestock Show, in Chicago tells me why. Ive read it carefullya couple of times. It is not a bad speech, fulsome in its praise of farmers, the USDA and of the outreach of the land grant schools. He got several things right, but one little paragraph convinced me that he did not really fathom the difference between a farmer and a large corporation, a monopoly or an oligarchy where the producers are few and production can be adjusted by laying off a few thousand. Here is that incriminating paragraph. The sound remedy is to reduce production, and that is a remedy which will automatically apply itself if there is not artificial interference. He obviously believed devoutly in the invisible hand of the market and that slowing down production by laying off people was somehow NOT artificial interference. Coolidge obviously did not realize that low prices drive farmers to produce more. They were not sitting in board rooms, they were trying to meet their note |
what we say, or the poors and the sicks get it. They didn't even have the guts to be all up front about it, because they know how ugly things could get for them if they didn't act like cockroaches when a light goes on. When the House set down its parliamentary rules for the new House, they snuck in the change blocking Congress from shifting funds to stop a 2016 shortfall in Social Security's disability insurance program. This is something that has been done for decades. Any crisis is a man-made crisis. It's like filling up the fire department with arsonists. We should say so. It's time for a fight. They picked it. So. Let's give them all hell.
Let no one distract you from the real agenda here, neither in the media or in DC. Nobody who cares about the solvency or stability of Social Security would do this. Ever. It is irresponsible and stupid and bold-faced in bad outcomes being a feature and not a bug of the act. You cannot trust a Movement Conservative Republican to protect Social Security, and you must not assume that low-information voters are aware of what is going on, and who is, and who is not, on their side and on the right side of history. They want a war? We should give them one. Think of every frustration and heartache that American politics has dished out to you since the 2012 election. Since the 2008 election. Here is a cause for which you can freely take the gloves off.
From Social Security Works:
The New Republican Attack on Social Security Starts Now!
(Washington, DC) Republican opponents of Social Security have not wasted even a single day in their plan to dismantle Social Security brick by brick. What should be a dry, mundane exercise — the adoption of new rules by the newly convening House of Representatives — has turned into a stealth attack on America’s working families. A technical amendment, known as “reallocation” — something that has been done many times over the history of Social Security, something that few persons other than actuaries and other Social Security experts ever know about — must be enacted in the current Congress to ensure that all Social Security benefits continue to be paid in full and on time. The change is analogous to what investors do when they rebalance their accounts, but in the case of Social Security, a failure to rebalance will result in an unnecessary and completely avoidable cut in benefits paid to workers who have serious and permanent disabilities and to their families. Like other stealth attacks against the American people’s Social Security, the groundwork is being laid in advance. It will suddenly explode sometime in the next two years. The rule change would prohibit a simple reallocation! It will require more significant and complex changes to Social Security. In other words, the Republican rule will allow Social Security to be held hostage – something we anticipated and warned about in our new book, Social Security Works! Why Social Security Isn’t Going Broke and How Expanding It will Help Us All (The New Press, 2015) This is no way for elected officials, who are supposed to be servants of the people, to treat American citizens. Hostage-taking to force changes that the American people do not want to a vital program like Social Security is no way to run the United States of America. New Republican Attack On Social Security Starts Now ###
Social Security Works is the lead group in the Strengthen Social Security Coalition, a coalition comprised of more than 320 national and state organizations representing more than 50 million Americans from many of the nation’s leading aging, labor, disability, women’s, children, consumer, civil rights and equality organizations.
17% of the deficit, $$Trillions has been borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund, an inconvenient truth Congress Sweeps under the rug.
Pay Back the Money Borrowed From Social Security Throughout its 75 year history, Social Security has provided critical economic security to millions of retirees, families, children and the disabled. Social Security is paid for by the dedicated contributions of workers and their employers, has administrative costs of less than one percent, and since it cannot borrow to fund its operations, Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. No wonder that Americans from all walks of life consistently and overwhelmingly support our nation's most successful social insurance program -- a level of support that is not achieved by other governmental programs. Social Security currently has a $2.6 trillion surplus which has been building up since the 1983 amendments and is intended to help absorb the retirement of the baby boomers. This surplus is invested in US Treasury securities that are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. According to the Social Security Trustees 2010 report, Social Security can pay full benefits until 2037, at which time, if nothing were done to strengthen its financing, Social Security would still be able to pay about 78 percent of benefits. This quarter of a century means there is time to strengthen its financing without cutting benefits for future beneficiaries. The American people will insist that Congress do what is needed for the program to pay full benefits and protect these benefits they were promised and have earned. Pay Back the Money Borrowed From Social Security
I was asked in the comments by War on Error to add this information a link to an article that expands on the idea:The PulseAbortion, Politics - U.S.
October 6, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Rhetoric like “it’s time to protect the next generation” and “open up the doors so that every child has a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential” appeared not as part of a pro-life appeal but in a January 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign video.
The ad titled “Children” features various clips of Clinton, who supports abortion on demand throughout all nine months of pregnancy paid for by taxpayers, speaking about her interest in protecting children.
“All of us have a responsibility to ourselves, to our children, to each other,” she says. “We intend to be sure that everybody in this room and every child in this state is somebody.”
“I’ve spent my life fighting for children, families, and our country, and I’m not stopping now,” Clinton says in another portion of the ad.
“There is no candidate for President with a better track record of standing up and delivering results for children and families,” the campaign’s description of the video boasts.
Throughout her political career, Clinton has earnestly supported abortion through all nine months of pregnancy and backed America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. For the first time in history, the Democratic Party in 2016 added to its platform the desire to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prevents tax dollars from funding Medicaid abortions. The Hyde Amendment has saved two million lives.
Clinton also famously said religious views against abortion “have to be changed.”
“No matter where they’re born, no matter to whom they are born, our children’s future is shaped both by the values of their parents and the policies of their nation,” Clinton says in the ad.
That’s right — and the values of their parents and the policies of their nation determine whether they will be born at all or just sucked out of their mother’s wombs and left in an abortionist’s “medical waste” heap.Third Anniversary!
Three years. Can you believe it?! We have come an incredibly long way since 2012 when we began selling delicious fresh hoppy creations and decadent dark beers ten gallons at a time.
We have never been able to stockpile enough beer to throw a proper celebration - until now!
On June 13th we will assemble a large and varied draft list of some of our very favorite beers, along with a number of surprises, food, and entertainment!
DETAILS!
When? June 13th, 2015 from 1 PM to 5 PM.
Where? On the grounds at Tree House Brewing Company.
What? A party to celebrate our new brewery, and share beers with those who have supported us so wonderfully since our inception.
Ticket holders will receive 12 drink tickets redeemable for any beer available at the festival. Pours will be between five and eight ounces depending upon the strength and availability of the beer.
BT's Smokehouse will prepare food for festival guests, all inclusive and all you can eat. He plans a meal of whole hog stuffed with pulled pork, brisket, and an assortment of sides!
We also have an incredible line-up of entertainment for the day: The Pencils, from Monson, will provide an eclectic mix of rock through the ages. The Feel Good drift, featuring Dean's son Alex on lead vocals and guitar, will take us into the afternoon singing along. Livestock will close the festival, a bluegrass style group that guarantees to have your toes tapping!
Tentative Draft List (Subject to additions & subtractions) -
Eureka w/Citra | Lights On | Julius | Green | Haze | Curiosity Sixteen | Double Shot | Double Shot Variants | Cask Julius | JJJuliusss | Truth | Very Green | & more!
How will tickets work? 150 tickets will be offered at the brewery on a first come, first served basis on Thursday, May 28th beginning at 4 PM. Ticket purchases are one per person and they are non-refundable and non-transferrable. Single ticket purchasers may also purchase a double ticket, for entry to a person of their choice (friend/significant other). Additionally, we will offer 100 tickets for sale on Eventbrite on a first come, first served basis starting at 9 PM on Thursday, May 28th. Only single ticket purchases will be available online. One per person - Purchasers of in-person tickets attempting to purchase online tickets will have their order cancelled. On the day of the festival ticket holders must present a valid ID at the gate to gain entry (so we can corroborate their name with our guest list), along with their ticket. Only the purchaser of a double ticket must show ID to gain entry - their guest must show ID to verify age, but it's their choice who they choose to invite.
How much? Tickets are $125 each or $250 for a double ticket. Tickets are all inclusive of food and the twelve drink tickets as provided. There will be about 150 tickets available to the public at the on-site sale. 100 tickets will be available via EventBrite. Double tickets count as... two tickets!
What is the link for on-line sales?
On-line sales begin Thursday at 9 PM. THIS link takes you to the ticket page.
Designated drivers. Ticket purchasers are entitled to one free designated driver ticket. Double ticket holders are also entitled to one designated driver ticket. We strongly encourage the use of designated drivers for the event. Designated drivers will have the option to purchase food from vendors other than BT's Smokehouse and an assortment of non-alcoholic beverages. Simply Divine Mobile Cafe from Monson will offer gourmet grilled cheese for sale to designated drivers - or any attendee, should they find themselves craving a bit of gooey deliciousness.
What else?
Though tickets are non-transferrable, we are willing to make exceptions for extenuating circumstances. If, for some reason, you are unable to attend the festival, please e-mail the brewery directly and we will work with you to allow a transfer or to release the tickets for resale.
There are several options for camping nearby - Sunset View Campground / Partridge Hollow / etc. Also, Sturbridge is teeming with great lodging options.
The event is rain or shine!
The Retail Shop will be open from 9 AM - 12 PM for both festival attendees and the general public. We will offer only can sales to go and merchandise - NO GROWLER FILLS THE DAY OF THE FESTIVAL.
This is our first festival and we have given it a LOT of thought. That said, we do understand that the needs of guest may vary so suggestions are more than welcome!
Please stay tuned as we will add additional details as the festival approaches!Kirjava said: if you click options you can set it to the qcube layout, or set your own custom keymap
there's even a link in the OP that loads it with the qcube layout :3 Click to expand...
Kirjava said: (the only differences are T/Y - y/y', G/H - M'/M, R/U - E'/E, V/N - F'/F, 8/, - r/r', 3/C - l'/l. still not used to them myself and it's evolved a bit over time) Click to expand...
Yeah, I found out that much, but the options only let me set it one key at a time (without displaying what it was set to originally) and I wanted to see what the actual kSim layout was. I already have a 3x3 sim with qcube layoutHm, interesting. Some of those would be pretty hard to get used to for me. I wonder how fast you could end up doing Roux with it. (I freely admit that the heise/qcube layout is not optimal for slice-based methods. It's not even too good for Yau, because of those pesky 3r and u turns.)My sons have never known a Canada that was not under Stephen Harper’s thumb. For the last decade they have listened to their parents shock and outrage over the weakening of our environmental laws, the lack of transparency, the erosion of democracy, the muzzling of scientists, the attack on environmental groups, the disregard for Canada’s constitution. Along the way we tried to keep hope alive. We painted a picture for them of a Canada that valued evidence-based policy. A Canada that led on the world stage to create critical international agreements like the Montreal Protocol. We talked about how lucky we are to live in a democracy and how important it was for us to participate, to organize and to vote.
“What is it about activists that they can’t even be optimistic for one day after a whole decade?” The disgust and disappointment on my 16-year-old’s face was heartbreaking as he surfed my Facebook page the morning after the Canadian election. I could only shake my head sadly and agree with him. Wouldn’t it be great to be fuelled by hope instead of fear as the late Jack Layton urged us in his letter to the nation? For just a minute could we critics not take a deep breath and focus on all the things that we know will now change?
Our exuberance made the next morning’s conversation all that more painful. “Is he really no different?” (That’s what many of my fellow environmental activists claim.) “Why can’t people ever be hopeful?”
Together we watched the election results come in from coast to coast and I watched the hope and optimism on my son’s face as he listened to Justin Trudeau’s acceptance speech. “Sunny ways!” We all yelled, half-hysterical. “To the end of the Harper era!” We cheered as we raised a glass in jubilant toast.
Let’s be clear — the Liberal Party platform on climate change currently lacks strong emissions reductions targets at a critical moment in history when it is clear that the United Nations Climate Change Conference discussions are undergoing a dramatic cultural shift. For the first time in over a decade we are seeing a race to the top on climate policy. Countries are committing to aggressive targets and, like China with the announcement of their cap and trade system, they are putting in place real policies to meet those targets. Canada will have to scramble to catch up after a decade of federal inaction.
But to allow our doubts to cloud out hope would be a mistake. Rather, we should take guidance from the Liberal campaign slogan: “hope and hard work.” In the coming months we will need a lot of both. Not just from our new government but also from ourselves. This government at the very least represents possibility — possibility that will go unfulfilled if we give ourselves over to despair rather than push the government toward something better. For our children and our health and the health of our communities, let’s allow ourselves to hope.
Over the past week I have forced myself not to fall into the pit of cynicism and to take a moment every day to think of one thing that I care about that will change under this new government. It has had the effect of weights being lifted off my shoulders. It will take a while to trust my government again. But for my children I will try.
So far, prime minister-designate Justin Trudeau is making it easy for us. We aren’t getting platitudes and spin devoid of real promises. Within minutes we were getting renewed commitments to a new voting system, an inquiry into the missing and murdered Aboriginal women and an invitation to Green Party leader Elizabeth May and every premier to attend the Paris Climate Summit as part of a team. We even got a day-after press conference where our prime minister-designate reversed a 10-year tradition and, believe it or not, answered questions.
The coming months will not be easy as we begin to establish a new relationship with Ottawa and the international community but I am hopeful that we now have a government that will govern for all of Canadians’ best interests and not simply for one sector. I am hopeful that we now have a government that will choose science over politics, clean, safe energy systems over business as usual and perhaps even people over polluters.
Tzeporah Berman is an environmental activist, an adjunct professor of Environmental Studies at York University author of This Crazy Time: Living Our Environmental Challenge, published by Knopf Canada and the mother of two boys. A version of this piece appeared in Alternatives Journal.A Bachelorette baby! Desiree Hartsock and husband Chris Siegfried have welcomed their first child, a boy, Us Weekly can exclusively confirm. At the time of his birth on Wednesday, October 19, he weighed in at 8 pounds and measured 20.5 inches.
Hartsock's rep tells Us the little one's name is Asher Wrigley Siegfried. "Words can't even express the amount of love we feel for our baby boy Asher," the new mom gushed in a statement to Us. "He has already brought so much joy into our lives in one day. He's strong, healthy, happy, playful and warm. Chris and I are beyond blessed with this beautiful gift of life that we are excited to have as a part of our family."
The new parents, who fell in love on season 9 of The Bachelorette in 2013 and married in 2015, exclusively revealed their baby's gender in an interview with Us Weekly in August.
"We were planning on just doing a dinner and keeping it very private and only between us, but we walked out of the ultrasound and we had the card in our hand and thought, 'Or we could do this right now,'" Siegfried, 30, told Us. "We just couldn’t wait, once we found out. … We didn't care if it was a boy or a girl. But it was so nice to know."
The mom-to-be, 30, documented her pregnancy on Instagram as well as on her website, even sharing pregnancy workout videos and recommendations for stretch mark creams.
As the big day approached, she took over The Bump's Instagram account on September 20 and posted a sweet pic with her husband, writing, "I'm almost 36 weeks and have to say I feel so incredibly blessed to have had a pretty smooth pregnancy experience so far."
"As we prepare for birth and the joys of parenting ahead of us I will never forget the moment we found out we were expecting," she continued. "The first sound of a heartbeat, the first appearance of a bump, the first kicks, the first hiccups or the motherly bond I feel with our baby even before he enters this world. Pregnancy has made me even more grateful for what a life truly is."
Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!
Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now!The adjustments that have been undertaken recently will help to bring you all up to par as it were with the continuation of incoming energetic fluctuations, and so, even if some of you will still feel some temporary physical setbacks as the full scope of these energetic encodings enter your being, you will soon find yourself emerging from the fog as it were in every sense of the word. You see, as the ongoing inoculation if you will will continue to increase not only in magnitude but also in velocity, you will also continue to increase your abilities to incorporate them at an ever increasing speed. For now there is no holding back this flow of endless illumination, and so, as you continue to take in more of these energized particles with literally every breath you take, you are also in a continuous flow of expansion and eviction. In other words, as you continue to grow with this flow, you also continue to exhale whatever it is that your body has been holding on to, the detritus to use a familiar word of your former existence, and this will continue to exit your physical vehicle.
This process in itself is not without its interesting side effects as some of you may be able to testify to, for it will at times feel as if you have been running a marathon or moving a mountain during your sleep. And in many ways, this is actually what you have been doing, as you are all doing a formidable work of lightening your load in this way. And so, as day follows night and in the blink of an eye seems to be followed by a new day, this process continues to speed up exponentially, and you can almost be likened to shooting stars now by the amount of debris that glitters in your wake. For if you could see this from our perspective, you would see yourself as a shining pinprick of light gathering speed, while a trail of glimmering stardust shimmers in your wake as you continue to separate yourself fully from your old being.
Again, this process is something that has not been done before, for unlike others going through a similar process of upscaling their energetic vibrational field, you are doing so while fully immersed within a physical body. And so, you are truly the brightest stars on the firmament in every sense of the word, and you are also the ones who have been chosen for this very task by your abilities to fly as high as you are doing. For this is not something that is taken on by chance, but by a divine design, a design that you yourselves have been instrumental in putting together.
So again we say know that all is well, and you are fanning the flames of your booster rockets even as we speak, the better to accelerate your speed even more as this week continues to supply you with even more fuel for your engines, and so, all you have to do, is to allow that old field of dust that is still trailing in your wake to finally let go completely from your field. For even if this evacuation process of the old is beautiful to behold, and the detritus from it can be mesmerizing to observe, it is also of the greatest importance that you do not let yourself fall for the temptation to crane your neck and look behind you too much. For what you need to do, is to focus on the horizon ahead, and the more you continue to look backwards, the more tempestuous your journey will be.
In other words, let yourself fly away from the old and focus your inner vision on what lies ahead, not on those shimmering and alluring glimpses of your past. For they will only serve to slow you down, and remember the incoming shower of sparks will only serve to push you that much harder if you are facing in the wrong direction. So give yourself the leeway you need in order to let bygones be bygones, and set your sight on the uncharted territory that awaits ahead, ready for you to come and reclaim it. For it may seem unfamiliar to you at the moment, but the space that awaits you is more familiar to you than what you can envisage at this time, for it is indeed the primordial sea of energetic potential that beckons ahead, a place you used to know like the back of your hand, and a place that is so eager to welcome you back home into it.
And so, the more you let yourself forget what is trailing in your wake, the sooner it will let go completely from your sphere of influence, and the faster and lighter your journey forwards and upwards will be. So let go, and let the flow of incoming light continue to push you in the back so you can get reunited with that former version of you, the pure one, the all-encompassing one, the one that is devoid of inhibitions, limitations and lies, the ones that is pure and simple light and potential, but this time, it will be all this and it will be held within this familiar container you call your body. And that dear ones, is the goal you are aiming for, and it is within reach for every single one of you, and it is far, far closer than you perhaps think.
AdvertisementsA food manufacturing operation proposed for west Eugene would cook up some seriously potent snacks.
The common ingredient? Marijuana.
SightGlass Management, a San Francisco firm, wants to lease a 2,970-square-foot warehouse building on Highway 99 in west Eugene to manufacture pot-infused chocolates and �other artisan confections,� according to a document the company filed with the city�s Planning and Development Department.
The firm is negotiating a lease for 90502 Highway 99N, Building D, part of a complex of four warehouse buildings just east of the Eugene Airport.
A company official declined to comment on the plans.
SightGlass says its �infusion process will include cannabis, creating what is commonly referred to as cannabis-infused edibles,� the two-page document shows.
The document asks Eugene planners to confirm that their plan is allowed under the property�s light-medium industrial zoning. It also says SightGlass has not yet secured a lease. La Pine residents Gary and Denise Tingey own the building, Lane County property records show.
No marijuana would be grown at the site. The edibles would sell to retail pot stores across the state.
SightGlass appears to keep a low profile. Its website describes the firm as �an outsource management services company focused on small businesses and non-profit organizations.� It says it offers cash management, accounting, tax advisory and legal services from its downtown San Francisco office.
The company�s phone number dials straight to a voicemail.
Michael Zellner is listed in the planning document as SightGlass Management�s vice president.
Oregon medical marijuana cardholders can purchase pot-laced edibles from dispensaries operating across the state. Legal retail recreational-marijuana edible sales are expected to start later this year. Adults 21 and older have been able to buy limited amounts of dried marijuana since Oct. 1 for recreational purposes.
Oregon voters� legalization of recreational pot use in the 2014 election sparked new pot-focused business activity in cities that have opted not to prohibit retail sales.
New York City marijuana-business real estate firm Kalyx Development last year paid $3 million for a 107,000-square-foot building on West Third Avenue in Eugene.
A Michigan laboratory testing marijuana strains for potency and pollutants opened a small Eugene office on Centennial Loop in October.
Local commercial real estate agents have said they�re fielding dozens of calls from businesses looking to open marijuana-related businesses, such as dispensaries or growing operations.
SightGlass�s planning document says the company would convert 2,000 square feet of warehouse space for processing cannabis-infused products, and use 970 square feet as an office.
Follow Elon on Twitter @EGlucklich. Email elon.glucklich@registerguard.com.The following is a report from inside the Kimye wedding by a Page Six spy.
Florence has bid arrivederci and goodbye to Kanye and Kim. Come back soon, but please, not too soon.
They held their wedding on a grassy ridge at the top of the Forti di Belvedere. The couple didn’t want to do it at an accessible part of the fort, so they hired a crane to lift every single item used in the wedding up 230 feet (70 meters) to the very top.
The biggest decorative element of the wedding was a giant gold box, 49 feet (15 meters) tall, which contained the bathrooms. It was situated right next to the dinner tables at the reception with a bar in front of it. According to one Italian, “Their toilet was the star of the show.” The Italians named it the Torre di Bagni Oro (translation: the Gold Toilet Tower).
The dinner table was a long marble table. Instead of place cards, they had a team of Italian stonemasons engrave the name of each guest into the marble of the tabletop in front of the individual place settings. The job was finished the night before. Unfortunately, the wedding planners had spelled some people’s names wrong. And then, so many people brought entourages, the seating was a disaster. The only people who sat at their own seats were Kim and Kanye.
Four days before the wedding, they ordered 30 life-size nudes to be made from black marble from Carrara. The marble workers worked through the night to cut enough blocks, but 10 of them fell apart, another 10 were too damaged in transit to put out, and of the remaining 10, four were missing their heads. They were put out around the dinner tables.
Kanye came to the venue two hours before the wedding during set-up and ordered the marble nudes moved out farther away from the dinner tables. Each weighed half a ton, so the whole crew spent the final two hours rushing to get them moved. The forklifts were the first thing the guests saw upon arrival. And the gleaming Gold Toilet Tower.
Also two hours before the wedding, Kanye decided he didn’t need the 80 moving lights that he had ordered installed to light the dance floor and the party, declaring, “I’m in the center of this party, and I’m the only one people need to see. The rest of these people don’t need lights on them.” The lights, which had taken four days to install, were all removed, and the crane took them down the hill.
Kanye returned one hour before the wedding and didn’t like the all-white bar that was in front of the Gold Toilet Tower. He took a saw and started sawing it in half himself. Two men held the bar stable as he sawed, and sawed, into the bar, defacing the entire front, screaming at everyone around him. He said it looked like a bar from Texas. Then he ordered two pieces of raw wood to be nailed onto the front of the bar. Once the wood was in place, “Now,” he said, “it’s art.” The Italian construction teams looked at this guy and couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
At that same visit, when Kanye saw the $136,000 (100,000 Euro) audio system, described by one producer as the single best system in Europe, he said he didn’t like the look of the speakers and wanted them to be invisible. He said that “You Italians don’t understand my Minimalist style.” So he had the entire system pulled out as the guests were arriving, and his wedding music came from an iPod until after dinner.
There was the custom-built marble piano that John Legend used to play the song “Ordinary People.” Yes, you read that correctly: a marble piano.
Kanye danced five songs alone with Kim to John Legend (playing the marble piano), with no one else on the dance floor, and light only on them. It felt like it went on forever. Kanye then gave a 45-minute toast to himself.
As for the guests: Will Smith‘s son Jaden wore a white Batman costume and ran around like a chicken with its head cut off from 8:30 p.m. until 10:25 p.m., batting glasses off tables whenever he came to an empty seat, smashing them on the ground. Vogue Italia’s editor in chief, Franca Sozzani, was getting irritated because he kept coming up behind her and throwing his cape over her head.
People arrived at the ceremony several drinks in: Several rounds of cocktails had been served to the guests who waited for Kim, who was 25 minutes late to the wedding. In the time between ceremony and dinner, one woman in her 50s was so drunk that she collapsed. An ambulance arrived and just as the medics got to the guest, a Justin Bieber fan, hoping to catch a sight of him, who had climbed up to the top of the Belvedere tower, fell. As the Bieber fan was seriously hurt, they triaged the drunk guest, left her lying on an ottoman and went off to take care of the fallen fan. The drunk woman spent the rest of the night passed out on the ottoman, while the Bieber fan was taken to the hospital. Bieber never showed up.
Earlier, Kim had come out to check the venue. A lone spotlight was shining on the terrace as she walked out. She stopped with the beam focused on her crotch. She was furious that a beam of light had hit her crotch (even though she was the one who walked into the beam) and started screaming, ran over to the electrical boards and unplugged the entire circuit. This shut down half the lights on the cocktail area. It also turned out the lights in the bathrooms, so the Gold Toilet Tower was dark inside, and everyone was too afraid to plug the lights back in.
Andrea Bocelli sang during Kim’s processional. The blind opera legend had been asked as a guest, but the wedding planners hadn’t provided a seat for him. He said he’d be happy with a glass of water, and was told after his performance, “Thank you, but it’s time for you to get in your car and go home.” Bye-bye to one of the greatest living Italian vocalists of all time.
And the most prominent wedding gift was a giant bottle of Chianti, which had been dipped in gold (probably great for the flavor of the wine), the cork replaced with a diamond, a gift from Jay Z (a no-show).Just how committed Canada's political parties are to freer trade is about to be tested as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations enter their end game. To enjoy TPP benefits, we need to reform the supply management system that controls our dairy, egg and poultry production.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits the United States this week to talk trade and security with President Barack Obama. They will discuss access for Japanese autos and U.S. agricultural products, major sticking points in concluding TPP negotiations.
Meanwhile, the U.S. legislation giving Mr. Obama trade promotion authority to "fast track" the TPP through Congress moves closer to reality with its passage last week through the relevant House and Senate committees.
Story continues below advertisement
When Mr. Obama was elected, there was little expectation that trade liberalization would be part of the Obama legacy. Climate, immigration and health-care reforms were to be his signature achievements but not freer trade because it roiled labour unions and environmentalists – key elements of the Democrat base.
But in 2009, during his first trip to Asia, Mr. Obama embraced the freer trade pact, originally initiated in 2002 by New Zealand, Chile, Brunei and Singapore. With the United States aboard, Australia and then Peru, Vietnam and Malaysia signed on.
At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Honolulu in November, 2011, Stephen Harper secured Mr. Obama's consent for Canadian participation on the basis that supply management was negotiable. Mexico also joined the TPP talks and, later, Japan. South Korea and Taiwan have signalled their interest in TPP.
When negotiated, TPP will cover 40 per cent of world trade and promises to be "the most progressive trade agreement in history." It will reduce tariffs, cover services, procurement and intellectual property and include enforceable standards on labour and the environment.
Strategically, TPP is the economic complement to the U.S. military rebalance to Asia. U.S. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter describes TPP as important as "another aircraft carrier."
The pressure is on Canada to deal with our supply management practices because, as Mr. Harper recently acknowledged "we as Canadians cannot, alone, stop a deal from happening if we don't like it."
For Canada, the significance of the TPP goes beyond setting the standards for future trade deals. It gives trade negotiations a boost. After 14 years, the World Trade Organization's Doha Round is approaching zombification. The TPP also effectively updates the competitive framework for North America without reopening NAFTA. With TPP membership, we also avoid becoming just a spoke in a U.S. hub.
Story continues below advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
The U.S. threatens to exclude Canada if we don't deal on supply management but when it comes to agricultural protectionism, the U.S. also has much to reform. We need to call the U.S. on their export subsidies for dairy products and other technical barriers.
Canada should be a world leader in dairy exports. We make our superb artisanal cheese, with Quebec alone producing more than 300 varieties. We have land, climate and an increasingly competitive industry, if only we would look at it from the right end of the telescope.
Look to New Zealand and Australia. They reformed their supply management practices two decades ago. New Zealand's co-operatives now export 95 per cent of their milk product.
Studies by our research institutes – C. D. Howe, Macdonald-Laurier, George Morris, Conference Board, School of Public Policy – argue that supply management costs Canadian consumers and stunts industry growth. They provide road-maps for transition from our current costly protectionism to profitable export growth.
Canada was once the "bread-basket" of the world. We should aim to own the global food podium and add dairy and poultry to our export leadership in pork and beef, grains and pulse. But to do so, we need to open new markets in the Pacific and elsewhere.
The Conservatives, Liberals and NDP declare they are committed to freer trade. Each party is equally committed to supply management. Defending supply management is part of our political DNA, laments John Manley, a former industry minister and now CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives. He compares it to "a dog that it is better not to poke or it will jump up and bite you."
Story continues below advertisement
Rather than fear competition, we should take the muzzle off supply marketing and follow former prime minister Brian Mulroney's advice to open our industry's "enormous export potential."
Will our national leaders work with our premiers to reform supply management? Leaving supply management reform to Stephen Harper's granddaughter is not an option.
The opportunities of membership in the TPP will create benefits that our grandchildren will enjoy. It's time for us to reform supply management.Engaging life challenges us to be fully present and actively involved in our moment-to-moment experience, without clinging to joy and without resisting sorrow. ~ Toni Bernhard
Equanimity.
The act of greeting whatever confronts us with an even temper and steady reaction.
Cultivating this state is how we stay calm regardless of whatever confronts us rather than adding on top of our suffering with the emotions that come from clinging to joy and resisting sorrow.
When we face particularly difficult emotions or situations, without any training, it can be very easy to pile suffering on top of our experiences without realising it.
Toni Bernhard says:
Grasping at what is pleasant sets us up for impermanence dukkha because change is inevitable |
Supermarkets are racing to fill meat cases for the summer grilling season even as supplies tighten, analysts said. Hog supplies were already tight after last summer’s historic drought drove up feed-grain costs, which prompted a higher-than-normal slaughter rate last summer. The first U.S. case of PEDV was reported on May 17. But researchers at the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and other diagnostic labs have since discovered that PEDV arrived as early as April 16, according to the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.
Farmers and county fair goers should be extra hygienic around swine, experts say. From PorkNetwork:
PED typically is spread through the feces of infected swine or contaminated trailers, equipment, boots, clothing and hands. The way it is spread makes it a particular concern now because a number of states will be holding fairs soon, according to [swine specialist David Newman of North Dakota State University]. He says everyone involved in pig handling, including hog operation employees and owners, and those transporting pigs, need to take steps to avoid spreading the virus.
Ew. Time to experiment with veganism?The campus of Washington State University in Southeast Washington’s agricultural region looks like a typical land-grant university. The connected mix of art-deco, modern, and post-modern buildings that collectively house the College of Engineering and Architecture hide a strange and incredible secret: that the researchers inside are close to making human-compatible ceramic bone grafts and custom-made prostheses and implants. In short, they’re building cyborgs in Palouse.
Welcome to the future of 3D-printed body hacks. Dr. Susmita Bose and Dr. Amit Bandyopadhyay have been waiting for you.
In the same way that commercial 3D printing has changed product design and prototyping, these researchers are creating a way to build body parts. Their cheap, iterative designs take the best of the 3D-printing industry and add novel materials like resorbable ceramic powders and titanium. The resulting artificial body parts can then be placed on humans, creating some of the most complex chimeras in existence.
“Using 3D-printing technology, and optimum material chemistry, one can control the geometry and shape of the scaffold and bone-like material chemistry at the same time. We can control the resorption and dissolution kinetics in a controlled manner that can be used based on application need. If you can resorp the scaffold, then the ultimate result would be for the natural healing to replace the scaffold and need for a second surgery, as is needed with current technologies,” explains Dr. Bose on a recent visit to her office.
The calcium phosphate-based ceramic bone grafts, for low-load-bearing bones, and titanium prostheses, for high-load-bearing applications, that the MRG is making are not ready for human use yet, but Dr. Bose and Dr. Bandyopadhyay both think 3D-printing technology will have a place in medicine.
At the Materials Research Group, Dr. Bose, Dr. Bandyopadhyay, and their graduate students run an impressive, interdisciplinary program. Dr. Bandyopadhyay stated that their work is “primarily an engineering-based solution to a biological problem.” The work, according to Dr. Bose, combines chemistry, materials characterization, materials processing and biological characterization.
When asked if we might see 3D printers in hospitals, ready to make custom grafts and prostheses, Dr. Bandyopadhyay says simply that “Co-location is not required.” He tells a story of working with CAD files generated from an MRI that he received from a neurosurgeon in India. Dr. Bandyopadhyay had never met the surgeon or the patient, but using the CAD files, he was able to print a custom titanium plate for a large section of the patient’s skull that was destroyed in a motorcycle crash.
“It takes one to two days to print a piece like that, and it takes up to one to two days to stabilize a patient after major trauma,” said Dr. Bandyopadhyay.
“Use of 3D printing can be used in a much broader sense, we can also develop a remedy or structure for a defect-specific or patient-specific bone defect. If the doctor provides a scan, we can convert it to a CAD file and make the bone scaffold specific to the defect size or shape,” said Dr. Bose. With current bone graft and prosthesis manufacturing methods, making a device from a patient specific image or out of an unusual material, due to a patient allergy to chromium for example, is prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Dr. Bose and Dr. Bandyopadhyay are working on making 3D printers into a cheaper, faster and more precise manufacturing methods.
The Group also works with WSU professors of veterinary medicine for testing the viability of their grafts and prostheses. Graduate students work on all aspects of the research, from imaging to CAD to 3D printing to veterinary surgery, explains Dr. Bandyopadhyay.
A walk through the Materials Research Group’s labs reveals the sequence of the process for printing and testing the ceramic and metal. The first room holds several 3D printers, one for ceramic powder and polymer binder, one for metal powder and one for just polymer. The next room houses a plasma sprayer for further refining products with additional coatings. And finally, a room for cell culture, where cells are grown for introduction to printed objects. Seeing where each of these phases happens gives an appreciation of how much Dr. Bose and Dr. Bandyopadhyay have accomplished since 1998.
But what about using 3D printers to build living things, with cell-based inks? A number of researchers at universities and private companies are doing just that.
Looking to revolutionize how doctors obtain organs and tissues, specialists in regenerative medicine are using 3D printers with cell-based ink in conjunction with existing tissue culture techniques to create organs and tissues that could save, extend, and improve patients’ lives. 3D printers with ink containing cultured cells deposit at least one type of cell on a protein scaffold or within a mold made of a dissolvable gel. When the printed tissues are kept in an environment with temperature and oxygen levels resembling those inside a living animal, the natural embryonic development processes make cells grow together, just as happens in living animals.
Professor Gabor Forgacs, of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Biological Physics department, founded San Diego-based company Organovo in 2007. Organovo began operations in 2009, seeking to use 3D-printing technology in regenerative medicine.
Organovo uses 3D printers to assemble 2D layers of cellular material corralled within a mold of non-invasive gel. Cellular self-assembly takes over and leads to the 2D layers flowing together, leaving the tissue with the desired shape and function. The non-invasive gel allows Organovo to print and grow tissue without using a protein scaffold for printed cells to adhere to and grow on. Protein scaffolds, whether made from an existing organ stripped of its cells or created in a lab, have been a staple of other efforts to cultivate organs and tissues.
On April 22, 2013, Organovo announced that it had created the world’s “first fully cellular 3D bioprinted liver tissue.” This multicellular material is able to perform many functions of a natural liver, including cholesterol biosynthesis, enzymatic activities, and production of other compounds. Organovo stated the liver tissue is up to 500 microns and 20 cells thick, and exhibits “tissue-like cellular density.”
Organovo has developed its own 3D printer and software package for scaffold-free bioprinting, the NovoGen MMX Bioprinter. While Organovo has yet to produce any tissue that has gone into a patient, pharmaceutical researchers are already using the NovoGen MMX Bioprinter to create human tissues for drug development and disease modeling. In February 2013, Organovo and ZenBio announced a partnership for using ZenBio’s expertise in providing human cell solutions with Organovo’s printing technology. Organovo offers training and support to companies that purchase the printer. In December 2012, Organovo announced a collaboration with Autodesk “to create the first 3D design software for bioprinting.”
Besides Organovo, several universities have been developing 3D bioprinting technology. Chief among these are the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), Cornell University and the University of Iowa.
WFIRM was the first facility in the world to transplant a lab-grown organ into a human. Dr. Anthony Atala, chair and director of the institute as well as the head of the Wake Forest Urology Department, has transplanted “hundreds” of lab-grown bladders into patients since the early 2000s. WFIRM does not use a printer for these bladders; rather they use a biopsy from the patient’s bladder to culture cells around a scaffold, and then incubate the bladder in a chamber whose temperature and oxygen level are meant to mimic conditions inside a healthy human.
WFIRM has now pioneered use of printers in its regenerative medicine labs. Researchers have used a modified inkjet printer, with solution of cells in the ink cartridge, to print organs, including a mouse heart. WFIRM researchers have developed techniques to grow large areas of skin from human foreskins, and are now developing a vial-based scan-and-print system to apply skin cells to burns that would normally require taking skin grafts from other areas on a patient’s body. In lab experiments, wounds on mice treated with printed skin cells healed in three weeks, versus five weeks for mice not treated with the printed skin.
Now, WFIRM is combining its expertise in culturing cells and using inkjet printers with cell-based inks to use 3D printers to create major organs with multiple tissue types. The 3D printer uses morphometric models based on CT scans. Dr. Atala brought one of WFIRM’s customized 3D printers to a 2011 TED Talk and presented a human kidney that was printed backstage. While the organ Dr. Atala presented in his talk is not suitable for transplant, it shows the amazing potential of 3D printers to create organs for transplants that do not require a finding and transporting an organ from a donor. Since a 3D printer can use ink created from a patient’s own cells, donor compatibility issues and threats to transplanted organs from the patient’s immune system will disappear.
The University of Iowa’s Biomanufacturing Laboratory, part of the Mechanical and Industrial Department, has Dr. Ibrahim Ozbolat using the world’s only multi-arm 3D bio-printer to make organs. The multi-arm printer, developed at the University of Iowa’s Center for Computer Aided Design’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology group, or AMTech, can print complex structures using different kinds of cells simultaneously. For example, one arm can print vascular tissue while another arm prints tissue specific to the organ being printed, such as the glucose-sensitive pancreatic tissue.
Ozbolat is a co-director at AMTech, and he hopes to print usable organs within five to ten years. AMTech is currently focusing on creating pancreatic tissue, using an interdisciplinary team that includes specialists in medicine, biology, anatomy, mechanical engineering, robotics and computer aided design. According to Ozbolat, creating blood vessels is essential to printing any tissue that is more than one centimeter thick, to keep cells from dying.
At Cornell University, Dr. Lawrence Bonassar of the Biomedical Engineering Department recently made news when his lab used a 3D printer to create a human earlobe. The process begins by scanning the patient’s head in order to create a computer model of the ear’s shape. This model then directs a 3D printer using a cell-based ink to print the ear. Ears are a good option for printing, because cartilage does not require a blood supply.
Stepping away from medical uses for 3D bioprinting, Professor Gabor Forgacs of Organovo and his son Andras founded Modern Meadow with Dr. Francoise Marga and Dr. Karoly Jakab in 2011. The Columbia, Mo.-based company wants to use 3D printers and other processes that allow for large-scale production to make meat and leather. Modern Meadow’s founders believe that meat and leather printed from lab-grown cells can provide safer, more environmentally friendly animal products than farming and ranching.
Modern Meadow’s process starts with a biopsy from a healthy animal, taking skin for leather, or muscle, fat and other tissues for meat. Modern Meadow claims that cultured meat requires 99 percent less land, 96 percent less water and 45 percent less energy than meat from livestock. In addition, cultured meat produces 96 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, and does not risk spreading livestock-borne disease.
“If we can get this technology right, and if we can mainstream it, then it supports a different, positive vision from science fiction, one where we can locally grow on-demand, cruelty free, sustainably abundant amounts of meat and leather in a way that can protect and preserve our future on this planet and beyond.”
Modern Meadow has made some meat and leather in their labs, but the products are far from ready for the marketplace. Modern Meadow’s plan is to test-market higher-end fashion products and gourmet meat before broadening into lower-priced markets as Modern Meadow’s production costs decrease and its reputation grows. Modern Meadow expects leather products to be ready before meat. Aside from the regulatory, cultural and engineering challenges to selling engineered meat, Gabor Forgacs explains in this TED Talk, where he eats a bite-sized morsel of printed pork, that Modern Meadow is still fine-tuning the fat content and electrical stimulation of muscle tissue during development that are necessary to make lab-grown meat taste like farm-raised meat.
This is just the beginning. Andras Forgacs explained in a Reddit IAMA, “Real steak is a big stretch. It won’t be the first product since steak is very hard to make for now. Instead, the first wave of meat products to be made with this approach will likely be minced meats (burgers, sausages, etc.) and pates (goose liver pate, etc.). Also seafood is an early possibility since the texture requires may be easier to achieve than premium cuts.”
Andras Forgacs closes a 2013 Solve for X presentation by summing up Modern Meadow’s goal nicely. “If we can get this technology right, and if we can mainstream it, then it supports a different, positive vision from science fiction, one where we can locally grow on-demand, cruelty free, sustainably, abundant amounts of meat and leather in a way that can protect and preserve our future on this planet and beyond.”
You won’t be eating a steak that comes from a 3D printer in 2013 or 2014, nor will you have a kidney, pancreas or bone graft from a 3D printer. But a number of academics and entrepreneurs are working on promising projects with 3D bioprinting that may well revolutionize our food industry and organ-transplant system within the next decade. It’s just a matter of time that some of us will be listening to the music of the spheres with our strange and revolutionary 3D-printed ears.
[Image: AFP Photo/Cornell University/Lindsay France]Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Most ordinary people in Ireland will know a transgender person in 10 years time, according to author Declan Henry.
Author of the new book 'Trans Voices: Becoming Who You Are', Declan was speaking to Marty Morrissey about the book and the experience of writing it.
Declan said factors such as "major shifts in legislation, the way media portrays [trans issues] is much more favourable and more and more people are coming out as trans," in terms of making transgender issues more open.
He said he became interested in the issue due to not knowing any transgender people himself and wanted to know more.
(Image: Declan Henry Facebook)
He said: "I personally didn't know any transgender people, certainly not directly.
"I discovered that it's not a subject that's extensively written about, nor is it necessarily a subject that's well-researched."
Declan also felt a "personal aspect" in the subject as a gay man and approached writing the book as an ally within the LGBT community.
The book is made of interviews Declan conducted across UK and Ireland, ranging from 19-year olds in Dublin to 79-year olds in Bedforshire.
Though each story is unique, Declan did find a common theme of people "recognising that there was something wrong, that their brain didn't match their physical body, what they were assigned at birth."
"It was certainly something they recognized from childhood, from a very early age, that they felt more comfortable dressed in the opposite sex, playing with toys in the opposite sex."
(Image: Declan Henry Facebook)
Declan also clarified what constituted as transgender, using himself as an example of someone who was assigned male at birth and is quite happy with that compared to a trans woman.
"Initially, she would have been assigned male at birth but, from an early age, they realized that their brain doesn't match the physical body they were born with."
He said non-binary people were in a minority in the transgender community.
He added: "This category consist of people assigned male or female at birth who don't identify as one or, in some cases, they may identify as male and female. In a sense, they aim towards a degree of neutrality, they want to become more androgynous."No better man could be grand marshal of next weekend's 40th running of the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix. Mario Andretti started 19 Long Beach GPs between 1975-'94 and won the race four times, driving an F1 Lotus in 1977 and Newman/Haas Lola Indy cars in 1984, '85 and '87.
Through those years Mario was known as the King of Long Beach and race founder Chis Pook always said Andretti's victory in 1977 was the key to turning the race from a financial failure into a success. For that and plenty of other reasons many of us are looking forward to celebrating Mario's career on Thursday night at the Road Racing Driver's Club dinner at the downtown Long Beach Hilton hosted by RRDC president Bobby Rahal and enjoying his role as grand marshal of this year's race.
Going back to the first Long Beach GP for Formula 5000 cars back in 1975, Andretti was the race's biggest draw. Driving a Vel's Parnelli Jones Lola T332-Chevy he led the first LBGP before suffering a transmission failure. The following year he competed in the first Formula One race at Long Beach driving VPJ's Cosworth-powered F1 car.
© Racemaker/Jim Shane
"I found out in the cockpit at the start of the race at Long Beach when Chris Economaki put a microphone in front of my face and said, 'Mario, how's it feel to be in your last Formula One race?' I said, 'What do you think? Am I going to kill myself, or something?' He said, 'Vel Melitich just announced this is his last race.' Neither Parnelli nor Vel had said anything to me."
Andretti qualified an unhappy 15th and didn't finish his last race in the Parnelli but the following morning at breakfast at the Hilton he bumped into Colin Chapman.
"I was really down," Mario says. "I had this mindset of doing Formula One. I didn't want to do anything else. I felt there was a time in my career and this had to be it. There was no more. If I missed this opportunity, I would have been too old. I was 35 years old and it was already a little late.
"So I'm asking myself, 'What do I do?' And here again, as fate would have it, Colin had the worst race he ever had and we're having breakfast in the Queensway Hilton, both of us alone. I was so much in the dumps and I joined Colin and we started talking and we made a deal right then and there."
© Paul Webb
Chapman had Swede Gunnar Nilsson and Englishman Bob Evans in his cars at Long Beach, but Evans failed to qualify and Nilsson barely scraped in at the back of the field before crashing on the opening lap when his car's rear suspension broke.
"I said I want to do Formula One," Mario recalls about that breakfast meeting with Chapman. "And Colin, said, 'Right. You come on as number one.' I wasn't all that excited because his cars were junk. They hadn't done anything in a few years. He was involved in his new car company and a boat company. The car company went public and he made a pile of money. That's where his interests were at the time.
"I said the only way this will work is if you come back full-time to racing. Forget about your car company and the boat company, and come racing, and he agreed. I felt like the horizon had just opened because there was so much potential there."
Indeed, Chapman and Andretti's new partnership resulted in Team Lotus developing a series of increasingly effective 'ground effect' cars culminating in Mario winning the 1978 F1 World Championship aboard Chapman's exquisite JPS Lotus 79.
Meanwhile, Andretti won at Long Beach in 1977 driving a precursor to the 79 after outbraking Jody Scheckter's Wolf with four laps to go and holding off a late challenge from Niki Lauda's Ferrari. Chris Pook has always said Mario's win that day turned the struggling street race into a success as crowds and media interest blossomed over the following years amid Andretti's run to the 1978 World Championship.
© Paul Webb
"Nobody could ever question my desire or my passion for the sport," he says. "But at the same time I had enough pride that I wanted to remember my last year and last days in the sport in a positive way. I looked over my shoulder and looked at some of my compadres who overstayed themselves a little bit. I said I just hope I don't have those memories. That was always my fear and it's real because your career doesn't last forever.
"I like to think I accomplished that," Mario adds. "I was still competitive with any of the young guys. I'm sure that some of it was missing, but not a lot, and that's part of my satisfaction in my career. My head is high about my last year. I have great memories. I look at the positives and I think the positives far outweigh the negatives."
Brian Lisles was Andretti's engineer through Mario's last five years with Newman/Haas. Lisles says Mario's relentless effort to do a better job continued through his last race and final pitstop.
"There were things Mario still did better than Michael, even at the end of his career," Lisles remarked. "When it came down to a pitstop that was really going to make a difference, there was nobody quicker. Nobody would stop the car better and nobody would get out of the pitbox faster than Mario when he really decided he needed to do it. To be honest, that was something Michael was never that good at. Any number of times we used to beat people out of the pits with Mario because he worked hard at it and was very attentive to what was going on when the car was stopped."
John Tzouanakis worked for Newman/Haas for more than 30 years and was team manager for much of that time. Tzouanakis says he never saw any real sense of Mario aging.
"Mario was still Mario," Tzouanakis observed. "He was getting up there in age but week in and week out we would still have a shot at winning. He would go out to practice and it wouldn't matter if you were on an oval or whatever. He'd maybe do an installation lap and then maybe three or four laps later he'd be going as fast as he was going to go all weekend and it was usually right there with the fast time that people were going to do. It was incredible how he would just get in the thing and go. He would get right up to speed and then start fine-tuning cambers and dampers and whatnot.
"He was always in the top five or six and in those days you had quite a few strong cars and teams. Sure, Mario was getting up there in years but compared to who he was racing against you didn't say. 'Here's the old guy competing against all the kids.' He still knew what he wanted and how he wanted to go about things. He didn't slow-down one bit."
© Paul Webb
"They had every Goodyear engineer known to man out there and they all said they were disappointed it was all over because they loved to do tire tests with the old man," Hoevel said. "There were times when they'd slip in a set of control tires without telling him and he'd say, 'Ah, you guys are trying to fool me! You can't fool me. I know what you're doing.' There aren't too many people who have that kind of feel."
Neil Ressler was Ford's racing boss in those days. Ressler oversaw Ford's technical involvement with the Benetton team in F1 and Newman/Haas in Indy cars.
"We were taking instrumentation on those cars in '93 and '94 and I remember Mario would go into the turns and give the steering wheel a flick," Ressler recalls. "The cornering speeds were close to 230 mph and he'd flick the wheel just to see what the car was doing. Honest to God. How he could do that I have no idea. I guess he had good enough car control that he could catch it.
"Once we took Mario and Paul Newman on a couple of Ford test drives for Mustangs and Mario picked up some subtleties in the steering that Jackie Stewart had felt. I suppose we believed as part of Jackie's promotional front for Ford that he was the only guy in the universe who could have felt that. But Mario felt it on the first turn. It turned out there were two people in the universe who understood and felt the subtleties that were being talked about."
Peter Gibbons was Michael Andretti's engineer in 1992 and engineered Nigel Mansel's car in 1993 and '94 when Mansell was Mario's teammate.
"I have the utmost respect for Mario and he was such a part of the team and such a part of the setups," Gibbons said. "His work ethic was just remarkable. Michael hated it when the wind blew at Indianapolis, for example, and dad would say, 'Stay in the garage and I'll sort it out for you.'
"We would get to some street courses where perhaps Mario's age and fitness were showing up but it never really dawned on me that his abilities were diminishing or were diminished because he was such a productive part of the equation. Even though maybe he wasn't winning races, behind the scenes he was helping get the setups and was so involved and so intrigued.
© Dan Boyd
Gibbons says he's never seen another driver with Mario's relentless work ethic.
"He worked so hard at it," Gibbons remarked. "He worked harder than anyone I've ever worked with. Rick Mears was so amazingly naturally talented that he didn't have to work at it. Emerson (Fittipaldi) worked at it, but Mario loved working at it. I think we used fifty-five sets of tires at Indianapolis one year. Nobody was going to tell us that we couldn't have another set because nobody dared tell Mario that. He was just phenomenal. Again, I never thought his abilities diminished. He was a major contributor to our effort until the day he retired.
"Mario was the team," Gibbons adds. "His contributions to our setups were incredible. I remember we were testing at Phoenix once and Mario drove in and he said, 'You know, I was driving to work today and I was thinking.' And I said to myself, 'Hmm! I never thought of Mario thinking of this as work.' But this was his profession and he thought about it all the time.
"Michael had seen the standard set by Mario and lived with it and he actually matched the standard, but only because he had been exposed to it so much. I think Mike didn't enjoy it like Mario. I never got the impression that Michael enjoyed doing it, but Mario just lived for it."
Bruce Ashmore was Lola's chief Indy car designer from 1987-'93. Ashmore says he learned everything he needed to know about how to go testing from Mario.
"He is the most influential driver in my career," Ashmore declared. "That's because he loved to test and develop new ideas. He always wanted to try something new. He would be in the car at nine o'clock in the morning and if you had to he would run every hour until six o'clock with the sun in his eyes. Yet he would run every lap the same so that the component you were testing was the difference that made the lap time. From the moment you got to the racetrack in the morning until the moment you went home at night you concentrated on the racing.
© Dan Boyd
"The other part of Mario is that when you went to the racetrack he would look at other teams and cars and wonder what they were doing. But he would never say, 'I need that car to win this race.' He would always say, 'How can we make this car beat that car?' He always believed that what I had designed would win the race and the championship, and for a designer that is huge. If you're always looking over your shoulder because you know your driver really wants a March, or a Penske, and not your car, it's hugely deflating. And most drivers are like that."
Ashmore says he's never encountered another driver who supported the designer as strongly as Mario.
"As a designer you're always criticizing yourself and when you push the car out the door you're never happy with it because you can always think of ways how you could have done it better," Ashmore related. "All you see as a designer is the flaws. So you don't need a driver to point out the flaws and the big thing about Mario was he would never do that. To him, it was always a beautiful thing and he would try everything he could to make that car win the race, and he did a lot of times.
"When you went testing with Mario he was always thinking. He was always asking, 'Why do we this?' Or, 'Can we do this, or change that?' I'd always come home from a test with Mario with more questions than I had answers. He was always thinking and pushing."
For many reasons, whether it was his work ethic, technical application or racer's heart, or his character and charisma out of the car, Mario Andretti has gone down in history as America's Mr. Motor Racing. At Long Beach next weekend, we will take great pleasure in celebrating his remarkable career and life.
No better man could be grand marshal of next weekend's 40th running of the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix. Mario Andretti started 19 Long Beach GPs between 1975-'94 and won the race four times, driving an F1 Lotus in 1977 and Newman/Haas Lola Indy cars in 1984, '85 and '87.Through those years Mario was known as the King of Long Beach and race founder Chis Pook always said Andretti's victory in 1977 was the key to turning the race from a financial failure into a success. For that and plenty of other reasons many of us are looking forward to celebrating Mario's career on Thursday night at the Road Racing Driver's Club dinner at the downtown Long Beach Hilton hosted by RRDC president Bobby Rahal and enjoying his role as grand marshal of this year's race.Going back to the first Long Beach GP for Formula 5000 cars back in 1975, Andretti was the race's biggest draw. Driving a Vel's Parnelli Jones Lola T332-Chevy he led the first LBGP before suffering a transmission failure. The following year he competed in the first Formula One race at Long Beach driving VPJ's Cosworth-powered F1 car.Lacking sponsorship, VPJ's F1 program was clearly in jeopardy at the start of 1976. In fact, Mario drove a factory Lotus on a one-off basis in the F1 season-opener on Brazil, then reverted to the Parnelli for the South African GP and Long Beach before Jones closed the team's F1 operation following the withdrawal from racing of VPJ's primary sponsor Firestone. Mario was shocked to hear the news before the start at Long Beach from Chis Economaki."I found out in the cockpit at the start of the race at Long Beach when Chris Economaki put a microphone in front of my face and said, 'Mario, how's it feel to be in your last Formula One race?' I said, 'What do you think? Am I going to kill myself, or something?' He said, 'Vel Melitich just announced this is his last race.' Neither Parnelli nor Vel had said anything to me."Andretti qualified an unhappy 15th and didn't finish his last race in the Parnelli but the following morning at breakfast at the Hilton he bumped into Colin Chapman."I was really down," Mario says. "I had this mindset of doing Formula One. I didn't want to do anything else. I felt there was a time in my career and this had to be it. There was no more. If I missed this opportunity, I would have been too old. I was 35 years old and it was already a little late."So I'm asking myself, 'What do I do?' And here again, as fate would have it, Colin had the worst race he ever had and we're having breakfast in the Queensway Hilton, both of us alone. I was so much in the dumps and I joined Colin and we started talking and we made a deal right then and there."The 1975 season was the Lotus team's worst in its history, since first entering F1 in 1958. Between 1963 and '73 Lotus had won six F1 Constructor's Championships, but the team failed to win a race in 1975 and by Long Beach in '76 both Ronnie Peterson and Jacky Ickx had left the team.Chapman had Swede Gunnar Nilsson and Englishman Bob Evans in his cars at Long Beach, but Evans failed to qualify and Nilsson barely scraped in at the back of the field before crashing on the opening lap when his car's rear suspension broke."I said I want to do Formula One," Mario recalls about that breakfast meeting with Chapman. "And Colin, said, 'Right. You come on as number one.' I wasn't all that excited because his cars were junk. They hadn't done anything in a few years. He was involved in his new car company and a boat company. The car company went public and he made a pile of money. That's where his interests were at the time."I said the only way this will work is if you come back full-time to racing. Forget about your car company and the boat company, and come racing, and he agreed. I felt like the horizon had just opened because there was so much potential there."Indeed, Chapman and Andretti's new partnership resulted in Team Lotus developing a series of increasingly effective 'ground effect' cars culminating in Mario winning the 1978 F1 World Championship aboard Chapman's exquisite JPS Lotus 79.Meanwhile, Andretti won at Long Beach in 1977 driving a precursor to the 79 after outbraking Jody Scheckter's Wolf with four laps to go and holding off a late challenge from Niki Lauda's Ferrari. Chris Pook has always said Mario's win that day turned the struggling street race into a success as crowds and media interest blossomed over the following years amid Andretti's run to the 1978 World Championship.A few years later after Indy cars replaced F1 in Long Beach, Mario won the city's first CART race in 1984 before adding his third and fourth wins in 1985 & '87. He won all three of those races from the pole and finished fifth in his last start in the race at 54 years of age in 1994. Mario is rightfully proud of the way his Indy car career came to an end."Nobody could ever question my desire or my passion for the sport," he says. "But at the same time I had enough pride that I wanted to remember my last year and last days in the sport in a positive way. I looked over my shoulder and looked at some of my compadres who overstayed themselves a little bit. I said I just hope I don't have those memories. That was always my fear and it's real because your career doesn't last forever."I like to think I accomplished that," Mario adds. "I was still competitive with any of the young guys. I'm sure that some of it was missing, but not a lot, and that's part of my satisfaction in my career. My head is high about my last year. I have great memories. I look at the positives and I think the positives far outweigh the negatives."Brian Lisles was Andretti's engineer through Mario's last five years with Newman/Haas. Lisles says Mario's relentless effort to do a better job continued through his last race and final pitstop."There were things Mario still did better than Michael, even at the end of his career," Lisles remarked. "When it came down to a pitstop that was really going to make a difference, there was nobody quicker. Nobody would stop the car better and nobody would get out of the pitbox faster than Mario when he really decided he needed to do it. To be honest, that was something Michael was never that good at. Any number of times we used to beat people out of the pits with Mario because he worked hard at it and was very attentive to what was going on when the car was stopped."John Tzouanakis worked for Newman/Haas for more than 30 years and was team manager for much of that time. Tzouanakis says he never saw any real sense of Mario aging."Mario was still Mario," Tzouanakis observed. "He was getting up there in age but week in and week out we would still have a shot at winning. He would go out to practice and it wouldn't matter if you were on an oval or whatever. He'd maybe do an installation lap and then maybe three or four laps later he'd be going as fast as he was going to go all weekend and it was usually right there with the fast time that people were going to do. It was incredible how he would just get in the thing and go. He would get right up to speed and then start fine-tuning cambers and dampers and whatnot."He was always in the top five or six and in those days you had quite a few strong cars and teams. Sure, Mario was getting up there in years but compared to who he was racing against you didn't say. 'Here's the old guy competing against |
to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
In the six day after the US announcement, at least 16 other Palestinians were arrested for protesting. At least four have been killed in the violence since the US declaration, and more than 700 injured.
'He was beaten with a rifle'
Al-Junaidi also denies accusations of "participating in protests".
Witnesses have claimed they saw al-Junaidi throwing stones.
"He said he was fearful and was running away when tear gas canisters were being thrown," his lawyer, Farah Bayadsi, told Al Jazeera. "Fawzi said he was beaten with a rifle and he showed up with bruises all over his neck, chest and back."
The child faced an Israeli military court on Wednesday, following an initial hearing on Monday. He was charged with throwing stones, but the decision on his sentencing or release was adjourned until December 18.
"The police had called for an extension on Fawzi's arrest during the initial hearing," said Bayadsi, who works under the Defence for Children International - Palestine (DCIP).
"The prosecutor demanded a seven-day extension to the arrest so that they can prepare a list of indictments, but we refused," she said.
According to Bayadsi, the judge was stunned at the excessive force that al-Junaidi was subjected to - most apparent in the manner in which he was transferred to prison.
"He showed up with large slippers from the prison. He had lost his shoes and spoke about the way he was abused while being transferred to prison," she said.
"The prosecutors didn't even say whether the soldiers would be investigated for using excessive force. The whole case so far has been handled with neglect."
Though unlikely, Bayadsi said the defence team would try to secure al-Junaidi's release while his case is ongoing.
"It would be easier to speak with him [and] other witnesses, and to gather more evidence," she said.
'He was not protesting'
Due to his father's leg injury and his mother's terminal illness, al-Junaidi had been the main provider for his family of nine.
His uncle Rashad said that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"He left his house to buy some groceries. Unfortunately, as he was looking for the store, he bumped into a military ambush and was confronted with Israeli forces.
"They beat him, blindfolded him, arrested him, and first took him to the detention centre in a nearby settlement. That night, at 2am, he was transferred another detention centre," he told Al Jazeera.
"The day after, they took him to Ofer prison."
Ofer mostly holds administrative detainees. The prison rarely grants prisoners with visitation rights, and families are often denied entry.
"He was not protesting or anything", Rashad said. "Unfortunately, there has been absolutely no form of communication – we haven't spoken to him since his arrest."
Administrative detention is a practice in which Israel imprisons Palestinians without charge or trial, often based on "secret evidence".
More than 300 children detained in Israeli prisons
Ayed Abu Qtaish, DCIP's accountability programme director, said about 320 children are currently held in Israeli prisons and detention centres.
"In October 2015, there was a spike in the number of children being interrogated and arrested … A lot of them end up being tried in military courts," he said.
"These children are usually picked up at protests, arrested for throwing stones, for allegedly possessing a weapon, things like that," he explained.
Arrests of children usually happen at friction points – either near settlements, bypass roads, or at a construction site neat the separation barrier, he said.
"During these arrests, the children undergo various types of mistreatment, including torture," he said.
The southern West Bank city of Hebron has become the site of several Israeli settlements in the middle of the local Palestinian population.
According to Israeli rights group B'Tselem, Palestinians in Hebron have been subject to restrictions on movement, the closure of main streets, and the shutting down of a major commercial hub.
B'Tselem has documented Palestinians' experiences of lengthy, humiliating inspections at 20 permanent checkpoints across Hebron.
The presence of Israeli soldiers has led to a cycle of confrontation, often resulting in nightly military raids and arrests.
'The infamous breaking the bones policy is back'
Amjad Al-Najjar, spokesperson for the Hebron-based Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Al Jazeera that since the last wave of protests, Israeli forces have used excessive force when beating and arresting Palestinians.
"The infamous breaking the bones policy is back," he said, referencing policy by Israel's former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
When he was defence minister during the first Intifada - or mass uprising, Rabin ordered Israeli army commanders to break the bones of Palestinian protesters.
Today, this policy has evolved to specifically target the knees and legs of Palestinian youth to disable them and as a means to prevent them from protesting altogether.
"In the last few days, after the protests over the US embassy move, a lot of the youth who return home after being detained were in miserable shape," said Al-Najjar.
"They're often covered in blood and with stitches on their heads as a result of being severely abused and beaten up by Israeli forces," he added.
"They're often in so much pain, that they are unable to consume water and food."The End of the World
ASTEROID
iStockphoto
How it could happen: Objects from space impact Earth all the time, generally burning up in the atmosphere. Occasionally, a large object makes it through, resulting in a massive impact. The most recent major impact was the 1908 Tunguska event that flattened a 2,000-square-mile area of Siberian forest with an explosion about 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. The object involved, which was likely only a few dozen meters in diameter, could have wiped out a major metropolitan area.
The real danger would come from an object more than a kilometer in diameter, which could kick up enough sediment to cause environmental damage and crop failures worldwide. A rock the size of the 15-kilometer object that is thought to have killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago would probably wipe us out too.
How likely is it? Another large object is sure to hit the earth eventually, but almost certainly not during our lifetimes. An object big enough to kill off a substantial portion of the earth’s population only hits earth about twice every million years. None of the objects yet discovered by NASA’s Near Earth Objects program have a high probability of hitting the earth — though one known as 1950 DA will come extremely close in 2880. Given the relatively small effort devoted to identifying near-earth objects, there’s no guarantee that the earth would have much warning time before one hit. A previously unknown seven-meter asteroid passed just 14,000 kilometers from the earth’s surface on Nov. 6 and was noticed by NASA only 15 hours before what counts as an entirely too close encounter.
CLIMATE DISASTER
PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images
How it could happen: Under the worst-case scenario predicted by the International Panel on Climate Change, the global surface temperature of the Earth could increase by as much as 4-5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. (Many scientists believe that estimate is conservative). Such a scenario would lead to as much as a half-meter rise in sea levels, flooding coastal regions including many of the world’s major cities.
Meanwhile, nearly one-third of the planet could become desert and more than half would experience drought. The salinization of much of the Earth’s groundwater supply will only make this worse. The IPCC found that at even a 3.5 degree increase would put 40-70 percent of the world’s species at risk of extinction, and the potential for new geopolitical conflicts over dwindling resources is mind-boggling.
How likely is it? A recent MIT study found that current carbon trends bear out the IPCC’s worst-case scenarios or even exceed them. Global carbon levels are currently at 380 parts per million compared to 280 before the Industrial Revolution. Most scientists conclude that catastrophic effects will begin to be felt once those levels pass 450. If the Earth reaches 800-1000 parts per million, as the worst-case scenarios predict, it’s really anybody’s guess. While recent research by the National Oceanographic and Aeronautics Administration suggests that many of the effects of climate change are already irreversible, the worst, potentially civilization-ending outcomes could be mitigated by a substantial reduction in carbon emissions.
NUCLEAR WAR
How it could happen: There are currently more than 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world, of which 8,000 are currently operational and 2,000 are on high alert and ready to launch on short notice. While nuclear apocalypse has long been a popular subject for books and movies, the Dr. Strangelove scenario is actually fairly unlikely. Even in 1977, with nuclear arsenals near their Cold War height, the U.S. Defense Department of Defense predicted a maximum of 265 million casualties from a full-scale U.S.-Soviet nuclear war. Certainly, such a death toll would be enough to destroy both countries as superpowers, but not the end of life as we know it. With nuclear stockpiles substantially reduced since then, the casualties would likely be much lower today.
However, scientists in the 1980s developed models showing that the dust and smoke caused by a superpower nuclear war would cause temperature and precipitation shifts unprecedented in human history — a “nuclear winter.” A study by Cornell ecologist Mark Harwell in 1986 predicted that global agriculture would be wiped out completely for a year, leading to a famine that would wipe out most of humanity. A 2007 study by ecologists at Rutgers University found that current global nuclear stockpiles are still capable of producing this outcome.
How likely is it? The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the famous “Doomsday Clock” in 1947 to convey how close humanity is to “catastrophic destruction.” The clock reached its high-point — 2 minutes to midnight — after the first hydrogen bomb tests in 1953. The BAS moved the clock back to 17 minutes after the end of the Cold War but it has been steadily ticking back toward midnight since then, with rogue states such as North Korea developing nuclear weapons and tensions increasing between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan and it currently stands at 5 minutes to midnight.
Despite this, the worst-case scenario of all-out nuclear war between two superpowers is far less likely than it once was. The nuclear winter theory also remains controversial, with some scientists saying the predicted effects have been exaggerated.
PLAGUE
MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Image
How it could happen: Throughout history, plagues have brought civilizations to their knees. The Black Death killed more off more than half of Europe’s population in the Middle Ages. In 1918, a flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people, nearly 3 percent of the world’s population, a far greater impact than the just-concluded World War I. Because of globalization, diseases today spread even faster – witness the rapid worldwide spread of H1N1 currently unfolding.
A global outbreak of a disease such as ebola virus — which has had a 90 percent fatality rate during its flare-ups in rural Africa — or a mutated drug-resistant form of the flu virus on a global scale could have a devastating, even civilization-ending impact.
How likely is it? Treatment of deadly diseases has improved since 1918, but so have the diseases. Modern industrial farming techniques have been blamed for the outbreak of diseases, such as swine flu, and as the world’s population grows and humans move into previously unoccupied areas, the risk of exposure to previously unknown pathogens increases. More than 40 new viruses have emerged since the 1970s, including ebola and HIV. Biological weapons experimentation has added a new and just as troubling complication.
THE UNKNOWN UNKNOWN
NASA
How it could happen: There are any number of theories for how human civilization — the world as we know it — might end. Some are natural: supervolcanoes erupting like the one in Yellowstone National Park that could severely alter the Earth’s climate or a gamma-ray burst from a star that would cause dangerous radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere. Others are man-made: overpopulation causing a food crisis or the accidental development of dangerous new technologies.
How likely is it? Sooner or later, the world will end. In about 5-8 billion years, according to astronomers’ estimates, our sun will burn out the last of its hydrogen into helium and will balloon up into a red giant hundreds of times its current size, dragging the Earth to its inevitable doom. Even if the planet escapes destruction, it’s atmosphere and oceans will be boiled away. Human beings have only been around for a small fraction of that time — around 200,000 years — and one way or another, the chances of us being around for the real end of the world are pretty slim.FORT WORTH -- At least two dozen drug cases in Tarrant County Criminal Court are under review because they were prosecuted as felonies instead of misdemeanors.
The cases involve the prescription substances Adderall and Vyvanse, according to a letter obtained by News 8 that was recently distributed to area defense attorneys.
The letter from Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson says that during the past legislative session, Senate Bill 172 effectively changed how the two drugs were classified, meaning now they can only be pursued as "...class B misdemeanors under'miscellaneous substances,' rather than felonies."
The changes went into effect Sept. 1, 2015 -- more than a year ago.
But defense attorneys like Alex Kim were only notified by the DA's office six weeks ago that there had been cases prosecuted incorrectly.
Alex Kim
"My first concern was if I had any clients that were impacted," Kim said. "With a felony conviction, we're talking about going to prison, no longer being able to purchase a firearm [...] even voting."
Kim determined he didn't have any clients directly impacted. That isn't the case for everyone.
The district attorney's office says 11 cases were pending, and another 13 had already been disposed of when they became aware of the problem.
The DA's office said all of those people who were directly impacted were notified in August after a statewide alert went out about potential problems.
In a statement, DA Sharen Wilson said "The Legislature made the change in the law to account for K-2, but it had the unintended result of causing this change, as well, necessitating Brady disclosure... [each] defendant has been notified."
The office's Conviction Integrity Unit, which Wilson actually started, is helping resolve the issue.
She said the law change didn't have a "wide-scale effect in Tarrant County." Others aren't so sure.
Bryan Wilson says it can take time to determine how many cases are actually linked to a mistake like this, and that even when they are cleared defendants may face ongoing issues.
Bryan Wilson
"Even having just the felony arrest or charge can be a problem," the defense attorney said. "If you don't have that thing completely dismissed and either sealed or expunged, where they destroy the records, it's getting to haunt you."
Kim and Wilson both say they applaud the DA's decision to be forthcoming about the mistake.
Other Texas counties may be facing a similar issue, although it isn't clear just how many have sent out disclosure letters.
"This totally went under the radar for everyone in the state of Texas," Kim said.
Tarrant County DA's letter to criminal defense attorneys by wfaachannel8 on Scribd
Copyright 2016 WFAAAn effort to save one of the world’s most endangered species, a miniature porpoise that lives in the Sea of Cortez, is slated to begin Friday, using some of the biggest brains in marine biology, binoculars and four aging female dolphins.
The creature in question is the vaquita, which has seen its population shrink from a few hundred a decade ago to fewer than 30 in recent months. The dramatic, last-ditch rescue bid is the first operation of its type aimed at a marine animal, though similar efforts were made to save the California condor when its numbers dwindled to 22 in the 1980s and the American bison a century earlier.
Though the methods will be unusual — involving dolphins trained by the U.S. Navy and a mass relocation of what’s left of the vaquita — the stakes are serious.
“We’re really at a turning point at the utilization of ocean resources,” said Dave Bader, director of education at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and one of dozens of people expected to go to the Sea of Cortez.
The vaquita is on the road to oblivion by mistake. Nobody — not the Mexican fishermen who accidentally kill them, nor the Chinese and Chinese-American consumers who like to eat the bladders of totoaba, a fish that’s about the same size as the vaquita and lives in the same sea — wants to wipe out vaquita.
But because totoaba bladders are prized as a delicacy in certain Chinese soups, and sometimes viewed as a medicine, the fishermen in Mexico have turned from simple spear fishing to gill net fishing as a way to capture as many totoaba as possible. The money is so good — dehydrated totoaba bladder can fetch $8,500 per kilogram — that a recent program by the Mexican government in which fishermen were paid to stop catching totoaba didn’t end the practice.
Whatever the motivation, the rise of gill net fishing for totoaba has done two things: It has reduced the totoaba population, and it has virtually wiped out the vaquita, which tend to get caught up in the same nets.
Numbers have never been in the vaquita’s favor. When the animal was identified as its own species, in 1958, the population was pegged at about 3,000, all living in the northern Sea of Cortez, eating small fish and squid. But a drop-off began in the late 1990s and really kicked in about three years ago, when the numbers fell from 97 in 2014 to 60 in 2015 and an estimated 30 at the end of last year.
“This is the most critically endangered marine mammal in the world, if not the most critically endangered animal in the world,” Bader said.
The dolphins expected to help save the vaquita aren’t members of a rare species, but they’re unusual all the same.
They’re part of a team of trained dolphins used by the Navy and others on humanitarian missions around the world and, sometimes, to find underwater mines. The team is headquartered in San Diego, but must be prepared to deploy to any spot around the world in 72 hours, said Jim Fallin, spokesman for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, which handle the dolphins for the Navy.
The four dolphins were hand-picked for the vaquita mission.
Each is a female and somewhat aged, in their 30s and 40s (dolphins in captivity typically live 25 to 45 years.) And they’ve been trained to recognize the so-called “echo signature” used by the vaquita (and other aquatic mammals) to communicate. When the dolphins hear a vaquita, Fallin said, they’ll alert their human handlers by touching a panel with their noses. After that, the humans will try to capture the vaquita in a net.
The dolphins are already in the Sea of Cortez, living in underwater pens after being flown into the research area last week. While flying, the dolphin were kept in small, tent-like mats that held water and kept them comfortable, Fallin said.
When the mission begins, on Friday, they’ll work in shifts of up to three hours. The effort could last about a month.
Fallin said the four dolphin were chosen for “their gentle demeanor” and “distinct behavioral acumen.”
“They’re very responsive to our requests to do these kinds of searches,” he said.
It’s unclear if the vaquita will be as responsive. The creatures are shy and tend to live alone or in pairs; they surface for only a few seconds at a time, and they’re scared by loud noises like motor boats, Bader said.
Other than that, not much is known about them.
For example, vaquita have never been held captive before so nobody knows how they’ll respond to the second part of the mission — keeping them in saltwater pools in San Felipe, until they make more baby vaquitas and conditions in the Sea of Cortez improve for their long-term survival.
The process could take years.
The experts are hoping to catch up to 12 vaquita.
“We are, right now, planning to have them in our care for as long as is needed to ensure that the home they go back to is safe for them,” said Cynthia Smith, the executive director of the U.S. National Marine Mammal Foundation and general program manager of the rescue effort.
“If the animals cannot accept care by humans, if they are not able to adapt to our care, we will put them back. We do not ultimately want to cause them harm.”
One thing working for the vaquita, experts say, is the cute factor.
The smallest cetacean (whales, etc.), the vaquita measures five feet long in adulthood and weighs 100 pounds at full maturity. Known as the “panda of the sea” its eyes are encircled by black rings. Celebrities, such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Mexican investment mogul Carlos Slim, have taken up the cause of saving the vaquita.
“We like cute, cuddly and fuzzy on the endangered species list for sure,” Bader said. “But we also show a capacity to understand there are lots (of species) that need saving.
“There are a number of invertebrates, but it’s perhaps more difficult to get the public engaged around a ‘Save the Snails’ campaign than it is a ‘Save the Whales’ campaign.”
The mission is expected to begin Friday at sunrise.Jens Weidmann, the bank's president, said monetary union risks losing its democratic legitimacy as EU leaders take a "large step" towards a debt union without legal authority, and sever the crucial link between budget policy and elected parliaments.
He said mass bond purchases by the European Central Bank had "strained the existing framework of the currency union and blurred the boundaries between monetary policy and fiscal policy. Decisions on further risk-taking should be made by governments and parliaments, as only they have democratic legitimacy."
Mr Weidmanm said that if Europe is unwilling to accept a genuine fiscal union backed by a European tax system, it must strengthen the existing 'no bail-out' clause in the EU Treaties "instead of letting it be completely gutted."
The escalating protest from the Bundesbank leaves the ECB in an invidious situation as it tries to shore up Italy and Spain, holding yields on their 10-year bonds at 5pc by intervening on the secondary market.
Julian Callow said Italy must redeem a record €62bn (£55bn) of debt by the end of September yet the government of Silvio Berlusconi is blacksliding on its austerity package and cavilling over details.
"This is a very large sum of money. The situation is extremely serious, and this is no time to be rearranging deck chairs," Mr Callow said, suggesting that ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet may have to go to Rome to read the riot act.
The government has agreed on tougher measurs to curb tax evasions but a wealth tax was dropped on the insistence of Mr Berlusconi. The deal after three weeks of wrangling is so thin that the ECB may find it hard to justify further purchases of Italian debt. The bank has used intervention as a pressure tool to force states to deliver austerity.
Mr Callow said the eurozone is already in an industrial recession and needs stimulus to head off a possible credit crunch and stabilise the debt crisis. He said the ECB should cut interest rates to cushion the effect of fiscal tightening in a string of EMU states and halt accelerating capital flight from the eurozone.
Holger Schmieding from Berenberg Bank said there is a "significant risk" of recession across Europe and the UK but insisted it would be a mistake for the authorites to relax on either the fiscal or monetary front. "They must tough it out," he said.
Mr Schmieding warned that it was a mistake to give the Bundestag and other eurozone parliaments a veto over the operational decisions of the EU's €440bn bail-out fund. "In a market panic when things start getting really hot, the EFSF has to act fast. It could happen over a weekend."
He said the fund has its limits in any case and is too small to handle Italy, leaving the ECB as the eurozone's only viable lender of last resort. The ECB can probably risk ignoring complaints from the Bundesbank and act on the necessary scale so long as the German government is willing to acquiesce.
Europe's sharp downturn will make it even harder for Italy and Spain to meet budget targets and grow their way out of debt traps. It may doom Greece's rescue programme.
Barclays Capital said the Greek economy is in the grip of debt-deflation and is likely to contract a further 5.7pc this year. The deficit remains stuck at 8pc of GDP. The parliament's own watchdog said debt dynamics are "out of control".The unveiling of the name and logo for the new Washington Nationals baseball team at Union Station on Nov. 22, 2004. Then-mayor Anthony Williams, center, exults with council members Jack Evans, left, and Harold Brazil, right.
The unveiling of the name and logo for the new Washington Nationals baseball team at Union Station on Nov. 22, 2004. Then-mayor Anthony Williams, center, exults with council members Jack Evans, left, and Harold Brazil, right. Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post
For so much of their existence, the Washington Nationals didn’t so much make news as just exist. They arrived here in 2005, falling from the sky, the team owned by Major League Baseball, playing to a fan base scorned by the sport a generation earlier. They weren’t wholly nascent, because they had a history as the Montreal Expos and they came to a city with a baseball tradition that dated back a century, even if it included the departure of not one, but two major league teams, even if it was largely defined by losing.
Now, we’re 10 years in. The Nationals — just the Nationals, not the Expos or the Senators or the Twins or the Rangers — have a history of their own. No, it’s not replete with 27 World Series titles (Yankees) or marked by a curse (Red Sox and Cubs). Of course it’s not as long as the Cincinnati Reds (133 years), but it doesn’t even rival the teenaged Tampa Bay Rays (born in 1998).
But it is theirs. Laugh if you want, Yankees fans. The Nationals’ history is about to be celebrated.
“Baseball is a huge part of the American story,” said Cathy Trost, the senior vice president of exhibits and programs at the Newseum. “And now it’s part of the Washington story again. We found that very intriguing.”
[Boswell: Attendance proves D.C. can be a baseball town]
With six home runs and 13 RBI in four games, Bryce Harper is one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball. Post Sports Live discusses why Harper is finally playing up to his potential. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
So this summer, the Nationals will mark their decade of existence in a way none of the 29 other major league franchises is afforded: with a “Nats at 10” exhibit at the Newseum, right on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the U.S. Capitol. They don’t have a Hall of Famer. They don’t have a victory in a playoff series. But beginning July 31 into the offseason, they will have a second-floor space all their own to display not just items from their past, but their story — both how it happened and how it was covered.
“We cover everything and everything here, from ‘Anchorman’ to the FBI, so we’re very versatile,” said John Powell, an exhibits writer at the museum who penned the text that will help tell the story. “We just love a great story. We like to bring it to life for visitors. This is a really exciting one. There’s a lot of baseball fans at the museum, and that’s coming across in the writing process.”
“Never,” Trost said, “have so many people wanted to come over to attend a story meeting.”
In order for this to work, though, the Nationals had to have a stash of items that could be included in such an exhibit. At each Nationals home game — and, indeed, at each MLB game nationwide — the league employs an “authenticator,” someone who can take game-used equipment immediately after the final out and stamp it as official. Many of the items have been on display in the team’s offices at Nationals Park. Others have been stored in a climate-controlled environment under lock and key. But any ball, bat, jersey or spike used in a game is potentially a piece someone would want to see in the future.
“Any and everything that we think could be of use to us down the road, we try to get,” said Matthew Bernstein, the Nationals’ coordinator of authentics. Take, for example, the last day of the 2014 regular season. As pitcher Jordan Zimmermann piled one hitless inning on top of another, Nationals staff began to prepare for the first no-hitter in team history.
“We got into the fifth or sixth innings,” Bernstein said, “and we started to scramble to make sure we could get everything we could.”
Thus, the Newseum’s exhibit will feature the home plate that was in the ground for that game. But the idea for the exhibit was to chart 10 important moments and write the Nationals’ story around them. This is typically how the museum works: Figure out the tale it wants to tell, then try to find artifacts that fit the narrative.
After years of increased production and higher pricing in the baseball card industry, collectors are slowly disappearing and stores are feeling the pain. (McKenna Ewen/The Washington Post)
“We come up with the story, our moments, our elements that we want to talk about and then say, ‘Okay, what do you have? Do you have X? Do you have Y?’ ” said Carrie Christoffersen, the Newseum’s director of collections. “What do you have that we wouldn’t think of? I never would’ve thought of the pitching rubber.”
And yet, there will be one — from Stephen Strasburg’s 2010 debut. There will be the lineup card from the first game at RFK Stadium, in 2005. There will be not only the jersey Bryce Harper wore in his 2012 major league debut, but his “That’s a clown question bro” T-shirt. There will be the important (the bat Ryan Zimmerman used to hit the walk-off home run that opened Nationals Park) and the esoteric (the yellow shoes worn by giant Teddy Roosevelt when he won the nightly Presidents Race for the first time).
“Unlike a franchise like the Yankees, a lot of our great moments are from games that many of our fans were at, that our fan base has grown and witnessed right along with us,” said Valerie Camillo, the Nationals’ chief marketing officer. “They were in the stands for so many of them. That makes it particularly special.”A man who hit his girlfriend in the face with a metal rod because she didn’t serve him first when preparing a meal was sentenced Thursday, Aug. 23, to two years and two months in prison.
James Autero Leavell, 39, pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to felony domestic assault in the June 18 incident, which started when he sat down to a meal with his 41-year-old girlfriend and a neighbor at a home in the 500 block of Kennard Street in St. Paul.
When the girlfriend served the neighbor first, Leavell became enraged and pushed, kicked and punched the girlfriend, according to the complaint.
He then struck the woman in the face with a metal rod, according to the complaint. Leavell had eight prior felony convictions and three prior domestic violence offenses in the last 10 years, according to the complaint.
“I’d like to send my apologies out to the community,” said Leavell before being sentenced by Judge Rosanne Nathanson. “I want to better myself.”Pod People are a doom metal band from Canberra, Australia that formed in 1991. The band has since recorded six releases, playing a blend of stoner and sludge traits, with lyrics typically covering themes relating to either cannabis in their early days to topics themetically based around The Divine Comedy. During 1993-1996 founding members shifted drastically altering not only the make up of the band but their sound too.
History [ edit ]
Pod People began in 1991 from the then thriving local heavy music scene that began in the very healthy underage youth centre all ages shows and as the generation came of age centred on the Terrace bar, a beloved venue that closed in 1995. Other Canberra bands of note that were around and some who continue now include Armoured Angel, Alchemist, Psychrist, Slug, Precursor and Exceed to name a very few.
The early lineup was fairly liquid early on, but founding members Ivan (guitar) of Precursor and Brad Nicholson (Vocals) of S.I.D. were joined by Duncan (Bass), Paul (guitar) and Adrian (Drums) the band built upon momentum of some successful party shows in their home base of Havelock House and began playing regularly as well as recording their first demo at 2XX Radio studios called “Just One”.
The sound was a blend of early '90s stoner bands, Tumbleweed in particular was a band whose sound the early material was referenced too, however a little heavier and more overtly influenced by Black Sabbath which the band covered frequently in the early period.
The band played on numerous festivals and shows around the Canberra region and in Wollongong, which also had a thriving scene at the time, home to Tumbleweed, Dawn Patrol, Proton Energy Pills and many other bands playing a similar brand of fuzzed out heavy rock.
A CD EP was recorded in Sydney and released in 1995, the band played some launch shows before the beginning of a long period of line up changes which finally solidified in 1996 with the current line up of Brad, Dave or DD(Bass), Josh (also known JJ Lawhore from his 3-year stint in Blood Duster, guitar), Maggs (Drums) and Mel (guitar).
Pod People solidified their line up in late 95 with guitarist Mel Walker joining other new recruits Maggs (drums), Josh (guitar) and Dave (bass). They began writing and performing a heavier darker style than the previous line up. 1998's 'Swingin' Beef' EP sowed the seeds of the doom/stoner rock sound that lead to the 'Soil' EP in 2000. Before they signed with the High Beam Music label in 2001.
Recording "Doom Saloon" at Backbeach Studio’s in Victoria with DW Norton that the band had worked with on the EP’s, the album was very well received and led to a number of high-profile international supports. The Backbeach studio was expensive for the self-funded band but Highbeam Records footed the bill and allowed the band time to produce the 10-track album over 9 days, including mixing. However, the result was the most realised combination of a style their bio at the time was touting as "stoom" or stoner doom, among others.
The band had played two supports on successive tours by English doom lords Cathedral, but had not expected when through a friend and local doom aficionado, who sent Doom Saloon to Cathedral front man Lee Dorian’s doom uber-label Rise Above Records in the UK, that the album would be secured for an international licence.
The album received extremely positive reviews worldwide, and a film clip for the opening track "Filling The Void" was added to high rotation on Australian domestic music TV.
Notable was the artwork for the Australian release. A 4×3 CD fold-out cut into an upside-down cross showing an interpretation of a map of Inferno from The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri by Canberra artist Roy Torkington of Alchemist. The artwork is significant as the band have loosely taken the Divine Comedy as a theme for a three-album series.
In 2005 the band, frustrated by the lack of doom acts coming out to Australia, bit the bullet and promoted Electric Wizard's first Australian national tour, doing a thorough tour of the east coast of Australia.
The band had a hiatus whilst recording, yet maintained live shows with bands like Celtic Frost, Clutch and a slew of great Aussie bands like Whitehorse, Looking Glass, Clagg, Dread, Sons of the Ionian Sea, Grey Daturas and Peeping Tom.[citation needed]
The band then recorded over late 2007 and early 2008 largely self-financed after the High Beam Music label closed in 2004. Toyland Studios in Northcote Melbourne was the first session followed by three follow up sessions at Goatsound Studio’s and home the engineer and now label manager Jason PC of Blood Duster.
Jason and Matt Collins, Blood Duster guitarist had started the Goatsound record label for Blood Duster albums and had also just worked on albums by Australian grind acts The Day Everything Became Nothing and Captain Cleanoff.
The ten-track album was recorded with the theme of Purgatory in mind and in keeping with the themes set out on the first album. Looking for a different artistic approach, and having worked with Sydney artist Glenn Smith on the Electric Wizard tour, Glenn took to the theme with gusto and produced an immaculate painting for the album cover based on Mount Purgatory.
The album is entitled Mons Animae Mortuorum, Latin for “Mountain of the souls of the Dead” and was released in 2008.
Members [ edit ]
Current members [ edit ]
Discography [ edit ]
Studio releases [ edit ]
Year Title Label 1995 Pod People Self Release 1998 Swingin' Beef Self Release 2000 Soil Self Release 2001 Doom Saloon Rise Above Records 2008 Mons Animae Mortuorum Goatsound Records
References [ edit ]The results are in, survey says these are the characters in the tier list that 20 Expert level Tekken players in Japan decided on. This is of course just a single list but it combines the individual character placings that most of the players agreed on and averages them out in an easy to see visual. The Tier listing was carried out by MASTERCUP and is centered on Version H of Tekken 7 Fated Retribution which is currently the latest version of the game in arcades. The image you see above are all the names of the players that contributed to the list and you can see the actual character rankings below and over on |
should be clear: I do in fact personally favor higher levels of immigration. At the same time though, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool social conservative, sympathetic to the cultural and security concerns of my conservative compatriots. Ultimately, I decided to include these sections for one reason: Recent debates about immigration have tended towards two extremes: the Know-Nothing-ism of Donald Trump, or hyper-idealistic denialism by immigration advocates. The truth lies somewhere between. Current immigration rates are nowhere near the levels that should cause concern about immigrant cultures overwhelming or supplanting existing American cultural norms. Even somewhat higher rates could be sustained without any serious risk. The United States has experienced much higher immigration rates than at present alongside much larger foreign-born populations, and we not only survived, but thrived. However, rates at the levels seen in the early 1990s could eventually pose some risk of serious intercultural conflicts if sustained for a long period of time. Those who fear that immigrant cultural norms may overtake existing norms (such as widespread implementation of sharia law) are almost certainly wrong: but if we maintained immigration at, say, 5 or 6 million people per year, they’d be correct sooner than you might think. And if we returned to our noble American tradition of openness like in the 1850s and welcome in 8 million immigrants a year, the truth is, large swathes of the United States actually would be “speaking Arabic” (or Chinese or Indian languages). Just like large groups in the US in 1850 were speaking German and Gaelic. This isn’t speculative fear-mongering, this is just a sober reading of the data. Now in the historical case, it worked out pretty well in the end. But it’s not clear that result was ever guaranteed, or even particularly likely. It may be that integration only became successful because immigrants were forged into Americans by the fires of the Civil War. Would anyone like to volunteer to start the next civil war as an immigrant integration strategy? So what can we say about the historical record on immigration? Recent rates of immigration and foreign-born populations are somewhat elevated, but still well below historic highs. Illegal inflows have been an extremely large source of recent immigration, while crisis migrants are a very small share of total immigration, and pose no serious risk of overwhelming local cultural norms. On the other hand, there are very real cultural and political risks accompanying the very high levels of immigration that characterized the United States in the 19th century. Advocates of higher immigration should work to assuage integration-related fears of conservatives, because such fears spring from a basically correct understanding of how immigration worked historically. There are plenty of ways to do this: come up with better rhetorical arguments regarding “how much is too much.” Vigorously support policies that promote integration. The current round of debate about immigration has been toxic, but not nearly as toxic as it can get, and in fact will get if we follow the historic American precedent. Both those skeptical of immigration, and advocates for higher immigration, would be well-served by fitting their concerns to the actual historical record.On Thursday evening, UT elected Alejandrina Guzman to lead the University for the coming school year, making her the first Latina UT student body president and the first physically differently abled student body president in the Big 12.
The Election Supervisory Board announced Guzman and her running mate Micky Wolf as the student body president-elect and vice president-elect after a campus-wide election runoff between the campaigns of Guzman-Wolf and Isaiah Carter-Sydney O’Connell.
Guzman, a government and Mexican-American studies senior, said she is excited to set the tone that Student Government is open for everybody and that she owes her success to her campaign team.
“It all goes back to my friends (and) those who have supported me and helped me,” Guzman said. “It would not even be possible if it weren’t for the team. I really want to inspire those who come next.”
The Guzman-Wolf campaign received 4,884 votes and 54.33 percent of the vote, and the Carter-O’Connell campaign received 4,091 votes and 45.51 percent of the vote.
In 2016, 6,087 students voted in the SG campus-wide election runoffs for student body president and vice president, and this year, 8,991 students voted. The Guzman-Wolf campaign ran on a platform of representation, advocacy and empowerment with the slogan “RALLY,” or “Representing All Longhorns Like You.” The pair plan to work directly with student leaders on campus initiatives, integrate the Multicultural Engagement Center and the Gender and Sexuality Center, add handicap-accessible vans to SURE Walk, provide guarantor forms for undocumented students in off-campus apartment buildings and to revive the non-conference Texas A&M-UT football game for 2025. Finance junior Cameron Maxwell, one of the campaign managers on the Guzman-Wolf campaign, said he believes Guzman’s unique background will benefit the student body.
“I knew that the work that (Guzman) was doing in the MEC would not only carry over in the MEC but to everyone she met,” Maxwell said.
Vice president-elect Wolf, Plan II and business honors junior, said the win is a surreal and exciting experience.
“It’s been a ton of hard work, and it’s all paid off today,” Wolf said. “It’s very surreal right now. It does not feel like it’s happened, but I’m extremely ecstatic.”
Government junior Carter, former presidential candidate, said it is hard to be disappointed in the results when his team exerted its best effort.
“We had two teams that were really, really willing to work hard and had messages that resonated with thousands of students,” Carter said. “(Our campaign) ended up gaining 500 to 600 votes in a week. I think it’s something that I have no reason to be disappointed in.”
Carter said his future is unclear, but he might try to give back to the organizations that have made him feel comfortable at the University, including Silver Spurs and Texas Wranglers.Professor Arc 3
So this will the last chapter if the story doesn't pick up any traction. I will put up short shots of scenes I wanted to do with this story, as well as a summary of the plot I had written out for it as well. I'll just go back to focusing on some more one shots and My Path that Loops. As well as try and write The Long Journey and Drop of Blood. Surprisingly enough there's actually another story called Professor Arc by Coeur Al'Aran. It seems like a fun story, go check it out!
Here we go!
She was breathing, up and down. So slow, and in rhythmic fashion. They had just finished reapplying gauze to his hand, a newer wound from the medal he had crushed in it. They were still transporting in the injured, bodies, corpses. He closed his eyes and wept silently.
Some of them had been so young. Others weren't even apart of the cell. But, why? He had told Ironwood. Told him everything. Had even decided to stay, to stop Ironwood from doing it. But, the bastard hadn't listened. He just...
"Hey." A small voice whispered out on the bed he was sitting at. Jaune looked up, surprised as he saw pale blue eyes stare back at him.
Jaune wiped his face quickly. He put on a small smile, grasping his partner's hand. "Hey you."
She looked at him curiously. She was probably wondering why he was crying, her ears, on top of her head, were twitching. "What are you-" her eyes widened for a moment, probably remembering why she was in the hospital.
"Everyone there. Y-you" She took Jaune's hand in her own. "How long was a I out?" Her voice still shaky. Her voice was a far-cry from the strength and confidence it usually carried.
"Only a couple hours. Rex is-" Jaune swallowed. He remembered when had woken up. His friend bandaged up, barely breathing. His arm- Jaune squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to continue.
"Rex is in surgery. And Obsidian just got out of." Jaune sighed, as he finished.
"And you?" She asked. Yea, what about him. He had woken up to... burnt corpses. Screaming. Pain. Blood. Failure
Jaune sighed. "I'm..." he tried to lie. To say he was ok. But, he didn't. She knew him well enough to know his lies. And he knew better than to tell them. "I just hope it gets better." Jaune finished, a half attempt at a smile for his partner.
They didn't get better, none of them really did.
"And that's all for class today" Jaune called out to the class, giving a small smile. He had covered some basic terrain today, cover and so on. Surprisingly, a lot of kids here incorporated gun play into their weapons. More so than JRKO had, and probably anyone in their generation of hunters. Must be a new wave or something.
He waited around at the front, as students filtered past him. A couple of the students, some of the more studious ones, would stay behind to ask him questions.
"Professor. About the forest terrain could we not also" One student, a faunus, asked.
Jaune answered the question as he looked around for Josephine. She had left immediately afterward, with her team. They looked closer. But more importantly, she looked more sure of herself, when she was with them, good.
"Ahh man. I'm not sure of anything." Josephine groaned into her hands. Blake watched the Arc complain. It was actually kind of amusing to watch her stumble through everything. She had seen her walk around, team following behind her. She was a natural, well almost natural, leader. She had that innate nature to watch over her teammates in her, kind of like Ruby. They didn't think about going to help someone, they just did.
Blake looked down at her book, while taking a sip from her milk. It was nearing the end of lunch time, and she wanted to through another chapter before it ended.
"You know Josephine." Nora started. "If he's bullying you. I can totally break his legs for you. It'll be on the house!" She cheered, as if she was talking about setting up a party. Maybe to her, it was.
Blake put down her book, this was much more interesting, as well as worrisome. "You're being bullied?"
Josephine shook her head emphatically. "No, it's fine."
'Obvoius sign of denial' Blake raised an eye brow.
Josephine wilted under her stare. "Well. I mean." Josephine sighed as she nodded back towards a group of boys. "They're annoying and they're pretty much mean to every-" Josephine stopped as she saw something.
Blake followed her gaze, towards the boy and felt her heart pulse. The group of boys were picking on a female faunus. Pulling on her ears. Blake gritted her teeth but stopped herself. She couldn't stop that or she'd get attention. If she got attention, than her own secret might be exposed.
"Well, they're mean to everyone I guess. Right Josehpine?" Yang commented. The members of RWBY and JNPR waited for a response, but got none. They looked over to the edge of the table to find Josephine missing from her seat.
"Wha-" Pyrrha jolted in surprise as she looked back at the group bullying the Faunus, except they weren't anymore.
"What are you doing?!" Josephine growled as she put herself between the boys and the girl.
'She's definitely an Arc, alright.' Blake thought. Jaune had put himself between her and several guards, without hesitation, or more like without thinking.
The four boy stopped laughing and stood together, as if sizing up Josephine. The rest of JNPR were already in motion, getting up and starting to move towards the group. There were no teachers present, lunch time had was waning so they were probably in their offices.
"We should help" Ruby said, already standing up. Blake agreed, she owed Jaune enough to watch over his little sister. But before any of the teams could do anything, a voice pierced the tension.
"Is there a problem here?" Professor Arc walked in, hands folded behind his back. His voice conveyed that he obviously knew what was going on.
"P-professor" The Faunus blushed slightly. Blake felt her stomach take a turn at that display. Did she like that idiot knight? Blake shook her head and walked with her team, towards the scene.
Jaune nodded to the girl. "Miss. Everyone here please go to your classes, now." His tone left no room for discussion. The boys immediately dispersed. The faunus girl nodded towards Josephine and took off quickly.
As the rest of Team JNPR and RWBY arrived, they heard snippets of what the professor was saying to his sister. "You approached an obvious hostile situation without back up and without telling your team. They are there for a reason, tell them what you are going to do, give them some signal so they can prepare. If you are going in alone, you are in free fall. And no one is going to catch you."
Josephine nodded slowly, not even looking at the professor. "I-it was the right thing to do though. I wanted to help-"
"Right motivation, Wrong course of action." he cut her off. Blake felt something off here. He wasn't giving a theoretical lesson here, it was almost as if he was telling something from his past. "That can be dangerous. Which is why, again, you have teammates." the professor continued to reprimand. "Go to class. You'll be late."
Yang muttered under her breath. "kind of a stuck up bastard."
Blake thought about it. "I'll really act this out you know." Jaune winked at her, as she was in his rented bed. "But man oh man. Aren't you a bit too young to be reading this" Jaune chuckled as he waved her book in front of her. Blake blushed and merely flipped him a bird. Jaune laughed at the action. Blake shook her head of the memory. 'he's normally not like this. She' Blake looked at Josephine, who looked on the verge of breaking down, 'changed that.'
Josephine nodded slightly, before turning and bursting off. Pyrrha looked between the two and started to jog after her partner. Ren and Nora silently followed. Team RWBY filed out shortly after, but Blake stayed slightly behind.
The cat Faunus turned towards Jaune, who was looking past her, towards his sister. "She did the right thing you know. She was on the right side." Blake commented. It was strange. She thought he would just commend her on doing the right thing. But, he told her what she did wrong immediately.
"I know." There was a nostalgic look in his eyes."I did both sides. Once upon a time." Jaune murmured, and turned away. Blake watched him go, before turning to catch up with her team.
Jaune sighed, holding a cup of coffee in his hands. He looked out from the balcony, Beacon's view was always nice. The hunter felt a breeze hit him as he sipped his coffee. It was time like this he relished. 'Ah well, at least my office has a nice view. And I can't get all the quiet I-'
"Ah Jaune my boy." A familiar voice called from behind him, entering the room
'And there that goes.' Jaune turned around. "Professor Port."
"Bah." The Older, rounder hunter walked forward. "Call me Peter. We are colleagues now"
Jaune chuckled, though it was halfheartedly. "I'll just keep saying professor." Jaune placed his coffee on his desk, as he walked over to the elder Hunter. "What can I do for you?"
Port twirled his mustache thoughtfully. "Your sister."
Jaune felt his gut wrench as he remembered. Left her with parting words of advice in all the wrong ways. "Yes?" He asked, keeping his voice level, though he only succeeded in letting his body get tense.
If Port noticed his tenseness, he did not comment. "Your sister has preformed quite well in combat application. Quite the talent there."
Jaune couldn't stop a small smile reaching his face. "Did she now?"
Port nodded enthusiastically. "Glynda praised her for thinking on her feet, as well as adapting to surprises quite well." But the portly man, sobered slightly. "I am worried, however, about her combat theory as well as leadership skills."
"Ah." Jaune leaned against his desk, as he felt his gut wrench slightly. The problems he knew Josephine had were showing up now. "She's not the greatest leader in the world, but she'll get them through the field alright."
"But, we're not talking about the field here, Jaune." Port replied calmly. "I can train them to plan, to plan for eventualities. But, I cannot fix a personality. If she faces a situation that is... delicate, I feel that she would be unable to handle it."
Jaune nodded slowly. "She'll get there eventually. I changed mine, if you remember."
Port snorted. "Yes, you were her exact opposite. But, it's easier to take someone down a peg, than lift them up. However," Port clasped his hands behind his back and Jaune stiffened slightly. It looks like his old professor was getting serious. "I do hope you didn't recommend her for the leadership position. Playing fa-"
"I didn't" Jaune cut him off. "Ozpin chooses the leaders, and suggests teams. I had nothing to do with it." He really couldn't let Port know that his sister had cheated her way into Beacon. Nor, could he tell Port the reason why he was here. Sure, he trusted Port, but Ozpin had given him strict orders to keep everything on the down low.
Port hummed slightly, acknowledging Jaune's answer. "Well, on another topic, how is Rex? I heard the boy had gotten a replacement."
Jaune remembered the operating room. Rex was put under comatose, as the doctros and engineers worked on him. Jaune remembered calling him an idiot for trying to block the blast with his semblance.
"I-" Jauen started. "I actually don't know." Jaune muttered, rubbing the back of his head. Rex had gone off after the rehab. Said he needed some time to think, and Jaune didn't blame him. "I haven't heard from him since after our Graduation mission." He had kept in contact with, as best he could, with the rest of team. Rex just vanished.
"Ah." Port unclasped his hands. He nodded solemnly, all the teachers knew what happened on that mission. "Either way." Port placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder. "You have grown into a fine young man. It would behoove you to help others in your footsteps."
With that, the Mustache wielding Professor walked off, humming a tune.
Jaune stared after him for a moment, before shaking his head. It was hard to believe that something so serious actually came from the Hunter that ripped his shirt off to wrestle an Ursa Major with his bare hands, on the school field trip.
Jaune remembered a boy pushing around another faunus.
"Others huh?" Jaune murmured to himself
A beep alerted Jaune that message had been sent to his scroll. He pulled it out and read over the contents quickly. "Huh. Seems I need to talk to kitty."
Ok. When she had asked to train, this was not exactly how she imagined it going. 'CRAP!' Josephine jumped over and rolled to the side as a blade came crashing down where she once was. She rolled onto her feet as she lashed out with her chakram. Her opponent ducked under it easily, letting Libra fly over. Josephine took a breath and focused on her semblance, pulling the air towards her she forced everything in front of her towards her.
Her opponent struggled slightly as she tried to resist being pulled to fast. Josephine took advantage of that and charged forward, even if Libra was still flying towards her didn't mean she was useless. Her opponent saw her coming and slashed downwards. The youngest arc blocked with her bracelets, though they were modified weights courtesy of Ren, of all people. The blade clanged noisily against the her bracelet. Her opponent spun around and slashed upwards, Josie blocked down with her right arm's bracelet.
Using her left hand to catch Libra, which had finally returned, she swiftly tried to slash at the neck. Her opponent countered immediately with a shoudler charge, and Josephine was sent tumbling to the ground.
"owww." Josephine whined.'man, she's too good.'
"Oh, I'm sorry Josephine was that too hard?" Pyrrha walked over, concern on her face.
Josephine laughed at Pyrrha's doting. "No, no it's fine. Its better to train like that. My brother never really held back his punches either..." Josephine trailed off.
Josephine sat up and pulled her knees in. She didn't get it. What had she done wrong? Her brother was so cold, not like he usually was. Every time she would bug him, as kids, he would set everything down to help her. What happened at graduation? Every team, at Beacon, would go on solo missions provided by the government or Beacon. Team JRKO was the only team to be put in the hospital for their graduation mission. And now, every time she tried to talk to him, have a decent conversation with him, either her idiotic self would get in the way or she would wilt under his criticism.
"Thinking about your brother again?" Pyrrha asked.
Josephine jolted, ah she had forgotten about pyrrha. Ahh, she needed to be more aware of her surroundings, Jaune even lectured about scoping out and keeping track of an area. "yea. Makes me kind of a creepy, obsessive sister huh?" Josephine joked.
Pyrrha cracked a smile and, instead of helping her up, she flopped down next to Josephine. "It's not a bad thing to want to get closer to your family."
Josephine shrugged. "yea, but it can't be everything. I'm a-" Josephine sighed dejectedly. "I'm a leader now. And, apparently I have to lead this team. Whatever that means." Josephine fell back onto the ground, looking up at the ceiling. "Uggh. Between, Homework, Lecutre, Training, and the extra assignments, I can't believe I'm actually surviving."
Pyrrha giggled, as she laid back as well. They were both sweat from sparring for about an hour. Their hairs were tangling beneath them. "Well, for one, you're really good at finishing your homework early. And, you're pretty good at Combat already, as well as tactics."
"Bah" Josephine waved dismissively. "I was terrible. I barely made it through exams. I was a nervous wreck."
"Don't worry" Pyrrha tried to comfort her. "Confidence is something built up."
"pfft. Than it must build up slower than a-" Josephine started but than she thought about it for a moment. How did you build up confidence? "Hey Pyrrha, how do you do it?"
"Eh?" The amazonian warrior was now confused. "What do you mean?"
"How are you sooooo confident. And soooo good at everything." Jospehine gave a wide grin.
Pyrrha chuckled, slightly embarrassed. "Well. I've got great friends backing me." Pyrrha winked, teasing back.
Josephine turned away, blushing slightly. Great, it was her turn to be embarrassed. "T-thanks." She muttered back, Pyrrha laughed loudly.
Jospehine got up and brushed off sweat from her brow. "Come on, promised Ruby we wouldn't be late for team bonding."
Jaune waited quietly against the dorm hallway. He needed to get some business done. Ozpin had sent him a package, potential White Fang members. He needed Blake to verify potential members. But, what was also strange was that a human was listed among them. Roman Torchwick. A thief. He heard of his reputation from the Police, the man was an A-list thief. He was up there on the wanted list but because he had almost 0% casualty rate, he wasn't a high target.
'Ahh man. I wanna smoke.' Jaune thought to himself, as he felt that itch in his throat. Blake wasn't in her room, and he had been waiting for an hour already. He had pinged her scroll but she wasn't up, what the hell was she doing?
Jaune heard giggling and talking to the side, but it wasn't just RWBY. 'And here I thought this was a convenient thing.' Jaune got off he wall and started to walk down the hall away from the approaching voices.
"Professor?" A voice called after him.
Jaune turned around and saw both RWBY and JNPR walking together down the hall. "Miss Rose." Jaune nodded towards the young prodigy. The professor turned towards Blake and sighed. 'Oh, she still has my jacket'. He jerked his head backwards, signaling her to meet outside again. Blake gave a slight nod.
Jaune started to turn around, but-
"Professor."
Jaune paused, turning back to look at his sister. "Yes?" He tried to keep his voice under control. Tried to keep his facial features. One of the things Ozpin taught him. If you didn't know how to react, didn't know how to control, just empty. Just let go of everything and be a blank wall. Than no one can read you.
'Still damn hard' Jaune thought as he looked at Josephine. He wanted to hug her, to sit her down and talk about everything he had missed. He wanted to take her out to Team JRKO's old secret spots. Show her the fake stone in the courtyard that actually contained old trinkets from past years. But, that was for an older brother, and right now he was a Professor.
"I-I was wondering if.." Josephine started but stopped. Pyrrha, bless the girl, gave her a helpful nudge. 'They're good for each other' Jaune thought. Kept each other in check. Jaune felt a twitch of a smile come on his lips. It reminded him of another pair, one with a sword and shield and another with a whip. "If you w-would like to" Josephine swallowed. "catch up this weekend?" She asked.
Jaune froze. Huh, the world must really hate him. He couldn't. Well, he could but than he would have to tell Ozpin that no, he could not go investigate a possible terrorist hideout because he was busy catching up with family. He couldn't let his emotions get in the way of his decision making.
He remembered the last time he did.
Sure, he could get closer to Josephine and leave the terrorist stuff till later. Even if he did reconnect, Josephine would still be in danger. But, if he dealt with the terrorist cell now, than Josephine would be safe. And he could connect with her after this was all done. Cold logic. Jaune snorted at the thought. That was the bullshit that Ironwood would probably spout, and he hated it. Hated that he was probably right.
Josephine eeped at his action. 'Ah crap.' Jaune thought.
"Sorry, Josie-" Jaune stopped himself. "Sorry Miss Arc. I have other matters to attend to this weekend. But some other time, maybe." 'I promise you that.'
Jaune felt like punching a wall as he saw the dejected look on his sister's face. She nodded slowly. "O-oh. Okay." She said in a small voice.
He couldn't take it anymore. Jaune turned away and walked quickly. He had to get out of here. 'Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.' Jaune roared in his head. Jaune walked all the way to the courtyard and sat down at one of the benches. He sighed, leaning against the back of the bench.
The moon was shining pretty bright. A part of him wanted rush back there, grab Josephine, and go take the town by storm. Chatter about everything he'd done, and everything he wanted to do with her. But, he was afraid of losing that control. Kyrie wasn't here anymore, none of his team was, so he had keep himself in check, his emotions in check. And, Josephine... she would throw everything in flux, no matter how much he wanted to really talk to her. "Everything's too damn complicated."
"Because you make it complicated." A voice jarred him out of his thoughts.
Jaune looked over and smirked. "I thought I broke things down for you?"
Blake rolled her eyes. Her amber eyes seemed to glow in the night. There was a long pause, neither one of the spoke. Jaune stared at he moon and Blake at him. Only the crickets could be heard and an occasional gust of wind. Beacon was somewhat chilly at night, but Jaune didn't care. Blake was already wearing his Jacket.
Finally, Blake spoke up."Sorry about getting your messages. Apparently, Ruby and Josephine wanted to do team bonding as … teams. And they decided a night with Hot chocolate and smores on the roof would be a good idea."
Jaune chuckled. "Sounded like fun."
Blake gave a small smile. "It was. Your sister seemed to relax a lot." Blake looked distracted for a moment. As if unsure of herself. "Do you..." She sighed. "Do you want me to talk to her? I mean, you don't have to push her away. You can be a Professor and olde-"
"As much as my personal life is a mess." Jaune cut her off. "I do not need to go into the details of why or why not, or even when, I should reconnect with my sister. Our business does not involve my sister." Jaune clasped his hands. "I don't want her anywhere near terrorist groups or anything else." Jaune stared into her eyes, his tone solemn.
Blake nodded. "I know. But..." the cat faunus shrugged. "I'll watch over her. Either way."
Jaune stared at Blake for a moment. Blake was reliable, and she could do things none of the rest of the teams would. But for her to just offer... 'Just accept it' Jaune smiled. "Thanks."
Blake nodded, and sat down next to him. "So, what did you want?"
Jaune opened up his scroll and pulled up the files. A list of information, with several mug shots of different people and faunus, popped onto the screen. "Need you to run through these and see if profiling fits."
"Got it, let's get to work."
Jaune watched silently as Blake started filing through the people. 'there's one more thing after this to take care of'
"Enjoy your weekends kids." Jaune told the team leaders. He had dismissed the class a bit early so he could collect the assignments from all the team leaders. A quick glance told him that everyone had filled out their questionnaire pretty well.
"Mr. Winchester, stay a moment." Jaune asked, still looking through the sheets. 'Josie answered almost all of them. But one's she didn't answer'
Cannot answer out of respect to my teammates.
Jaune smiled. He had expected that. Jaune looked up to see Cardin waiting on him. Jaune placed the sheets down and sighed. "You got anything to do right now?"
"Nope" Cardin answered curtly.
"Alright, follow me." Jaune nodded towards the door and led Cardin down.
"You just had Glynda's class, So I assume your weapon is in the gym?" Jaune asked. It's where he used to store it after her class as well.
"Yea." Cardin answered. "You going to test me or something?"
"Eh, Not really." Jaune walked over to the gym door and swiped his scroll, unlocking the door and the rest of the gym. They both walked in and Cardin went over to his locker, grabbing his mace. While he was doing that, Jaune grabbed a practice sword from the side. It was dulled, but balanced, which was what mattered.
"Come on, let's do some sparring." Jaune siad.
"Sparring? Really?" Cardin asked, skeptical. Jaune couldn't blame him, a teacher asking a student to spar out of nowhere. He would have suspicions too.
Jaune nodded and led him into the gym, he tapped his scroll to set up the match. He used to use the gym all the time, it's where... Jaune smiled at the memories and looked back at Cardin.
The boy was still looking at him strangely, trying to figure it all out. "Why?"
"Why what?" Jaune asked.
"Why are you doing this? Is this because I messed with that Faunus?" Cardin asked.
Jaune thought about it for a moment, before shrugging. "To be honest, It's a bit more than that. Come on, let's spar while we talk, no use just sitting around and doing nothing while we talk."
That seemed to make Cardin mad, funny how familiar that seemed. He charged forward, swinging with his mace. Jaune felt the wind blow past him, as he sidestepped. Jaune slashed out at Cardin's chest, trying to counter. The Hunter in training would have none of it. He swung upward, pushing both Jaune's sword and him back.
"You have good tempo" Jaune commented. He ducked under another swing. These swings, to the untrained eye, might seem wild and uncontrolled. But, they were very controlled. Cardin swung sideways, trying to clip Jaune as he side stepped. Jaune leaped and back flipped over the swing. As he landed, Cardin was already swinging downwards at his position.
'Yea, these are very calculated' Jaune thought as he blocked with his sword. He had to use both hands to block it. "Your swings pack a punch too."
'This kid is good. I wonder why he isn't among the special students.' Cardin was using strikes that were the hardest to dodge. Side swipes and downward strikes. And, instead of parrying or blocking Jaune's counters, he would swing upwards, clearing both the sword and attacking at the same time. This kid had talent alright. However...
Jaune dodged a sideways strike and waited a half a second. Jaune stepped forward, as Cardin was trying to recover from his swing. "You don't follow through correctly" Jaune corrected while he struck Cardin in the chest with a strong stab.
Cardin back pedaled, holding his chest, wincing in pain. Jaune twirled his sword as he waited for Cardin to recover. "When you swing, you don't turn your body. So your momentum becomes a dead wait. You don't always have to swing with your mace. A stab can still do damage, as well as help you recover your balance." Jaune lectured.
Cardin merely growled in response. He charged forward, moving at a faster pace. The professor now had to weave more often. While he could probably take the strikes with a good parry, he would rather not use his aura here.
'Now lets see' Jaune thought as he continued to weave through the strikes. Cardin would smash, and he would sidestep. When the boy would swipe at him, he would step backwards. It was a simple pattern of dodging. While it didn't lend itself to Countering, that wasn't what Jaune was trying to do.
'Now' Jaune thought as he saw Cardin over swing out of frustration. Jaune stabbed forward again, aiming at the chest. To his surprise, and delight, Cardin used a small back step, pivoting his foot behind him. He continued to use his momentum and spun around fully.
Jaune had to leap backwards to avoid the strike. Jaune felt a smile cross his face. 'Good, there's still hope'
Cardin was now breathing heavily. 'Guess he doesn't have the conditioning just yet.' Jaune thought as he waited, once again twirling his sword. It was a bad habit of his, he never got over it.
Cardin lowered his mace slightly as he stared at Jaune. "Are you just giving me extra lessons, I thought you were here to take me down a peg or even give me one of those life talks?"
Jaune shrugged. "Would it work even if I tried?"
"How do you know? You think I'm too stupid or-" Cardin started
Jaune launched himself forward, swinging quickly. Cardin was so surprised he couldn't counter at the obvious charge. Backpedaling back, Cardin tried to make distance from his attacker. But Jaune didn't let up as he continued to swing.
Cardin finally almost lost his balance and couldn't dodge anymore. He raised his mace and blocked the strike, wincing as he felt the strength of the blow. Jaune smiled as he saw the block and kicked. Cardin felt the wind get knocked out of him as he was sent flying back from a kick to the stomach.
Cardin hit the wall with a small thump. He tried to catch his breath while Jaune talked. "No, I don't think your stupid. And, I really don't think that giving you a life talk would work at all. It didn't for me."
Cardin coughed. "What? You were like me?"
Jaune stabbed his sword on the ground and leaned on it. "Like what?"
"I'm a …" Jauen watched as a mix of emotions ran through Cardin's face. The words wouldn't come out of his mouth, so instead Cardin roared. Jaune sighed as he saw a strike approach. Jaune ducked and spun on his heel. Cardin lost his balanced again as he was clubbed in the back of the head.
"come on, finish your sentence." Jaune said, as he watch Cardin groan on the ground.
The younger boy started to pick himself up. "So you're making me acknowledge what I am huh. To deprecate me."
Jaune whistled in amusement. "Nice words. But really? You are coming with those conclusions by yourself. So you tell me, what do you think you are."
"I am a future Hunter." Jaune felt another smile work its way to his lips. 'Same words'
"Is that all that defines you? Because to others you are something else." Jaune asked.
Cardin threw his mace down in disgust. It clattered loudly, echoing through the entire empty gym. "Ok fine. I bullied her ok. I hate weak people. They shouldn't even be |
Abdulrahman at home, however. Calling him on the phone, he found out the man went out to a shop. The director of the Observatory sounded very distressed on the phone, talking about the dangers of meeting up for daytime interviews because “they are trying to kill me.”
Soon after RT found out that Abdulrahman was headed to Kazakhstan, although no further details were clear. But tracing the steps of the Syrian opposition was a big help. They got together for a conference in one of the Kazakh capital's lavish spots. The head of the SOHR also attended the conference, and, after a bit of wrangling, agreed to answer a couple of questions from RT.
"We are under attack simply because we tell the truth what's going on in Syria. Apparently nobody wants to hear the truth," Abdulrahman told RT’s Ilya Petrenko.
The organization claims to have a wide network of contacts in the region who feed their information to the head office, where it is processed and then posted on the SOHR website, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
RT asked Abdulrahman whether he personally knows "hundreds of people," as he himself puts it, working in Syria for SOHR, and whether he can really trust all of them.
"I know all of the activists working for the SOHR," he replied.
When RT wondered when the last time Abdulrahman actually went to Syria was, he said it was 15 years ago.
"But I know some of the Observatory activists through common friends. This organization only takes new members following a six-month trial period and the candidate has to be familiar to someone from the organization or to a reliable outside contact," he said.
Since the start of its anti-terror campaign in Syria, Russia has got in SOHR reports, which were quickly picked up by major Western media outlets. One of the latest wires from the Observatory, alleging that "Russian warplanes killed 30 civilians in Homs including women and children,” made headlines worldwide on October 1.
Interestingly enough, the same wire published on the Arabic version of the SOHR website on the same date did not mention any Russian warplanes. It said: "27 civilians dead in airstrikes by Assad regime air forces.Fifa has been in secret talks that could mean it surrenders millions of pounds in broadcast revenue if the dates for the 2022 World Cup are shifted – as seems increasingly likely.
Despite secretary general Jerome Valcke recently insisting “compensation is a word you should never use” when addressing the prospect of Fifa taking a financial hit if the tournament is rescheduled, The Daily Telegraph has learnt discussions with the likes of American network Fox have taken place in an attempt to stave off the threat of legal action.
Fox and broadcasters from several other countries bought the rights to the event in Qatar long before Fifa president Sepp Blatter announced he would take steps to move it from June and July due to the extreme heat in the Middle East country during the summer months.
Fox, which paid $425 million (£265 million) for the rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, last week made it clear it opposed any switch to the winter because it would clash with NFL games.
The network pointed out it had “bought the World Cup rights with the understanding that they would be in the summer, as they have been since the 1930s”.
However, talks are understood to have taken place that could ultimately mean Fox would pay less if the tournament moves. Fox declined to comment on the latest developments.
Other international broadcasters which agreed deals worth a total of £2 billion in 2011, may be appeased in similar fashion, with contracts having been signed by networks in Brazil, Canada, Australia and the Caribbean.
The precise level of any discounts could depend on when exactly in 2022 the World Cup is played, with Fifa refusing to rule out April-May despite previous assumptions it would have to be held in the winter.
Next week’s Fifa executive committee meeting is set to ratify calls for it to be moved from the summer with an in-principle decision. That will be followed by up to eight months of consultation with the game’s stakeholders to determine the precise date and decide how to tackle the multitude of issues that will arise from the switch.
Talks with broadcasters are among several secret meetings Fifa has instigated in an effort to quell opposition to any move, which also included Valcke inviting Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore and Football Association general secretary Alex Horne to dinner in Zurich.
Fifa remains adamant no compensation will be paid to the countries which lost out to Qatar in the battle to host the tournament, or to leagues whose moneymaking ability may be affected by a rescheduling of the football calendar.
Football Federation Australia had written to Blatter to suggest Fifa should pay back some of the £25 million it ploughed into its failed 2022 bid on the basis it did so with a summer World Cup in mind.
It is also understood there is no prospect of the entire bidding process being rerun, despite Fifa’s independent investigator having uncovered evidence of political interference before the original vote.
Suggestions that some exco members were encouraged to back the Gulf state by politicians – openly acknowledged by Blatter and Uefa president Michel Platini – are not thought to be enough grounds to strip it of the event.
The fallout from doing so would reverberate far beyond football and leave Fifa open to legal action from Qatar, which has already denied any wrongdoing in the build-up to the 2010 vote.
However, should hard evidence of corruption emerge during American lawyer Michael J Garcia’s probe, or during the next nine years, all bets would be off.
That could also be the case if Qatar fails to address the deaths and abuse of labourers that has sparked accusations of slavery during the country’s World Cup preparations.
Revelations that dozens of Nepalese workers had lost their lives and thousands more were the victims of serious abuse while building the infrastructure on thursday prompted calls for Fifa to strip it of the event unless action was taken.
Labour’s shadow sports minister, Clive Efford, said: “It is obscene, the idea of multimillionaire footballers playing in a country that has been built on these sorts of human-rights records.”
Conservative MP Damian Collins urged the FA to consider boycotting the World Cup if Fifa failed to act, while Fifa vice-president Jim Boyce demanded the organisation “fully investigate” the scandal, adding he was “appalled and very disturbed” by the allegations.
Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, accused Fifa of being “blind or stupid” if they had failed to previously notice such abuses in Qatar.Copyright by WHTM - All rights reserved Travis L. Wagner (submitted)
Copyright by WHTM - All rights reserved Travis L. Wagner (submitted)
WHTM Staff - STEVENS, Pa. (WHTM) - A Lancaster County man was arrested after police say he admitted he illegally entered a barn so he could have sex with an animal.
Travis L. Wagner, 21, of Reinholds, is charged with a felony count of burglary and a misdemeanor count of sexual intercourse with an animal.
Ephrata police said the investigation began Aug. 16 when a witness told officers that a vehicle had been parked near a barn in the 500 Block of Indiantown Road, in West Cocalico Township, and the driver was seen going inside for a short period of time.
The witness provided the license plate number of the vehicle and investigators traced it to Wagner.
Wagner was interviewed and police said he admitted he entered the barn to have sexual intercourse with a miniature horse.
He was arraigned on Monday and released on $5,000 unsecured bail.
Police said the burglary charge carries a maximum penalty of not more than 10 years in prison, and the sexual intercourse with an animal charge carries a maximum sentence of not more than two years.Chicago’s largest no-kill animal shelter has opened its doors to dogs and cats from Louisiana, a state that has little room to house pets in need following devastating floods earlier this month.
Two vans of PAWS Chicago volunteers made the 14-hour trip Wednesday to retrieve animals from Louisiana shelters, aiming to free up space for those hit with an influx of animals following the natural disaster. The group returned early Friday morning with 17 cats and nine dogs.
The animals are being medically examined at the shelter's spray and neuter clinic in the Little Village neighborhood, where they'll be vaccinated, implanted with microchips and spayed or neutered as needed.
“We brought back dogs and cats that were already in shelters before the flooding occurred, so the shelters have more room to bring in animals that were displaced,” said PAWS spokeswoman Sarah McDonald.
Stacy Price, the shelter’s director of animal operations, was part of the rescue team.
“What’s sad is that a lot of these shelters were built in the 1950s and ‘60s and didn’t withstand the flooding,” Price said. “So there are shelters that are out of commission. There are really more displaced animals now than there are shelters.”
The flooding, which began in mid-August, was caused by more than two feet of rainfall and has been called “likely the worst natural disaster in the United States since 2012’s Superstorm Sandy” by the Red Cross.
Once the animals are ready for adoption, they’ll be visible on the PAWS Chicago website. Anyone interested in helping can also donate, volunteer or temporarily foster animals for the shelter.
Some of the animals have been given Louisiana-themed names by PAWS Chicago volunteers and staff. Meet them below.
Bubba was named after Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue, a character from Louisiana in the film "Forrest Gump." (Evan Garcia / Chicago Tonight)
Brennan is named after a popular restauarant in New Orleans. (Evan Garcia / Chicago Tonight)
The song "Amos Moses," about an alligator hunter from Louisiana, is the inspiration behind this ginger cat's name. (Evan Garcia / Chicago Tonight)
Bourbon takes his name from the New Orleans thoroughfare, Bourbon Street. (Evan Garcia / Chicago Tonight)
Maeve, given a French name in honor of New Orleans' French Quarter, poses with Stacy Price, PAWS Chicago's director of animal operations. (Evan Garcia / Chicago Tonight)
Banana Foster waits for a treat from Chicago PAWS volunteer Carol Curt. (Evan Garcia / Chicago Tonight)
PAWS Chicago opened the Lurie Spay and Neuter Clinic was opened in 2000 to offer free and low-cost services. (Evan Garcia / Chicago Tonight)
Follow Evan Garcia on Twitter: @EvanRGarcia
Related stories:
Caring For Your Pets During Excessive Heat
July 21: As extreme heat makes its way to Chicago, learn how to keep your pets safe.
Highly Contagious Dog Flu Still Spreading in Chicago
Jan. 27: Chicago animal shelters like PAWS are still coping with the spread of a new, highly contagious strain of canine influenza.
Rescue Dog Finds New Home at Shedd Aquarium
Jan. 12: The Shedd Aquarium recently announced a new arrival at the Chicago institution and it's definitely not the creature you'd expect it to be. We went to the Shedd to investigate its latest rescue, named Peach.Republican front-runner Donald Trump has been calling his rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, "lyin' Ted Cruz" during this week's feuding over their wives. But among Republican voters, Trump fares no better than Cruz in assessments of their honesty.
A recent CBS News/New York Times national poll found that 54 percent of likely Republican voters think Trump is honest and trustworthy, while 53 percent say the same of Cruz. Forty percent consider Cruz not trustworthy, while 39 percent are doubtful on Trump.
The facts on Trump and Cruz show a different picture. According to Politifact ratings, Trump is less honest than Cruz. The site fact-checks candidates' public statements and rates them on a scale of accuracy: true, mostly true, half true, mostly false, false, and pants on fire.
Trump's statements don't hold up well to scrutiny -- 77 percent of his statements are rated as “mostly false,” “false,” or “pants on fire,” while only 24 percent are considered “half true” or better. Overall, Trump's false statements outnumber true ones by 53 percent.
Cruz doesn't do much better. Thirty-five percent of his statements were rated at least "half true," compared with 66 percent that were "mostly false" or worse. He has 31 percent more false statements than true ones.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich was the outlier in the poll and in the Politifact ratings. Seventy percent of Republican voters consider Kasich to be honest and trustworthy, and only 16 percent disagree. According to Politifact, 67 percent of Kasich's statements are at least half true.
The CBS/NYT poll was conducted March 17 to March 20 and included 362 likely Republican primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 5.2 percentage points.This article is over 3 years old
Lower commodities prices and bond yields, slower growth in China and narrowing interest rate differentials all contributed to the fall
Ongoing global economic worries have pushed the Australian dollar to a fresh six-year low.
The Aussie is currently buying 69.11 US cents after more selling overnight in the wake of jobs figures from America which showed unemployment had fallen further than expected.
The path of the Australian dollar over the past five days. Photograph: Yahoo
US economy adds 173,000 jobs as unemployment rate drops to 5.1% Read more
But the chances of the US Federal Reserve raising interest rates were complicated by figures which showed the US economy created fewer jobs than expected in August.
The Australian dollar is likely to remain under pressure in the coming weeks.
“It’s the same reason as what we’ve seen recently,” Commonwealth Bank chief currency strategist Richard Grace said.
“Lower commodities prices, speculation of slower global growth led by China, lower Australian bond yields, narrowing interest rate differentials, a weaker Asian stock market – all of those factors have contributed.”
The European Central Bank on Thursday downgraded its economic forecasts and inflation forecasts, and hinted at more stimulus if needed.
The currency had twice dipped below 70 US cents earlier in the week, first due to weak Chinese economic data and then a disappointing rate of Australian economic growth.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, fell overnight on Friday by $1.07 to settle at $49.61 a barrel. US crude was down 70c to $46.05.
“Oil is only the beginning of this story,” Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, noted.
The Australian dollar is'smashed' and teetering over the US70c precipice Read more
“In fact, the value that producers of oil, gas, metals, minerals and other commodities have lost just in the past year comes to about $2 trillion, the size of India’s entire economy,” he said.
“China by itself accounted for about 17% of the world’s overall GDP in 2014, but its demand for imports has already fallen 14.6% over the first seven months of 2015.”What critics have described as the Obama administration’s “war on journalism” appears to have been taken to another level in recent months with a federal SWAT raid on a reporter’s home, which resulted in the seizure of her private notes and the likely unmasking of whistleblowers within government. Following revelations about lawless spying on reporters and even charges against a journalist of being a "conspirator" by the Justice Department, the explosive story about the raid unveiled last week is causing a fresh wave of outrage — and deep concern. A lawsuit is already in the pipeline to fight back against the latest attacks on rights guaranteed to everyone under the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.
According to investigative reporter Audrey Hudson, an award-winning journalist who helped expose problems within the Department of Homeland Security in articles for the Washington Times, swarms of DHS agents and Maryland State Police officers descended on her home in a pre-dawn assault on August 6. Armed with full battle gear and a warrant authorizing a search for firearms (her husband was apparently convicted of “resisting arrest” almost three decades ago and so was supposedly not allowed to be near guns), the federal and state agents ended up seizing Hudson’s private notes, too.
“They took my notes without my knowledge and without legal authority to do so,” Hudson told the online Daily Caller, which first reported on the raid. “The search warrant they presented said nothing about walking out of here with a single sheet of paper.” The federal agents, however, walked out with stacks of papers, including records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and notes of her interviews with “a lot” of confidential sources trying to expose wrongdoing. “When they called and told me about it, I just about had a heart attack,” she said. No charges have been filed so far.
The fact that the records were seized despite the search warrant not purporting to allow the seizure of the reporter’s private files sent shockwaves through the media — especially the alternative and conservative press. The story made headlines in Iranian and Russian media, too, with reporters across the political spectrum and around the world expressing alarm about the raid. More than a few attorneys and analysts have interpreted the terrifying ordeal as an assault on the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of the press.
Among the most troubling aspects of the case, though, was the content of the seized documents: names of whistleblowers within the federal government who helped Hudson expose problems and lies at Homeland Security. “They tore my office apart more than any other room in my house,” Hudson told the Washington Times, her former employer, adding that the papers contained names of DHS and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) whistleblowers who exposed serious issues with the Federal Air Marshal Service as well as official lies told to Congress.
“Essentially, the files that included the identities of numerous government whistleblowers were turned over to the same government agency and officials who they were exposing for wrongdoing,” Hudson continued. “Protecting confidential sources is a part of my honor and hits me at my ethical core.... To have someone steal my source information and know it could impact people’s careers, is disgusting, a massive overreach. This kind of conduct is intimidation clearly aimed at silencing a vigorous press.”
Spokesmen for the federal and state agencies involved in the controversial raid have refused to say much thus far. “Due to the ongoing criminal investigation and the potential for pending criminal charges at the state and/or federal level, the Maryland State Police will not discuss specific information about this investigation at this time,” state police spokesman Greg Shipley was quoted as saying. A spokesman for the Coast Guard, which was supposedly involved in the raid because Hudson’s husband works there, confirmed to the Washington Times that federal agents seized and reviewed properly acquired government documents to make sure Hudson was allowed to have them. How there could be any question about whether she could possess her own handwritten notes was not immediately clear.
Even more troubling, perhaps, is the fact that the Coast Guard investigator who seized Hudson’s documents, Miguel Bosch, used to work for the DHS air marshal service — the same bureaucracy Hudson publicly exposed in articles for the Washington Times for lying to Congress. “In particular, the files included notes that were used to expose how the Federal Air Marshal Service had lied to Congress about the number of airline flights they were actually protecting against another terrorist attack,” Hudson explained. Bosch has mostly refused to comment, other than saying “it’s still an open investigation” and that he needed to talk with government lawyers before saying more.
Lawyers for the Washington Times, meanwhile, are preparing a lawsuit, the paper reported. “While we appreciate law enforcement’s right to investigate legitimate concerns, there is no reason for agents to use an unrelated gun case to seize the First Amendment protected materials of a reporter,” Times Editor John Solomon was quoted as saying. “This violates the very premise of a free press, and it raises additional concerns when one of the seizing agencies was a frequent target of the reporter’s work.... Homeland’s conduct in seizing privileged reporter's notes and Freedom of Information Act documents raises serious Fourth Amendment issues, and our lawyers are preparing an appropriate legal response.”
A private attorney contacted by Hudson and her husband about the raid on their home also said it represented a potential violation of the journalist’s constitutionally protected rights. “Obviously, the warrant is about a gun, nothing about reporter's notes,” he was quoted as saying. “It would be a blatant constitutional violation to take that stuff if the search warrant didn’t specifically say so.... This is a situation where they picked very specifically through her stuff and took documents that the Coast Guard, or the Department of Homeland Security, would be very interested in.”
The latest attack on a journalist comes amid a vicious crackdown on journalism and whistleblowers that even reliably pro-Obama media outlets — Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast (Newsweek), the Huffington Post, and many more — have described as a “war” on journalism. One of the chief concerns expressed so far is the fiendish effort to stop any and all whistleblowing, which has included ruthless and out-of-control prosecutions of whistleblowers for alleged crimes such as “espionage,” lawless threats against honest officials who speak out, and much more.
Another highly alarming attack on reporters that drew global condemnation was Attorney General Eric Holder signing off on seizing records from reporters at the Associated Press. Almost half of those surveyed for a poll said the seizure of journalists’ phone records justified impeaching Obama. Separately, in an affidavit charging a State Department employee with releasing information, the Justice Department even referred to a Fox News journalist as a “conspirator,” setting him up for possible prosecution merely for doing his job. Whistleblower Edward Snowden, meanwhile, said the NSA was spying on journalists who criticize authorities. Of course, all of it has had a deep chilling effect on journalism, according to free-press advocates.
Among those who decided to fight back against the Obama administration’s lawless attacks on journalism was investigative reporter Michael Hastings. “The Obama administration has clearly declared war on the press. It has declared war on investigative journalists — our sources,” he said during a TV interview earlier this year. “I think the only recourse to this kind of behavior by the government is to say back to the government, ‘we declare war on you.’” Shortly after those statements, Hastings was killed in a highly suspicious car crash that countless experts, including former officials, have suggested could have been an assassination. The government war on journalism, however, appears to be alive and well.
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Related articles:
Has Obama Turned Against the Press that Helped Elect Him?
Snowden Says NSA Targets Journalists Critical of Government
Suspicions Growing Over Death of Journalist Probing NSA and CIA Abuses
Seizure of AP Phone Records Said to "Shock the American Conscience"
Yemen Releases Journalist Obama Tried to Keep Behind Bars
DOJ Investigates Fox News Reporter James Rosen in Leak Case
Impeachment Support Soars as Voters Say Feds “Out of Control”
Top 10 “Most Corrupt” List Dominated by Obama Administration
Guns and Grenades for Cartels; Firing Squad for WhistleblowersNEW DELHI: A 77-year-old NRI from London and a doctor duo from Gujarat's city of Bhuj are among the many "outside" supporters who are camping here in Delhi with an aim to ensure that Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party emerges victorious in the assembly polls on Wednesday.A lanky, bespectacled septuagenarian wearing an AAP cap and a T-shirt bearing an image of a'smiling mango', can be seen these days walking in markets, metros and other public places asking people to vote for Aam Aadmi Party in this "David vs Goliath" battle.His look and British accent may conceal his Indian roots but Jai Nath Misra from the UK says, "I may have left India but India never left me", and "this election is the beginning of a corruption-free India"."I work with the AAP UK wing and tell people there about the 'common man's party' that is taking on political giants like Congress and BJP," Misra said.Misra, who hails from Bulandshahr in UP but left India in 1960s, said a number of NRIs have also descended here to express solidarity with Kejriwal. "We are about 60 NRIs who have travelled from different parts of the world. There is a doctor fromChicago in the US who has been here for months, among others. And, I possibly am the only one who is above 70. Rest are all very young," he said.And, while he says he may have "lost his Indian accent" long ago, he speaks and communicates with people in Hindi with not much difficulty, punctuating even his conversation in English with words like "bhrashtachar" and "jhadoo" and "aam aadmi" and "janta".Camping in a small hotel in Karol Bagh, Misra says he roams around Delhi helped by AAP volunteers and reaches out to people online through his Facebook page called "Jai's Vichar Dhara".But supporters for AAP are not just overseas NRIs, a doctor duo from Bhuj in Gujarat has also travelled the distance "just to see AAP defeat corruption for change".Pediatrician Nehal Vaidya, 42, and surgeon Ulhas Navlekar, 72, are staying here in the national capital campaigning for the Aam Aadmi Party and asking people in buses and metros to "vote for AAP candidates"."I am asking people to vote for him (Kejriwal) and his party, because he just isn't raising issues but is also offering solutions to them," Vaidya said.The two doctors, staying in Delhi at Swami Narayan Mandir till the end of the election, and Misra are hopeful of AAP surprising the established parties.Misra says the "inspiration" for his endeavour "came when I saw Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade in India streamed live on my laptop and I knew I had to pack my bags."He further tells the story behind his "mango t-shirt" he wears during campaigning."The T-shirt you see here bearing the image of mango was designed purposefully in London. Someone had called India a "Banana Republic with mango people" and we turned the joke on its head given the 'Aam' reference in the party's name," he said. Misra said that his daughter who has just been to India once is also supporting the anti-corruption movement and "my participation in it".The Jewish magazine Moment ran an article in its latest issue asking rabbis from a variety of Jewish sects how Israel can promote peace with its Arab neighbors (HT: Pharyngula). Most of the rabbis express fairly bland, liberal views about the importance of peace and tolerance, which are fine in themselves, although few of them offer any concrete suggestions as to what Israel might do differently.
However, one rabbi, Manis Friedman of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, was eager to make some specific proposals. Here are some of them:
I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral. The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle). The first Israeli prime minister who declares that he will follow the Old Testament will finally bring peace to the Middle East.
The rabbi didn’t elaborate on which verses from the Old Testament he had in mind, but the context of his statement suggests he was thinking of ones like these:
“When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.” —Deuteronomy 7:1-2
“So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded.” —Joshua 10:40
“And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand. And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces.”
In case Rabbi Friedman or anyone else is confused, I’ll say it clearly: The behavior that these verses describe is called genocide. It is a war crime; it is the greatest evil known to humankind. I would think that the Jews, of all people, would understand this.
This attitude is why terrorism and bloodshed are ongoing in the Middle East, and why they will continue as long as people allow religion to guide their actions. Brutal, violent books like the Old Testament are, as Sam Harris put it, “a perpetual engine of extremism”. Although many liberal Jewish believers have reinterpreted and allegorized these stories until they’re scarcely recognizable, the violent texts are always there to be rediscovered by zealots who interpret them with the frightening simplicity that their context suggests. The Bible teaches clearly that it is God’s will that the Jews should control all the land promised to their ancestors, and that genocide is the appropriate way to rid that land of anyone else who makes a claim on it.
Of course, Friedman’s views are the mirror image of those on the other side who’ve waged war and committed acts of terrorism against Israel. His scorn for the principle “don’t kill civilians or children” mirrors the suicide bomber zealots who set off their explosives on buses, in nightclubs, or wherever else will cause the most deaths. His rejection of the idea “don’t destroy holy sites” accords with the fanatics who deliberately target buildings and places held sacred by other sects. What he calls the “Jewish way” of fighting a war is really the principle held by every fanatic who believes that outsiders are subhuman and that the righteous must bloodily cleanse them from the earth.
These competing fundamentalisms are why there is war in the Mideast and why there will continue to be war in the Mideast. Compromise and diplomacy are not to be thought of by those who firmly believe that they are carrying out God’s will. So long as both sides are anchored in the immovable certainty of faith, there’s little hope of ending the bloodshed and destruction.Clorox Co. will no longer sell its consumer products to Woodman’s grocery stores and is asking a judge to dismiss Woodman’s price discrimination lawsuit against Clorox.
In October, Woodman’s sued Clorox after being told that Clorox would no longer sell it large packs of Clorox products to sell in its supermarkets. Woodman’s claimed that that was a violation of federal law.
Woodman’s said in its lawsuit that it was told by Clorox that those products would be made available only to member-only warehouse stores such as Costco and Sam’s Club.
According to filings in U.S. District Court in Madison, Clorox informed Woodman’s on Tuesday that it will no longer sell its products to the grocer effective immediately.
Woodman’s has 15 stores in Wisconsin and Illinois.
The Clorox Co. makes not only its namesake lines of laundry bleach, toilet cleaner and other cleaning products but also Glad plastic bags, Fresh Step cat litter, Kingsford charcoal, K.C. Masterpiece barbecue sauce, Hidden Valley salad dressings, and other products.
Nobody from Woodman’s management was available to answer questions Wednesday, an employee of Woodman’s home office in Janesville said. Woodman’s lawyers did not immediately return email messages asking for comment.
In a letter to Woodman’s lawyers that was filed in court Tuesday, Clorox lawyer Joshua Soven informed Woodman’s of its decision, saying that it would fulfill only orders already placed.
“As you know, Clorox has attempted to address Woodman’s concerns with Woodman’s officials on multiple occasions,” Soven wrote. “Unfortunately, the lawsuit that Woodman’s filed against Clorox and Woodman’s unwillingness to discuss resolution of the litigation have caused Clorox to reach this decision.”
He wrote that Clorox believes its business decisions related to the large-pack matter are in full compliance with the law.
“However, to avoid the substantial costs that continuing this litigation would involve,” Soven wrote, “Clorox has decided to exercise its legal right to permanently discontinue its sale to Woodman’s of any Clorox products.”
With sales to Woodman’s ended, Clorox wrote in a legal brief, also ended is the potential that Clorox could infringe on any of Woodman’s rights under federal prohibitions against anti-competitive practices, making the lawsuit moot and ripe for dismissal.
Both sides will submit briefs on the motion to dismiss the lawsuit before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker decides it.• Coach believes star player is suffering from anxiety • Pressure on Messi to lead country to third World Cup
The Argentina head coach, Alejandro Sabella, has put Lionel Messi’s habit of throwing up on the pitch down to anxiety from his star player.
“Nerves. I reckon that in these moments there is anxiety more than anything,” Sabella said before the team departed for Brazil, where they open their World Cup campaign against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Sunday. “It’s difficult to remain calm.”
After Messi threw up less than 10 minutes into a friendly match between Argentina and Romania in March, his then coach at Barcelona, Gerardo Martino, said “something is not right”, though he added that it was not affecting Messi’s play.
Messi made that point clear against Slovenia on Saturday, scoring Argentina’s second goal just four minutes after TV cameras showed him dry-heaving and receiving a tablet from the bench.
Similarly, in 2011, he scored for Barcelona after throwing up in the Spanish Super Cup final against Real Madrid.
Barcelona’s medical staff have not been able to find the cause. Neither have Argentina’s team doctors, nor Messi himself. Messi says it is just something that happens to him in training, during matches and even when he’s at home.
“I don’t know what it is. But I had a thousand exams,” Messi told the Argentinian broadcaster TyC Sports earlier this year. “I start to feel nauseous to the point where I almost vomit, and then it goes away.”
Adding to the pressure is the view among many Argentinians that Messi, who left the country at 13, does not play his heart out for the national team. That is something Messi admits affects him deeply.
“Argentina is my country, my family, my way of expressing myself,” he recently told the Spanish sports paper Marca. “I would change all my record to make the people in my country happy.”Last time in sinister evolutionary leaps: catfish eating pigeons. This time, it's two different spider species working together for mysterious purposes.
A team led by Lena Grinsted of Aarhus University in Denmark...[was] studying a social species of spider called Chikunia nigra, living near Beratan Lake in Bali. Later, as they looked in more detail at their specimens, they realised its genes and genitalia revealed that it was actually two species, according to their findings just published in Naturwissenschaften [a science journal].
The two species appear to live and work cooperatively. While mutually beneficial social interaction within a particular species of spider is not unique, inter-species reciprocity has yet to be observed. "Altruism," the Economist notes, "is not a concept often associated with spiders." Yet.
Exactly what the spiders get out of being social is not clear. They do not hunt together. One explanation may be that the colony is acting like a giant [nursery].
Female spiders who were tending to eggs or young hatchlings were "surprisingly tolerant" when spiders from a different species within the colony ("what would, in most spider species, be a serious threat") was brought into their environment.
These same female spiders were also just attentive and protective of the eggs belonging to the other species as they were of their own. "Your clutch of curled, egg-bound spider babies is my clutch of curled, egg-bound spider babies," they seemed to say cheerily to one another before devouring the world.
No word on whether lead scientist Grinsted has been plagued by strange dreams since the experiments ended - a buzzing in her ears and a thirst in her throat she can't explain, and skittering visions of many-limbed sisters waiting for her whenever she closes her eyes.
"It is as though anthropologists had discovered villages populated both by human beings and chimpanzees," the Economist writes; please submit your spider-themed Planet of the Apes spec script to me by noon tomorrow.
[Picture via Getty Images]Who gambles the most?
THE global gambling industry gathers in London this week for the annual ICE gaming conference. It should be a happy affair, with gross winnings (total take minus payouts, excluding expenses) of around $440 billion last year. Australians gamble (and lose) more than anyone else on a per-person basis, according to H2 Gambling Capital (H2GC), a British consultancy. The biggest chunk of this is spent on video poker machines, though tighter regulation in recent years has seen the country fall to sixth place in absolute terms. In Singapore casino gambling is favoured while Finns seem to prefer interactive gaming. (Macau does not feature in the rankings because its gambling revenue comes almost completely from tourists, largely from mainland China). America remains the world's biggest market, but its global share has fallen from nearly a third to a quarter in the past decade. This is partly because of a ban on most interactive gambling (sports betting and other games played on mobile phones, computers or interactive TV). Over the same period, China has risen from the tenth-biggest market to the second-largest, with losses of $76 billion. Simon Holliday of H2GC expects China to become the world's biggest market by 2020.5 new characters!
November 7th, 2018
We're gradually rolling out characters to bring the roster up to parity with season 6.
Today, we've added Neon and Flynt from the Vytal Festival Tournament,
and Kali, Ghira, and Ilia from the island of Menagerie!
Beaconship uses magic and corgis to compare the countless characters in RWBY.
You won't have to |
state of New York, established the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), a commission of experts tasked with disbursing federal funds and supervising reconstruction efforts. The LMDC was challenged to imagine a new World Trade Center, but it also had to satisfy two big stakeholders: the site’s owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (a laughably incompetent and allegedly corrupt agency that also manages New York’s decrepit airports and bus terminal), and Larry Silverstein, a billionaire real estate developer who had leased the twin towers in a privatisation scheme in July 2001, and thus had a legal right to rebuild.
Pataki, who in those years of terror and illiberalism deluded himself that he might be president one day, milked his moment in the spotlight by insisting that “we will never build where the towers stood. They will always be a lasting memorial for those that we lost.” It was the first of many political decrees with direct, and not altogether salutary, urban consequences. From the start, the new World Trade Center could not be a living place that also memorialised the dead. It had to make their deaths visible at demagogic scale, 180 feet square times two.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest One World Trade Center from the top of Four World Trade Center
Such was the backdrop for the design competition, a roller-coaster of an architectural showdown that brought out the worst in New York. A first round of entries was thrown out. Many big names stayed away – Rem Koolhaas, always the smartest man in the profession, figured out fast that he’d have more luck building in China. And the two finalists offered strongly divergent masterplans.
One, featuring a sunken memorial surrounded by a ring of five towers, came from Daniel Libeskind, who declared himself “the people’s architect” and took to wearing an American flag lapel pin at meetings. The other proposed a pair of massive, ghostly latticework structures, with a museum, a conference centre and theatre suspended above the twin towers’ footprints. This ambitious, less commercial proposal (which Libeskind publicly called “Stalinist”) was the work of Think, an ad hoc international team led by Rafael Viñoly, Shigeru Ban and especially the late Frederic Schwartz, a civic-minded architect often called the conscience of Ground Zero, who attended every meeting and ceremony and spoke frequently to victims’ families.
On 25 February 2003 – three weeks before the start of the Iraq war, which George W Bush tried to wage in the name of the World Trade Center dead – the LMDC chose Think, and informed Schwartz and Viñoly that they had won. They thought the decision was final. But the next day, Pataki and Bloomberg overruled their own committee (“There’s no goddamn way I’m going to build those skeletons,” Pataki told its chairman). Libeskind suddenly got the job, setting in motion all the compromises and confusion that have come since.
By overruling his own committee, and by imposing Libeskind’s more traditional sequence of towers over Think’s innovative lattice structure, Pataki played directly into the hands of the man who more than anyone has shaped the new World Trade Center. That man is Larry Silverstein, a developer who not only sued his insurers for a double payout (there were two planes – pay me twice!) but also United and American Airlines for allowing the hijackers onboard. Proprietor of the twin towers for less than two months before they were destroyed, Silverstein has since pressured federal, state and city governments for billions of dollars in subsidies and tax abatements, shovelling risk and expense on to the public while ensuring profits accrue to himself. A grandmaster of state capitalism, Silverstein has held on through the endless delays, defections and budget overruns, outplaying not just Libeskind but the Port Authority too, and leaving no one in doubt that the most public tragedy in New York’s history took place on his private construction site.
Silverstein is no philistine – he is a significant philanthropist in New York – but he was not about to let aesthetic concerns override financial ones. On his watch, Libeskind’s designs were simplified almost to the point of disappearance, minimising their jagged forms into corporate quiescence. 1WTC – which Pataki (not Libeskind, as is often erroneously assumed) smarmily christened the “Freedom Tower” – would henceforth be designed by David Childs of the mega-firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The pinnacle height remains 1,776 feet (after the year of the Declaration of Independence), but only thanks to an accounting trick: that measurement counts the antenna. Libeskind, after suing Silverstein and then settling with him, still has the title of master planner of the World Trade Center, even though almost nothing on the site is his idea.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The new New York skyline: Lower Manhattan from the Empire State Building
A tranquilised New York
The tallest tower may glint on the New York skyline, but the site itself has receded from the public imagination. Delays became commonplace, markets collapsed, and major developments that should have stoked democratic anger elicited, in Bloomberg’s tranquilised New York, only bored acceptance. Back in 2006, at the end of his 12-year governorship, Pataki and Bloomberg brokered a deal to have the Port Authority take over construction of 1WTC, providing Silverstein a huge cut in rent on the remaining towers. It made New Yorkers perpetual landlords of a commercially unviable goliath, but nobody cared. Even when Occupy Wall Street electrified downtown New York in the autumn of 2011, neither the protesters nor their antagonists paid much attention to the giant tower rising one block away, which has cost $3.8bn in public funds – the world’s priciest skyscraper by far, more than twice the cost of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – and is at least partly to blame for climbing tolls on the city’s bridges and tunnels and a lack of funds to repair the city’s reprehensible infrastructure.
In Libeskind’s original vision, 1WTC was to be a jagged asymmetrical spire, rhyming somewhat with his fractured Jewish Museum in Berlin or Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Under Childs, it has become a leaden, compromised behemoth, whose chamfered corners resolve into a ho-hum sequence of triangular curtain walls. It’s tall, you can give it that – but at ground level, and for 15 storeys above that, 1WTC is a grim, unfenestrated fortress, cloaked in glass but made of concrete, on the orders of the New York Police Department. The post-2001 security state is inscribed on the World Trade Center, in visible and invisible ways. The new buildings incorporate extra emergency stairwells and bomb-resistant cores, while the streets are studded with bollards, and well-armed officers patrol the memorial square.
Silverstein has redeemed himself somewhat with the opening of the first of his three large towers – one of the finest works of architecture to arise in New York in years. At 978 feet, 4WTC is the seventh tallest building in New York, but unlike other recent skyscrapers – Renzo Piano’s New York Times headquarters in Midtown, say, or the outrageous One57, a supertall condo for absentee billionaires – Fumihiko Maki’s tower, composed of two blocks of broad dark glass, withdraws into the sky and almost disappears on sunny days. 4WTC also has a commercial facade facing Church Street, one block east of the memorial, which will reportedly host a branch of the gourmet Italian food market known as Eataly, whose mobbed Chelsea location sees legions of gluttonous patrons snapping pictures of themselves with imported hams. Here you can see New York’s urban future more clearly: luxuries before necessities, consumption as culture – this is the grand Bloomberg legacy, and it is written across downtown everywhere from Broadway to Battery Park.
As for 2 and 3WTC, their fate remains uncertain, since nobody seems too keen on leasing in the buildings that are already on the market. Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue and the New Yorker, has rented 25 floors in 1WTC, aided by millions of dollars in tax incentives – the Port Authority even took on Condé’s current lease in Times Square. But despite the cachet of Anna Wintour and friends, 1WTC remains almost half empty. In the last three years, just one private company has inked a lease in the tallest building in New York, an advertising agency that took the 87th floor. The 16 floors beneath that are all yours if you want them, though even after a price chop last spring they’re still $69 a square foot, well above market average.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A timelapse film of the construction of One World Trade Center, courtesy of EarthCam
4WTC, which belongs to Silverstein even while being funded with $1bn in financing from the Port Authority, had no renters for years except the city of New York and the Port Authority itself. (This May, 4WTC finally landed a private sector tenant, another ad agency.) 3WTC, designed by Richard Rogers, now seems a goer after yet another ad agency, this one a WPP subsidiary, signed on as principal tenant. 2WTC, Norman Foster’s, has had interest from bailed-out Citigroup but nothing definite.
But economics were never the motivating factor at the World Trade Center at least on the government’s side. Lower Manhattan lost approximately 11 million square feet of office space on 9/11, but the 5 million square feet of 1 and 4WTC got dumped on the market in the wake of Lehman Brothers’ collapse, which led to significant restructuring in the financial sector – traditionally the biggest renters downtown. The urban design of the World Trade Center has always been negotiated at the unhealthy conjunction point of sentimentality and commerce, with political and emotional desires jostling against hard-edged business motives. Cannier private developers have played that sentimentality to their advantage. Public interests have not been so lucky.
Short straw
If you really want to see how the public drew the short straw at the World Trade Center, go underground. Public transportation should have been the glory of any downtown redevelopment: nearly all of the city’s subway lines converge in Lower Manhattan, along with the commuter train from New Jersey. Yet in the summer of 2014, commuters are still trudging through a maze of temporary structures, while the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, designed by the disastrous Calatrava, languishes unfinished. The hub has metastasised into by far the most expensive rail station in history, an insane $4bn for a low-traffic terminus (the city’s 10th busiest) that doesn’t even expand capacity. Half a decade overdue, outrageously over-budget, the final design will not even incorporate Calatrava’s spiffier elements: the “wings” of the roof that could be opened on sunny days are now non-functional. It is a bona fide catastrophe, especially considering the woeful state of New York’s subways; a new line along Second Avenue has now been delayed for 85 years.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest One World Trade Center
Then there are the memorial and museum, which have had mixed fortunes. The museum, which opened in May and elicited criticism for its exhibitions and its tacky gift shop, has been attracting visitors – out-of-towners mostly – despite its $24 admissions charge (a consequence of he-said she-said bickering between federal and local governments as to who should support the institution). Its main exhibition spaces lie down at bedrock, facing the huge slurry wall that kept the Hudson River from flooding the lower levels of the twin towers, and which held fast on 9/11. Whatever the museum’s faults, this moist industrial wall, stretching 68 feet up, is something to see. It is the one major evocation of the original World Trade Center that remains on site, and the only place where I feel the sadness, hope and civic righteousness that the new World Trade Center ought to inspire.
Libeskind’s masterplan would have placed the memorial to the dead against the slurry wall, but that got scrapped too. Instead it is at street level, in a massive new square whose few trees and benches don’t do enough to make it work as a public space. The memorial, designed by Michael Arad, does at least evade the rightwing kitsch of some other 9/11 commemorations (nearby is a despotic bronze statue of an American soldier on horseback, paid for by private funds). But its remembrance-for-dummies style – the names of the dead plus waterfalls, at the giant scale Pataki demanded – hasn’t commended it to New Yorkers, and while it looks alright from the 57th floor balcony of 4WTC, at ground level it remains divorced from the fabric of the city.
On three visits this summer, I found the site busy every day. Children run about, untroubled by the security apparatus, and the volume is loud; it is a site of amusement rather than meditation. Fine, but then where are the office workers, where are the apartment dwellers of Battery Park? If it isn’t contemplative, shouldn’t it be urban? What should have been the centre of a massive redevelopment, one for locals and visitors alike, has instead become a lacuna in New York’s grid, a foreign exclave in the middle of a city of eight million.
As for the future of culture at the World Trade Center, that may be the trickiest problem of all. Numerous cultural institutions, among them the Signature Theatre, the Drawing Centre and the now-defunct New York City Opera, had envisioned a move downtown. But during the planning process Pataki, still in presidential-wannabe mode, proclaimed: “We will not tolerate anything on that site that denigrates America, denigrates New York or freedom” – and this threat of censorship was enough to send many prospective tenants packing. A site is still designated for a cultural institution, but its location between 1WTC and the PATH terminal guarantees headaches for construction, and Frank Gehry, the project’s initial architect, was dismissed last week. Still, there will be Eataly, there will be 50 different kinds of olive oil to buy! In the city that Bloomberg made, that may be culture enough.
The view from 4WTC
Street-level politics
When the pit was at last cleared, the remains of the dead accounted for and the carcinogenic rubble carted away, New York was ready to wager that thoughtful, ambitious urban design could make the city whole again – or remake it, actually, as something even better than the financial capital disrupted by Yamasaki’s superblock. It didn’t happen. But 13 years on, it’s easier to see the World Trade Center as something more complicated than an autonomous urban design debacle. Rather, it is a symptom of larger urban conditions that, even with the election of the leftwing Bill de Blasio as our new mayor, show no signs of abating.
In the early 2000s, lower Manhattan was principally a site of trauma. In 2014 it evokes other, fresher troubles, among them massive income inequality, the impunity of the financial sector, a do-nothing Congress and a state government corrupted beyond redemption, and a record tourist influx that’s the flipside of the city’s gentrification and pacification. Politics play out on the level of the street. Aesthetics and design are not enough.
Ultimately, the moral of the new World Trade Center is that you can’t just plug an urban scheme into a grid and wait for results. You need community, solidarity and civic virtue – ideals that flickered for a moment in the hazy, uncertain days of late 2001, but that disappeared in the era of Bloomberg and were replaced by the privatisation and oligarchy that are the hallmarks of the 21st century.
Public infrastructure has languished while private arrangements have grown. Billions and billions of public dollars have been drained while private cash has been hoarded. And New York now has a modestly improved street plan, one great tower, a few OK ones, an acceptable museum, an unworthy memorial, a scandalous transit hub and, sooner or later, a lot of new places to shop. The World Trade Center: it could have been worse! But if that’s all we expect from New York, then maybe we should move somewhere where the average rent isn’t $3,451 a month.
Vivienne Gucwa’s new book is NY Through the Lens"Mesmer" redirects here. For other uses, see Mesmer (disambiguation)
Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer (;[1] German: [ˈmɛsmɐ]; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German doctor with an interest in astronomy who theorised that there was a natural energy transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called animal magnetism, sometimes later referred to as mesmerism. A similar idea has been revived by New Age spiritualists in modern times, following scientific discoveries which suggest that on a molecular level both humans and inanimate objects exist as vibrational frequencies, see Law of Attraction. Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the century.[2] In 1843 the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term hypnosis for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today this is the usual meaning of mesmerism.
Early life [ edit ]
Mesmer was born in the village of Iznang, on the shore of Lake Constance in Swabia, Germany, a son of master forester Anton Mesmer (1701—after 1747) and his wife, Maria/Ursula (née Michel; 1701—1770).[3] After studying at the Jesuit universities of Dillingen and Ingolstadt, he took up the study of medicine at the University of Vienna in 1759. In 1766 he published a doctoral dissertation with the Latin title De planetarum influxu in corpus humanum (On the Influence of the Planets on the Human Body), which discussed the influence of the moon and the planets on the human body and on disease. This was not medical astrology. Building largely on Isaac Newton's theory of the tides, Mesmer expounded on certain tides in the human body that might be accounted for by the movements of the sun and moon.[4] Evidence assembled by Frank A. Pattie suggests that Mesmer plagiarized[5] a part of his dissertation from a work[6] by Richard Mead, an eminent English physician and Newton's friend. However, in Mesmer's day doctoral theses were not expected to be original.[7]
In January 1768, Mesmer married Anna Maria von Posch, a wealthy widow, and established himself as a doctor in Vienna. In the summers he lived on a splendid estate and became a patron of the arts. In 1768, when court intrigue prevented the performance of La finta semplice (K. 51), for which the twelve-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had composed 500 pages of music, Mesmer is said to have arranged a performance in his garden of Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne (K. 50), a one-act opera,[8] though Mozart's biographer Nissen found no proof that this performance actually took place. Mozart later immortalized his former patron by including a comedic reference to Mesmer in his opera Così fan tutte.[9]
De planetarum influxu in corpus humanum
Animal magnetism [ edit ]
In 1774, Mesmer produced an "artificial tide" in a patient, Francisca Österlin, who suffered from hysteria, by having her swallow a preparation containing iron and then attaching magnets to various parts of her body. She reported feeling streams of a mysterious fluid running through her body and was relieved of her symptoms for several hours. Mesmer did not believe that the magnets had achieved the cure on their own. He felt that he had contributed animal magnetism, which had accumulated in his work, to her. He soon stopped using magnets as a part of his treatment.
In the same year Mesmer collaborated with Maximilian Hell.
In 1775, Mesmer was invited to give his opinion before the Munich Academy of Sciences on the exorcisms carried out by Johann Joseph Gassner (Gaßner), a priest and healer who grew up in Vorarlberg, Austria. Mesmer said that while Gassner was sincere in his beliefs, his cures resulted because he possessed a high degree of animal magnetism. This confrontation between Mesmer's secular ideas and Gassner's religious beliefs marked the end of Gassner's career as well as, according to Henri Ellenberger, the emergence of dynamic psychiatry.
The scandal that followed Mesmer's only partial success in curing the blindness of an 18-year-old musician, Maria Theresia Paradis, led him to leave Vienna in 1777. In February 1778 Mesmer moved to Paris, rented an apartment in a part of the city preferred by the wealthy and powerful, and established a medical practice. Paris soon divided into those who thought he was a charlatan who had been forced to flee from Vienna and those who thought he had made a great discovery.
In his first years in Paris, Mesmer tried and failed to get either the Royal Academy of Sciences or the Royal Society of Medicine to provide official approval for his doctrines. He found only one physician of high professional and social standing, Charles d'Eslon, to become a disciple. In 1779, with d'Eslon's encouragement, Mesmer wrote an 88-page book, Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal, to which he appended his famous 27 Propositions. These propositions outlined his theory at that time. Some contemporary scholars equate Mesmer’s animal magnetism with the Qi (chi) of Traditional Chinese Medicine and mesmerism with medical Qigong practices.[10][11]
According to d'Eslon, Mesmer understood health as the free flow of the process of life through thousands of channels in our bodies. Illness was caused by obstacles to this flow. Overcoming these obstacles and restoring flow produced crises, which restored health. When Nature failed to do this spontaneously, contact with a conductor of animal magnetism was a necessary and sufficient remedy. Mesmer aimed to aid or provoke the efforts of Nature. To cure an insane person, for example, involved causing a fit of madness. The advantage of magnetism involved accelerating such crises without danger.
Procedure [ edit ]
Mesmer treated patients both individually and in groups. With individuals he would sit in front of his patient with his knees touching the patient's knees, pressing the patient's thumbs in his hands, looking fixedly into the patient's eyes. Mesmer made "passes", moving his hands from patients' shoulders down along their arms. He then pressed his fingers on the patient's hypochondrium region (the area below the diaphragm), sometimes holding his hands there for hours. Many patients felt peculiar sensations or had convulsions that were regarded as crises and supposed to bring about the cure. Mesmer would often conclude his treatments by playing some music on a glass armonica.[12]
By 1780 Mesmer had more patients than he could treat individually and he established a collective treatment known as the "baquet." An English doctor who observed Mesmer described the treatment as follows:
A caricature of Mesmer "baquet" filmed by Georges Méliès, 1905
In the middle of the room is placed a vessel of about a foot and a half high which is called here a "baquet". It is so large that twenty people can easily sit round it; near the edge of the lid which covers it, there are holes pierced corresponding to the number of persons who are to surround it; into these holes are introduced iron rods, bent at right angles outwards, and of different heights, so as to answer to the part of the body to which they are to be applied. Besides these rods, there is a rope which communicates between the baquet and one of the patients, and from him is carried to another, and so on the whole round. The most sensible effects are produced on the approach of Mesmer, who is said to convey the fluid by certain motions of his hands or eyes, without touching the person. I have talked with several who have witnessed these effects, who have convulsions occasioned and removed by a movement of the hand...
Investigation [ edit ]
Mesmer's grave in the cemetery in Meersburg, Germany.
In 1784, without Mesmer requesting it, King Louis XVI appointed four members of the Faculty of Medicine as commissioners to investigate animal magnetism as practiced by d'Eslon. At the request of these commissioners the King appointed five additional commissioners from the Royal Academy of Sciences. These included the chemist Antoine Lavoisier, the doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly, and the American ambassador Benjamin Franklin.
The commission conducted a series of experiments aimed not at determining whether Mesmer's treatment worked, but whether he had discovered a new physical fluid. The commission concluded that there was no evidence for such a fluid. Whatever benefit the treatment produced was attributed to "imagination." But one of the commissioners, the botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu took exception to the official reports. He wrote a dissenting opinion that declared Mesmer's theory credible and worthy of further investigation.
The commission did not examine Mesmer, but investigated the practice of d'Eslon.
In August 1784 Mesmer visited a Mesmeric society in Lyon. In 1785 Mesmer left Paris. In 1790 he was in Vienna again to settle the estate of his deceased wife Maria Anna. When he sold his house in Vienna in 1801 he was in Paris.
Mesmer was driven into exile soon after the investigations on animal magnetism although his influential student, Armand-Marie-Jacques de Chastenet, Marquis de Puségur (1751-1825), continued to have many followers until his death.[13] Mesmer continued to practice in Frauenfeld, Switzerland, for a number of years and died in 1815 in Meersburg, Germany.[14]
Abbé Faria, an Indo-Portuguese monk in Paris and a contemporary of Mesmer, claimed that "nothing comes from the magnetizer; everything comes from the subject and takes place in his imagination, i.e. autosuggestion generated from within the mind."
Works [ edit ]
De planetarum influxu in corpus humanum ( Über den Einfluss der Gestirne auf den menschlichen Körper ; "The Influence of the Planets on the Human Body" / original language: Latin) (1766).
( ; "The Influence of the Planets on the Human Body" / original language: Latin) (1766). Mémoire sur la découverte du magnetisme animal, Didot, Genf und Paris 1779 (Digitalisat)
, Didot, Genf und Paris 1779 (Digitalisat) Sendschreiben an einen auswärtigen Arzt über die Magnetkur ("Circulatory letter to an external[?] physician about the magnetic cure" / original language: German) (1775).
("Circulatory letter to an external[?] physician about the magnetic cure" / original language: German) (1775). Théorie du monde et des êtres organisés suivant les principes de M…., Paris, 1784 (Digitalisat)
, Paris, 1784 (Digitalisat) Mémoire de F. A. Mesmer,...sur ses découvertes, 1798 - 1799 (Digitalisat)
, 1798 - 1799 (Digitalisat) Mesmerismus oder System der Wechselwirkungen. Theorie und Anwendung des thierischen Magnetismus ("Mesmerism or the system of inter-relations. Theory and applications of animal magnetism" / original language: German) (1814). Edited by Karl Christian Wolfart: Mesmerismus. Oder System der Wechselwirkungen, Theorie und Anwendung des thierischen Magnetismus als die allgemeine Heilkunde zur Erhaltung des Menschen. Mit dem Bildniß des Verfassers und 6 Kupfertafeln. Nikolai, Berlin 1814 Digitalisat
Notes [ edit ]Quote Hey folks,
As we discussed yesterday on the livestream, one of the goals of crafting is that it will be a mechanism where someone can gear up an alt, catch up to their friends, or even gear an off-spec. With the launch of Eternal Throne you will find that there is a new grade of materials and higher level items which can be learned from your Crafting Trainer. For endgame crafting, the intent is that you will be able to craft items which are within 2 item rating of the best gear in that tier, but without a set bonus. The exception to this rule is tier 1, where you will be able to craft items equivalent to the best item rating in that tier. All of the gear that you craft in this matter will be static, meaning that you cannot move mods. However, crafters will also be able to craft mods of those same item levels.
If that is confusing let me give you some examples using made up numbers from Fallen Empire:
Tier 1 – 216 with set bonus
Tier 2 – 220 with set bonus
Tier 3 – 224 with set bonus
You would be able to craft at the following ratings:
Tier 1 – 216 without a set bonus
Tier 2 – 218 without a set bonus
Tier 3 – 222 without a set bonus
Let’s talk about how you get access to craft these items.
Gear: You will earn the schematics to craft gear from their respective Command Crates. Ex: You will get schematics to craft tier 1 gear inside of tier 1 Command Crates. These schematics will require materials earned from Conquests in order to craft them.
Mods: You will earn the schematics to craft mods through either reverse engineering the mod, PvP, or looting the schematic from an Operation boss. These schematics will require materials earned from Operations or PvP in order to craft them.
This is a summary of how crafting relates to gearing in Eternal Throne. Let me know if you have any questions.
-eric Eric Musco | Community Manager
Follow us on Twitter @SWTOR | Like us on Facebook
[Contact Us] [Rules of Conduct] [F.A.Q.]Stan Meyer's Dune Buggy that ran on water. Hydrogen/Oxygen fuel in an ICE motor. On board electrolysis, no hydrogen tanks, no bombs on-board, just water. (1998) It ran 100 miles per gallon! The 2nd best inventor of the Century, besides Tesla, who was and will always be #1. Stan is the mustard seed of Water Powered Cars! The video left above is a one timed aired news cast, from his home town of Grove City, Ohio that you are not to view. The video screen to the right is a segment of the Equinox program about Stanley aired back in Dec. 1995 (approx.) See the entire program entitled "It Runs on Water" narrated by Arthur C. Clarke in video clips below.
It is in 4 parts, made possible by Andy the WizardKing from Blackpool, England.
(9/2014 update) Stan's dune buggy is in Canada, it was bought off the Holbrook family for a down payment and royalty of the duplicating was to follow, but was taken to Canada, so the corp. would not have to ay any more money. Stephen Meyer is alive and knew as much as Stan did. An eye witness to the dune buggy sale said the VW engine ran beautifully, they did NOT run it for many buyers. They told most buyers it did not run. It was stored in a 2 story building, with no doors, sealed in a room so no ne could steal it! Stan's last experiment with that same buggy was running the engine on charged water from his resonant chamber powered by his VIC circuit. Instead of gas into the carb., it ran charged water, much like what Steve Ryan from NZ did with is HHO running motorcycle. The VW engine had to be cleaned out with light oil, as to not damage the engine, as the charged deuterium level water put out NH3 fumes (ammonia) from the burning H3 and nitrogen from the air had a reaction to produce a putrid smell of ammonia, the only draw back. Though ran well and the timing was set right. NO GASOLINE, just water. You can see why Stan was taken out, he threatened the National Security of the Jesuit leaders and would destroy the Oil Corp Petrol Dollar empire.
Download Stan's out of print book : "The Birth of a New Technology", 222 pages is ready for you to download in a.pdf file. 9/2014 "Someday ENERGY will be FREE to all inhabitants of the Earth" Bro Andrew ( the Holy Spirit told me this info.) That is the goal of WaterPoweredCar Inc.
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4
DOWNLOAD the lastest.pdf of how he did it. (4/2010)
He was a shame to hear that he was poisoned (March 98') and longer with us. He died in the parking lot of a restaurant in his home town of Grove City, Ohio. Sharks came a week later and stole the the dune buggy and all of his experimental equipment, according to his brother, Steve. Stan said while he was alive, that he was threatened many times and would not sell out to Arab Oil Corp.s The dune buggy was later found and NOT stolen, the Holbrook family, hid it away in their garage. The Holbrooks were partners and friends of Stan. We hear Stephen Meyers knows as much as Stan does, but is afraid and says nothing. He is working with HHO boosting with semi trucks, last info., that we received. The Military was going to use this technology in their tanks, jeeps, etc. He had patents on his invention and was ready for production. Only $1,500 to equip your car! See the Videos above. No gasoline, just water. Stanley said he was offered a billion dollars from an Arab to basically shelf his idea. Stan said, "no, this technology is for the people." Who you suppose poisoned Stan? A jealous onlooker? Do you think the Oil Corp.'s are happy to see a converted car running for FREE?? Our own US DOE, and the present administration are heavily involved in the Oil business. If GW wanted my respect,I'd have inventors like Stan on TV and with me in the White House, discussing how to save this dying planet and break the bonds of ruled corruption and greed. I have read the DOE's hydrogen & fuel cell technology and they don't mention making hydrogen from pure water, until the last page. They rather get hydrogen from hydrocarbons. They don't mention "On Board Hydrogen Electrolysis" make the egas as you go. They talk about Hydrogen Gas Stations at how much per gallon? In the mean time, make sure the auto parts like your air filter, spark plugs and tune up items to make your car as fuel efficient as possible are up to date.
So what is happening with Stan's Great Invention of the 20th Century!! Absolutely nothing. Are they manufacturing his invention. NO, Why not? because it would solve all the world's problems today. That is NOT how politics work, MONEY is the ruler here. Common Sense is NOT for humans, only good for OUTLAWS & so called terrorists.? Huh? We live in a time when good is spoken of as evil and evil spoken up as good. Why do I say that because it is true. We were told the US twin towers was taken down by airplanes, when the truth is, it was taken down by C4 explosives. William Rodriguez holds the master key, he was there that day, he lost his job and 250 of his friends and colleges. Connect the dots, it is that simple. Sorry to have shocked you and made your face turn red, but Building #7 came down in 7 seconds, not reported in the 911 commission report. No planes hit that building, only a few office fires happened. It was all too fishy from me, and continues to stink like a dead rat.
All they talk about is hydrogen gas stations run by Shell and a Canadian Oil Firm. Then they talk all about "hydrogen fuel cells" which take a lifetime of gas burned just to make one fuel cell. A hydrogen fuel cell factory is a real SMOG factory. To explain better read on. There Fuel Cells are not as efficient as a "On board Hydrogen Electrolysis" fuel cell. Stan made the gas as he drove, no hydrogen tanks, no fuel cells, no need for Shell Hydrogen Stations. He spent 30 years of research all on his own.
GOOD NEWS! Stephen Meyer, Stan's twin brother lives! He is into the same
technology! He stays low key, because he wants to live.
Why is there only one website on him? WCCO.com News 4/11/06
Other Resources of Information
Auto Wash
Car Cleaner
Cleaning Services
Industrial Cleaner
To totally learn this technology go to
I have some.pdf files for you to
Download all of Stan's writings, circuits, etc.
StanleyMeyer.com
-------------------------------
Recent Harassment on a Stan Meyer Cell Builder in India 2-1-07
We are familiar with the suppression of free-energy devices. In the USA there have been literally thousands of cases - for example, Bill Williams for running his truck on a Joe Cell, T Henry Moray for pulling kilowatts out of the environment and Ed Gray for daring to have a power tube with an output power 100 times the input power.
In Australia there is intense opposition to anyone using the Nitro Cell on any engine. In New Zealand, to the magnetic motor of Robert Adams which is 700% efficient. In the UK, to devices for water-splitting and permanent magnet motors. In Japan to Teruo Kawai’s patented magnetic motor which is 160% efficient.
But in the last week there has been an instance of it in India, in spite of the fact that the bus service in Mumbai has been run on hydrogen for some years now. A man, who wishes to remain anonymous in order not to aggravate the current situation, has just been picked on. He has been running a business for the last 23 years and has a good relationship with his local Commercial Taxation Office staff.
He became interested in Dave Lawton’s replication and decided to try it for himself. The seven pictures which I have placed |
may have to obey the rules of Dead by Daylight rather than starring in his own game, but the developers managed to recreate the dichotomy between the real and nightmare worlds within that franchise staggeringly well.
The point is, Freddy and Jason are at the center of video games at this very moment, and they’re killing a lot of people. The two icons have always been at the forefront of changing tides in film censorship, given their—especially Jason’s—frequent battles with the MPAA over the years. But the fact that they’ve even been able to track the evolving standards of video game censorship only goes to show what a long-lasting impact on pop culture they’ve truly had.By Jake Donovan
Saturday’s middleweight championship showdown between Miguel Cotto and Daniel Geale is no longer a weighty issue. Both combatants came within the contracted 157 lb. catchweight in place for their headliner at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Cotto tipped the scales at a lean and ready 153.6 lbs. Geale brought about a collective sigh of relief after weighing in right at the catchweight limit of 157 lbs., his lightest weight in more than eight years.
There was weeklong concern over whether or not Geale (31-3, 16KOs) could come within the contracted weight agreement. Eyebrows were raised when he tipped the scales at 167.5 lbs. during the World Boxing Council (WBC)-mandated 7-day pre-fight safety check (Cotto holds the WBC belt in addition to his recognition as the World lineal middleweight king).
Geale and promoter Gary Shaw have also expressed their displeasure over having to agree to the catchweight. Cynics note that they could have said no, but such a stance would have resulted in missing out on the sizeable payday that comes with fighting Cotto.
With the scale drama now behind him, the 34-year old Aussie can move towards becoming a three-time middleweight titlist. Geale claimed each of his two previously held titles on the road, scoring split decision wins over Sebastian Sylvester (May ’11) and Felix Sturm (Sept. ’12) in Germany.Fluid Bed Gasifier Plant. Credit Advanced Plasma Power
In Jim Kunstler's World Made By Hand, the former motorheads in town mine the dump for resources. There is a lot of valuable stuff in dumps; it has been cheaper to bury stuff than to recycle or compost it. They are also filling up, and nobody wants new ones in their backyard. In Belgium, Advanced Plasma Power is building a plant at a huge landfill site to mine the garbage, separating out the recyclable materials and converting the rest into synthetic fuel.
really? Image credit APP
Tim Webb writes in the Guardian:
The 30-year project will reuse 16.5m tonnes of municipal waste dumped since the 1960s at the landfill site near Hasselt in eastern Belgium. APP will use its plasma technology to convert the methane produced by the rubbish, which is more than 20 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide, into usable gas. This will fuel a 60MW power plant capable of supplying 60,000 homes.
APP has developed a four stage process of converting waste into "a clean hydrogen-rich syngas and a vitrified recyclate called Plasmarok® that can be used as a building material or replacement aggregate." They claim it produces little or no emissions and "almost nothing is left - around 2% of input volumes - for landfill." They also claim that it has a negative carbon footprint.
It is not without risk. An environmental lawyer pointed out that there are health and safety issues: "in many cases, for older "mature" sites, there are inexact records of what lies below."
Others point out that burning anything creates pollution, and that it is an incinerator in disguise. The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives claims:
Incinerators with names like "gasification," "pyrolysis," "plasma arc," and "waste-to-energy" all emit dioxins and other harmful pollutants, despite industry claims that they are "green" technologies....The short track record of pyrolysis, plasma and gasification incinerator technologies has shown even higher costs, less dependability, and inconsistent energy generation. In addition, data show that dioxins, furans and other toxins are formed in these systems, and in some cases, toxins are formed in higher quantities than in conventional mass-burn incinerators.
But existing dumps are emitting harmful pollutants while they sit there, creating greenhouse gases through rotting, and leaking toxic leachates. Perhaps mining them for fuel and materials is the lesser of two evils.
More in the Guardian: Why landfill mining could be the next big thing
More on landfill mining:
There's Gold In Them Thar Smelly Hills
Landfill Gas to Energy: A Growing Alternative Energy Resource
British Airways' to Create Jet Fuel from Landfill WasteThe American toy shop Toys “R” Us appears to have quietly withdrawn a range of drug dealer dolls based on the television series Breaking Bad after facing criticism from parents.
Although a spokesman for the retail giant had defended the collection as recently as yesterday, the models are no longer available online. The range includes an action figure clutching a bag of cash and blue rocks of the drug crystal meth.
An online search for the dolls, which were selling for $17.99 (£11.16), is met with the response: “Your search for 'breaking bad action figure' returned 0 results."
A day earlier the page had displayed two figures in Hazmat protective suits, and one model clutching a gun, money and drugs.
Breaking Bad is based on the character of high school chemistry teacher Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, who goes into business with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, portrayed by Aaron Paul, producing and selling crystal meth in order to make money for his family before he dies from terminal cancer.
Cranston himself had tweeted a repost to the petition, organised by mother Susan Schrivjer, from Fort Myers, Florida.
<noframe>Twitter: Bryan Cranston - "Florida mom petitions against Toys 'R Us over Breaking Bad action figures." I'm so mad, I'm burning my Florida Mom action figure in protest</noframe>
The petition on the website Change.org, called "Remove Breaking Bad dolls from their shelves", now has more than 7,200 signatures.
It says: “Toys "R" Us is well known around the world for their vast selection of toys for children of all ages. However their decision to sell a Breaking Bad doll, complete with a detachable sack of cash and a bag of meth, alongside children’s toys is a dangerous deviation from their family friendly values.
“That’s why I’m calling on Toys "R" Us to immediately stop selling the Breaking Bad doll collection in their stores and on their website.”
Toys R Us did not comment to The Telegraph. A spokesman told NBC News earlier in the week: "The product packaging clearly notes that the items are intended for ages 15 and up. The toys are located in the adult action figure area of our stores."Femininity isn’t something mainstream games tend to embrace. Masculine, ‘tough girl’ tropes? Sure, Tomb Raider is kind of a thing. Sexualized femininity? Hoo boy, do videogames have that covered. But it’s almost never that we have a game celebrating femininity for its own sake – as a virtue or as a strength. However, one game series that has done a consistently excellent job bucking this trend is Gust’s Atelier games. Atelier Sophie: Alchemist of the Mysterious Book marks the 17th entry in the long running series, and is the series’ first venture on to the Playstation 4 console. But after so many installations in this JRPG franchise, has Atelier Sophie still got the magic touch?
Atelier Sophie puts players in the shoes (and frock) of the young alchemist Sophie, who is continuing to run her grandmothers workshop in the small town of Kirchen Bell. Following her grandmothers passing, Sophie has been feeling lonely and struggling to meet the needs of the town with her amateur alchemy skills. But despite her struggles and clumsiness, Sophie is a determined alchemist who aspires to greatness for the sake of her community. Just as she’s beginning to lose faith, she writes an alchemy recipe in one of her grandmothers old books and is surprised when the book begins talking to her.
It seems as though the book contains the soul of a formerly highly-skilled alchemist called Plachta. Unfortunately, Plachta’s memories have been eroded over time, but as Sophie writes more recipes in her pages she begins to remember more about her past. One of the first things Plachta remembers is the existence of the powerful alchemy instrument ‘the Cauldron of Knowledge’, which grants users ultimate access to the mysteries of alchemy – regardless of skill. With the prospect of exceptional alchemy skills, Sophie promises to help restore Plachta’s memory.
From here, players begin to venture out into the world beyond Kirchen Bell to gather alchemy ingredients and clear out the monsters that have settled into the land. Along the way, Sophie crosses paths with adventurers, knights, nuns, and other local artisans and becomes heavily involved in the pursuits and problems they’re involved with – many of which will join Sophie and Plachta on their journey.
The character roster is a big part of what makes Atelier Sophie such a delightful and engaging game. Whereas other JRPGs often focus on expansive worlds and pushing forward to other exotic locations, Atelier Sophie established Kirchen Bell as a community and a home where Sophie regularly returns to shop, socialize, accept quests, and – most of all – put her alchemy skills to the test. Because of this, players will quickly become intimately familiar with the local happenings of this lively and growing town. Many of these characters I became quite fond of, like Oskar the overweight grocer’s son who claims he can converse with plants. Then there’s Leon, the travelling garment-maker who knows how to match an outfit with a personality. The game features a wide array of female characters, each with their own passions and skills. Something I appreciate is that not only are they all quite feminine characters, but they are also presented with depth and competence. They’re femininity is never a weakness, never something to overcome, and never shamed or made the butt of jokes.
Speaking of garments, the costume design in this game is gorgeous. Life in Kirchen Bell is lived in wonderful frocks, corsets, Lolita ball gowns, armor, and capes – all in beautiful, vibrant colours. It’s a world filled with cheer and sunny optimism, and this is reflected just as much in the way characters dress as the way they behave.
Gameplay-wise the game is split primarily between exploring and gathering resources for alchemy and engaging monsters in combat. The combat is a fairly straightforward turn-based system, with special attacks that trigger as battles run longer. It’s a good system that prevents any single battle from dragging on through a stalemate.
Once resources are gathered they can be taken back to Sophie’s workshop where they can be used to prepare alchemy products. As you meet certain conditions in the game you unlock new recipes, which can be used to create medicines, bombs, equippable accessories and other materials for weapon/armour upgrades. As you get more competent you can create items at a higher quality and you can carry over unique traits for items – meaning that no two items are ever exactly the same.
Atelier Sophie may not be a landmark title. None of the major gaming publications will be naming it game of the year. It doesn’t challenge the form or push any boundaries. But rather what it does is indulge in some of the most comforting and charming elements that can be offered in any contemporary game. It is big slice of cake that looks as pretty as it tastes delicious. It may take a few hours to settle in and a few more to get hooked, but once you’re in you will find yourself enchanted by the characters and drawn into the simple, yet deep alchemy systems. Atelier Sophie manages to keep the formula of the series fresh without compromising what makes the games fun. These are games that have always been utter joys to play and still stand as some of the finest, yet most underrated, JRPGs of all time. There are many hours of joy to be had creating items in this world. But at the end of the day, the real alchemy is the friends you make along the way.
9/10When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opined earlier this month that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities could “consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret,” the Israelis went ballistic behind the scenes. Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, lodged a formal diplomatic protest known as a demarche. And the White House was thrust into action, reassuring the Israelis that the administration had its own “red lines” that would trigger military action against Iran, and that there is no need for Jerusalem to act unilaterally.
Panetta’s seemingly innocent remarks on Dec. 2 triggered the latest drama in the tinder-box relationship that the Obama administration is trying to navigate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. With Republicans lining up to court Jewish donors and voters in America in 2012, Obama faces a tricky election-year task of ensuring Iran doesn’t acquire a nuclear bomb on his watch while keeping the Israelis from launching a preemptive strike that could inflame an already teetering Middle East.
The stakes are immensely high, and the distrust that Israelis feel toward the president remains a complicating factor. Those sentiments were laid bare in a speech Netanyahu’s minister of strategic affairs, Moshe Ya’alon, gave on Christmas Eve in Jerusalem, in which he used Panetta’s remarks to cast doubt on the U.S.’s willingness to launch its own military strike.
Ya’alon told the Anglo-Likud, an organization within Netanyahu’s Likud party that caters to native English speakers, that the Western strategy to stop Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons must include four elements, with the last resort being a military strike.
“The fourth element of this combined strategy is the credible military strike,” Ya’alon said, according to a recording of the speech provided to The Daily Beast. “There is no credible military action when we hear leaders from the West, saying, ‘this is not a real option,’ saying, ‘the price of military action is too high.’”
The lack of trust between the Israeli and American leaders on Iran has been a sub-rosa tension in the relationship since 2009. Three U.S. military officials confirm to The Daily Beast that analysts attached to the Office of the Secretary of Defense are often revising estimates trying to predict what events in Iran would trigger Prime Minister Netanyahu to authorize a military attack on the country’s nuclear infrastructure. Despite repeated requests going back to 2009, Netanyahu’s government has not agreed to ask the United States for permission or give significant advanced warning of any pending strike.
The sensitive work of trying to get both allies on the same page intensified this month. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Washington last week to go over Iran issues; and the undersecretary of state for political affairs, Wendy Sherman, and a special arms control adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Robert Einhorn, were in Israel last week to discuss Iran as well. Panetta for his own part has revised his tone on the question of Iran’s nuclear program, telling CBS News last week that the United States was prepared to use force against Iran to stop the country from building a nuclear weapon.
The new diplomacy has prompted new conversations between the United States and Israel over what the triggers—called “red lines” in diplomatic parlance—would be to justify a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Matthew Kroenig, who served as special adviser on Iran to the Office of the Secretary of Defense between July 2010 and July 2011, offered some of the possible “red lines” for a military strike in a recent Foreign Affairs article he wrote. He argued that the U.S should attack Iran’s facilities if Iran expels international nuclear weapons inspectors, begins enriching its stockpiles of uranium to weapons-grade levels of 90 percent, or installs advanced centrifuges at its main uranium-enrichment facility in Qom.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Kroenig also noted that Iran announced in 2009 that it was set to construct 10 new uranium enrichment sites. “I doubt they are building ten new sites, but I would be surprised if Iran was not racing to build some secret enrichment facilities,” Kroenig said. “Progress on new facilities would be a major factor in our assessment of Iran’s nuclear program and shape all aspects of our policy towards this including the decision to use force.”
Until recently, current and former Obama administration officials would barely broach the topic in public, only hinting vaguely that all options are on the table to stop Iran’s program. Part of the reason for this was that Obama came into office committed to pursuing negotiations with Iran. When the diplomatic approach petered out, the White House began building international and economic pressure on Iran, often in close coordination with Israel.
All the while, secret sabotage initiatives like a computer worm known as Stuxnet that infected the Siemens-made logic boards at the Natanz centrifuge facility in Iran, continued apace. New U.S. estimates say that Stuxnet delayed Iran’s nuclear enrichment work by at most a year, despite earlier estimates that suggested the damage was more extensive.
Last week in a CBS interview, Panetta said Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon is a “red line.” White House advisers have more recently broached the subject more specifically in private conversations with outside experts on the subject.
Patrick Clawson, the director of research for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said, “If Iran were found to be sneaking out or breaking out then the president’s advisers are firmly persuaded he would authorize the use of military force to stop it.” But Clawson added, “The response they frequently get from the foreign policy experts is considerable skepticism that this is correct, not that these people are lying to us, but rather when the occasion comes we just don’t know how the president will react.”
Henry Sokolski, the executive director the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said “You don’t propose and go about doing an oil embargo unless you are serious about taking the next step, and the next step for the administration is clearly some form of military action, and people who have left the administration like Dennis Ross have made it clear that this is precisely what’s on this administration’s mind.”
Ross did not respond to emails and phone calls requesting comment.
Ironically, Panetta often is the official the Obama administration uses to engage Israel. “Panetta has been straightforward with the Israelis and they seem to appreciate that,” one senior administration official said. “The Israelis view Panetta as an honest broker.” In some ways that is why his remarks stung Netanyahu’s government so much.
Complicating matters, the Dec. 2 remarks also came at the same time a high-level delegation of Israeli diplomats, military officers and intelligence officials were in Washington for an annual meeting called the strategic dialogue. At the meeting, the Israeli side offered a new presentation on Iran’s nuclear program suggesting that Iran’s efforts to build secret reactors for producing nuclear fuel were further along than the United States has publicly said. Some of the intelligence was based on soil samples collected near the suspected sites.
Part of the issue now between the United States and Israel are disagreements over such intelligence. The Israelis and the U.S. both believe that Iran suspended its work on weaponization, or the research and testing on how to fit an atomic explosion inside a warhead, in 2003 shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The Israelis, however, say the Iranians started that work again in 2005, according to Israeli officials and Ya’alon, who said this in his speech on Christmas Eve. The 2007 and 2011 U.S. national intelligence estimates for Iran say this weaponization work remains suspended.
The Israelis also say a recent document uncovered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that shows detailed plans for constructing a “neutron initiator,” or a pellet that sits at the middle of the nuclear core and is crushed by high explosives in a nuclear explosion, is evidence that Iran is continuing its weaponization work. The latest IAEA report released in November said members states had shared intelligence alleging that Iran had conducted explosive tests associated with nuclear weapons research.
A senior administration official told The Daily Beast, “Both Americans and Israelis agree that some research and design work is probably continuing in the event the Iranians decide to move ahead with weaponization.”
The intelligence disagreement is significant in part because one of the factors in drawing up red lines on Iran’s program is how much progress Iran has made in constructing secret enrichment facilities outside of Natanz, where IAEA inspectors still monitor the centrifuge cascades. In 2009, the Obama administration exposed such a facility carved into a mountain outside of the Shiite holy city of Qom. The IAEA has chastised the Iranians for not fully disclosing their work on the Qom site until the United States forced the regime’s hand.“JUSTIFICATION: Murder is not morally justifiable. Self-defense may be argued if the victim has knowledge which may destroy the resistance organization if divulged. Assassination of persons responsible for atrocities or reprisals may be regarded as just punishment. Killing a political leader whose burgeoning career is a clear and present danger to the cause of freedom may be held necessary.
But assassination can seldom be employed with a clear conscience. Persons who are morally squeamish should not attempt it.” — CIA Training Manual, 1952
Nor, apparently, should the morally squeamish be assigned to examine the means by which such noble ends are accomplished.
July 24 was a big day for JFK assassination researchers. The National Archives began releasing the remaining trove of classified/redacted documents related to the tragedy of November 22, 1963.
WhoWhatWhy is now combing through these files, which were either fully or partially held back from an earlier release of several hundred thousand documents during the 1990s. By law, the remaining files must be made public by this October — unless President Trump agrees with the originating agency’s appeal to yet again keep the documents secret.
The release included over 3,000 “formerly released in part” documents — meaning they had previously been seen only with some key portions redacted. However, documents, especially official documents, do not always say what they mean, or mean what they say.
Notable in Harvey’s planning for operational security is his order that there be no notes or records of the recruitment of hitmen and that the Agency’s own “201” personnel files be phonied up to disguise their mission. The Agency blinded itself and anyone else who would rely on the documentary record.
Each of these releases must be examined not simply for what they literally say, but for the deeper meaning, revealing or obfuscatory, when placed in context with earlier and subsequent versions.
One eye-opening document we found was a report from the Rockefeller Commission titled Summary of Facts: Investigation of CIA Involvement in Plans to Assassinate Foreign Leaders (file name: DOCID-32105829.pdf; previously released under RIF# 178-10004-10116, dups. 178-10003-10355, 178-10004-10189, 178-10003-10241; also in the Ford Library).
Written in 1975, this report spelled out the lengths that the CIA was willing to go to in 1960 to effect regime change. It describes a secret operation to help dissidents overthrow an old ally, military dictator Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. Fearing Trujillo’s sadistic tyranny had so alienated the population that his continuation in power would spark a communist-led uprising like Cuba’s the year before, the Eisenhower administration opted to support liberals who hoped to replace the dictator with a pro-US military-civilian junta.
That’s not news. This is: The newly unredacted portions of the document (quoted below in bold) shed new light on a gun-smuggling operation via diplomatic pouch:
On March 22, the CIA Station Chief renewed his request that headquarters send him three.38 calibre revolvers and ammunition by diplomatic pouch.
[…]
Three days later, on March 25, the Deputy Director of Plans (Editor’s note: Richard M. Bissell, Jr.) cabled the station setting forth United States policy with respect to the Dominican Republic and stating that the revolvers and ammunition would be sent by diplomatic pouch in the near future.
[…]
The use of a diplomatic pouch to send weapons for such purposes was prohibited by regulations of the CIA’s Clandestine Services, and it is also illegal under international law. The Deputy Director of Plans approved the waiver of the internal regulations. There is nothing to indicate that the Department of State was informed of the use of the pouch, and the fact that the March 25 cable instructed the Chief of Station not to advise the Consul General of the use of the pouch suggests that the CIA acted unilaterally in this regard.
The CIA files indicate that the revolvers were passed to the dissidents, and the Department of State files indicate that one was passed by the Consul General and the other two by Agency officers. Neither the Consul General nor the former Chief of Station has any particular recollection of the matter.
[…]
(Editor’s note: The following section refers to a separate attempt to smuggle in three M3 submachine-guns.)
The Chief of Station returned to Washington for consultations in early April. He was able to convince his superiors that the pouch was the only feasible and secure means of getting the weapons into the Dominican Republic for delivery to the dissidents. The Deputy Director for Plans approved on April 10, and the pouch was sent on April 14 but with the restriction that the weapons not be passed without further approval.
[…]
…and that the United States could not afford a precedent which might convince the world that our diplomatic pouches are used to deliver assassination weapons.
In each document of this trove, the same question arises: Why exactly did the government initially withhold or censor this particular phrase or fact? Beyond the usual reasons — disclosure of sources and methods that could put spies and agents at risk — what justification might there have been for withholding evidence of official law-breaking, even murder of political foes, from investigative agencies and the public?
At first glance, you might think this document was censored in order to disguise an embarrassing exception to the general prohibition against using diplomatic cover — that repeatedly redacted word “pouch” — to transfer weapons in violation of international law, specifically the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, which codified earlier bilateral treaties.
The shipping country certifies that the container (and there’s no limit on size) does not hold anything inconsistent with diplomatic use; in return, Article 27.3 bars the host country from opening or inspecting the contents, even with an X-ray. But such secrecy was (and is) simply too tempting for criminally inclined diplomats and countries alike.
The US has always denied using diplomatic pouches to smuggle contraband, drugs, guns, poisons, detonators, nuclear material — Or, at least, its representatives have “no particular recollection…” — while demanding that its word be taken as true.
Conveniently, there’s no way of proving otherwise, except with a confession or accidental discovery.
Cynicism and hypocrisy lie behind this diplomatic word of honor. “Gentlemen do not read other gentlemen’s mail,” President Herbert Hoover’s Secretary of State Henry Stimson once sneered. (They leave that to the FBI and CIA, both of which established long-running and illegal programs to do just that.)
More likely, the key to the redactions comes in the last line of the above quote: The real motive was to hide the fact that the weapons were to be used in an attempted assassination of a head of state — an action specifically prohibited by both internal policy and US law.
The punctilious obedience to policy expressed in this report was actually the exception, whereas breaking the rule, in the manner described here, was common practice in CIA tradecraft — as evidenced by the fact it required authorization from higher authority in the CIA in order to avoid embarrassment by “rogue” operations. So the earlier release of a strategically redacted version actually served as a kind of meta-cover-up, a strategy to reveal a little to conceal a lot.
This can be seen more clearly if viewed in historical context. The President’s Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States, empanelled in 1975 by President Gerald Ford in the wake of the Watergate scandal, was headed by Ford’s newly installed Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller.
Rockefeller had a long and intimate relationship with the CIA. His family’s businesses worldwide provided information, cover for agents, and safehouses going back at least to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II, and the future vice president himself supervised operations in Latin America for CIA’s forerunner, the Office of Policy Coordination. And Ford’s National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger had been plucked from academia as Nelson’s foreign policy tutor in 1958, then loaned to Nixon.
Damage Control
.
Given this nexus, it defies the odds that either man was not already privy to the Agency’s secrets, including assassinations. The purpose of releasing the carefully redacted documents was not to reveal those activities but to head off congressional investigations already underway — in short, damage control — as Kissinger and former DCI Richard Helms made clear in this “memorandum of conversation” in the White House.
The Rockefeller Commission gingerly examined allegations that the spy agency had engaged in assassinations of foreign leaders, among other activities that violated US and international laws. The assassination targets included not only the much-hated dictator Trujillo but earlier the elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, as evidenced by materials finally released by CIA in 1997.
These included a carefully compiled and vetted hit-list of suspected communists with the victims’ names still redacted — 25 years after the fact — to prevent disclosure of whether the murders contemplated on the “Junta disposal list” were successful.
Later, Patrice Lumumba of the newly independent Congo and other leaders were marked for murder, most notably, Fidel Castro in Cuba, along with, possibly, Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, during the Kennedy years and later, Salvador Allende of Chile and his military chief, Gen. Rene Schneider, by Nixon, Kissinger himself and DCI Helms, all of whom denied responsibility for the work of their henchmen.
“The Health Alteration Committee”
.
The assassinations were planned by the CIA’s Special Affairs Staff, which had a “Health Alteration Committee” to evaluate targets. This was an operational unit hidden in the Signals Intelligence section “D” of the Foreign Intelligence division, code-named KUTUBE/D. The actual program, dubbed “Executive Action” and the Cuban component code-named ZR RIFLE, was managed by a veteran CIA officer, William Harvey, and his deputy, Sam Halpern.
To maintain the “plausible deniability” of the president and of the CIA itself, the so-called “wetwork” was hired out to henchmen of organized crime (the Sicilian-American Mafia), who recruited foreign gangsters and mercenaries as cut-outs, decoys and patsies.
In some cases, Harvey’s program empowered ambitious and sympathetic foreign military units or mercenaries on loan to do what the US wanted but couldn’t do without unacceptable repercussions, ranging from diplomatic embarrassment to war. Harvey notoriously called this murder program “the last resort beyond last resort and a confession of weakness.”
Notable in Harvey’s planning for operational security is his order that there be no notes or records of the recruitment of hitmen and that the Agency’s own “201” personnel files be phonied up to disguise their mission. The Agency blinded itself and anyone else who would rely on the documentary record.
Then, to compound the epistemological problem (how do we know what we think we know?) veteran CIA officers like E. Howard Hunt, hired by the Nixon White House to conduct psychological warfare against political opponents, fabricated cables to implicate JFK personally in the decision of the CIA’s coup plotters to kill Diem.
Trujillo was in fact assassinated in March 1961 by Dominicans who riddled his car with a machine gun.
The CIA, of course, claimed it had nothing to do with it. Presumably, any fingerprints, literal or figurative, had been carefully wiped from the guns slipped into diplomatic pouches or otherwise conveyed to the assassins. (In Arbenz’s case, United Fruit Co. loaned CIA a freighter for a multi-ton delivery of weapons to troops it trained for the coup, but Arbenz fled into exile and later committed suicide in a New York hotel room.)
It was the bungled attempts to kill Castro that prompted the so-called Church and Pike Committees — Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, chaired by Sen. Frank Church, (D-ID), and the House subcommittee chaired by Otis Pike, (D-NY) — to reveal the existence of the program in 1975 and to request documents like this one.
But according to historian John Prados, Ford’s deputy, Richard Cheney, personally edited materials, including the summary provided to the Rockefeller Commission that was based on a CIA history of the Guatemala coup, commissioned in 1967. The Guatemala operation, codenamed PBSUCCESS, provoked an uprising of peasants who were denied the land reforms Arbenz had promised; this led to a 50-year civil war in which tens of thousands were killed by the US-supported army and police.
In the Dominican Republic, the assassination of Trujillo (“he may be a son-of-a-bitch but he’s our son-of-a-bitch,” FDR once said) led to a crackdown by his son, which provoked an uprising that the US suppressed by sending in airborne troops in 1965 to install another regime.
In the end, the Rockefeller Commission accepted the CIA’s word — that is, Cheney’s heavily redacted version — that such operations were prohibited by policy and law. Nonetheless, as suggested by the Commission in its 1975 report, Ford issued an executive order that formally reiterated a ban on political murder — a policy that remains honored in the breach.
In other words, “We didn’t do it and we promise to never do it again.”
WhoWhatWhy will continue to bring you updates.
Correction notice, 8/15/2017, 9:57pm: This article originally and incorrectly stated that Henry Stimson was FDR’s Secretary of State. He was Herbert Hoover’s Secretary of State and served Roosevelt as Secretary of War.
DOCID-32105829
Related front page panorama photo credit: Jacobo Arbenz (Gobierno de Guatemala / Wikimedia), Rafael Trujillo (Unknown / Wikimedia), Patrice Lumumba (Harry Pot / Wikimedia), Fidel Castro (Library of Congress / Wikimedia), Ngo Dinh Diem (DoD / Wikimedia) and Salvador Allende (Unknown / Wikimedia).
Where else do you see journalism of this quality and value? Please help us do more. Make a tax-deductible contribution now.
Our Comment Policy Keep it civilized, keep it relevant, keep it clear, keep it short. Please do not post links or promotional material. We reserve the right to edit and to delete comments where necessary. Related printThe Affordable Care Act (ACA) survived another round at the highest court in the land last week.
It was one of the many battles that have been fought over it., but the resounding 6-3 decision in support of the ACA may make it one of the last, at least for a while.
But while Obamacare proponents celebrate the Supreme Court ruling, few pause to consider the glaring health-care sector that remains uncovered: male contraceptive methods.
Anyone who has followed the national debates over the Affordable Care Act since Obama announced his desire for the overhaul in 2009 know that contraception coverage has been one of the most controversial aspects of it.
The legislative discussions often spun out into larger debates about women’s rights and societal biases surrounding female sexuality.
Not for nothing did Sandra Fluke become a household name.
After she testified before members of Congress on contraception in 2012, national radio host (and jackass) Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut” and a “prostitute.”
Plenty of ink was spilled and attention rightfully paid to contraception coverage.
Under the ACA’s contraceptive coverage guarantee and specific federal guidelines issued this past May, there are 18 specific and distinct contraceptive methods that plans must cover without out-of-pocket costs.
All 18 are ones used by women. Notably absent are vasectomies and male condoms.
Adam Sonfield, a senior public policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute, has been analyzing the disparity between male and female contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act and its effect on the nation’s public health.
His report in the Spring 2015 issue of the Guttmacher Policy Review highlights that 23 percent of female contraceptive users rely on methods used by their male partners, vasectomies and male condoms.
These are not covered with the no out-of-pocket cost guarantee that several female forms of contraception are.
Sonfield doesn’t find the sex difference in coverage particularly shocking, nor is he especially critical of policymakers’ failure to initially account for male contraception.
“Realizing there were some obvious gaps with women’s health, they [policymakers] filled that gap by establishing more recommendations related specifically to women’s health. That’s not a surprise [because] there have been real problems in the past with maternity care and contraceptive care not being covered accurately,” he tells The Daily Beast.
“In contrast, you don't think of too many gaps when it comes to men’s health. It tends to be the default for insurance plans to cover what men need,” he says, adding that it is even the “default for medical researchers to focus on men’s health.”
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t strong incentives for men and women to have this disparity in coverage remedied.
Sonfield’s larger and often overlooked argument is that not covering male contraception hurts women and men.
“Sometimes, it’s hard for people to understand [that] health care provided for one person has just as much if not more benefits for someone else,” he says.
“That’s certainly the case for contraception,” he says, but also points out that the same theory holds with preventive health. “Those services clearly have benefits beyond just the person who is treated.” The same holds with health coverage for sexually transmitted infections, as well.
The way the ACA’s contraceptive coverage guarantee is currently interpreted means there are incentives for couples to select female forms of contraception over male forms. Sonfield readily acknowledges that there are many cases in which a woman would want that control and may even prefer to keep her contraception secret from her partner.
At the same time, the status quo also creates incentives that do not necessarily make sense for couples or insurance providers.
For example, Sonfield notes in his report that “as currently interpreted, the ACA’s contraceptive coverage creates a financial incentive for couples to choose female over male sterilization, by eliminating cost-sharing for the former but not the latter.”
Tub |
- a scheming individual.
And more the media talked about HRC’s virtues and Trump’s uncouthness, more the people saw a need to back Trump. It was their fight against the elite. And my liberal friends had no idea that they were in an echo chamber. They completely tuned out anything they find deplorable.
This revolution is hardly limited to the US. It is happening across the world. In Arab Spring, many of the established governments were toppled in the Middle East. In Brexit, the British voters middle fingered all the mainstream parties. In Philippines, the new President is completely fingering US and going straight with his executions of drug addicts. In India and Indonesia, the voters elevated promising provincial chiefs to premiers in 2014, both of whom coming from poor backgrounds.
And it is just the beginning. Across Europe and elsewhere in the world changes are happening to the post-WW2 coalitions and political arrangements.
Everywhere, there is an anger against the establishment. Anger against the status quo. Like in the late 18th century, this is the worst time to be a part of the elite.
People around the world have gotten existential worries about their culture, economic status and the ability to continue their way of life. For them it looks like the liberals are pushing the reforms way too fast and without paying heed to their opinions.
As the liberals tar them as being outdated, racists and uneducated [and as Hillary mentioned deplorables], the angry commoners often mask their anger and don’t reveal enough of their preferences in public [not a single person on my FB feed supported Trump even though I know many secretly support him]. This is why the opinion polls don’t reveal the complete picture. Also, many liberals measure public opinion through media and completely miss the fire building up underneath.
As the liberals brush aside these concerns and don’t try to address them, these voters stop trusting anything to do with the former. Historically, people have fought the hardest when their way of life is threatened. Liberals for all their alleged grasp of history, failed to go beyond endlessly quoting the 1932 elections in the Weimar republic, and failed to see the history of revolutions and civil wars.
As the words Fascism and Nazism got thrown too easily, the shock value completely evaporated. If every right wing leader was Hitler, then there was nothing special or shocking about getting branded as Hitler. If the previous Hitlers around the world didn’t end the world, why would this new Hitler?
Ultimately, it is an anger that existed for a long time and in hindsight it is not hard to see a Trump victory. He won way many states that were thought to be solidly democrat. He won far more Hispanic votes than Mitt Romney. And he won a sizable chunk of the immigrants and more surprisingly a sizable chunk of the females. So much for all the buzzfeed worthy charts posted by Nate Silver. Trump won despite his embarrassing revelations about women and despite the Republican leadership quitting on him. That should show the level of anger underneath. This anger is not all from racists, white supremacists and misogynists, KKK supporters, etc.
Revolutions often turn up leaders who are far worse than the establishment they toppled. But, they also help heal things over the long run.
In a way this is good for the US. Like a pressure cooker releasing pressure, this is an election to let out that built-up pressure & anger in a less violent way. Hopefully this is an election that will let both sides see the other’s point. The “us vs them” attitude and the uncharitable attitudes of the other side has to end.Samsung Electronics has chosen the name of new Galaxy Note as ‘Galaxy Note 7’and has decided to continue popularity of Galaxy S7. It has decided to skip over Galaxy Note 6 to eliminate any inconsistency with an image that can occur as numbers of two products’ brands are different. It is also applying dual-edge on Note series for the first time. This is seen as Samsung Electronics’ strategy to maximize marketability of ‘Galaxy Note7’, which is considered as Samsung Electronics’ biggest anticipated product, and to widen a gap between itself and Apple.
According to multiple representative of telecommunication industry, Samsung Electronics has chosen the name of new Galaxy Note, which is to be released in second half of 2016, as Galaxy Note 7. Although it is supposedly be called as Galaxy Note 6 as Galaxy Note 5 was released last year, Samsung Electronics made a bold decision of jumping over one level. “Within Samsung Electronics, a new Galaxy Note is already being called as Galaxy Note 7.” said a representative for an industry.
This is the first time Samsung Electronics is jumping over a number since it started releasing Galaxy Smartphones. Starting from 2010 until now, it has numbered Galaxy S series from 1 through 7 without leaving any numbers out. Starting from 2011 until last year, it had numbered Galaxy Note series from 1 through 5 without leaving any numbers out.
It is uncommon to jump over a number for Smartphones that are released in series. LG Electronics had steadily released G series from Optimus G to G5, and Sony also released its Xperia Z series from 1 through 5. Only Apple once skipped over iPhone 2 in 2008 and released iPhone 3G since iPhone was released in 2007.
One of the most important reasons on why Samsung Electronics has decided to skip over Galaxy Note 6 is because it wants to make model number of Galaxy Note consistent with Galaxy S7. Model number of Galaxy Note series is always one number lower than Galaxy S series because it was released one year later than Galaxy S series.
“When Galaxy Note 6 that has its model number lower than Galaxy S7, which is the newest model, is released, it can give out a feeling that it is an outdated phone.” said a high-ranking representative of a telecommunication industry. “It is known that Samsung Electronics has made the numbers same to unify a premium image.”
Samsung Electronics is also introducing dual-edge on the front and back of Galaxy Note 7 for the first time on Galaxy Note series. By doing so, curvatures of edges of the front and the back will be the same. Until now, Samsung Electronics applied edge only on one side (Galaxy Note 4). For Galaxy Note 5, it applied edge only on the back and made the front flat. Dual-edge can help Samsung Electronics to hold superiority in competition with other businesses since it has high level of difficulty in technology.
Samsung Electronics is thinking about starting to produce Galaxy Note 7 in the middle of July and release it early or middle of August. It can be earlier than the 20th of August, which is the date when Galaxy Note 5 was released last year. Release date of Galaxy Note series is being pushed forward little by little from October (Note 1) to September (Note 2, 3, and 4) and to August (Note 5).
It can be see that Samsung Electronics is trying to separate a gap between itself and its competitors through this strategy and maximize sales volume by avoiding September and October, which are months when iPhone 7 is expected to be released, and increasing marketability. By releasing Galaxy S7 in early March, which is a month earlier than last year when Galaxy S6 was released, total of 81 million Smartphones (Gartner) were sold in first quarter of this year. It was similar performance as first quarter of last year. On the other hand, Apple’s sales volume decreased rapidly from 61 million to in 2015 to 51.6 million in 2016 and its market shares also decreased sharply from 17.9% to 14.8%.
Samsung has succeeded in capturing both sales volume and performance as sales and operating profit for IM Sector in first quarter increased 6.6% and 42% compared to first quarter of last year. It is expected that it will secure definite superiority in Smartphone markets if Galaxy Note 7 is a success.
On the other hand, Samsung electronics announced that it cannot confirm any official information regarding its new product.
Staff Reporter Kim, Yongjoo | kyj@etnews.com & Staff Reporter Choi, Ho | snoop@etnews.comMen outnumbered women at Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Tumkur on Sunday, even as the event was projected as the Congress vice-president’s first all-women conference.
Nevertheless, Gandhi attempted to woo women voters, who comprise over 40% of the electorate, by stating that the country can be transformed into a super power by giving more representation to women in his party.
Commenting on the poor turnout of women at the convention, Gandhi said it was testimony to how opportunities are grabbed by men. The same happens in the Congress party, he said while distributing tickets to candidates, adding: “I am trying to change the system through organising, empowering, giving social life and equal opportunity to women.”
He said the Congress will promote the representation of woman in the Parliament, assembly, panchayat, council and party elections and claimed that UPA’s progressive laws on MGNREGA, Food Security Act and RTI were formulated for the welfare of women.
He took a dig at the BJP, claiming that the party does not support woman. The BJP do not want to give positions or share its administration with women.
“The government allotted 12 cooking cylinders, and worked towards introducing stringent law on rape cases to protect women. Now, the Congress is working on reservation for women in panchayats,” he added.Have you ever wondered what somebody looks like under their clothes? I'm guessing you have! Well, so have researchers at Brown University. That's why they've developed some fancy software that creates models of what people look like naked based only on pictures of them in their clothes. Awesome? The researchers claim that the technology is designed for people like forensic detectives and fashion designers, but I can see through that pretty easily. That's like Google claiming that private browsing is used for buying people gifts: unless those gifts are gifts of porn, that's not what anyone will use it for. So I guess we can look forward to a future where perverts can snap pictures of people on the street and then take them home to their computer, converting the pictures into accurate naked 3D models. We're way beyond just using binoculars from across the street; it's the 21st century, after all. [Eurekalert]About 12 years ago, I was having a discussion with a colleague from Toronto on the subject of message overload. We both managed a sales force in our respective parts of the country. Both of us were receiving in excess of 60 e-mails and 25 phone calls a day. I asked him how he handled the load. His answer threw me for a loop and I had to exercise a great deal of restraint in my reaction and response. What did he say you wonder?
“I only reply to messages from management”.
This strategy is, shall we say, flawed in the extreme! Our incoming e-mails and calls came from three sources; clients, staff and management. To answer only to management means to walk away from the client who is our primary reason for being there in the first place. Not to respond to our staff is to walk away from our responsibilities as a manager. Neither is excusable! In a microsecond, it became abundantly clear to me why so many of my e-mails to him had gone unanswered.
Remember these words; perception is reality!
If I e-mail your business and you don’t reply, my perception as a customer will be that you don’t care and that I’m not really that important to you. If a second e-mail goes unanswered, I will likely find someone else with whom to do business. As a manager, my perception of staff that are non-responsive would include words like un-professional and/or incompetent.
You might be guessing that this is a pet peeve of mine. If so, you are absolutely correct. Call me old-fashioned if you want, but to me, there is no excuse for unresponsiveness. I also consider it very rude.
“But Gil, I am really swamped and can’t possibly reply to that many e-mails!”
Really? How hard is it to write this?
Hi Steve,
Thanks so much for your note. I am pressed for time right now but wanted you to know that I have received your e-mail and I will get back to you within 24 hours.
Talk soon!
Cheers,
You
Or you could delegate like so:
(CC: Janet)
Hi Steve,
Thanks so much for your note. I am pressed for time right now but I have copied Janet on your e-mail and she will get back to you soon.
Janet is very capable and she is empowered to act on my behalf.
Her direct line is 1-555-555-5555.
I hope all is well for you. I will look forward to catching up with you soon.
Cheers,
You
You can have verbiage like this ready to copy and paste and within one or two minutes have a reply done and sent. Now your customer won’t ‘perceive’ that you don’t care. It’s not that complicated really. It’s called working smart!
Here are a few more ideas that can help you with responsiveness.
When you are away from your office for an extended period, PLEASE use your e-mail auto-reply feature. Include contact information for someone that can reply immediately in case the need is urgent.
Change the message on your phone when you will be away and as with your e-mail, include contact information for someone that can reply immediately if necessary.
If you have staff sending you too many long e-mails, coach them to be brief and succinct. I have done this with all my staff in the past and it has saved me countless hours of reading. If you need more detail, you can always ask them for it.
Also with staff, if everything is coming to you, perhaps you need to learn how to delegate more effectively.
Be professional in all of your outbound communications. How you respond, or your style of response is very important and I will cover that more thoroughly in a separate article soon. For now, remember to start your e-mails with a “greeting” and end them with a “cheers” or “best regards” or “sincerely”. E-mails are NOT instant messages! They are a reflection of your professionalism or lack thereof.
This last point is critical. Be sure you understand it!
If the reason you are not replying to someone is because you are not interested in pursuing the business, politely let them know so that they can move forward by engaging someone who is interested. Your customers or associates will appreciate your candor. They may be disappointed, but they won’t be angry. Business initiatives are all about motion and momentum. When you are unresponsive, you stall or stop that momentum. A loss of momentum can crush an initiative and the lost opportunity costs can be substantial. This will not put you in a good light. Never forget that bad news travels much faster than good news and you want people saying good things about you.
Being responsive will set you apart from many of your competitors. It is a key differentiator for you and for the company you represent. Taking the time to work out a strategy that ensures your responsiveness is time well spent.
Photo Credits
Woman at keyboard from MS Word Clip Art Collection
Feature Picture MS Word Clip Art Collection
Originally posted August 15, 2009 at synaptici
Recent Gil Namur Articles:As Hollywood reels from the Harvey Weinstein scandal, and thousands of women globally report sexual harassment or assault under the #MeToo campaign, the music industry may need to get its own house in order.
The first allegation surfaced earlier this week on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme, when artist manager Sarah Bowden alleged a “major promoter”, who still works in the industry, had exposed himself to her, expecting her to perform a sex act. She further alleged she had once been sacked after refusing to sleep with a colleague in return for a promotion, and spoke of a “senior figure” regularly promising young women jobs or tours in exchange for sexual favours. This man, too, still works in the industry and is “brazen” about his behaviour, she added.
Yet after asking several female live music industry figures whether music has its own Harvey Weinstein problem, the picture painted suggests Bowden’s allegations are not isolated.
With most speaking on the condition of anonymity, all say they have been subject to, or witnessed, inappropriate behaviour or sexual assault working in the live business. While several emphasise that such incidents are infrequent, they describe instances where male execs have used their status and power to exploit women. Most incidents go unreported for fear of reprisals on the part of the victim.
“I’ve seen it from promoters, venue bosses, agents – it’s everywhere,” says one individual who over ten years working in the industry has had male colleagues expose themselves to her five times. “There are booking agents who are really high up in the industry expecting things from younger [female] promoters and managers,” she explains. “They trade on their reputation… name-dropping, using their power and status.”
Another says she has been forced to leave a job because of inappropriate comments and behaviour from a male boss, and has witnessed a female colleague being assaulted. She says it didn’t go any further because another friend, who works for a rape crisis service, told her it’s not her place to report it: “I can only offer support,” she explains. “If the victim doesn’t want to come forward, you can’t force them to.”
A common theme is being afraid to report any unwanted advances for fear it will hurt women’s careers. A third woman describes being too scared to report an incident that occurred two years ago at a music industry conference: “I thought, ‘If I raise this, I’m going to be blacklisted, I’ll never get another job,'” she says.
“The industry has some way to go in getting its house in order”
“I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know who this guy’s connected to, how it will affect my position in the industry’… There are so many situations where people feel they can’t talk about it because it might put their careers in jeopardy.”
Two other women – one an agent and one working in communications – tell IQ they have also experienced sexual harassment from artists they were working for.
“I had an incident at a festival with a member of a well-known band trying making inappropriate comments and trying to persuade me to go to the tour bus with him,” says Nikki McNeill, founder of music PR agency Global Publicity, which recently celebrated ten years in business. “In a club situation, you’d just say ‘fuck off’, but in a work environment, you’re always thinking, ‘Will I lose my job, will I lose my job, will people believe me…?’
“Generally I try and dissipate the situation as calmly as possible – suggest we find someone else or go to the bar and get a drink, where there will be other people. But afterwards you think, ‘Why should I? I should be able to tell them to clear off.'”
The agent describes how she was subject to inappropriate behaviour from an artist but let it go due to financial considerations – something she now says was a mistake. “He made a couple of very indecent comments and suggestions and I just ignored them,” she explains. “When it’s an artist that brings a lot commission to the company, you’re thinking, ‘Oh well, he or she is a douche but I’m just going to zip it and let it slide.’
“That happened two years, but if it did happen again I feel like I would say something. We’re in a business where it’s not really part of the culture to give people a slap on the wrist. […] But we, as women, need to stop fearing the idea of getting fired because we said ‘no’ to someone.
“If this was to happen today, I would speak up louder and wouldn’t worry about the consequences.”
“I’ve seen it from promoters, venue bosses, agents … it’s everywhere”
Crosstown Concerts co-founder Paul Hutton says that while he’s never seen any inappropriate behaviour first-hand, he’s “disappointed to find out there is a problem” in the live industry and says he believes more women will now come forward. “I don’t want it in our world,” he comments. “Other people need to get their houses in order.”
Like McNeill, Claire Singers – who was for 30 years a leading music publicist and now serves as a gender diversity consultant and an associate consultant for the EDGE foundation for gender equality – waived her right to anonymity to speak to IQ about what she sees as a major industry issue.
She tells of her experiences as a tour publicist in the ’90s and in one example, she says, “I, too, had an artist expose himself to me in his dressing room. The head of the French label was in the room and he just laughed – he thought it was hilarious. It really is very unnerving and frightening; it makes you feel extremely vulnerable.
“The next day we had a band dinner. The German promoter arrived with a prostitute on each arm for this French rocker. It sounds awful, but I’ve honestly never been so relieved to see two prostitutes.”
In a more current incident, Singers adds that she heard last week of a former senior label head “who would quite regularly force himself on female execs”, with one woman being “thrown onto the bed”. “She mentioned it to another senior person at the label,” Singers explains, “and was told not to make a fuss.
“I am pretty sure the music industry has many of the same problems as Hollywood.”
Alluding to Weinstein (pictured), she says “there isn’t this one person” responsible, “but it has always been part of the culture.
“I think it’s great we’re having this conversation. It means people will be a bit braver next time”
“If this discussion causes [these men] to start looking at themselves, it might get them to start thinking about their actions. The next time they think about lunging at a publicist, hopefully it will give them pause for thought.”
While Singers says the debate over sexual harassment in the music business is long overdue, “the onus should be not be on the women to come forward – other men should be calling out their colleagues. Men have a big responsibility to clean up the industry.”
While most of the women spoken to by IQ agree on the need for more gender diversity in live music – one says she felt she could report an incident of harassment as she had a female line manager, while another spoke of her desire for more female mentors – all agreed that doesn’t go far enough, highlighting the need to create a culture when women aren’t scared to speak against the perpetrators of abuse.
“It is partly about gender balance,” says one, “but more than that, we’ve got to be able to open up and talk about it”, while another speaks of the importance of people no longer just “laughing off” sexual harassment or assault and “thinking, ‘Oh well, it happens'”.
Coda director Rob Challice, speaking on behalf of the agency, agrees, saying recent reports “have led us at Coda to stress the importance in open conversation, ensuring that if somebody does feel they have been a victim of sexual harassment, no matter where or when, that they can report in confidence and with no fear for their position”.
“We do not tolerate harassment of any form,” he adds, “and we do acknowledge that the industry has some way to go in getting its house in order.”
“I think it’s great we’re having this conversation,” concludes one of the women. “It means people like me will be a bit braver next time.”
Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.Five division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has a lot of respect for UFC superstar Conor McGregor - but he hopes the MMA fighter will avoid the possibility of boxing again.
Last Saturday night, McGregor made his professional boxing debut by stepping in the ring with Mayweather at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
McGregor started well in the fight and many felt he likely won the first three rounds, but the 40 year old Mayweather - who was coming off a two year retirement - began to up his activity in round four and eventually McGregor's gas tank emptied and he was stopped.
After the fight, McGregor stated that he absolutely wants to fight again in a boxing ring - something that UFC President Dana White is firmly against.
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, like many others, was very surprised that McGregor was able to last ten rounds against Mayweather.
Ellerbe feels that McGregor could actually have a future in the sport.
But Mayweather disagrees. He wants McGregor to stay away for his own good.
He believes McGregor - if matched against a younger fighter who is not coming off a two year retirement - will get seriously hurt and stopped much sooner.
"Conor McGregor is a hell of a fighter and I want to see him continue to stay in the UFC and do what he do best. Because you must realize, that I'm 40 years old and I've been off almost 800 days. And he's active. He's actively fighting, actively training.. in a boxing gym and in the UFC gym," Mayweather told Bernardo Osuna.
"He's active, he's training, he's competing. These other fighters, these young lions, they are throwing a lot more combinations than I'm throwing. I was just in the pocket, shooting one shot here and there, and breaking him down slowly. Whereas you got these young active guys who are throwing a lot of combinations and would get him out of there a lot earlier."Cinema or theater, books or newspapers, sports or television?
A new survey released by the Central Bureau of Statistics analyzes and specifies Israelis' hobbies.
According to the compiled figures, which relate to 2011, 24% of the population over the age of 20 participate in classes or courses not for the purpose of professional training. Men attend classes at lower rates than women – 20% compared to 28%.
Popular Film 'Fill the Void' captures Israeli audience Yoav Birenberg Despite not being screened on Shabbat, film directed by ultra-Orthodox woman has already been viewed by some 182,000 people, making it most popular Israeli movie of 2012 'Fill the Void' captures Israeli audience
For example, 58% of high-income visited museums and art exhibitions compared to 16% of low-income individuals, but only 19% of high-income individuals went out to see a movie compared to 66% of low-income individuals.
The most common leisure activity is sports. Men engage in sports more than women (55% compared to 24%) and watch more sports events. Women, on the other hand, visit the theater more often than men (50% compared to 43%) and read books more often (67% compared to 57%).
Forty-one percent of Israeli who read books devote up to two hours a week to that hobby, 27% devote two to five hours, and 24% - more than five hours a week.
As for watching television or films at home, 23% of Israelis do it up to one hour a day, 32% - one to two hours a day, 23% - two to five hours a day, and 6% - more than five hours a day. Thirteen percent don't watch television at all.By Jake Donovan
Manny Pacquiao is recognized as the face of HBO Boxing. This much has been evident through his years on the network, and the commit to showcase the international superstar in his 10th appearance on its award-winning 24/7 series for his upcoming Nov. 22 clash with Chris Algieri in Macau.
All parties involved also had the sense to realize that—sometimes¬—there can be too much of a good thing. With that in mind, the executive decision was made by the network to condense its upcoming edition of the reality series into one 30-minute segment.
The episode will premiere on November 8, and will run throughout the month leading up to the fight.
“We recognize that Manny Pacquiao has been featured nine times on 24/7,” said Rick Bernstein, executive producer, HBO Sports. “We want the show to continue to evolve and develop new storylines.”
Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38KOs) made his 24/7 debut in 2008, serving as the B-side of his eventual one-sided upset and retiring of Oscar de la Hoya. The series was created some 18 months prior, dedicated to another big de la Hoya fight, his 154 lb. title loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr., who would go on to star in a total of seven four-episode series ending with his May ’12 win over Miguel Cotto before going over to Showtime in 2013.
The Nov. 8 airing of 24/7 Pacquiao/Algieri will mark Pacquiao’s 10th appearance on the series, far more than any other fighter. Through 30-plus episodes featuring his brand, came the fear that there was little left to discuss that hasn’t already been showcased.
From there came the call to change up format for the final edition of 24/7 Pacquiao/Bradley II, which aired as a segment hosted by HBO color commentator Jim Lampley rather than the documentary-style shooting normally accompanying the series.
24/7 Pacquiao/Algieri will be shown in the original template—complete with narration from Liev Schreiber, literally the voice of the series—but now packaged into one action-packed episode.
We feel we have an opportunity at producing something special with the 24/7 dedicated to Pacquiao and Algieri,” notes Bernstein. “Classic underdog versus defending world champion setting.”
Algieri (20-0, 8KO) makes his first appearance on the series. The unbeaten New Yorker earned the Pacquiao fight following a 12-round upset win over Ruslan Provodnikov in June, claiming a belt in the 140 lb. division, which will not be at stake for this fight.
Pacquiao comes in having won two straight, including a revenge-fueled win over Bradley in their rematch in April. The win allowed Pacquiao to regain his welterweight belt in the process, having reigned as a titlist in the division for more than 2 ½ years before suffering a highly controversial loss to Bradley when they first met in June ’12.
The majority of the coverage for the show will take place prior to both fighters traveling to Macau, where the November 22 fight will air live (which will be Sunday morning, Nov. 23 in real time on location) on HBO PPV.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com, as well as the Records Keeper for the Transnational Boxing Ratings Board and a member of Boxing Writers Association of America. Twitter: @JakeNDaBoxThe Independent reports that a "poetry vandal" is on the loose in London. Actually, it's Scottish artist Robert Montgomery, who has been going out at night "illegally plastering over advertisements with posters covered in his poetry." More:
His very pleasing verse is presented in white typography on a black background, screaming out ideas about beauty, consumerism and hypocrisy, among other things. The elegant words, and their sparse presentation, have been appearing on hoardings for the last ten years. But Montgomery, who trained at Edinburgh College of Art, and whose intellectual basis for working tumbles out in glorious verbal torrents, is not really a street artist.
Instead, he "WORKS IN A POETIC AND MELANCHOLIC POST-SITUATIONIST TRADITION," as has been written. The paper also interviewed Montgomery:
You’re obviously working in a way resonant of street artists, but you don’t seem to have a street art perspective. You’ve got training behind you which street artists, graffitists in particular, tend not to have. Has the street art scene embraced you?
Yeah, I’m working from a more academic background on the streets, but I do feel an emotional connection with street artiVasts. In fact I’m doing a collaboration with an East London graffitist from Bow, called Krae. He’s a classic graffiti writer, grew up on a housing estate, is very much from the street streets. This piece that I showed in Venice called All Palaces Are Temporary Palaces really resonated with him, so he asked me if he could use it for a T-shirt.
I did at a certain point do some work that was like writing. It wasn’t graffiti art in its strictest sense, but it was writing the words with spray paint. I decided that it was easy to ghettoise that. So I decided to work in a way that was visually very simple – all with black backgrounds on the billboards, all with white text- so that it won’t be categorised as graffiti art and written off before people have read it. At the same time, it’s a very unspectacular style, so it’s evident that it’s not advertising too.
Tabloids use white on black typography to make things stand out on their front pages – is that what you were going for?
[Laughs] I want the words to appear almost like statements from the collective unconscious, in a sense. They are quite subtle ideas, and poetic ones; sometimes political points mixed with poetic allusions. The words can be complex, so I want them to look as straightforward as possible. If I was to tell you what I thought of the tabloid press it would probably be unprintable.
Well, let’s move on. Do [you] use particular poems or extracts of text for particular places?
Sometimes. One of the ones I’ve just done in Old Street (pictured) faces towards Shoreditch House which is where, until recently, Occupy was installed. I was actually planning to do a collaborative piece with them, but they got turfed out on 25 January so that didn’t happen. But one of those texts is very much a testimony to the positive things I think Occupy are doing. It starts, “There are wooden houses on land in far-away places that don’t cost much money, and strings of lights that make paths to them gently, and do not turn off the stars. And 100 black flags of anarchists held up at night 100 miles apart.”
...
You’re coming at art from a fairly politicised context. How does that fit in with your Situationist influences? There is a big parallel between the general strike in Paris 1968 (when the movement was at its height) and what’s going on in the UK now.
The Situationists certainly have been almost a point of obsession for me since I was at art school. I think Guy Debord’s idea of society as a spectacle – he comes from a post-Marxists perspective, but he analyses the coalition of capitalism and the media and predicts, what he calls, a “Spectacular” life where humans will feel disconnected from the things we make. A society where we live divorced from real life, surrounded by images designed to sell us things and give us paranoia. I think we are now living in the Spectacular age. The Situationists’ contribution to the May 1968 uprising was to write poems on walls of the campus of the Sorbonne. They saw poetry as an agent for political change, which I find fascinating.Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
Sweden has resumed financial aid provisions to Uganda after six-month suspension in response to anti-gay law passed in February.
The Swedish embassy in Kampala announced Monday it will provide $200 million (£117.8 million) in development support to Uganda over the next five years. The money is intended to improve Uganda’s health care and embolden the ‘respect of human rights.’
“Sweden wants to help create better conditions in Uganda for sustainable economic growth and development… Sweden continues to support human rights and freedom from violence,” Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation, Hillevi Engstrom, said.
In a statement issued by the foreign ministry in Stockholm last Thursday, Engstrom also said: “I will specifically monitor the situation of women’s rights and LGBT rights. It is important that LGBT people and others do not become scapegoats because of changes in Swedish aid.”
Sweden was among the first countries to suspend financial donations to Uganda after Ugandan President Yoweri Musevent signed the controversial anti-gay bill in February. The World Bank, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands also suspended or redirected financial aid away from Uganda earlier this year.
Uganda’s state-run hospitals depend heavily on international financial aid. Today’s announcement is a huge relief for Ugandan health care.https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fstudentunion.ca%2Fcfs%2F2013%2FCFS%2520-%2520SAGM%2520Opening%2520Plenary%2520Agenda%2520-%2520May%25202013.pdf%23page%3D17&t=MzQzNjhhMGFlOTAzNjlkY2JiMmRjMjJmNmE3ZjMxNThhMjQ0ZmM4Yiw0VXd5MG5TcQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AAH7OgWsuULaN-riatBnqog&p=http%3A%2F%2Foratorasaurus.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F57895013290%2Fthe-president-of-the-university-of-torontos&m=1
So I just read this entire document. I almost forgot what a complete joke student politics are. If you’re a student, remember that you pay mandatory fees to these jackasses. Consider demanding a better use of your money.
At least half of the motions put forth were deciding to write letters to people. If you are a Canadian student, you are paying these representatives to travel, in some cases across the country, to collectively decide who to write letters to. Think about that one for a second.
Some gems:
Page 5
Whereas the current name of the Women’s Constituency Group is exclusive, transphobic, and non-inclusive of the diversity of the community; and Whereas the current language could be updated to reflect the diversity of the community; and Whereas the Queer Constituency Group addresses issues of sexuality and the Women’s Constituency Group addresses issues of gender; therefore Be it resolved that the Women’s Constituency Group be renamed the Women and Trans People Constituency Group.
Here they draw a distinction between “exclusive” and “transphobic”, meaning they recognize that the two are different things. So being “exclusive” is in itself a bad, wrong thing to the CFS. Yet they’re only moving to include transpeople, and continuing to exclude men. This violates their own logic and shows where their ideology actually lies.
Page 7 – this one’s really fucking bizarre
Be it further resolved that Standing Resolution 3, article 4 be amended to read: Anti-Oppression Procedures, Mood-Watchers and information-Helpers In order to ensure that conversations remain productive and safe, a minimum of one mood-watcher who has undergone training in anti-oppression |
but many convicts went to Court complaining about the conditions of prisons today.
In the early 2012, some Italian media outlets reported that the ECHR condemned Italy for the “inhuman and degrading” treatment” prisoners are subject to. The case concerned Nicola Cara-Damiani, held in Parma despite its disabilities and the impossibility to receive adequate care within the prison. The 65-year old man, from Bari, after a paralysis of the lower limbs, was in fact unable to move easily on a wheeled chair due to architectural barriers. The Court, moreover, reasserted that Countries are obliged to guarantee that “all prisoners are held in prisons in conditions which comply with the respect of human dignity and, as for detention needs, that “the health of prisoners is adequately preserved”.
The disabled serving a sentence in prison face a dramatic situation: unfortunately, the availability of suitable areas and facilities which may be extremely important for their condition is often denied. Just imagine what it means for a person with motor disabilities to use squatting pans which are usually common in prisons, or the inconveniences that prisoners obliged to move on a wheelchair in tight over-crowded cells may cause to themselves and their mates. Disease and disabilities are not compatible with prison. In Italy, indeed, there is no specific legislation on prisoners with disabilities: a single reference set out in Art. 47 ter of the Prison Regulation, relating to house arrest, establishes under paragraph 3 that “a penal servitude not more than four years, even if is the remaining part of a longer sentence, and the sentence of detention can be served at home or in any other private residence or in a centre of care, assistance and of accommodation, in case of people in particularly serious health conditions requiring constant contacts with local medical centres”.
“Prisons conditions are a point of departure to measure the level of civilization of a country – said Minister Paola Severino at the opening ceremony of the judicial year 2012 in Catania - and even for those who soiled their hands with a foul deed, including offences involving organised crime, suffering of punishment and detention pending trial in prison must be the symbol and means through which it is possible to reaffirm that the State never pays back with revenge; on the contrary, it wins with law arms and severe applications of rules”. This idea is to be agreed with but should lead the State to think carefully about the double sentence – physical and custodial sentence – inflicted to inmates with disabilities, in the hope that treatments more focused on the needs of human beings can be introduced.The big guy is coming to Starz.
The network’s epic new 2017 series American Gods already has its ensemble bursting with deities, but another familiar name has been cast, EW has learned: Jeremy Davies has joined the cast as Jesus. Yes, that Jesus.
The series follows a thief named Shadow (Ricky Whittle) who finds himself at the center of a conflict brewing throughout America, unbeknownst to the country’s regular humans: A war of worship is being waged between the old gods — those who arrived in America from the world’s immigrant cultures — and the new gods of media and technology. Both are desperate for mankind’s attention.
Jesus plays into the appearance of another character: Kristin Chenoweth’s Easter, a.k.a. Ostara. Jesus’ official character description: “Resurrected on Ostara’s feast day, Jesus has always been generous in sharing the Easter holiday with the ancient goddess. But the overly empathetic Son of God would be crushed to know that Ostara harbors some deeply buried resentment over the issue.”
Davies, who will appear on the new season of Fox’s Sleepy Hollow as well as Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival, is an Emmy Award winner known for his work as Dickie Bennett on FX’s Justified, as well as his pivotal arc as Daniel Faraday on Lost. He’s also an alum of Hannibal and, through American Gods, reteams with creator Bryan Fuller (who serves as co-executive producer along with Michael Green).
The cast of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods also includes Ian McShane, Gillian Anderson, Pablo Schreiber, Emily Browning, Yetide Badaki, Bruce Langley, Crispin Glover, Orlando Jones, Peter Stormare, Cloris Leachman, Jonathan Tucker, Corbin Bernsen, Demore Barnes, Mousa Kraish, Chris Obi, and Omid Abtahi.Sorry to inform you, but the OneDrop Marquis yoyo is Sold Out
Release time was 0:00 UTC/GMT (Coordinated Universal Time) 09-SEPT-16
The Marquis YoYo as described by OneDrop:
The Marquis is our first yo-yo model to be released in a blind box. Limited to only 400 yo-yos, featuring a variety of finishes as well as five Titanium variants in the mix. They're all sealed up and randomized so even we don't know where they're all going to end up! Imagine picking up a pack of your favorite trading cards, but instead of cardboard, you get a sweet playing yo-yo. With an assortment of finishes, you're bound to find YOUR ultimate prize!
Remember when you thought all that math you learned in class wouldn't help you in life? Think again! Here are the different editions and your chances of scoring them:
The yo-yo itself pays homage to the Halifax prototypes of years back with it's undersized manner and angular design. The jewel-like look and feel inspired it's name. It's a nimble little gem, but with a profound presence on the string. It's small enough to slide into your pocket when you're going about your day, but big enough to shine when the moment is right.
Continuing our commitment to deliver great value, each sealed box will retail for $49. We understand how many hours of labor you guys have to go through to afford a new yo-yo. Your work doesn't go unnoticed. You deserve a little break and some fun while you're at it!
The anticipation in cracking one open is real. Will you be the one to own a Titanium Marquis? Only one way to find out. Good luck and enjoy!
*Titanium Marquis shares the same weight and profile as it's aluminum counterpart, but has a redesigned inner cup, and takes 19mm Flow Groove.
Specifications:
Weight: 65.5 grams
Diameter: 53.11 mm
Width: 38.9 mm
Gap width: 4.6 mm
Stock Response: One Drop Flow Groove
Finish: Pyramatte (tm)
Axle System: Tapped
Bearing: Large (Size C).250 x.500 x.187" (One Drop 10 Ball) First Released in September 2016
*** For intermediate/advanced players, this an non-responsive yo-yo. You will need to perform a "bind" in order to make this yoyo return to your hand.Anytime an aftermarket company pushes the boundaries of what was once thought to be the ragged edge of an engine’s architecture, a lot of time, money and effort goes into the project — not to mention an industry reputation being on the line. EFI University has teamed up with COMP Cams to develop an LS-based cylinder head and valvetrain combination capable of revving beyond 11,000 rpm! They call it Project Spinal Tap.
In the name of exploring the unknown and expanding industry knowledge, Ben Strader, owner of EFI University, shared with us his recent trip to COMP Cams’ headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, for some experimental SpinTron testing and R&D work with COMP’s own Physicist and Engineer, Billy Godbold.
“Because of the past work I was able to do in Pro Stock, it really opened my eyes to a whole other side of engine development,” says Strader. “Of course the LS is an amazing engine platform, and with the advent of these cheap Chinese turbochargers that are now a dime-a-dozen, it’s very easy to make a lot of horsepower for not a lot of money, even just working out of your garage.”
“The issue for EFI University then becomes, if everyone is able to easily make 700 horsepower, it really negates the need to even have an engine development course on the platform,” states Strader. “So my thought was to take Pro Stock technology and port it over to a platform with a wider audience, like the LS, which is an extremely difficult task to ask of any engine platform. Which is demanding very high RPM and very high compression.”
Introducing Project Spinal Tap
Using high-end technology borrowed from the Pro Stock engine program, EFI University is determined to develop an LS-based valvetrain combination capable of rotating over 190 times per second. But the end-goal is to produce the information to back up their claims – meaning that the methods used have to produce meaningful data that can be used to further improve the design of a system and further the valvetrain industry’s knowledge as a whole.
“About a year ago I started talking with Billy Godbold at COMP and asked him what he thought about the idea, and he bit into the idea like a rabid dog,” Strader jokes. “Billy was the real motivation behind us continuing this project, because without his help, developing a valvetrain design using trial and error would have been way outside of our budget.”
“Through Billy we were able to get in touch with his contacts at Jesel, and they developed a rocker arm system for us that is truly one-of-a-kind, and is what kept the project moving forward,” says Strader. “Even Jesel claims that it is the most stable valvetrain system they have ever designed for the LS platform.”
As stated by Strader, the top-end build itself is a Competition Eliminator-style valvetrain assembly — consisting of a set of RHS Pro Elite LS7 cylinder heads capable of moving 307cc of air, Jesel 0.937-inch keyway lifters, custom Jesel rockers, and titanium valves. The heads sit on top of a sub-400ci Dart LS Next block. The goal is for the project to eventually be dropped into a Fox-body Mustang for no-prep grudge races and bracket events.
“So the goal then became to do something that not just anyone could do. Not only to showcase the abilities of COMP Cams and EFI University, but to most importantly show that there is still more for people to learn about these platforms,” explains Strader. “If guys like me and Billy Godbold are still experimenting and learning new things, our goal in sharing this information with the public is to engage fellow enthusiasts and help them realize that there is still so much more to learn! We’re essentially attempting a difficult project, just for the sake of it being difficult.”
Biggest Hurdles So Far
Anytime a project of this magnitude is taken on, a lot of planning and custom machine work has to be completed. With no guarantee everything will work as planned.
“Our biggest challenge initially was the cylinder head. When you start dealing with over an inch of valve lift the rocker arm travel is so drastic that you have to be very mindful of pivot length, which is the distance from the trunnion to the roller bearing,” states Strader. “The longer you can make that arm, the less horizontal distance it will travel through its one inch of arc. In order to have a reasonable rocker ratio, as you make the pivot length longer you have to make the rear longer as well, or else you will end up with a really crazy rocker ratio.”
“The issue this presents for the LS is that the cylinder head itself is very narrow, so Jesel came up with the idea to twist the intake rocker in order to move the pushrod away from the port. Then we also had to come up with a custom titanium valve that was long enough for one inch of lift but wouldn’t make contact with the seals,” says Strader. “But once we got those roadblocks figured out, then we really started to focus on the stability of the valvetrain and how we were going to make it survive. And not just the rocker arms, but the pushrods, lifters and camshaft too.”
“We have nearly 1,250 pounds of open spring pressure, and while at COMP we found out that with a standard 55mm LS camshaft and standard 0.842-inch lifters, we lost.046-thousandths of an inch of lift due to the severe deflection and bending in the system,” explains Strader. “Think about it this way, if we have a 2:1 rocker ratio and experience camshaft flex of.005-thousandths of an inch, that rocker ratio amplifies that bending to.010-thousandths of an inch!”
Why The SpinTron Is A Valuable R&D Asset
The SpinTron from Trend Performance varies from your standard engine dyno by having the ability to run durability testing, component failure analyses, and frictional horsepower tests on virtually every valvetrain component. Using an alternating current (AC) electric motor to bring the rotating assembly up to speed, the SpinTron will then analyze the valvetrain system through a precision laser camera to track valve motion and pushrod characteristics.
“We started with all standard spec LS parts for phase one of this project. Using the SpinTron at COMP, we were able to see that at around 10,200 rpm there was so much force that the lifter would actually squeeze the oil out from between the bore and lifter, causing galling and welding,” says Strader. “To mitigate that, COMP reached out to RHS to have one of their race blocks assembled with 0.937-inch bushings. Then for phase two, we will be able to run this aggressive Jesel lifter system in combination with a 60mm camshaft core.”
“At that point we are confident that we will reach our 11,000 rpm goal. From there phase three will involve final assembly and running the finished project on our dyno at EFI University,” states Strader. “There’s really no point in running this setup on the engine dyno until it passes on the SpinTron. Believe me, if you break off a valve head on the SpinTron it’s almost funny. If that happens on an engine dyno, not even a crime scene investigator would be able to tell you what went wrong first.”
Will the new RHS setup be able to break the 11,000 rpm threshold and stay together? Stay tuned for more Spinal Tap updates from EFI University in the near future to find out!(Bloomberg Gadfly) -- Good news! There's something else we might be able to blame on those darn millennials besides killing breakfast cereal and shunning the Olympics. They might also crush our disappointingly fragile digital highways.
The U.S. (and the world) is in the midst of a sea change in how we spend our leisure time. Young people are less inclined to indulge in America's favorite pastime: zoning out in front of the TV. On average, people ages 18 to 24 spend half as much time watching live and recorded television as 35-to-49-year-old Americans, according to Nielsen.
Young people are definitely watching video, but it's more likely something from YouTube or a friend's Snapchat story on their phone than the episode of "Grey's Anatomy" their parents are watching on the living room TV.
The trend is only going to accelerate. Internet hangouts like Facebook and Twitter are delving more into TV-like web video. And the TV-and-movie smorgasbords from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu are increasingly being joined by packages of internet-delivered TV channels from the likes of DirecTV, YouTube, and soon Hulu and perhaps Amazon.
Those online TV alternatives such as Dish Network's Sling TV picked up 888,000 customers last year, according to research firm MoffettNathanson. Over the same period, cable, satellite and telecom TV services lost a cumulative 1.7 million TV customers, which MoffettNathanson estimates was the industry's fastest rate of decline on record.
That's not (yet) the tidal wave of "cord cutting" feared by TV industry pessimists. But it's clear the future of home entertainment lies over the internet and smartphone networks.
As TV changes accelerate, though, not enough people in the technology and entertainment industries are talking about a crucial issue: Can America’s expensive and inferior home and mobile internet networks handle it as more people shift from watching TV to having their entertainment delivered over the web?
Even now, many home internet networks can't manage. Media and tech consulting firm Activate estimated only 12 percent of U.S. households have fast enough internet speed to support multiple people watching TV online via services such as Sling TV. About 34 million Americans -- 10 percent of the population, and 39 percent in rural parts of the country -- have no access to fast home internet, according to an analysis by the Federal Communications Commissions.
It’s true that tech companies such as Netflix and Google's YouTube have devoted their considerable resources to ensuring their videos can stream even at pokey speeds. But few companies have the smarts and financial firepower of those giants. And broadcast TV is particularly tricky because it hogs more bandwidth and is a bigger technical challenge than streaming an older episode of "Game of Thrones."
Share of Americans Who Lack Access to Fast Broadband: 10%
Think about how often there are problems when popular events are streamed online. Almost every year people have hiccups when they try to watch the March Madness college basketball tournament on their computers and phones, and so far the volume of people watching TV online is pretty tame. A National Football League executive said at most 3 million people tuned in to watch Yahoo's live stream of a 2015 game. On TV, NFL games average tens of millions of viewers at once.
Watching video via cellular networks is also a problem. Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG Research, this week published an analysis that found streaming just 30 minutes a day of (non-high definition) video on AT&T's mobile network would add up to 10.5 gigabytes of data each month. That is beyond the monthly allotments for many people. Even for smartphone users who have an increasingly prevalent "unlimited" data plan, video is slowed to a crawl -- if it's available at all -- after 20 to 30 gigabytes of monthly data usage.
I have a habit of asking executives involved in web video whether they're concerned about the internet's ability to keep pace with an explosion in demand for more and more internet TV, movies and other video. Almost none of them admit to such concerns, and when they do they tend to believe U.S. cable and telecom companies will continue to invest in new technologies to bulk up broadband and mobile networks.
I'm not so sanguine. Traditionally, the cable and telecom companies that are responsible for internet networks don’t have a great track record of making infrastructure investments, which often don't result in decent financial returns. Hopes that new mobile technology will patch holes or replace creaky broadband aren't realistic for all but a handful of circumstances.
The best hope for our internet infrastructure is that online video watching by those darn millennials will increase slowly and steadily rather than surge in coming years. Because if it does surge, the internet might have a meltdown.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.SoundSight breaks new ground with video + audio recording headphones
SoundSight wasn’t kidding when they said they were going to introduce the most revolutionary pair of headphones to hit the market. The SoundSight headphones are a pair of Bluetooth headphones that will record audio, video and connect to your smart device to allow you to share your content with the world.
The camera in the headphones is protected from dust, water and the elements by a dedicated protective ring, and a 6-axis Gyroscope/Accelerometer helps to maintain stability on your footage while no less than six microphones work to pick up what you’re saying and hearing.
Audiophiles will be interested to note that SoundSight headphones have a frequency range of 16-20,000 Hz, and feature dynamic HiWave drivers for warm sound and detailed bass. Included in the pack is a 3.5mm detachable coiled cable, a 3.5mm detachable straight cable, and a USB audio cable.
The SoundSight is capable of recording up to 1080HD video, while Bluetooth stream casting via your smart device is supported at a resolution of 640p/24fps. All this is powered by just one 800mAh Lithium ion battery that gives 4 hours with the full activated features on, 18 hours with just Active Noise Cancellation enabled, and 24 hours in standby mode.
It seems that SoundSight is looking to open a world of possibilities by making SDKs (standard developer kit) available to third party app and accessory makers so hopefully it won't be too long before we start seeing more applications for this novel device that seems immediately less conspicuous than something like Google Glass, but yet with the potential to be more immersive.
Developed with support for Android and iOS devices, SoundSight is selling a limited run of units priced at US$349 a pair from 11th July 2014 (US time) before the official release in spring of 2015, when the headphones will retail for US$499 a pair. The SoundSight Bluetooth smart headphones are available in Onyx and Titanium color options at their website.Catholic groups demand complete ban on the play and legal action taken against cast and crew.Catholic groups have intensified their protest to stall the staging of the controversial play Agnes of God, scheduled to hit the stage at south Mumbai’s NCPA on October 5.The play was earlier scheduled to be staged at Sophia Bhabha Auditorium today but was cancelled because of these protests.Protesting against the special NCPA screening organised by the makers, the religious groups have demanded a complete ban on the ground that their religious statements were hurt. Joseph Dias, general secretary of the Catholic Secular Forum said, “We want to ensure that the play is not staged at all and we have called for a complete ban. The government issues a certification for staging plays and we have written to the government to cancel that certification so that this play cannot be staged anywhere else”. The reason for anger, said Dias, is that the play ‘mocks his religion’.“We want a public apology and a case registered under Section 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) against the cast and crew,” said Dias. Citing the banning of other works that have purportedly hurt religious sentiments, he questioned, “Why ban Satanic Verses or M F Hussains’ work and do nothing about anti-Christian media? We don't want any other religion to be targeted but who will prevent it? We have censoring for obscenity and violence. Isn't religion also important?”A delegation of six other catholic groups has sought a meeting with Minister Eknath Khadse to ensure that the NCPA staging is cancelled.Incidentally, the play is also being produced in Hyderabad and Kerala and is scheduled to be staged on October 9.The script is at the centre of the controversy as it is said to be inspired by a true story that shows a young nun giving birth and insisting that the child was the result of an Immaculate Conception. The play has been directed by Kaizaad Kotwaal. The original play by John Pielmeier was also adapted into a 1985 film of the same name starring Jane Fonda, which won several Academy Award nominations.After the controversy arose, Kotwaal tweeted that he was “facing threats of arrest, imprisonment, harm to body and property for staging Agnes of God”. He was also reportedly pursuing police protection for himself and the lead cast, including his mother, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, who is playing one of the main roles.The Archdiocese of Bombay and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) have also lodged a protest. “The claim that the plot is based on a true story does not absolve the producers from their duty of being vigilant so that they do not create a generalised caricature of respected religious persons. This would be a great disservice to society. We strongly protest against this,” said a statement from the Archdiocese of Bombay adding that ‘the play distorted Catholic religious concepts such as Immaculate Conception and Virgin Birth, and hence tend to ridicule tenets of our faith without understanding their meaning’.Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the CBCI, in his letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs said that, “The reason why the Catholic Church is against the play is that it is a wrongful portrayal of lakhs of our clergy who are committed to a life of celibacy.”The calls and emails started coming in: “Dr. Williams, are you available for commentary? Have you seen the recent shooting?”
Another unarmed black man has been killed by law enforcement. Another life is snuffed out. One more human being who died before his time. This is not a nameless, faceless person. This is real person like my father, uncle or son. These people who perished were a part of someone’s family. They were loved by someone, they had hopes and dreams.
I don’t want to watch it. But I feel like I have to. I need to give reporters an informed and responsible commentary on events.
In Baton Rouge, cops straddle a guy pinned on the ground, put a gun to his back and pump bullets into him. His life ends. That one still haunts me. In Charlotte, a man lies bleeding as his wife screams for help. She asks if anyone has called an ambulance. The police wander around with indifference as his life drains away. This is hard to see.
People ask me if the problem is getting worse. No, this has been going on all along but now we’re capturing more of it on video. How is this affecting the black community? “How do you think,” I want to say. We are sad, angry, and traumatized. We’re living in terror. This racial trauma can cause symptoms like anxiety, depression, phobias, acting-out and feelings of hopelessness (e.g., Carter, 2007).
The trauma of exposure to these videos sits on top of layers of trauma that go all the way back to slavery. It is all one and the same. It starts with the kidnapping of my ancestors from Africa and “slave patrols” – bands of white men hired to police communities for slaves who tried to escape, and a forerunner to modern American law enforcement (Turner et al., 2006). I close my eyes and sometimes have flashbacks of these killings. When I see a police car I feel terrified.
Our country’s history goes on to include the Civil War and subsequent 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery (except for those convicted of crimes,) followed by the systematic criminalization of black men. We then had Jim Crow laws, segregated communities, police brutality during the fight for civil rights – historical trauma. There is also the experience of ongoing discrimination at the individual level that leads to daily stress and contributes to early death from ailments like cardiovascular disease. On top of this we have community trauma that includes racial profiling and, now, police murders caught on tape and broadcast on social media — where often nothing happens to the killers. The trauma is real, and it is cumulative.
I close my eyes and sometimes have flashbacks of these killings. When I see a police car I feel terrified. They are supposed to protect and serve everyone, but because of my race I don’t really believe that includes me or people like me.
According to Dr. Jonathan Kanter, professor of psychology at the University of Washington, white people underestimate the severity and impact of these videos on people of color:
“We see the videos and we are authentically horrified and saddened by what we see. But many of us have the ultimate privilege of changing the channel, clicking on another Facebook post. We can make it go away if we choose and the horror of the scene is quickly forgotten. We can leave it behind and go about our day. And most white people don’t attune to just how different an experience it is for black people.”
— Dr. Jonathan Kanter, University of Washington
Kanter notes that white people are so coded not to associate themselves with being black that it is easy to distance from it. “That person getting shot doesn’t look like me, sound like me or act like me.” It can be like watching a horror movie. “It’s not about me.” Most white people in the United States have no black friends to even talk to about any of this so there is no easy way to get their perspective (Ingram, 2014).
If you are a white person, try this simple empathy experiment: Imagine every one of those police killings you’ve seen in the last several years, but change the images. Make the man getting shot look like you, your brother or your son. Make the girlfriend or wife look like your wife, your sister, your daughter. Imagine that these videos unpredictably show up in your Facebook stream, or assault you on the evening news, without warning, week after week. There seems to be no end to them, and there seems to be no way to predict when it will happen. Imagine that you can’t hide them from your son or daughter if you have one, because you’re scared to not tell them about it. Imagine that you feel you have to expose your child to the videos, because they may not be safe if they don’t know what the world is really like.
Now imagine driving down the street with a broken taillight and getting pulled over by a police officer.
The empathy experiment could go on, and it should, because the differences don’t stop there. Add in the layers upon layers of trauma that are a part of the black experience in America but not a part of the white experience. Try to imagine all of it, to really shift perspectives, and understand what it is like to live the experience of these videos as a black person in United States.
So should these videos be released? They have to be in order to show the public what’s going on and hold law enforcement accountable. I remind myself that there are good police officers, but these videos can help us see which ones aren’t doing their jobs. Despite the pain of viewing, many people of color want the videos to be shown for the same reason Emmett Till’s mother chose to have an open casket funeral – so the world could see what horrible torture had been done to her little boy for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
We need the world to see what is being done to our people to help bring it to an end. And it’s not just black people – these things are happening to Hispanic people, Native Americans and the mentally ill. The stigmatized and disenfranchised among us. I feel solidarity with all of them.
Try to shift from your experience of sadness and horror that you can switch off, to a chronic experience of terror, hopelessness and injustice that has no off switch. You can’t hide from it, or make it go away.
That is just a small portion of the trauma experienced being by black in America.
Monnica Williams is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut where she also serves as director of the Laboratory for Culture and Mental Health Disparities. Her research includes mental health disparities for communities of color and race-based trauma.The shot from Milan Badelj was a weak one and yet in what seemed like slow motion, it trickled past Wojciech Szczesny in turn ending Roma’s 21 game unbeaten streak in Serie A. The result was a frustrating one and highlighted some dangerous recurring flaws in Luciano Spalletti’s side. These problems that seem to be creeping into the squad, the poor defending and the lack of composure are dove tailed by some fantastic resolve and some superb football. These contrasting displays beg the question of, just who are Roma this year?
Kevin Strootman perhaps offered an insight to the inner confusion of the squad’s thinking after the game. He felt that his team deserved all three points, basing this conclusion on the penalty they had turned down and the fact that they rattled the cross bar. In his perplexed interview however, he ended his statements by adding that they did lose many balls on the midfield, need to improve everything and should listen to Spalletti. Should they manage to do this then they may get their confidence back? Confusing? Maybe a little.
The Dutchman was certainly not incoherent but his words reflected a team that felt they were following instructions but just not clearly enough. The fact that he also thought his team defended better than they had in previous weeks was an understatement. After the horror show of the Champions League playoffs against Porto when red cards and a total loss of composure dumped them out of the competition they have had a mixed run of results. A 4-0 trouncing of Udinese showcased the best of their attacking prowess yet a 2-2 draw with Cagliari and a 3-2 win against Sampdoria did ask questions of their defence.
The positive of the night was that they did manage to dominate the game for large periods of the match and they defended with more professionalism but in doing so the goals did not come. Good performances from the recently shaky Kostas Manolas and the very average Federico Fazio, were in some ways undermined by the toothless endeavour of Diego Perotti and Mohammed Salah. The balance is a problem that must be addressed quickly and perhaps a home tie against Crotone on Wednesday night will be just the tonic?
Spalletti himself told Mediaset Premium that “In any case, we can only deal with what depends on us. It’s a defeat that hurts, because the team did not deserve a defeat. Maybe a draw would’ve been fair, but the incidents go against us beyond the reality of what happened on the pitch.” Perhaps there is no need for him to worry too much as whilst his team sit only three points off the top of the table and with Juventus falling to Inter earlier in the day the position does not look too bad.
One other area that will concern him is the misfiring Edin Dzeko in fairness suffered from a lack of supply but is still living under the misfiring cloud of his own making. The Roma coach dismissed any option of dropping him for the Crotone game and reverting to a false nine, insisting that the Bosnian ‘completes’ his team and that he has faith in him to come good.
The problems in Rome may not be ones that are deep rooted and poisonous to the team but they are an annoyance. The Giallorossi can defend and they can be extremely offensive but getting the two together is perhaps just taking a little bit longer than Spalletti and the team want it to, What’s more it is pin pointing these marginal errors and eradicating team that seem to be the issue. Roma are frustratingly close to being a very dangerous side that could compete for the Scudetto, they just need to put all the pieces together.A University of British Columbia study just released “finds that analytic thinking can decrease religious belief, even in devout believers”:
Researchers used problem-solving tasks and subtle experimental priming – including showing participants Rodin’s sculpture The Thinker or asking participants to complete questionnaires in hard-to-read fonts – to successfully produce “analytic” thinking. The researchers, who assessed participants’ belief levels using a variety of self-reported measures, found that religious belief decreased when participants engaged in analytic tasks, compared to participants who engaged in tasks that did not involve analytic thinking. The findings, Gervais says, are based on a longstanding human psychology model of two distinct, but related cognitive systems to process information: an “intuitive” system that relies on mental shortcuts to yield fast and efficient responses, and a more “analytic” system that yields more deliberate, reasoned responses. “Our study builds on previous research that links religious beliefs to ‘intuitive’ thinking,” says study co-author and Associate Prof. Ara Norenzayan, UBC Dept. of Psychology. “Our findings suggest that activating the ‘analytic’ cognitive system in the brain can undermine the ‘intuitive’ support for religious belief, at least temporarily.”
This is interesting to me because I had the exact opposite experience—it was only when I started thinking analytically about religion that I became convinced Christianity is true.
My first thought when I read the opening of this article was, “I guess it depends on what information is available for you to analyze!” If an analytical person has only heard rational arguments against religion, but never for religion, it would be no surprise if he were to be less religious. But after reading how the study was conducted (as explained in the excerpt above), I think it might show something else. And sadly, it would make sense in our culture today.
I say this because it seems the participants in this study weren’t given any information about religion to analyze—no arguments for or against religion (or anything else). Rather, the researchers were merely trying to activate the areas of the brain associated with analytic thought.
So now imagine you’re an average religious person who has been taught not to think about religious matters, but only to feel them; not to analyze religious claims to determine what is true, but to consider them nothing more than personal preferences.
If you’ve walled off your religious ideas from your analytic thinking, is it any surprise that when you’re focused on the grandeur of analytic thinking (e.g., looking at The Thinker*), or activating the analytical parts of your brain, that you would be drawn away from your purely-feelings-based religious ideas? If you “undermine [a person’s] ‘intuitive’ support for religious belief,” and there is no accompanying analytic support present in that person’s mind, then of course belief will go down.
But does this happen because of the very nature of religious thought, or is this merely a cultural problem? Consider this: It was serious thinking that led Aristotle to believe in a First Cause. In his mind, deep, analytic thought was not disconnected from ideas about immaterial things. So activating the analytical parts of Aristotle’s brain would most certainly not have caused him to believe less in his idea of a First Cause. And he, of course, is only one example.
So just at first glance, this study might only reveal how people currently view religion—whether they subjectively associate religion with analytic or intuitive thinking, whether they’ve ever thought about religion analytically before. And what it finds, unsurprisingly, is the current cultural practice of thinking of religion as being in a separate category from reason.
The bottom line is, it's not the case that all religious ideas are by nature tied to intuitive thinking at the expense of analytic thinking (the researchers probably wouldn't deny that). Thinking they are is a culturally created phenomenon.
But in saying that, I don’t want to fall into the related cultural trap of conceding that one can’t reason about the kinds of things that activate the intuitive side of the brain—things like meaning and purpose, according to the researchers:
Analytic thinking undermines belief because, as cognitive psychologists have shown, it can override intuition. And we know from past research that religious beliefs—such as the idea that objects and events don't simply exist but have a purpose—are rooted in intuition. "Analytic processing inhibits these int |
full extent of the devastation elsewhere.
More than nine million people have been affected in the Philippines. Many are now struggling to survive without food, shelter or clean drinking water.
A picture is slowly emerging of the full damage wrought by the storm:
The exposed easterly town of Guiuan, Samar province - population 40,000 - is said to be largely destroyed
province - population 40,000 - is said to be largely destroyed Tacloban, Leyte province, was largely flattened by a massive storm surge and scores of corpses are piled by the roadside, leaving a stench in the air as they rot, say correspondents. Hundreds of people have gathered at the airport desperate for food and water, others trying to get a flight out
province, was largely flattened by a massive storm surge and scores of corpses are piled by the roadside, leaving a stench in the air as they rot, say correspondents. Hundreds of people have gathered at the airport desperate for food and water, others trying to get a flight out Disaster worker Dennis Chong told the BBC that assessments in the far north of Cebu province had shown some towns had suffered "80-90% damage"
province had shown some towns had suffered "80-90% damage" Baco, a city of 35,000 in Oriental Mindoro province, was 80% under water, the UN said.
A huge international relief effort is under way, but rescue workers have struggled to reach some towns and villages cut off since the storm.
People are not receiving food or water... I'm worried it may become a mob situation - we need the military to get there as soon as possible Kevin Vacca, US missionary, Maya, northern Cebu US missionary delivers aidSurvivor's story
"There's an awful lot of casualties, a lot of people dead all over the place, a lot of destruction," Richard Gordon, head of the Philippine Red Cross, told the BBC.
"It's absolute bedlam right now, but hopefully it will turn out better as more and more supplies get into the area."
"The situation is bad: the devastation has been significant. In some cases the devastation has been total," Secretary to the Cabinet Rene Almendras told a news conference.
Mr Gordon said roads had now been cleared to allow relief workers to get to some of the hardest hit areas, but that they expected to find many more casualties.
"It's only now that they were able to get in and we're beginning just to bring in the necessary food items... as well as water and other things that they need."
Forecasters predicted a tropical depression would move into the south and central Philippines on Tuesday, potentially bringing heavy rains that would further hamper relief efforts.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Aerial footage shows devastation in Tanauan, Tacloban and Cebu
Jane Cocking, the humanitarian director for Oxfam, said her colleagues witnessed "complete devastation... entire parts of the coastline just disappeared, and sizable trees just bent over and [were] thrown about like matchsticks."
A Philippine military spokesman was quoted as saying on Monday that 942 people had died in the typhoon's aftermath, though it is clear the official death toll will rise significantly.
Almost 630,000 people have been reported displaced.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Three days after Typhoon Haiyan hit, aerial photos are revealing a scene of apocalyptic devastation along a swathe of the central Philippines.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Among the hardest hit places was the city of Tacloban, where the ferocity of the storm waves swept this ship ashore.
Image copyright AFP Image caption A 21-year-old woman lies exhausted on the debris-covered floor at a makeshift medical facility in Tacloban after giving birth to a baby girl. The storm surge swept away her mother.
Image copyright AFP Image caption In Manila, Philippine and US military personnel load relief goods for Tacloban. International rescue teams are heading for the area.
Image copyright AP Image caption The typhoon - now downgraded to a tropical storm - has reached Vietnam, where hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated.
'Unprecedented' storm
Some are questioning what more authorities could have done to prepare for this, just the latest in a string of disasters to hit the nation of more than 7,000 islands.
The world has not seen a storm like this before Senen Mangalile, Philippines Consul General to the UK Your pictures: DevastationUK aid for victims
Authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people before the typhoon arrived, but many evacuation centres - schools, churches and government buildings - proved unable to withstand the winds and storm surges.
Many survivors in stricken areas heeded official urgings to stockpile supplies - but found that they were washed away along with the rest of their possessions.
Haiyan brought sustained winds of 235km/h (147mph), with gusts of 275 km/h (170 mph), with waves as high as 15m (45ft), bringing up to 400mm (15.75 inches) of rain in places.
"The world has not seen a storm like this before," said Senen Mangalile, the Philippines Consul General to the UK.
Steven Godby, a disaster management expert at Nottingham Trent University, told the BBC the typhoon was "probably the most intense and strongest storm of this type to make landfall".
International aid Australia : Aus$10m ($9.4m; £5.8m), including medical personnel
: Aus$10m ($9.4m; £5.8m), including medical personnel China : $200,000 (£125,000)
: $200,000 (£125,000) European Commission : 3m euros (£2.5m; $4m)
: 3m euros (£2.5m; $4m) Indonesia : Aircraft, personnel, drinking water, food, generators, medicine
: Aircraft, personnel, drinking water, food, generators, medicine Japan : 25 emergency medical personnel
: 25 emergency medical personnel New Zealand : NZ$2.15m (£1.1m)
: NZ$2.15m (£1.1m) Taiwan : $200,000
: $200,000 UK : £6m ($9.6m) non-food aid package
: £6m ($9.6m) non-food aid package UN World Food Programme : an initial $2m
: an initial $2m US : 90 marines and sailors; emergency food, water, shelter and hygiene materials
: 90 marines and sailors; emergency food, water, shelter and hygiene materials Vietnam: $100,000 This list is not comprehensive
"We've seen storms like this perhaps on rare occasions that have had that kind of intensity out at sea but for it to come ashore with that kind of strength is almost unprecedented," Dr Godby said.
Officials said looting was widespread and order was proving difficult to enforce, but correspondents say many ordinary people are simply scavenging for the food and water needed to survive.
Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to try to restore order in Tacloban, but one resident told AFP that people were becoming violent out of desperation.
"I am afraid that in one week, people will be killing from hunger," secondary school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, said on Sunday.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino said there was a possibility that martial law or a state of emergency would be declared in the city.
In some areas, the dead are being buried in mass graves.
American military aircraft and ships are being deployed to provide help. Aid is being flown into the only regional international airport at Cebu, with relief efforts focusing on Tacloban.
Deadly typhoons Sept 1937 Hong Kong typhoon - 11,000 dead
- 11,000 dead Sept 1959 Typhoon Vera - deadliest to hit Japan, killing 5,238 people
- deadliest to hit Japan, killing 5,238 people Aug 1975 Typhoon Nina - about 229,000 die in China after collapse of Banqiao dam
- about 229,000 die in China after collapse of Banqiao dam Nov 1991 Typhoon Thelma - deadliest in the Philippines to date, killing 5-8,000
US President Barack Obama has issued a message saying he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life and extensive damage".
Other countries have also pledged millions of dollars in assistance. Australia has approved $9m in humanitarian aid to the Philippines, while New Zealand has pledged over $1m.
Kristalina Georgieva, the EU humanitarian aid commissioner, said relief efforts would be guided by three priorities: to establish access, then offer immediate aid, then shelter.
Typhoon Haiyan has now made landfall in Vietnam, near the tourist destination of Ha Long Bay, with sustained winds of up to 140 km/h (85mph).
Some 600,000 people were evacuated in northern provinces of the country.Two men have been arraigned on charges of assault as a hate crime after an alleged rock-throwing attack on a transgender female in Queens on Wednesday night. Carmella Etienne, 22, says she walking by the corner of 116th Avenue and 199th Street in St. Albans when two men shouted anti-gay slurs and threatened to cut her throat. (NY1 reports they even threatened to sodomize her with a baseball bat.) After promising to call the police, the two suspects allegedly said, "The police don't care about you, they won't do anything to us." Rocks and a bottle were thrown, and Etienne sustained a deep cut to her leg.
Nathaniel Mims, 25, of the Bronx and Rasheed Thomas, 22, of Queens, were arrested at the scene, but Candy Brown, a friend of one of the suspects, tells NY1 cops got the wrong guys: "He stopped right here, started doing his little vogue-ing thing, cause that's what they do. And I guess the guy that is with my friend he didn't like he, you know 'Go outta here with that, you know, no one wants to see that' and he went about his business. Somebody else or whatever started throwin rocks or whatever, but they were here. They didn't have anything to do with it."
Thomas, one of the suspects, told prosecutors after the arrest, "I didn't know you could get locked up for calling somebody names. I called her a bunch of names. I called her a [expletive deleted], but she didn't see me throw anything." Etienne, 22, moved to Queens from Haiti six years ago and soon began her transformation from male to female. (According to CBS2, she's medically and legally a woman.) Both suspects are being held on $5,000 bail; if convicted, they could face up to 15 years in prison.
Etienne tells the Daily News, "The law will hopefully put them to justice. I love being myself." And Brendan Fay, a leader in the LGBT community in Queens, says, "There's mounting concern in the community and anger at the violence and prejudice." Last month another transgender woman was assaulted with a belt buckle by two men in Jackson Heights, and during Gay Pride Weekend a group of young men on the Upper East Side beat a man while calling him a "faggot."To make it difficult for law enforcement to trace stolen cars or weapons, thieves will usually grind off their metal vehicle identification numbers or serial numbers. And while techniques for trying to recover those numbers do exist, they're not as accurate as a new method developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology—or NIST—that uses a scanning electron microscope to detect imperfections in the metal's crystalline structure.
Part of what gives metal its strength is that its atoms are arranged in a well-organized and highly patterned crystal structure. But the act of stamping a serial number onto metal can damage that crystal structure deep into the material—well below the surface area that thieves will typically grind away to erase the stamped digits.
Advertisement
As an electron microscope scans a beam of electrons across a metal surface that has been ground down to erase a serial number, the reflections can reveal what the crystal structure deep into the material looks like. Using software to differentiate the quality of the crystal pattern can then reveal damaged areas below the surface, which in turn can be used to re-generate serial numbers that have been erased.
The quality of the results achieved from the new recovery technique are likely to allow it to be used as forensic evidence at a trial, but unfortunately in its current form the new approach is very time consuming. A single technician needs about three full days to recover an 8-digit serial number, which would have labs backed up for years. But the NIST researchers believe that improvements made to the software, as well as more detailed scans, could reduce the recovery time to about an hour, which could help make the new technique a viable tool for forensic investigators. [National Institute of Standards and Technology via Slashdot]Please enable Javascript to watch this video
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Huntington Ingalls hosted a ceremonial first-cut-of-steel event Thursday to kick off construction of the new aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVN 80) at Newport News Shipbuilding.
The ship's sponsors, Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, attended the event and said how they are so grateful for those who serve our country.
There were shipbuilders, local officials and members of the U.S. Navy who also attended.
"We are always excited to watch the Olympians, but I had a chance to tell the shipbuilders the Olympians are excited to see what you will do everyday," said Newport News Shipbuilding President Jennifer Boykin.
The Enterprise will be the third Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier. The flagship USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) was built at Newport News Shipbuilding and delivered to the Navy in July. Construction has been underway on the John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) since 2015, with a commissioning expected for 2020.
"We're excited to see the progress and to attend the other ceremonies that they'll have," Biles said.
The Enterprise will be the ninth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. It's the Navy aircraft carrier since the Kitty Hawk-class USS America to not be named for a person.
"Young kids always say you're a hero or they look to a sports figure as heroes, but I always say you know the people that serve our country? They're the real heroes," said Ledecky.
The former USS Enterprise (CVN 65) was also built at Newport News Shipbuilding and the world's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. The ship was last homeported in Norfolk before being deactivated in December 2012. She was officially decommissioned in January 2017.
Some of the steel from the USS Enterprise is being recycled to be used in the construction of the new Enterprise.
The ship is scheduled to go into the fleet in nine years.
RELATED:
As future USS Gerald R. Ford nears commissioning, future of class takes shape
Aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy is now 50 percent structurally complete
Former USS Enterprise will be put in storage as Navy establishes plan to recycle it
After decades of service, the USS Enterprise will take her final bow Friday
USS Enterprise will be officially decommissioned on February 3
Huntington Ingalls awarded $152M planning contract for construction of the next Enterprise (CVN 80)
The end of an era: The USS Enterprise takes its final voyage
USS Enterprise retires from active service
It’s official: The next carrier to be built will be called the USS Enterprise
Saluting the USS Enterprise
Sailors aboard the USS Enterprise prepare a time capsuleTwenty years of deafening military fly-overs, pumping music, spring night skies being transformed into colourful canvases will be celebrated on Saturday night.
This weekend marks the 20th Sunsuper Riverfire. To commemorate the milestone there will be about 20 minutes of fireworks, a mix of retro music from 1998 to today and a new military jet will make its Riverfire debut.
Sunsuper Riverfire celebrates its 20th anniversary on Saturday.
Riverfire is Brisbane and Queensland’s largest annual public celebration and the fourth-largest annual fireworks show in Australia. This year there will be 11 tonnes of fireworks, which will be fired from six barges, two pontoons, high-rise buildings and the Story Bridge.
It all kicks off at 7pm and will be held at the South Bank Cultural Forecourt, but there are several viewing areas around the city to watch the display.Pompey went into administration in February 2010
"This is as bad as it can get for Portsmouth without the club ceasing to exist."
Those are the words of Guy Thomas, a leading insolvency lawyer and football finance expert.
It sums up the grave situation that Portsmouth now find themselves in after being issued with a winding-up petition by HM Revenue and Customs over unpaid tax on Tuesday.
BBC Sport talks to Thomas, who analyses the implications of Pompey's latest financial disaster.
What is a winding-up petition?
At the hearing the court will decide if the company needs to be wound up. If so, the company comes to an end and a liquidator gets appointed
A winding-up petition is when you have a creditor of a company, in this case the football club. They have a liquidated debt and the tax authority will have a liquidated debt and that is an undisputed debt. All it has to be is over £750 and this is far in excess of that.
They put in a petition to the High Court. Once that issue is then served, the company then has seven working days to respond. After that time, the petition gets advertised. When it is advertised that is the point where it becomes public knowledge.
This is when the banks get involved and start freezing bank accounts for their own protection and the protection of the creditors. Then there will be a hearing.
At the hearing, the court will decide if the company needs to be wound up. If so, the company comes to end and a liquidator gets appointed. It stops trading and the liquidator gets appointed to assign its assets to the creditors and then decides on the validity of the claims.
What are the implications for Portsmouth?
They usually demand they get paid in full or the company and in this case the football club get wound up
From this winding-up petition, there are only a few possible outcomes. The first is that with a secured creditor, with a debenture registered at Companies House, that debenture holder can appoint an administrator. If the administrator is appointed, then the winding-up petition is suspended. The administrator then takes control, much like before when Andrew Andronikou from Hacker Young got appointed last time.
The other option is that, if an administrator does not get appointed, the company gets wound up. The only other thing that could happen is if HMRC get paid. It is HMRC policy that, once they have issued a winding-up petition, they want to be paid in full before the hearing. As far as they are concerned, they will negotiate but, once they have made the decision to issue a winding-up petition, the time for negotiation has really passed.
They usually demand they get paid in full or the company and in this case the football club get wound up.
How does this affect Pompey's search for a new owner?
It would be very rare for a buyer to come in and buy a company facing a winding-up petition without making sure the winding-up petition is being dealt with
It affects the timetable. It means that everything needs to happen quickly. If Portpin Ltd are going to appoint an administrator they have to do so soon as possible.
Assuming the administrator gets appointed, much as Hacker Young did last time, they have to trade the business and find a buyer. It does not change things from where they were before. The winding-up got issued. They were looking for a buyer. They are still looking for a buyer, whereas before CSI were looking to sell their assets, now the administrator is looking to sell it, if one is appointed. It would be very rare for a buyer to come in and buy a company facing a winding-up petition without making sure the winding-up petition is being dealt with.
Are Portsmouth close to going into administration?
From here on in, Portsmouth either go into administration, or they get sold, or they get wound up.
Is this worse than before?
They have been in some pretty bad situations over the past couple of years. Especially when they first got placed into administration and the CVA got challenged by HMRC, when they were looking for a buyer. When all these things were happening, it threatened the existence of the club. This is as bad as it can get for the club without the club ceasing to exist.
This is as bad as it can get for the club without the club ceasing to exist
Why does this keep happening to Pompey?
They are obviously in trouble financially. They've never quite got out of the hole that they were in. They have not been helped by a revolving door of new owners over the past few years. Their problems have never really gone away. There are a lot of people owed a lot of money by the club even after the Company Voluntary Arrangement exit from the last administration. It is as bad as it was before.
Why would anyone buy Portsmouth now?
They are a performing Championship club. They have form of playing in the top flight before, have a very loyal fan base and that means cash income for the owners. There are still the parachute payments coming back down from the Premier League, from which they were relegated only in 2010. There are still good reasons to be in the football business as well as bad ones. It's like any business. There is potential there and, as long as someone sees that potential, they will remain interested.
I'm sure there are people interested in buying Portsmouth. It is just a question of whether they can do it quickly enough.
Could Pompey cease to exist?
If the secured creditor doesn't step in - that's Portpin Ltd - before the hearing then, when the liquidation hammer comes down, it ceases to trade
Yes. As a trading, playing club when the winding-up petition is heard. If they don't have an answer for that they could cease to exist. If the secured creditor doesn't step in - that's Portpin Ltd - before the hearing then, when the liquidation hammer comes down, it ceases to trade. You can't have a trading liquidated company.
Will they have to sell their best players?
I can see that situation happening but, only in the frame work of a wider solution. Yes, it will get them part of the way but it won't completely clear away all the issues they are facing. There needs to be a plan in place, new investment and old debt got rid of before this can be a healthy and successful club. Just selling the players on its own is not a magic wand that can fix all of this. Portpin Ltd still have a big say in all of this They are the ones also looking for a buyer effectively.A man who posted "despicable" comments on his Facebook page about the missing five-year-old April Jones has been jailed for 12 weeks.
Matthew Woods, 19, from Chorley, Lancashire, made derogatory posts about April and missing Madeleine McCann after getting the idea from Sickipedia, a website that "trades in sick jokes".
Among his comments was: "I woke up this morning in the back of a transit van with two beautiful little girls, I found April in a hopeless place." Another read: "Who in their right mind would abduct a ginger kid?"
Others stated: "I love April Jones" and "Could have just started the greatest Facebook argument ever. April Fools, Who Wants Maddie?"
He also wrote comments of a sexually explicit nature about April, who went missing last week from near her home in Machynlleth, mid-Wales.
Woods, who is unemployed, was arrested for his own safety on Saturday night and was remanded in custody before his appearance at Chorley magistrates court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to sending a message or other matter that is grossly offensive by means of a public electronic communications network.
The chairman of the bench, Bill Hudson, said Woods's comments were so serious and "abhorrent" that he deserved the longest sentence they could pass, less a third, to give credit for his early guilty plea.
Hudson said: "We have listened to the evidence in what can only be described as a disgusting and despicable crime and the bench finds was completely abhorrent. The words and references used to the current case in Wales and that of the missing girl in Portugal are nothing less than shocking, so much so that no right-thinking person in society should have communicated to them such fear and distress."
He added that families involved in such cases should not have to be subjected to this type of misuse of social media.
Only a custodial term in a young offender institute was appropriate, Hudson said, which was greeted by applause from about 30 people in the public gallery.
He added: "The reason for the sentence is the seriousness of the offence, the public outrage that has been caused, and we felt there was no other sentence this court could have passed which conveys to you the abhorrence that many in society feel this crime should receive."
Woods smirked as members of the public clapped as he was led from the dock.Conventional theories of electromagnetic waves in a medium assume that the energy propagating with the light pulse in the medium is entirely carried by the field. Thus, the possibility that the optical force field of the light pulse would drive forward an atomic mass density wave (MDW) and the related kinetic and elastic energies is neglected. In this work, we present foundations of a covariant theory of light propagation in a medium by considering a light wave simultaneously with the dynamics of the medium atoms driven by optoelastic forces between the induced dipoles and the electromagnetic field. We show that a light pulse having a total electromagnetic energy ℏ ω propagating in a nondispersive medium transfers a mass equal to δ m = ( n 2 − 1 ) ℏ ω / c 2, where n is the refractive index. MDW, which carries this mass, consists of atoms, which are more densely spaced inside the light pulse as a result of the field-dipole interaction. We also prove that the transfer of mass with the light pulse, the photon mass drag effect, gives an essential contribution to the total momentum of the light pulse, which becomes equal to the Minkowski momentum p M = n ℏ ω / c. The field's share of the momentum is the Abraham momentum p A = ℏ ω / ( n c ), while the difference p M − p A is carried by MDW. Due to the coupling of the field and matter, only the total momentum of the light pulse and the transferred mass δ m can be directly measured. Thus, our theory gives an unambiguous physical meaning to the Abraham and Minkowski momenta. We also show that to solve the centenary Abraham-Minkowski controversy of the momentum of light in a nondispersive medium in a way that is consistent with Newton's first law, one must account for the mass transfer effect. We derive the photon mass drag effect using two independent but complementary covariant models. In the mass-polariton (MP) quasiparticle approach, we consider the light pulse as a coupled state between the photon and matter, isolated from the rest of the medium. The momentum and the transferred mass of MP follow unambiguously from the Lorentz invariance and the fundamental conservation laws of nature. To enable the calculation of the mass and momentum distribution of a light pulse, we have also generalized the electrodynamics of continuous media to account for the space- and time-dependent optoelastic dynamics of the medium driven by the field-dipole forces. In this optoelastic continuum dynamics (OCD) approach, we obtain with an appropriate space-time discretization a numerically accurate solution of the Newtonian continuum dynamics of the medium when the light pulse is propagating in it. The OCD simulations of a Gaussian light pulse propagating in a diamond crystal give the same momentum p M and the transferred mass δ m for the light pulse as the MP quasiparticle approach. Our simulations also show that, after photon transmission, some nonequilibrium of the mass distribution is left in the medium. Since the elastic forces are included in our simulations on equal footing with the optical forces, our simulations also depict how the mass and thermal equilibria are reestablished by elastic waves. In the relaxation process, a small amount of photon energy is dissipated into lattice heat. We finally discuss a possibility of an optical waveguide setup for experimental measurement of the transferred mass of the light pulse. Our main result that a light pulse is inevitably associated with an experimentally measurable mass is a fundamental change in our understanding of light propagation in a medium.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.063850
©2017 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)Exclusive: A meeting of French, German, Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers sought a new ceasefire in Ukraine, but the U.S. State Department and the mainstream U.S. media seem eager for more bloodshed, an unseemly rush into a war that could become genocide, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
Western Ukraine’s “anti-terrorist operation” against rebels in Eastern Ukraine has the makings of what could degenerate from scattered atrocities to ethnic cleansing to genocide. It already is a nasty war to suppress an ethnic minority through the use of military force, complete with references to the targeted population as insects and animals.
Traditionally, the U.S. government protests such violence and even intervenes militarily to stop it, such as the cases of Kosovo in the 1990s and Libya in 2011. In the Kosovo case, the U.S. government supported the arrest and trial of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on war crimes charges and later backed Kosovo’s outright secession from Serbia. In the Libyan case, a U.S.-directed bombing campaign helped overthrow Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi who was then captured and murdered.
But the Obama administration, especially the U.S. State Department, is gung-ho in favor of Western Ukraine’s military assault on Eastern Ukraine where many ethnic Russians objected to the overthrow of elected President Viktor Yanukovych in a violent Feb. 22 coup. Yanukovych came from the East, which was also his political base.
Despite the disturbing circumstances surrounding the coup, including the role of neo-Nazi militias in forcing Yanukovych and his officials to flee for their lives, the U.S. State Department immediately embraced the new authorities as “legitimate.” The mainstream U.S. news media also clambered onboard the pro-coup bandwagon.
Over the ensuing months, both the State Department and the U.S. press corps have consistently presented a one-sided narrative that portrayed the coup makers as white-hatted “pro-democracy” protesters and denounced anyone opposed to the coup as black-hatted supporters of “Russian aggression.”
The key role of neo-Nazi “brown shirts” was whited out of the official U.S. picture despite the fact that the interim regime gave these far-right ultranationalists admirers of Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera at least four ministries, including national security, in recognition of their crucial contribution in overthrowing Yanukovych.
However, the propaganda role of the State Department and the mainstream U.S. press is now taking on a darker coloration as the Kiev regime vows to crush the ethnic Russian resistance in Eastern Ukraine, raising the prospect of widespread civilian deaths, ethnic cleansing and even the possibility of genocide.
Prosecuting Propagandists
Historically, propaganda has gone hand-in-hand with such barbarities. First comes the dehumanization, then the immediate rationalizations and finally the slaughter. The close ties between propaganda and atrocities have led modern international law to treat demonization of a targeted group as a contributing element in crimes against humanity.
Nazi propagandists stood in the dock at Nuremberg because they paved the way for Hitler’s Holocaust, and Rwandan radio commentators were held to account for enflaming passions against the Tutsis in the 1990s.
But American propagandists, including media personalities, have traditionally escaped any accountability for contributing to serious war crimes, whether the Vietnam War in the 1960s or the Iraq War in the 2000s.
Indeed, many U.S. opinion leaders may see themselves as having immunity from any accountability for their words and actions. One of the most remarkable aspects of the years after President George W. Bush launched an illegal invasion of Iraq, which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, is that almost no one in Official Washington who pushed for that criminal act suffered any consequences at all.
Many of the Iraq War’s proponents are still sought-after opinion leaders whether politicians like Sen. John McCain or pundits like the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman called upon, endlessly, to explicate today’s foreign policy crises for the American people.
At the Washington Post, editorial page editor Fred Hiatt and his deputy Jackson Diehl were important cheerleaders for the Iraq War with their editorials stating as flat-fact that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. The fact that Iraq didn’t have WMD had no noticeable impact on their careers. Today, they are in the same positions collecting their Post salaries and advocating for more U.S. overseas interventions.
On Wednesday, the Post, which has become the neocons’ media flagship, was virtually rubbing its hands with glee at the prospect of Western Ukraine’s military offensive to crush the ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine. In the print edition, the lead editorial had the light-hearted title: “Time’s up.”
The Post, of course, blamed everything on Russian President Vladimir Putin, declaring: “As heavy fighting resumed Tuesday in eastern Ukraine, it was obvious that Russian President Vladimir Putin had disregarded the demands from the United States and European Union that Russia stop intervening.
“Rebels backed by Moscow did not hand back border posts; military supplies have not stopped flowing across the border; Mr. Putin did not compel the insurgents to observe a cease-fire, leaving the Ukrainian government with no choice but to resume military operations.”
Slanted Propaganda
Again, we have the Post stating as flat-fact what is really slanted propaganda. Though “blame-Putin” has been at the center of Official Washington’s false narrative on Ukraine from the beginning, the reality was always that the West the United States and the European Union provoked this crisis, not Putin and Russia.
The crisis emanated from the EU’s reckless offer of an economic association agreement to Ukraine that President Yanukovych weighed but ultimately rejected because it came with a draconian International Monetary Fund austerity package attached. The Russians offered a more generous $15 billion loan and also provided energy subsidies for Ukrainians.
Yanukovych’s decision to opt for what he considered a better deal for Ukraine was well within his rights as the elected president, but his choice touched off furious demonstrations led by western Ukrainians and openly encouraged by senior U.S. officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland.
When Yanukovych refused to reverse his decision, the protests turned violent with well-trained neo-Nazi militias, organized in groups of one-hundred fighters each, moving to the fore to battle police. In the violence, both protesters and police were killed, though the typical treatment in the New York Times and much of the U.S. press was to simply report falsely that all the victims were protesters. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “The Danger of False Narrative.”]
On Feb. 21, seeking to stanch the violence, Yanukovych signed an agreement guaranteed by three European countries Germany, France and Poland to surrender many of his powers and accept early elections so he could be voted out of office. The elections would have tested popular opinion on the EU’s package while maintaining the Ukrainian constitutional structure.
Yanukovych also agreed to pull back the police, a move that opened the way for the neo-Nazi militias to seize government buildings and force pro-Yanukovych officials to run for their lives. With these storm troopers patrolling government buildings, the remnants of the shaken parliament cobbled together a new regime led by Assistant Secretary Nuland’s personal choice, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who became prime minister.
The neo-Nazis got a share of ministries with their top commander Andriy Parubiy made chief of Ukraine’s national security to reward them for their service to the coup and in recognition that these militias might otherwise turn on the fragile new regime and seize power for themselves. Reflecting Western Ukraine’s hostility toward Eastern Ukraine, the parliament took actions offensive to ethnic Russians including a vote to ban Russian as an official language throughout the country (though that plan was later rescinded).
Resistance to the Coup
The stunning developments in Kiev led Crimea’s local government to organize a hasty referendum on leaving Ukraine and rejoining Russia, a choice approved by more than 90 percent of voters. Putin and the Russian government agreed.
Though the U.S. media carried lurid headlines about a Russian “invasion,” the articles strangely lacked any photographs of tanks crossing borders, paratroopers jumping from planes or an amphibious landing. The reason for the absence of these photos was that thousands of Russian troops were already stationed in Crimea (under an agreement with Ukraine giving Russia access to its historic naval base at Sevastopol). The Russian troops simply left their bases and engineered a largely peaceful transfer of power.
The political resistance in the East and South and the unwillingness of Ukrainian soldiers to fire on fellow Ukrainians also led the new national security chief Parubiy to incorporate the neo-Nazi militias into National Guard units and dispatch them to the front lines.
The value of the neo-Nazis was that they shared the vision of World War II-era Nazi collaborator Bandera who viewed Ukrainians as a superior race threatened by inferior ones Poles, Jews and Russians. Bandera’s radical paramilitary force, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-B, sought to transform Ukraine into a racially pure state.
The OUN-B assisted the Nazis in their expulsion and extermination of thousands of Jews and Poles. Other Ukrainians joined in Germany’s war against Russia on the Eastern Front, including the “Galician SS” which also was implicated in crimes against humanity.
A modern version of this Nazi brutality surfaced again on May 2 when right-wing toughs in Odessa attacked an encampment of ethnic Russian protesters driving them into a trade union building which was then set on fire with Molotov cocktails. As the building was engulfed in flames, some people who tried to flee were chased and beaten to death.
Those trapped inside heard the Ukrainian nationalists liken them to black-and-red-striped potato beetles called Colorados, because those colors are used in pro-Russian ribbons. “Burn, Colorado, burn” went the chant.
As the fire worsened, those dying inside were serenaded with the taunting singing of the Ukrainian national anthem. The building also was spray-painted with Swastika-like symbols and graffiti reading “Galician SS.”
The death by fire of dozens of people in Odessa recalled a World War II incident in |
.
Fancy French Cidre: Domaine de la Minotiere Cidre Fermier Bio Doux or Pierre Huet AOC Pays D’Auge Cidre – I tried so many amazing French cidres this year that I had to include more than one! These selections cost a tad more than the previous two, $12 and $19.99 respectively, but also have more complexity. Both of these are low ABV selections, and the Doux was significantly sweeter, as expected for the classification.
English Cidre: Newton Court Gasping Goose (330ml bottles) or Henney’s Vintage (500ml bottles) – Both of these English imports are very budget friendly and tasty. A bit sweeter than some English ciders (on the sweeter side of semi-dry), rich, and tannic, but not bitter. Newton Court is available in Seattle, but I’ve only seen the Henney’s in Portland (and only tried the one bottle).
Swiss cider: Cidrerie du Vulcain Premiers Emois – This cider from Switzerland reminds me of French cidre, but has a style all its own. It was made from Organic native heirloom apples, and wild yeast fermented using traditional methods. The result was a semi-sweet cider with an awesome fluffy texture and complex fruitiness (but with less apple and yeast forward flavor as most French cidres).
European-Style U.S. cider: 2 Towns Traditions Cidre Bouche – This cider is by far the closest to a French cidre than any other U.S. cider I’ve tried. It was a noticeable improvement from last year’s vintage as well. Lots of rich ripe bittersweet apple flavor. Unfortunately it costs more than most French cidres, as even with the import cost, their production costs are lower, as cider apple varieties aren’t rare like they are here.
Perry: Ramborn Perry – I tried two selections from Ramborn Cider in Luxembourg. This perry was complex and amazing, with notes of canned pear, dried pear, mango, pineapple, and guava. Like most perries, as pears have unfermentable sugars, it was a bit sweeter, semi-sweet to semi-dry.
New England style: Cockrell Colonial Winter – This cider is of true New England style, a high ABV cider with the addition to raisins and brown sugar. Rich, complex, and perfect for winter. It is my favorite version of this style so far.
Food-Friendly Cider: Eden Semi-Dry or Eden Guineveres Pearls – Of these, the Semi-Dry is drier, much easier to find, and less expensive. Both however are excellent selections, quite flavorful, but without anything that would overwhelm or clash with most meals. They are also some of the most tannic on this list, same as the English selections.
Rosé: Alpenfire Glow – This sweet cider is made from rare red fleshed apples, and similar to Eve’s Rustica (listed below), is amazingly fruity, with a high flavor intensity. Here the flavor notes were watermelon, strawberry, and rhubarb. It was a perfect Valentine’s Day cider (a gift from my husband – he knows me well)!
Barrel Aged: Finnriver Fire Barrel – Note that this pertains to the previous releases of this cider. I haven’t been nearly as big of a fan of Fire Barrel once they moved to 750ml bottles, as it was not nearly as flavorful (plus the price increased significantly). In the older version, I love the complexity, intense barrel aged flavor (which is rarely found in cider), and high tannins.
Fruity: 2 Towns Prickle Me Pink ^2 – This cider was made using prickly pear cactus fruit, plus, new for this year, watermelon. The result is a fluorescent pink fruity cider which is surprisingly complex and flavorful, yet fairly dry.
Rich: Angry Orchard Maple Wooden Sleeper – This cider was made from bittersweet apples, with Crown maple syrup, then bourbon barrel aged for 12 months. It resulted in a 12% ABV cider, super rich and complex, with a flavor profile including caramel, brown sugar, maple, oak, vanilla, bourbon, and molasses. This was a truly artisan small batch cider, worlds away from their typical commercial releases.
Spicy: 2 Towns Man Gogh – I’ve never been a fan of spicy ciders, but I finally found one I could enjoy! Here the hint of spice (from habaneros) was balanced by the fruitiness, sweetness, and acidity of the cider with mango. This was an imperial cider, but way too easy to drink.
Commercial: Spire Mountain Dark & Dry – I typically drink craft ciders, but I still drink commercial ciders from time to time. This one is far from dry (more like semi-sweet), but is dark, and has some great molasses flavor. It pairs really well with greasy food, like a burger or fish & chips.
Unique: Eve’s Rustica – This is Eve’s sweetest cider (besides their ice cider), and my favorite. I loved all the flavor they were able to showcase without any additions (just apples & yeast), with notes of honey, cream, vanilla, melon, strawberry, watermelon, pineapple, and peach.
Unexpected: Snowdrift Cidermaker’s Reserve – This cider was made from heirloom & cider apples, but in contrast had a very unique unexpected flavor profile, with pomegranate, white grape, stone fruit, leather, butterscotch, and citrus notes. It is unique, complex, and bubbly. My husband is also an especially big fan of this cider.
Value: Schilling King’s Shilling – I’ve picked up a 22oz bottle of this for as low as $4 (at Total Wine, actually cheaper than at the Cider House), which is a steal for a tasty barrel aged brandy infused cider. This is more sessionable than you’d expect too. Semi-dry and semi-sweet, with notes of honey and citrus, plus hints of maple syrup, oak, and spice.
Unexpected & Value: Finnegan Cider Harvest Blend – This was another unexpectedly awesome cider which was also a great value. I picked this up in Portland, for just over $7 for 500ml of cider from cider apples. Semi-dry, with richness, high carbonation, and notes of rich ripe apples, caramel, leather, orange, stone fruit, honey, oak, and apple brandy.
Favorite from a New-to-Me cidery: Woodbox Double Barrel Whiskey Barrel Ice Cider – This was the first (and only) cider I have tried from Woodbox, at Cider Rite of Spring in Portland. I bought a bottle, but haven’t wanted to open it yet. Lots of whiskey flavor in addition to caramel, vanilla, oak, and more. It was rather budget-friendly for an ice cider too, at $17 / 375ml.
Pommeau: 2 Towns Pommeau – This remains my favorite Pommeau. Super flavorful, rich, and complex, with notes of ripe apples, oak, dried fruit, leather, brown sugar, caramel, burnt sugar, vanilla, tropical fruit, and peaches.
Ice Cider: Eden Cellar Series The Falstaff – This year I was spoiled with an amazing treat, a bottle of Eden’s 7! year barrel aged ice cider. This ties with Alpenfire Smoke for the most complex cider I’ve ever drank. The flavor was all over the place, from molasses, caramel, and brown sugar, to tart green apple and lemon, to raisin, to pie spices.
Overall: Alpenfire Smoke – This 16% ABV sipping cider has an amazing complexity, with rich oaky smokey flavor. If I had to name just one favorite cider, this would be it. However, it is not an everyday sort of cider. They recently released a new batch of it, but I haven’t tried it yet (I’m still working on my stockpile of the old version).
Other: Also, while I’m at it, my favorite cider event in 2017 was Cider Summit Seattle, my favorite (and only) class was by Rev Nat, and my favorite bottle shop & bar was Schilling Cider House.
Well, there you have it, a list of 26 of my favorite ciders from 2017. They have a lot in common–most are rich and full-flavored. What are some of your favorite ciders?
AdvertisementsAfter learning Emily-san's identity, along with the two beginners we have created a party of four and played together for a few days on hunting spots with few players in it.
At times I accompanied them in hunting, I remade pound cakes or played with Ryui and Zakuro. I enjoyed activities no different from ones I enjoyed in the 【Atelier】.
Eh? I don't think this is what 'disappearing' means, maybe.
『"So, Yun, what's your current situation?"』
"Oh, for the time being I partnered up with a player I met during the disappearance and we stay in a place with few people."
『"On this side we're doings lots of stuff to finish the matter of guild solicitation. We'll probably manage to settle it before the event."』
"Well, I'll be waiting patiently then."
It was a friend call from Cloude. Since I was currently hiding and couldn't meet him directly, I was contacting with 【Crafting Guild】 members this way to exchange information.
Last time it was Magi, and before that, Lyly.
"After I come back to 【Atelier】 I plan to craft 【Fireworks】 and 【Insect Repelling Incense】, want to hear about the progress?"
『"Please."』
"I thought that the 【Fireworks】 have to be coloured beforehand, but I can just deliver 【Exploding Balls】 and you can decide yourself what kind of fireworks you want. How about it?"
『"Hmm. Certainly, rather than have you decide all the fireworks alone, leaving it to a number of crafters will be more interesting. Let's do that then."』
"Then, I'll deliver the 【Exploding Balls】 colourless. Also, the 【Insect Repelling Incense】 is progressing well so far."
『"So far?"』
"It'll take some time until it's complete."
The procedure of crafting 【Insect Repelling Incense】 was to crush 【Bark of the Fragrant Moss Wood】 into powder and mix it with dried 【Pyrethrum】.
It was simple so far, but it has become similar to wood chips so far and had yet to be compacted and moulded with thermal compression.
After moulding is finished it has to be dried in the shade, currently, I was waiting for this last step to complete.
"——So, I'll make for the delivery date, but it'll take time."
『"I see. Then there's no problems. Well, take care."』
"Sure, you too."
Slightly worried about each other, we disconnected from the chat.
Fuu, I sighed and spoke towards the sky.
"Settling the matter of guild solicitation... heck, what are they doing! I was too scared to ask."
During the chat with Magi-san and Lyly they said the same thing, I thought of asking Cloude, but the conversation centred on the order and I didn't have a chance.
"Yun-kun, were you called by someone again?'
Emily-san who was close by asked the moment I closed the friend communication with Cloude.
"Ah, yeah... this time it was about the item delivery."
Other than that, there were people who contacted me worried by the fact I don't appear in the store. In those cases, I have politely responded to each person explaining that I'm in the middle of laying low.
"You're really loved by everyone, Yun-kun."
In response to Emily-san's mutter, I went "is that so?" and tilted my head.
The twins, Lyna and Al didn't have interest in it, instead, they were nearby, reflecting on potion replenishment and cooperation during battle.
And when I was about to speak to Emily-san, once again a friend communication has come. I checked who was the caller.
"What on earth. Just a moment passed... ah, it's from Taku."
In response to my murmur, the gently smiling expression Emily-san had so far stiffened. Lyna and Al also looked my way curiously.
"Yun-kun, I think you know already but..."
"I won't leak anything about Emily-san."
Exactly, thanks. While looking at still anxious Emily-san I connected to the chat with Taku.
"What is it? For you to contact me... you know that I'm in middle of disappearance right?"
『"I'll tell you my request straight up. I want you to process 【Wisteria Peach Petals】."』
"...hey, they're a revival item right? Why do I have to process it?"
『"Oh, I see. So you still don't know."』
As I heard Taku talk as if he was all-knowing, I recalled the harm done to me by the low level video of his and once again resolved myself to punch him.
"So, what is it. If you've nothing then I'm ending the call here."
『"Ah, sorry. Earlier I've heard that some revival medicine was made with 【Wisteria Peach Petals】. Well, they're incomplete low quality stuff though."』
"About that, can you tell me in more details?"
So far I've heard only half of what Taku had to say, but I got immediately fired up.
『"I thought you'd be interested. That being said, the recovery amount of the reviving medicine is unchangingly 1 HP."』
"Wait a second. If I'm not wrong Wisteria Peach Petals also revive at 1 HP. There's no difference at all right?"
Eh? Didn't I explain you in detail? And so Taku tilted his head on the other side of the friend chat.
『"There's a big difference between petals and reviving medicine."』
"No, I don't understand what you mean here..."
Since one way or another I couldn't get a grasp, Taku gave me a simple example.
In the case of Wisteria Peach Petals, if a Player A falls, Player B can use them to revive Player A, but the Player A can't use his own petals from the inventory to revive himself. It's a type of item that allows you to revive others.
On the other hand, in case of revival medicines, if Player A falls, he can revive himself by using a revival medicine in his inventory. Moreover, just like petals it can be used on other players.
『"That's why, to use petals multiple people are required."』
"I see. Well, that's a huge difference. Rather than that, why do you need it all of a sudden?"
『"Oh, I thought of joining the crafter's event's PvP tournament! For that, I intend to secure as much reviving medicine as possible."』
"That, do rules even allow it? Doing such a thing in a PvP tournament."
If they allow revival drugs like that, it won't matter how hard it is...
『"About that, if things like items for throwing, HP recovery and MP Potions get restricted, power balance will crumble. That's why they'll be allowed."』
For real? Even though I thought like that, I guess it's certainly unavoidable.
"Got it. If I have an answer I'll call you back. Gonna disconnect now."
『"Yeah, I leave it to you."』
I turned off the chat and turned towards Emily-san, Lyna and Al.
But, what should I say. In order to punch Taku at least once I need to meet him, but leaving in the middle of helping out beginners...
"What are you bothered about. You were called out right? And by that Taku-san no less."
"Yeah, that's true but..."
"Please go on! And bring some stories about Taku-san back!"
Pure gazes of Lyna and Al were brilliantly dazzling.
Saying "leave this to me" with a wry smile, Emily-san pushed my back. "But don't say anything about me", her eyes weren't laughing at all as she said that.
"Got it. But before that..."
I needed to properly support the beginners, Lyna and Al.
"All right, it might be a bit early but I'll pass you Potions that are above Beginner's Potions. Also, I'll make you some simple bronze rings from the ore we've collected. And, as for the stones we've gathered, I'll make some Enchant Stones out of them. You can ask Emily-san about the method of use. Also..."
"Yun-san! It's fine, just go!"
Seeing me take out items one after another to support the beginners, Lyna yelled. And then, with a slightly irritated tone of voice she pressed on my back, trying to send me away by force.
"Yun-san, we're not children."
"But..."
"it's fine, go! There's no need to worry!"
"If something happens contact me immediately!"
"Are you our guardian or what?! There's no need to worry, we won't cause people any more trouble!"
"So Lyn-chan knows she's causing people to worry."
Well, if Al is there to retort then it'll be fine I guess.
"Really. Like this, it's no wonder you got a nickname like 【Nanny】."
I made an unconvinced expression in response to Emily-san's words and sighed.
However, unable to remain on spot forever, I left the party.
In order to secretly return to the 【Atelier】 I logged out once, then used the starting point I had set in the workshop.
Usually I used the Mini Portal to go out like this, by doing this procedure I could move around without using either the 【Atelier】's entrance or normal portals.
After coming to the 【Atelier】 I made preparations to meet Taku and called back to him.
The reply has come soon enough and I was able to invite Taku into the workshop part before long.
"Yo, I was waiting."
The moment Taku appeared I took a step forward. I twisted my waist and strongly sank low gathering my entire body's energy to hit Taku's amused face with a right straight.
"Woah, what's this. A sudden greeting."
Because of his strange video, I've had to deal with the aftermath of beginner players trying to imitate him, thus I punched him to repay for that, but he lightly caught my fist with his hand.
I have sank into a bad mood, displeased at my own low stats and being easily stopped. I immediately released strength in my arm and Taku let me go.
"Sorry, made you wait. So, let's talk in details now."
When I spoke as if nothing happened, Taku tilted his head in wonder and joined in.
"As I said through the friend chat, I want you to make revival medicine from the 【Wisteria Peach Petals】."
"With that said, I need quite a few of them."
"That's why let's go and pick some up! Rather than alone, we'll pick up more the two of us, I'll leave all I get with you for research purposes!"
"Don't be unreasonable. Do you think I could make it so easily without a recipe or information on other materials?"
"That's why I'm relying on your intuition and Senses."
As Taku come at me with such baseless confidence, half of me wanted to live up to it and the other half felt a bit oppressed. Well, this time his timing was good.
"I don't know who's the one to make the reviving medicine, but I was already examining the unfinished recipe."
"Why didn't you say anything."
"I thought that a request for revival medicine will come sooner or later so I was making preparations. I thought of telling the first person who approached me about the recipe."
It was one of the recipes not even Magi-san and the others knew about.
I took out notes I gathered by using 【Linguistics】 Sense. OSO's mixing recipes are something that summarize blending ratios and couldn't be readily shown to others. It was one of my advantages.
"Yun, just where did you gather that information."
"I'm a crafter. My home ground is the entire town including this store and material field. Well, it's a by-product of searching for another recipe in the library and I don't know the procedure yet."
"That's why it's an unfinished recipe. So, what are the materials?"
"Trade secret. Well, honestly speaking, I'm short on the materials. I can't find one of the four. That's why, look for the material in question in parallel with 【Wisteria Peach Flower】 gathering."
I had two materials on hand and had 【Wisteria Peach Flower】 collection scheduled now. However, as for the last material, I didn't know anything about it other than its name.
"The item I want you to look for is——the 【Water of Life】."
"Roger that. Then, let's go gather the peach petals later... ohh right, you still haven't passed through the Horror Cave haven't you, you need to go through it at least once."
"I didn't say a single word about going there myself to collect materials."
"Well, it's fine isn't it. On the other side of the cave there's a portal for transition."
I glared at Taku, and was stared at with half-closed eyes in response.
"Why are you so reluctant in the first place, Yun."
"Um, that's..."
"Horror Cave's mobs aren't that strong."
"Uhh... so, that 'horror' name is what I hate!"
"What is it, snapping all of a sudden."
"Khhh... it's not sudden. I don't want to go to that Horia Cave."
I really didn't want to, but it was true that I had to pass through there sooner or later.
It's official name was 'Horia Cave', but since ghost-type mobs appeared in there it was called 'Horror Cave'.
To reach the Wisteria Peach Tree, players had to move on a road from the Second Town and go to the branching in the middle of it to enter the Horia Cave. Then, after going through an abandoned village the portal was in, there was a tree growing on top of the hill.
Taku should have known that I'm not good with ghosts.
"Give up. I'll be there as an escort. Also, if you get to the abandoned village, you won't have to pass through there again. It's just once. And, taking your level into account it should be easy. No problem."
"Got it, but I'm still doubtful about it. I'll be going off for a while, I'll contact you after I eat."
"Roger. I'll take a break as well, I'll come to 【Atelier】 in the afternoon again."
With that said, we logged out and returned our consciousness to real.
After logging out, I got up from the bed and with a heavy feeling I prepared lunch.
Today's lunch was meat spaghetti, instant corn soup and raw vegetable salad.
Since onions remained from the last time I made gratin with tomatoes and minced meat, I added it together to white wine I used instead of cooking wine, tomato ketchup and placed plenty of it on top of the pasta. Then I added some parsley, mixed and it was complete.
The soup and salad were simple to make and could be easily prepared while pasta was being boiled.
As I was preparing the lunch, a certain person came down from the second floor.
"Good morning〜, Onii-chan."
"Good morning. Hey, it's already lunch. You're lazing around just because it's a holiday? Didn't you sleep too much?"
"It's okay it's okay. Sleep time's same as always... about four hours. I just went to sleep late."
Heyhey, your lifestyle's madness. It was more or less noon when she woke up. Normally Miu's sleep time varied from six to seven hours. That means she usually goes to sleep at four or five o'clock. Until then she's probably endlessly hunting in the night.
It's not something that impresses me as her brother.
"Try living in proper hours, you're missing breakfasts too..."
"But you know, during the weekdays there isn't any people late at night so I adventured until late with acquaintances. Playing in a party is more efficient when aiming for higher levels."
"Good grief... worry about your health before efficiency. Hurry up wash your face and dress yourself."
"Yee〜s."
When Miu disappeared into the washroom making loud sounds with her slippers I let out a sigh and snuck in a generous amount of spaghetti to compensate for the breakfast.
After a while, together with Miu who washed her face and was refreshed we sat down by the table.
"Yaay! Meat spaghetti! There's a lot of cheese powder so it's delicious. Can I ask for carbonara tomorrow?"
"Maybe next time. I have ingredients for tomorrow already stocked up."
"What are you doing in the afternoon Onii-chan? If you're still in the hiding, then how about going to an unpopular area with me? Like, to a mine dungeon with orc-type mobs, it's moderately hard."
"Ah, no can do. I've got a prior engagement."
When I said that, Miu narrowed her eyes and her gaze turned sharp.
"Oh-hoh. A prior engagement huh... hmm, with whom?"
"No, just for a little while——in the game..."Wait a moment. I'll guess it."...okay."
Is it that? But... considering the circumstances... Like that, Miu tilted her head and tried to predict with whom I'm meeting.
"There's a low probability of Onii-chan extending the circle of his friends. That would mean... from the people who're on holiday today——the favourite would be Takumi-san. Runner up, would be crafting activities you want to prioritize. For the black horse, Cloude-san, maybe?"
"...correct. I was invited by Takumi."
"Hmm hmm. Can I join? It seems more fun than looking for a party."
"Ahh, I'll be calling Takumi after the meal, so I'll ask for his consent."
We talked about silly things the two of us, and after the lunch I mailed Takumi to ask and got "by all means" as a reply.
Since Takumi and Miu have apparently occasionally teamed up together in the game, their cooperation could serve as a reference. Also, Miu not only would become a strong escort, but her brightness could be a little bit calming in a dark cave.
In that meaning, I was very grateful to Miu for coming with us.
●
After I logged in through the unchanging OSO's introduction screen, I stood in the 【Atelier】.
"Sorry, I'm late."
"No, I was about to explain everything in details to Myu-chan."
"Onee-chan wouldn't tell me this interesting stuff no matter what!"
"No, it's part business so..."
"Well then, call Ryui and Zakuro, come on, hurry."
"It can't be helped."
I muttered and when I summoned the two young beasts, Myu embraced the two that appeared enjoying herself.
Every time they appeared, she pat and hugged them.
At first they resisted and sought my help, but as I was unable to save them from Myu's devil hands they have accepted the current situation and gave up.
Let's pretend I didn't see them look into the distance as they were stroked.
"Haafuu... it's unfair after all! But I'm satisfied."
While Myu made a wonderful smile, Ryui and Zakuro slipped away tiredly.
"Since Myu-chan's already satisfied, let's confirm everything. We have two goals today. Successfully deliver Yun to the abandoned village's portal and search for the material Yun needs for revival medicine. No problems so far right?"
"No problem! Let's go!!"
Myu swung her fist grandly. On the other hand, I already thought of the Horia Cave and was disheartened.
Exhausted Ryui and Zakuro comforted each other as if they were licking each other's wounds.
During the journey up to the cave, there was nothing in out of order.
We jumped to the portal in the Second Town and advanced while defeating mobs that appeared on the road.
Mobs that appeared on the main road were Fairy Panthers and Furball Demons that had a setting of plundering fields, we defeated them but...
Since Myu with a kill-on-sight attitude lightly cut everything down together with Taku, I was able to journey safe and comfortably.
"Ahahaha, you're too strong and we proceed really fast... I wonder if I'm really needed here."
"Then at least put enchants on yourself. Also, protect yourself."
"In the first place, Yun will be useless from the moment we enter the cave... right from the beginning, you weren't counted as part of fighting force."
A dry laughter spilled out from me naturally. Ahh, as I thought. Oh dear, my existence is really thin at the moment...
"They're so weak〜. Mine dungeon's orcs or normal dungeon's second floor is closer to being adequate to our level I guess?"
"That would be the case if we were solo, with me and Myu-chan we could go a bit deeper, right. Next time let's choose an area with higher difficulty, how about it?"
"Then, please. Fufufu, I look forward to it."
My best friend and little sister sure do get along well. When it's the three of us, one always can't enter the conversation, and that would be me.
"Can I go back after all? I feel like making some bombs. Also, I hate ghosts."
"Hey! Onee-chan, come back here! You're not a child!"
"It's fine, come on! Don't throw tantrums and complicate this!"
"I don't want to! I'm going back!"
I resisted to a rare extent even if I say so myself, but Myu grabbed my left hand to stop me from escaping.
"Come on, look. We don't know what'll appear so probably put on defence."
"Uuu, I'll remember this. 《Enchant》 ——Defence."
After taking a look if I put on an enchant, Taku dragged me into the cave's interior as if I was a police suspect.
Inside of the Horia Cave, it was dark and there was a spine-chilling cold. The cold caused goosebumps on my skin and every breath felt cold, painful and heavy.
And above all——
"Uwaaaa! Ghost's voice wailed just now."
"It's okay. It was just the wind. Think of it as of sound effect inside of a haunted house."
"Lookkk, there's a soull..."
"That's Zakuro's ball of fire isn't it."
When I saw the fireball float around us, I froze on spot. Zakuro whom I was embracing in the front created a light a ball of fire for additional light which moved together with it, but its flickering has stirred up fear inside of me instead.
"Tch, they came out immediately because Yun made noise."
I didn't even think of asking what has come out.
The sound of wind has mixed with groans and sound of rattling as if something hard collided with the ground. Myu's magic was illuminating depths of the cave and what I saw through the darkness with my 【Hawk Eyes】 were red, eerily shining eyes.
"Uuu..."
"It's not that scary, right. This kind of thing..."
The undead-type mobs, Zombies and skeletons have crossed the boundary of the light and darkness, moving closer to us.
Taku spoke as if nothing and hit the approaching skeleton with his knuckle guard, the skull noisily rolled down on the ground. Next was a Zombie, Taku slashed sharply which made its upper and lower half bid an eternal farewell.
The Zombie's upper and lower half that fell to the ground moved by themselves, that sight alone caused my spirit to be scrapped off bit by bit. The skeleton also moved even without its head.
Both of the Zombie's halves crawled around on the ground.
Seeing them unfazed by being cut and hit, looming towards us without putting up a guard despite being attacked has fuelled my fear.
Unlike the Wisp, I was unable to communicate with them, they one-sidedly attacked.
Moreover, after being defeated they were strangely realistic and scary. Why are they dying after having parts of their bodies like arms cut off?
"Myu-chan!"
"Affirmative. Ryui, you can do it too right! ——《Sol Ray》!"
Myu and Ryui shoot light to a remote location. A ray of heat was released from Myu, and from Ryui came a veil of purification that came from above at the undead.
The blazing light beam of Myu's extended in a straight line towards the back of the cave and caused the undead to burn in intense flames, then turn into particles of light. Ryui's purification caused the undead to gradually crumble like sand as they floated peaceful expressions.
"Undead's weakness is stuff like light and purification, so Ryui will contribute much more than Yun. Still, they were burned clean, Zombies and skeletons that is."
"Look Onee-chan. No need to be afraid, don't be scared. They all disappeared and it's all clean."
Just how grateful I was for Myu's presence who held my hand the entire time ever since we entered the cave without letting go.
However, on the contrary, it also meant I was unable to run away from Horia Cave.
"I want to leave this place, and fast."
"Okay okay. Taku-san is in the front and I"m nearby with Ryui. Don't worry."
"Yun, steel yourself. If you don't, you'll become a burden in this cave."
Indeed, I didn't want to become a burden, but I also knew that I don't bring in any strength into the party.
My fear of humanoid horror-like monsters was fading. But even though it was fading, cold and chills didn't change and continued to wrap around me.
If anything, it felt like it's gotten worse compared to when I entered the cave.
It felt as if someone was watching me.
Rather than a single gaze, it felt as if multiple gazes were directed towards me from the entire cave, wrapping around my body heavily.
"Come on, Onee-chan. The more you walk the more we progress."
"I said... I can't."
Every time I tried to take a step forward, my movements have turned sluggish from fear. Being hurried made me further step on brakes and I've become stuck.
That's when the light source Myu made with her light magic started to blink and the luminosity began to weaken.
"Taku-san! A Spectre came!"
"Got it. Safety measures then."
Slipping through the wall, appeared a translucent spirit body called Spectre. Eroding the light in the cave it floated in the air.
My eyes were bound by the figure that swayed like a willow and my heart started to beat powerfully.
And, the moment my enchant has expired an invisible darkness approached me.
"——I'm going back! I don't want to be here!"
"Onee-chan!"
I shook off Myu's hand and hid my head with both my arms. Zakuro whom I was holding with one hand jumped out at the same time and ran up Ryui's back.
"Taku-san! Onee-chan got caught completely!"
"Tch, got caught huh. He forgot to put on an enchant. Myu-chan, I leave the spirit Spectre to you. I'll take a look at Yun."
Myu's and Taku's conversation felt distant to me.
Now, I was regretting letting go of Myu's hand and holding my head.
My fingers are cold, very cold. No, don't let go. Scary, it's scary, scary... that's right, I'm safe beside Ryui and Zakuro.
I tried blindly feeling through the darkness in front of me and strongly hugged the two animals.
I felt the two's warmth, but that has also made my hands and cheek feel surprisingly cold. My limbs grew numb and crouching on spot, I shivered.
Gazes I was entangled with that came from all directions were scary.
Feeling fear from not being able to see anything and viscous malice, I swallowed saliva from tension.
It felt like my ice cold body was about to be eaten by the darkness.
And, while thinking of things I didn't want to think of, I noticed something I didn't wanted to notice. In this cave——there were bodies of living beings.
The malice that had no source felt like a thick mucus.
Warmth escaped from my own body, I felt as if I was being digested.
In the end, I'll be eaten out by those Zombies, won't I.
I imagined it for an instant and my fear was roused, my teeth chattered and were grit strongly.
In response to the coldness that felt as if I was thrown into a refrigerator and sound of my own teeth resounding in my skull, I started seeing an illusion of becoming a skeleton myself.
I have already melted away and became a skeleton.
"Tch, 【Confusion】's level is growing fast. Come back to your senses with the Awareness medicine!"
I don't want to hear anything. I don't want to know anything. Cold entered my body and I was being filled with fear alone. When a cold liquid was poured over me it felt relieving for some reason.
I wonder why? My ears that refused to hear anything started to pick up sounds, although my thinking was hazed, I was able to properly hear.
"...Yun! Get a hold of yourself"
"Ta...ku? My-u."
My disfocused eyes saw the two.
There was Myu releasing bullets of light from her hand as she faced a semi-transparent ghost drifting in the air.
Dozens of Spectres were staring towards us, they looked as if they were about to cover the entire cave. However, they didn't attack all at once, a few of them attacked at once and they were all taken out by Myu in a single blow.
"Come on, one more. Awareness drug!"
"What, ho..."
A glass container was pushed into my mouth forcefully and a liquid has flowed down my throat.
As not to let me choke, it was poured down my throat and then moved away from my mouth to let me breathe. Spilled liquid flowed down my chin and to my throat before being drawn into the clothes on my chest.
And then, at the same time as I realized how shameful I appeared, my thinking has cleared up.
"Fuhaa, it's enough. I'm okay now."
"Let's hurry and |
just the various empirical observations and measurements that we make in the course of scientific investigation.
Given these assumptions, Putnam argues that finding an intended model which satisfies V=L simply requires finding a model of ZF+V=L which satisfies the relevant theoretical and operational constraints. His strategy for finding this model rests on the following theorem:
Theorem: ZF plus V=L has an ω-model which contains any given countable set of real numbers.
Here, the fact that this model satisfies ZFC is supposed to ensure that it satisfies all of the theoretical constraints which come from set theory itself, while the richness of ZFC ensures that the model also has the resources to code up our best scientific theories (and thereby to satisfy all of the theoretical constraints which come from natural science). Finally, the fact that this model contains an arbitrary set of real numbers ensures that it can code up all of the various observations and measurements which constitute our “observational constraints.”[45] So, as long as Putnam is right in thinking that the intended models of set theory are fixed solely by the formal structure of our scientific theories—including our explicit set-theoretic axioms—and by the physical measurements that we happen to make, then this theorem will generate an intended model in which V=L comes out true.
This version of the model-theoretic argument has three connections to Skolem's Paradox. First, Putnam himself presents the argument as a natural development of the paradox. At the beginning of his paper, Putnam provides a quick sketch of Skolem's Paradox, and he then suggests that his analysis of V=L comes from taking Skolem's arguments and “extending them in somewhat the direction he [Skolem] seemed to be indicating” (p 1). Second, and as evidenced by the passages quoted in footnote 44, Putnam's overall conclusions fit well with more-recent Skolemite understandings of Skolem's Paradox—see, e.g., his conclusion that V=L has no “determinate truth value” (p 5) or that Skolem's “ ‘relativity of set-theoretic notions’ extends to a relativity of the truth value of ‘V=L’ ” (p 8). Finally, and most importantly, the proof of Putnam's theorem turns crucially on the Löwenheim-Skolem theorems. (Very roughly, Putnam starts by applying the downward Löwenheim-Skolem theorem to L, so as to prove that his theorem holds in L; he then employs Shoenfield absoluteness to reflect the theorem back up to V.)[46]
Putnam's argument has received a number of kinds of criticism in the literature. On the technical front, Bays has argued that Putnam's use of the downward Löwenheim-Skolem theorem is illegitimate, since standard systems of set theory do not allow us to apply this theorem to a proper class like L. Indeed, even if we leave the details of Putnam's proofs aside, Gödelean considerations show that Putnam's theorem cannot be proved in ZFC at all (since the theorem entails ZFC's consistency). Of course, if Putnam is willing to use a stronger background theory to prove his theorem—e.g., ZFC + “there exists an inaccessible cardinal”—then he can evade these kinds of criticisms. But in this case, it's unclear why the model which results from Putnam's theorem should still be thought to satisfy our theoretical constraints. After all, anyone who accepts the new axioms used in Putnam's revised proof will have theoretical constraints which go somewhat beyond ZFC + V=L—e.g., their theoretical constraints might well include the axiom “there exists an inaccessible cardinal.” See Bays 2001 for Bays' original formulation of this objection; see Velleman 1998 and Gaifman 2004 for some alternate formulations; see Bellotti 2005 and Bays 2007b for critical discussion; and see chapter 3 (esp. § 3.3.3) of Hafner 2005 for discussion of a similar point concerning Putnam's use of transitivity.
Button (2011) has argued that, although this kind of technical criticism has teeth against the version of Putnam's argument which explicitly invokes the downward Löwenheim-Skolem theorem, there are alternate formulations of Putnam's argument which can evade the criticism. In particular, Button notes that even very weak theories can prove theorems like: “if ZFC is consistent, then ZFC has a countable model.” Since any proponent of ZFC must accept that ZFC is consistent, these weak theories are enough to get several variants of Putnam's argument off the ground. See Button 2011 for development of this point. See Bellotti 2005 and Bays 2007a for discussion of a somewhat similar point.
Staying in the technical vein, several authors have noted a tension in the way Putnam's argument deals with the notion of finitude. On the one hand, Putnam needs to use this notion in order to characterize his model as an ω-model and (even) to make sense of the formal definitions of a first-order language and of the first-order satisfaction relation.[47] On the other hand, Putnam can't allow opponents of his argument to use this notion to specify what they think makes a model intended. If his opponents could use this notion, then they could define the notion of a model's being “well-founded,” and that would be enough to rule out the models generated by Putnam's theorem. In this sense, then, Putnam's argument seems to turn on an unmotivated asymmetry between the kinds of technical machinery that he himself uses and the kinds of machinery that he makes available to his critics. See Bays 2001 and Bellotti 2005 for developments of this point; see § 3.4 of Hafner 2005 for some critical reflections.
On the more-purely philosophical side, many authors have criticized Putnam's assumption that simply satisfying a first-order formalization of our theoretical constraints is enough to make a model “intended.” So, for instance, Hacking has argued that we should really be committed to a second-order formulation of set theory and that Putnam's key theorem doesn't apply to such formulations (Hacking 1983). Others have argued that the intended model for set theory needs to be transitive and that, once again, there's no reason to believe that the model produced by Putnam's theorem is transitive (Bays 2001). Finally, and as mentioned in the last paragraph, several authors have suggested that an intended model for set theory should at least be well-founded, but there's no reason to think that Putnam's own model is well-founded (Bellotti 2005).
Putnam's response to this kind of objection is interesting. Very roughly, Putnam suggests that any conditions on intended models which other philosophers might propose—e.g., those mentioned in the last paragraph—should themselves be formalized in first-order terms and treated as new theoretical constraints. When these new constraints are fed back through Putnam's argument, he will once again be able to generate a model which “satisfies” these constraints. So, by simply adopting a particularly flexible reading of the phrase “theoretical constraints,” Putnam ensures that almost any conditions on intended models can simply be folded back into his original argument (Putnam 1980; Putnam 1983, vii–xii).[48]
This argument—which is usually called the “just more theory” argument—has received a huge amount of attention in the literature. The most common response to the argument involves drawing a distinction between describing the features of a model which make that model intended and simply adding new sentences for that model to satisfy. Put otherwise, it involves distinguishing between changing the semantics under which our axioms get interpreted—e.g., by restricting the class of structures which count as models for our language and/or strengthening the notion of satisfaction which ties sentences to models—and simply adding new axioms to be interpreted using the same old semantics. The response then goes on to argue that proposals like those discussed two paragraphs ago—e.g., that intended models should be transitive or well-founded or satisfy second-order ZFC—should be understood as falling on the description side of this distinction rather than on the “adding sentences” side (although the latter is where Putnam's just more theory argument resolutely insists on putting them).
In turn, Putnam has argued that this kind of response begs the question against his overall argument. Putnam's argument, after all, concerns the question of whether our mathematical language has any determinate significance, and the response we're considering seems to simply assume that it has such significance when the response uses phrases like “transitive,” “well-founded,” or “complete power set of M” to describe its notion of “intended model.” In short: as long as the determinacy of mathematical language is still at issue, it would beg the question to make free use of this language in describing the intended model of set theory. Or so, at any rate, Putnam tries to argue.
As indicated above, this aspect of Putnam's argument has generated a huge literature. See Devitt 1984, chapter 11; Lewis 1984; Taylor 1991; Van Cleve 1992; Hale and Wright 1997; Chambers 2000; Bays 2001; and Bays 2008 for some representative criticisms of Putnam's argument. See Putnam 1983, vii–xii and Putnam 1989 for Putnam's response. See Anderson 1993; Douven 1999; Haukioja 2001; and Kroon 2001 for some recent defenses of this aspect of Putnam's argument.
We close this entry with a brief recap of two of the main points that we've tried to emphasize. First, from a purely mathematical standpoint, there's no conflict between Cantor's Theorem and the Löwenheim-Skolem Theorems. There's a technical solution to Skolem's Paradox which explains why the Löwenheim-Skolem Theorems pose no problems for either naive forms of set-theoretic realism or various forms of axiomatized set theory. Hence, there's no chance of using the Löwenheim-Skolem theorems by themselves to generate substantial Skolemite conclusions. Of course, there are still some interesting technical issues which live in the neighborhood of Skolem's Paradox. For example, we can look at how the paradox plays out in the context of particular first-order models; we can examine the degree to which various kinds of non-first-order logic are susceptible to the paradox; and we can try to isolate the precise features of first-order logic which allow the paradox to apply to it. Each of these topics is clearly related to Skolem's Paradox, and each raises questions about the relationship between model theory and set theory which are well worth exploring. But, considered simply in and of itself, Skolem's Paradox poses no threats to classical set theory.
Second, if we come to Skolem's Paradox with antecedent doubts about classical set theory—e.g., the kinds of doubts which lie behind some of the more sophisticated reconstructions of Skolem's original argument, the kinds of doubts which lie behind the more plausible versions of step 1 in the Skolemite argument, or the kinds of doubts about semantic determinacy which lie behind Putnam's model-theoretic argument—then we may well be able to parley Skolem's Paradox into some kind of interesting philosophical conclusion. Of course there will still be challenges here: we need to account for the status of the background theories in which we prove the Löwenheim-Skolem theorems, we need to explain the special significance of first-order axiomatizations of set theory, and we may need to explain how we can identify elements across various models of set theory. In principle, however, these kinds of sophisticated uses of Skolem's Paradox are not precluded by the technical solution to the paradox that was mentioned in the last paragraph. Nor should this fact be all that surprising: if we put enough philosophy into our analysis of Skolem's Paradox, then we should expect to get at least a little philosophy out.0 Boston Police top city payroll with highest salaries, but why?
BOSTON - The payroll information for all Boston city employees in 2016 is raising questions with at least one government watchdog group.
According to Boston payroll records obtained by FOX25, one police detective earned more than $400,000 last year.
In 2016, 22,000 people earned a combined $1.58 billion from the City of Boston.
That's up from the year before by about $73 million.
The city's chief financial officer says it's "consistent with responsible fiscal management.” But some outsiders question if that's true.
FOX25’s Blair Miller pored through thousands of records for city employees to see how much they earned last year.
The city's top boss, Mayor Marty Walsh, earned $175,000.
Other city leaders fell in line with that, for example, the president of the Boston Public Library brought in a little over $179,000 last year.
At Boston Latin School, the assistant headmaster earned $174,712.
But those were nowhere near the highest.
The top earner last year was Boston Police Detective Waiman Lee, who earned $403,408.
In fact, when we looked closer, of the top 100 earners last year in Boston, 98 of them were employees with the Boston Police Department.
The other two were the superintendent of Boston Public Schools Tommy Chang, who earned $271,734, and his deputy superintendent, Dennis White, who earned $245,248.
Overall, the largest amount of salary was paid to teachers within the Boston Public Schools system. However, there is a far larger number of teachers than any other single position on city payroll – meaning the average salary is smaller than that of some others.
Law enforcement salaries include millions of dollars in retroactive pay, which was awarded last year through arbitration.
We took our findings to Sam Tyler, with the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, which tracks financial activity at city hall.
His concern is the amount of overtime being paid to police officers.
“If they're working that many hours that they earn that much in regular and overtime detail, how sharp are they and how responsive can they be?” Tyler said.
We also found the top 100 earners collectively made more than $28 million last year. And while one employee made more than $400,000, 21 other members of the BPD brought in $300,000 and up.
Nearly 500 more city workers made at least $200,000.
“The taxpayer's concern should be, ‘how long can this continue without having an impact on other services?’” said Tyler.
A spokesperson with the mayor's office said the Boston Police Department regularly reviews the hours officers work and limits the number of hours worked to ensure there are safeguards in place.
You can see the full salary data here.
© 2019 Cox Media Group.CLOSE The rising cost of housing in the last few years is making home ownership a tough proposition for Reno home buyers. We look at what’s fueling the Biggest Little City’s housing crisis and potential options for people looking for a new place to call home Jason Hidalgo/RGJ
Buy Photo Shown are The Vineyards at Galleria apartments under construction on Disc Drive near Pyramid Highway in Sparks on August 16, 2017. (Photo11: Andy Barron/RGJ)Buy Photo
Reno’s rising rents just got higher.
The Biggest Little City closed 2017 by posting the fourth-highest rent increase in the nation this month, further adding fuel to Reno’s ongoing rental crisis.
Reno rents jumped 6.5 percent from November for a median one-bedroom apartment, according to apartment tracker Abodo’s 2017 National Apartment Report for December. The number, which is calculated from more than 1 million Abodo listings nationwide, placed Reno among the top five rental markets in the nation for rising apartment rent:
Newark, New Jersey: 12.9 percent ($1,036 to $1,170)
12.9 percent ($1,036 to $1,170) Corpus Christi, Texas: 9.8 percent ($882 to $968)
9.8 percent ($882 to $968) Saint Paul, Minnesota: 7.4 percent ($1,017 to $1,092)
7.4 percent ($1,017 to $1,092) Reno, Nevada: 6.5 percent ($887 to $945)
6.5 percent ($887 to $945) Indianapolis, Indiana: 4.3 percent ($748 to $780)
Another report paints an even pricier picture for apartment rents. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Reno-Sparks during the third quarter this year was $1,071, according to real estate appraisal and consulting firm Johnson Perkins Griffin. When including all apartment types, the average rent jumps up to $1,202 during the same three-month period.
Vacancy rates improved from 1.17 percent to 2.41 percent for the third quarter but are still far below the 5 percent considered as an indicator for a balanced market. Apartment watchers typically consider a vacancy below 3 percent to be essentially a no-vacancy situation because the market is usually primarily dealing with turnover at that point.
Reno has been in the midst of a housing crunch as it sees significant economic activity while recovering from a historic recession. One big factor is the arrival of several companies, which run the gamut from manufacturers such as Tesla, which picked the area to house its Gigafactory, to logistics operations that build on Reno-Sparks’ strong reputation as a shipping and distribution mecca in the west.
In addition to rising rents, the area is also seeing rising median prices for single-family homes, further adding to the housing affordability crisis experienced by Reno residents. Reno, not including Sparks, briefly broke the record for a median price home after hitting $387,250 in July.
Biggest little airfare deals: Cheap flights via Reno-Tahoe International Airport
The median price has since fallen but remains unaffordable for those earning the median income in the area. A household needs to earn $70,000 per year to comfortably afford a $318,000 house, according to the Reno/Sparks Association of Realtors. Various estimates peg the median household income in Reno anywhere between $50,000 to $58,000 a year.
In addition to job seekers, the influx of new residents is also being driven by transplants from California, including retirees. Despite Reno’s rising housing costs, it is still more affordable when compared to areas such as San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
In Abodo’s report, for example, three Bay Area cities were included in the top six markets with the highest rents nationwide for a one-bedroom apartment. San Francisco was No. 1 at $3,253, San Jose was No. 3 just below New York City at $2,397, and Oakland was No. 6 behind Washington, D.C., and Boston at $2,083.
Read or Share this story: https://www.rgj.com/story/money/business/2017/12/04/reno-2017-4th-highest-apartment-rent-increase-nation/913799001/Here's What The VMAs Looked Like The Year Ariana Grande Was Born (Spoiler: They Were Really Weird)
The year was 1993. Grunge was king, Bill Clinton was the new president, David Letterman didn't get the "Tonight Show," "Jurassic Park" had the biggest movie opening of all time and Victoria Justice, Chance the Rapper, Liam Payne were born.
Oh, and so was 2014 MTV Video Music Awards performer and nominee Ariana Grande! The VMAs 21 years ago were weird and wild, and you don't need to look any further than the 1993 VMAs for proof. What did the show look like the year Ariana bounced into the world and prepared for her fembot takeover? Nirvana and Pearl Jam were the show's (and era's) saving grace, but from the looks of Christian Slater's vest, the world (and the VMAs) more than needed Ariana at the VMAs.
Here are a few highlights from the tenth VMAs, aka the year Ariana Grande was born.
The Host
Christian Slater did the honors the same year he starred as Clarence Worley in "True Romance." So that was awesome. Plus, he wore a vest at one point during the show in an act of absolute '90s redundancy.
MTV
Pearl Jam Won, Then Walked
After snagging Best Group Video, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video, Best Direction and Video of the Year for "Jeremy," Pearl Jam basically gave up making music videos... so, way to go out on top? They also played "Animal" on the show, which is one of the only times in VMA history that a song without an accompanying video has been performed on the broadcast.
53 Life-Altering Moments The VMAs Burned Into Your Brain Forever
Odd Couples, Part One
The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tony Bennett presented Pearl Jam with said Video of the Year award. Flea and Anthony wore tuxedos, Tony wore skater shorts, a black t-shirt and tie, white shades and a top hat. And he sang a bit of "Give It Away." And he pulled a sock out of his pocket joked that Flea left it at his house. Then Anthony pretended Tony left a pack of condoms at his house, and swallowed a whole banana. So that was weird.
MTV
Odd Couples, Part Two
If you love uncomfortable TV moments, and who doesn't? Then do we have a doozy for you. Whoever thought it made sense to pair old-school comedian Milton Berle and drag queen of the universe RuPaul as presenters vastly underestimated just how odd a couple these two were. After Berle (who had dressed in drag in his films) grabbed Ru's breast, the diva snapped, "So you used to wear gowns, but now you're wearing diapers?" Ouch. But, because he's a comedian, Berle shot back, "Oh, we’re going to ad-lib? I’ll check my brain and we’ll start even." Double ouch!
MTV
Lenny Kravitz Wore This
Because he's Lenny Kravitz, that's why.
FilmMagic, Inc/Jeff Kravitz
And Steven Tyler Wore This
See previous.
Ron Galella Collection/Ron Galella, Ltd.
Snoop Was A Wanted Man
Despite having a warrant out for his arrest in connection with a drive-by murder, Snoop showed up, handed out an award and then slipped out without getting pinched. He later turned himself in and the charges were dropped.
K.D. Lang Beat Janet Jackson
I'll repeat that, k.d. Lang's "Constant Craving" beat Janet's "That's The Way Love Goes" for Best female Video. So that worked out.
FilmMagic, Inc/Jeff Kravitz
The Cobains Were There
In his final appearance at the show, Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain showed up with wife Courtney Love and their adorable infant, Frances Bean.
WireImage. KMazur
Beavis & Butt-Head Presented An Award
Heh. Heh. Cool.
MTV
Arrested Development Won Best Rap Video
Nope. Not the show. That hadn't happened yet. The seminal '90s hip-hop act. They beat Dr. Dre ("Nuthin' But a G Thang") and Naughty by Nature ("Hip Hop Hooray"). I repeat, they beat Dr. Dre. For "People Everyday."Great for UNDERSTANDING Depression
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
The title of this book is a little misleading. This book is best for someone who is working or living with someone depressed. I'd also recommend this book to individuals who are interested in majoring in psychology/psychiatry.
Do you think Undoing Depression needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
Yes, this book would be an excellent supplemental book. I'd like O'Conner to provide a book that directly caters to depressives. He intertwines great techniques, but it is done in an indirect manner. For example, O'Conner provides an ample amount of information from medical research, but doesn't provide direct information on HOW to accomplish positive results in an organized or step by step manner. A workbook or a reference book would be great way to resolve this problem. I'd love to see O'Conner provide a book the specifically provides direct steps to assist depressives with meditation, exercise techniques, diet, defective thought processes, interacting with others etc.
22 of 24 people found this review helpfulIt’s a small mention in the Vertigo Defy preview book at San Diego Comic Con.
Travis Pelkie noticed. He emailed;
In Shelley Bond’s intro, she goes on about how Vertigo is still awesome and all, and as part of that mentions that certain old Vertigo stalwarts were going to be doing Vertigo books. Like Grant Morrison. Have I missed something, or is Grant still lined up to do a Vertigo book again? Is Warcop finally coming? Or Le Sexy? Or is this another damn tease? Or is that Wonder Woman book coming out through Vertigo? Or is it an announcement that’s coming up this weekend? Special mystery guest at a Vertigo panel (if there is one?): Grant Morrison?
Hey, I thought I was the one who was meant to put two and two together and come up with twelvety? Anyway I popped to the booth and it’s Grant Morrison and Peter Milligan.
Seaguy Eternal? What’s Multiversity coming out under?
Also the indicia for the Witching Hour preview lists it as TM and C as the Loeb Corporation and Chris Bachalo as well as DC COmics). I know Jeph Loeb and Chris Bachalo did their Witching Hour mini 10-15 years back, but did they really maintain a legal claim on the previously-published-by-DC title? Or did somebody just cut and paste from the old version? Or will we see a return to that series in this one?
See, that’s more like it.
About Rich Johnston Chief writer and founder of Bleeding Cool. Father of two. Comic book clairvoyant. Political cartoonist.
(Last Updated )
Related Posts
None foundNEW DELHI: The aviation ministry is planning to regulate fares by fixing Rs 20,000 as the highest economy class fare to be charged on domestic routes. This follows instances of some airlines charging exorbitant rates during the ongoing Spicejet crisis.Even spot fares (tickets purchased at the last minute which always go for the highest price) are not supposed to go beyond the limit the ministry plans to set.“The SpiceJet crisis happened, among other things, due to the extremely low fares it charged this year. We have to stop predatory pricing to prevent other airlines from meeting the fate of a Kingfisher or SpiceJet. We are going to set minimum and maximum fare for airlineS,” said a senior official.On December 18, TOI had first reported about the move to put in place a floor and a cap on air fares.Till now, fares have not been regulated by the ministry. Airlines give a range of minimum and maximum fares to the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) every month for each route.“We are going to finalize the modalities of this move soon, possibly in a month. Airlines which flout the range of fares can risk losing their licence,” said the official.SpiceJet had to ground its fleet after suppliers refused to refuel planes.An internal note prepared by the ministry says that airlines have been offering huge discounts due to intense competition. “If the situation is not contained, some airlines may face closure in the near future. Therefore, steps may be taken to fix minimum airfare to be charged by each airline. Airlines can be asked to submit their break-even price per km... An appropriate profit margin can be added and this can be the minimum price per km to be charged by the concerned airline,” the note says.On high fares, the note says the ministry gets complaints of exorbitant charges from many places like Jammu and Kashmir, northeast India and Andaman and Nicobar. “There is a need to cap maximum economy class airfare at a reasonable price of about Rs 20,000 beyond which airline should not be allowed to charge, exploiting passengers' urgency for travel due to various reasons,” the note says.SpiceJet co-founder Ajay Singh. (Getty Images file photo)However, the ministry has no plans to regulate business class fares.Airlines, on their part, oppose the sudden move to regulate fares. “What type of free market do we have where dying airlines (read Air India and SpiceJet) are kept artificially alive by the aviation ministry. Fares have been a factor of demand and supply. Now the ministry wants to regulate fares too. The government should nationalize all airlines and run them like a big PSU,” said an airline official.The aviation ministry, however, says no other ministry -- read oil and finance -- has listened to their request for giving relief to SpiceJet. “Fin min has not asked banks to give loans to SpiceJet and oil ministry has not asked oil PSUs to give jet fuel on credit to the airline. Yet keeping passenger interest in mind, we want airlines to stay alive. For that they need pricing discipline and our regulation is meant to enforce that only,” said the official.A message from the mayor: I am the rightful and only true mayor of Rudee Valley. Although Christopher McQuilkin claims to be mayor, he is a liar and also a poor cook. I once had dinner at his house, and the pot roast had oregano on it. Who puts oregano on pot roast? Really. And I heard he really likes that TV show about that guy with the glasses. That show is so stupid. Thinking about McQuilkin is giving me a headache. I'm going home early.
Mayor Pete "Bob" Arescu
You can support Rudee Valley and its fine upstanding residents by purchasing souvenirs at the
real CafePress stores
linked to each site.
Or you can find them here: Rudee Valley Store Chocolate and Sons Store Shower Burger Store Learning Mirage Store Entaxil Store Number Two Toilets Store Bupkis House Store Genegemison Store Near the Bottom Store Vigilante Village Store GentleTV Store Infinite Recursion Store
62
rads/qr Rudee Valley Nuclear Power Plant is today emitting
MILD
radiation to the area. Recommended maximum time spent outdoors is 41 minutes/day. Consumption of local fish, beef or grains is not recommended. The Rudee Valley Nuclear Power Plant welcomes you to Rudee Valley.
Ann Peralta at the Rudee Valley Public Library is missing her damn pen again. If someone will please buy a Bic Sharpwriter for 69 cents and tell her they found it in the Classics section, it would be VERY MUCH appreciated. Rudee Valley Events
Jan. 12 : Rudee Valley Reverse Rodeo
Cowboys try to buck off the intrepid bulls riding them. Cattle clad in colorful make-up and red noses are charged by nude men. Spectators sell beer to roving concessionaires.
URV Stadium Feb. 3 : Rudee Valley Calamine Lotion Festival
The product Rudee Valley is synonymous with is celebrated in this annual festival dating back to 1938. Take a dip in the Calamine Pool; set a new record in the Lotion Application Race; sample calamine lotion flavored ice cream.
Calamine Field Feb. 21 : Bamford Aquarium Labor Day
Inventory Reduction Fish Fry
all you can eat $6.99
Bamford Aquarium Parking Lot A Mar. 9 : Diaperene International
Baby Stacking Competition
Masonic Hall Apr. 2 : Learning-Disabled Animals Parade
Trepanation Avenue Apr. 27 : Rudee Valley Sexually-Confused
Men's Choir Singalong
This year featuring "Wipeout" and "Tequila"
RV Civic Auditorium May 10 : ASPCA Puppy Tasting
Masonic Hall Jun. 20 : West Nebraska Dental Association
Fillings for Fun Day
Rudee Valley Medical Bldg. Jul. 6 : R.V. Hospital Terminal Disease Screening
and Singles Mixer
R.V. General Hospital Aug. 25 : National Phlegm Collector's
Association conference
Rudee Valley Marriott conf. rm. B Sep. 3 : annual Young Republicans
age-limit raising ceremony
Lepetomane Park Nov. 15 : Girl Scout Lice Check Jamboree
Lepetomane Park Dec. 4 : Radioactive Waste Sculpting Competition
Masonic Hall Rudee Valley History
In the 1500's, long before European settlement in the Veronnika Lake region, the Geswataysaw tribe fished and hunted on the plains of what would become Rudee County. The Geswataysaw soon found that its fishing and hunting skills were not proficient enough to support the tribe and instead began to run check-cashing services. With this move, the Geswataysaw prospered and were able to hire other tribes to do their fishing and hunting.
In the 1600s, Belgian explorers such as Jean Waffle encountered the Geswataysaw, who by this time had become quite sophisticated in their financial dealings. The explorers inevitably left the area saddled with onerous loan terms and with most of their crucial supplies gone, having traded them for timeshare rights on the local land.
In the 1600s, Belgian explorers such as Jean Waffle encountered the Geswataysaw, who by this time had become quite sophisticated in their financial dealings. The explorers inevitably left the area saddled with onerous loan terms and with most of their crucial supplies gone, having traded them for timeshare rights on the local land.
Sometime around 1720, the Geswataysaw disappeared. Legend has it that they were driven into the hills by a pack of grey wolves, but some historians believe that the impending investigation of the management of the Geswataysaw High-Yield Hunting Fund may have been responsible.
Sometime around 1720, the Geswataysaw disappeared. Legend has it that they were driven into the hills by a pack of grey wolves, but some historians believe that the impending investigation of the management of the Geswataysaw High-Yield Hunting Fund may have been responsible.
The county's first permanent white settlers were Decrease and Temptation McOhoe. Decrease was an entrepreneur in the pebble business, and was lured to the area by its rich potential for pebble mining. McOhoe Pebble Company eventually became Consolidated Pebble, then Pebbles International, then PebCo Inc., before becoming an unnamed rest stop along I-52. All that remains locally today of this once-thriving industry is the little-attended pebble-themed amusement park in nearby Pudding Hill.
The county's first permanent white settlers were Decrease and Temptation McOhoe. Decrease was an entrepreneur in the pebble business, and was lured to the area by its rich potential for pebble mining. McOhoe Pebble Company eventually became Consolidated Pebble, then Pebbles International, then PebCo Inc., before becoming an unnamed rest stop along I-52. All that remains locally today of this once-thriving industry is the little-attended pebble-themed amusement park in nearby Pudding Hill.
Today, Rudee Valley and the whole Veronnika Lake region offer many opportunities to experience our rich heritage. Our local museums and landmarks will take you back to bygone days, and our thoroughly inbred population has changed little in demeanor or tolerance over the centuries. Come visit us, and see why we say "If you lived here, you'd be a resident." Today, Rudee Valley and the whole Veronnika Lake region offer many opportunities to experience our rich heritage. Our local museums and landmarks will take you back to bygone days, and our thoroughly inbred population has changed little in demeanor or tolerance over the centuries. Come visit us, and see why we say "If you lived here, you'd be a resident."
Rudee Valley Historicality AssociationWhen I was doing the total Juice Fast, I drank 3 quart-sized juices per day. This is my shopping list that would last me for 3 days. Over the course of 3 days, i’d have 9 juices. 6 of them would be the mean green and the other 3 would be more fruity ones.
Primary Juice: The “Mean Green” from FS&ND:
6 big kale leaves
3-4 Stalks of celery 4 if smallish, 3 if larger.
4 if smallish, 3 if larger. 1 Cucumber Regular sized.
Regular sized. 2 Apples I prefer Red Delicious, as they are sweeter.
I prefer Red Delicious, as they are sweeter. 1/2 Lemon Rind cut off
Rind cut off A piece of ginger about the size of the tip of your thumb. not too much.
That’s your base juice. Have 2 of these per day, if not for all 3.
Shopping List:
2 ‘things’ of kale. – It usually comes in pound-ish sized bunches. Get 2. Kale will keep for a while, so get 3 if they look small. you can always just add more Kale if you have extra.
. – It usually comes in pound-ish sized bunches. Get 2. Kale will keep for a while, so get 3 if they look small. you can always just add more Kale if you have extra. 8 cucumbers
2 bags of celery – 3 bags of ‘celery hearts’ if your mr. fancypants.
– 3 bags of ‘celery hearts’ if your mr. fancypants. 20 apples – Two of those bags you can get at S&S works well and are a bargain. Also the smaller size of those apples mean you can just throw them in the juice straight up.
– Two of those bags you can get at S&S works well and are a bargain. Also the smaller size of those apples mean you can just throw them in the juice straight up. 3 lemons
A fairly decent amount of ginger – Ginger doesn’t keep very will and will get moldy, so heads up.
– Ginger doesn’t keep very will and will get moldy, so heads up. 1 bag/bunch of carrots
1 english cucumber – Use 1/2 per juice… sweeter than the normal ones.
– Use 1/2 per juice… sweeter than the normal ones. 2 green apples – Granny Smith preferred.
– Granny Smith preferred. 3 limes – Use a whole lime, but only a half lemon. Cut of the rind
– Use a whole lime, but only a half lemon. Cut of the rind 1 Zuch |
Cosavo by 8. He always had little sister Kate in tow in the mornings. She was always in her pressed uniform for a day at San Isidro Catholic School, which wasn’t much further south in the city. To start her day off right, he bought her a morning scone or banana.
While we bowled two strings together at Ari’s birthday party, Everett did not seem to remember me at all either. However, he was still a jovial, talkative man who held doors open and answered my questions about the raspberry pi I was setting up. Not to mention, he tipped generously. If it was anyone else, I’d feel amazing about seeing him. I’d remember that there is good in this world.
But instead, I could only think about how he was most likely making love with sugar daddy Mike for coffee money.
Necessary, because Everett was such a fiend for coffee.
I saw the man three times a day, always at the same times. 7:30 for his breakfast, 1 at his lunch break for a pour-over, and 5 after work for another pour-over. He often got a celebratory everything bagel with that, to fuel his evening gym session. If he wasn’t talking to me about my raspberry pi and the new Debian release, it was about the gym and swimming. His beautiful shoulders weren’t built from luck and genes alone.
At first, I thought that it was best to try and pay no mind to his connections. Anyone could be fucking a Cote and I wouldn’t even know it, and I’d still serve them coffee and smiles.
Then there was the fleeting disgust. Someone touched Mike. He touched anyone. That sickly-looking son of a whore managed to have more sex than I did. And he reeled someone as otherwise kind and gregarious as Everett to help him.
So, in early October, I was about to hand another pastry off to a customer. It was a shift where I wasn’t alone, thankfully. I thought that Uriel could use all the help he could get behind the counter. So I might have stayed later than scheduled…
“…you could have left twenty minutes ago,” he said.
“It was busy.”
“Seriously Axel. Make yourself a coffee and leave the district’s worst pendejos to me.”
“And Sweta’s still on for the evening shift?” I asked.
“Should be.”
I liked our darkest roast the best, called “Rattlesnake”. It was multi-origin and good to drink while the sun still rose in the hazy Sabier City sky. But it made for a good afternoon drink as well.
Our second floor had the most seats, as well as bookshelves and cool artwork on the bricks. It was a quiet place late in the afternoon, though. Often, only a couple tables were occupied.
And Everett, unless he had a long workout in mind, was always one of them.
That day, he wore a plaid shirt, and had Kate with him too.
“…and then Sister Barbara said that nuns are the real rebels of the Church!”
“She’s right. They’ve always been self-sufficient orders.”
I took one of the other seats at the table.
“Hi Mr. Barista!” said Kate, waving at me.
“Does your brother let you get coffee yet?” I asked her. Kate was ten, and I wouldn’t condone that.
“I told her I’d get her a tea if she does her homework,” Everett said. “Why don’t you do that?”
“Because tea is boring.”
“Tea is amazing,” I said to her. “We have a caramel chai you would love.”
“Fine.”
She was much happier with her workbook once she sat down alone with it. But perhaps Everett knew what I was going to ask him. Thu was hardly ever a light, child-friendly subject.
“So…how is your pi coming along?” he asked me.
“Well, my uncle wanted to revisit some old games. He gave me the shell to his busted Gameboy and I’m trying it out,” I said.
“I always wanted to try that!” His voice cracked when he got excited. “I missed the Gameboy era too. I mean, I’m too busy for games now, but I’d give it to Mike or Kate.”
“Yeah, funny that you mention Mike,” I said. “You…visit him a lot, don’t you?”
“We actually moved in with him a few weeks ago!” Everett said, with all his usual exuberance. He must not have known what happened between us. “It’s been great. We have an amazing bedroom overlooking the city and he pays Kate’s tuition.”
“That’s…I’m glad you enjoy him,” I said.
“Is there something wrong between you two?” He finally got it.
“Look, Everett…I used to work for the woman next door to you now…his stepmum. And there was a lot of bad blood between her and Mike,” I said. My coffee was growing cold as I tried to explain it diplomatically. “I still side with her, and it’s…painful…being caught between her and you and Mike. And I’ve been worried ever since I left the job.”
“He told me to avoid her,” Everett said. “And…I trust Mike with everything. I’ve mostly been doing that.”
“I thought that you’d have more insight, I guess,” I said. “All I want is to make things right.”
“Oh, you like her!” he said, with a toothy smile. “You wanted to talk to another man who found love in Uptown.”
“No! Well…maybe…when you say it like that.”
“I do know that she’s still alive,” said Everett. “She has a maid service now, and Mike’s uncle checks in on her. I’m…glad she has all that.”
“I…well…I used to be that.”
“Maybe you can make her a latte.”
“That…won’t happen.”
“I could invite you upstairs to listen to her play piano.”
“Wait…she does that again?”
“Yes! She sounds great,” said Everett. “I can hear her through the wall when I’m taking out the trash. She’ll only play for a minute at a time…and she really likes Leonard Cohen.”
“She never played for me. I almost thought it was just a rumor,” I said. “And Leonard Cohen?”
“Plays his records too.”
“I…she never listened to music around me.” Seriously, how did Everett become the voyeur I only wished to be? “I’m sorry we threw you into this situation.”
“It’s…something I expected.” His face contorted into a new, awkward frown. “There’s a lot of death and dysfunction in there. I should have known that she was thrown into it.”
“She wouldn’t even tell me that her husband…Mike’s father…was, you know. Dead.”
“Yeah. Mike says it was cancer.”
Of course, I had my suspicions of anything coming out of Mike’s mouth. Even with innocent Everett as a proxy.Chris Mortensen joined Dan Le Batard’s show today. As you imagine, the discussion centered on Mort’s deflategate reporting. Mortensen said he would never consider giving up his sources, and that the important aspect of the original report was that 11 of 12 footballs were under-inflated, not that they were all two pounds under. He also said that he clarified “two pounds” as “significantly under-inflated” with no number attached, the next day on television. (I have heard him say this before, and at that time checked ESPN.com and couldn’t find any audio or video that either corroborated or disproved this claim.)
What, if anything, does he think he did wrong? “I didn’t correct it on Twitter, which was a mistake,” he acknowledged. “I can understand, after reading the Wells Report, because we had deep silence for about three months, could somebody generalize two pounds under based on the range of 12.5-13.5? Yeah, they could’ve. Now, that’s my job to do a better vetting job as a journalist. But let me ask you this question: If I had simply reported, which I did include in the original report, that 11 footballs were found to be significantly under-inflated, what would the reaction have been? The same, I think.”
He again acknowledged he should’ve clarified — not necessarily retracted — on Twitter, to say there was conflicting information on the specific number, but continue to say “significantly under-inflated.”
Mortensen also said that his original report never directly implicated Tom Brady. “I think there was some inaccurate data that was passed on to me,” he continued. “But I also talked to other sources that verified the number I was focused on — the 11 footballs. … Do I feel betrayed? By the way, this whole concept of being deliberately lied to — that means somebody called me up. No, I made an inquiry. When anybody calls me up and volunteers significant information, I always get suspicious of motive. That’s a red flag right there.”
Mort talked with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who assured the reporter his beef is not with him but with the league.
My two cents: Provided Mort did indeed make the clarification in his ESPN appearances the next day, he should have been more emphatic about backing off of the specific two-pound number — if he were, everyone would’ve heard him. He’s probably correct that the reaction would not have been much different if he’d used less specific figures, but I quibble with the notion that the Wells Report conclusively demonstrated that the footballs were “significantly under-inflated.”
As Mike Florio noted on our podcast in June, the two gas gauges differed by.45 PSI, and “if the real numbers had come out early on, the Patriots would have been able to shout this down as normal application of the Ideal Gas Law.”
Furthermore, it strains credulity to say the report didn’t implicate Tom Brady. Though it didn’t go there by name, the idea that some lowly Patriots employee(s) would go rogue and deliberately deflate balls way below league regulations strains credulity.
Nevertheless, no matter what Le Batard had asked — it would be delusional to expect outright interrogation — there wasn’t anything that Mort could say that would be satisfactory to Patriots fans. There would be no full mea culpa. In his heart of hearts, he clearly doesn’t believe that he was misled, or that his reporting dramatically altered where the story would have wound up without him. On the latter regard, he’s probably not wrong. There’s been plenty of since-debunked reporting to go around in this saga, but Mort’s shined the brightest by virtue of when they were disseminated.
The good news is that this should mercifully all be resolved by next month when actual football starts.
Related: NFL and ESPN: A Recent History of Muted Criticism and Alleged Leaked and Loaded InformationWhen YouTube TV was announced a few months ago, it was off to a slow start and limited to a few markets. Our very own Ryan had to do some tomfoolery to get it to work in his hometown so he could write up his thoughts. In the beginning, this initiative was available only to customers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay Area. But as part of a slew of new announcements, YouTube has stated that the live TV service is expanding to ten more markets.
In addition to the original five, those of you living in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Washington, D.C., Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, and Charlotte will soon be able to join in on the experience. Support for YouTube TV will be rolling out to these areas in the coming weeks, so stay tuned (heh).
That's quite an expansion and covers a very large number of people. It also happened rather quickly, so maybe we'll hear about even more markets soon.The derivatives, known as interest-rate swaps, were supposed to protect Detroit from rising interest payments on a chunk of its variable rate debt. The banks would pay Detroit if interest rates rose, and Detroit would pay the banks if rates fell. By 2009, both interest rates and the city’s credit rating were falling, forcing Detroit to pay the banks some $50 million a year and to pledge roughly $11 million a month in casino-tax revenue as additional collateral.
In the settlement, Detroit will keep the casino-tax revenue. It will also reduce its debt load, according to city officials, because the banks have agreed to a discount of as much as 25 percent off what they are owed. But the haircut doesn’t mean that the banks will suffer. They have already made money on the swaps; the true extent of any discount will not be known until the deal is finalized.
This much is clear:
■ The banks’ 25 percent hit is nothing compared with the city’s suggested 90 percent cut to the pensions’ unfunded liability — which will result in benefit cuts that would be disastrous in both human and political terms and that the State of Michigan must prevent from happening.
■ Municipal officials are prey for Wall Street. The Dodd-Frank financial reform law called on regulators to establish “enhanced protection” for municipalities and other clients in their dealings with Wall Street, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has not yet completed rules, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s rules are so weak as to virtually invite the banks to exploit municipalities.
■ The special treatment banks receive when debtors are in or near bankruptcy is unfair and economically destabilizing. Detroit’s agreement with the two banks requires court approval, but, in general, swap deals by banks are not subject to the constraints that normally apply in bankruptcy cases; in effect, the banks are paid first, even before other secured creditors and certainly before pensioners. That privilege, dating to the heyday of derivatives deregulation in the 1990s and 2000s, is destabilizing because the assurance of repayment fosters recklessness.Announcing Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14283 By Gabe Aul / Corporate Vice President, Engineering Systems Team Share Share Skype
Today, we are releasing Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14283 to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.
As a reminder, we are initially making new mobile builds from our Development Branch available only to devices that shipped with Windows 10 Mobile. Currently this includes the Lumia 950, 950 XL, 650, 550, Xiaomi Mi4, and ALCATEL ONETOUCH Fierce XL. We plan to expand to other devices once we start releasing Windows 10 Mobile to other devices. If you are a Windows Insider on a device not mentioned above, you can stay in the Fast ring and sit tight until we expand to other devices or go back to Build 10586 and switch to the Release Preview ring to continue helping us test Cumulative Updates. For more information about our rings and branches, I highly recommend reading this post here in Insider Hub.
For this build, we have some new things for you to check out and a lot of good improvements and fixes that Insiders will enjoy on their devices.
Here’s what’s new in Build 14283
Improvements to the Phone app: We know how important it is to stay informed when someone is trying to reach you, whether that’s through notifications, Live tiles on your Start screen, or directly within your communications applications. To help with this, we’ve added missed call and voicemail waiting indicators to the tabs inside the Phone app. Once you navigate to a tab with a missed call or voicemail – the indicator goes away. We’ve got another change coming that will keep the indicator in place until you navigate away from the tab. There is also a bug where you might not see the indicator clear right away – a fix is coming soon for this as well. Let us know what you think!
Updates to Outlook Mail & Calendar: Yesterday, we released an update to the Outlook Mail & Calendar apps that introduces some new features and improvements. In Outlook Mail, you can turn off the message preview text in the message list (Settings > Reading > Conversation and turning “Show preview text” off). You can also quickly get rid of junk email in your inbox by pressing down on a message to bring up the context menu and choosing ‘Move to Junk’. In Outlook Calendar, you can now let others know “I’ll be late” directly from meeting notifications.
Coming Soon – the Feedback Hub: When you open Insider Hub on this build, you will see a new welcome dialog for Feedback Hub. Coming in the next mobile and PC build – we are bringing together the Insider Hub and Windows Feedback apps into a single app called the Feedback Hub. The Feedback Hub carries over all of the best things from the previous two apps plus some new things Insiders will enjoy. For example, in addition to upvoting feedback, you will be able to also leave comments on feedback. We have also redesigned the homepage in Feedback Hub to bring together announcements and quests. Stay tuned as we’ll have more to say about the Feedback Hub with the next builds for mobile and PC when the app is ready for Insiders to use.
Here’s what’s fixed
We have addressed an issue where the background behind the All apps list would not have an overlay (causing it to appear too bright or too dark, depending on your background) if you went back to All apps list after launching an app.
We fixed an issue causing the title of a song in volume control to flicker a few times when you pressed play or changed tracks after a pause.
We fixed an issue some users were experiencing with Build 14267 where your device could hang while typing and reboot.
We made some more improvements to the Live tile refresh logic. First, if there are pending notifications for several Live tiles, we will now update them in one quick sweep across the Start screen rather than one at a time. Second, if a Live tile has both badge and content updates, they will now appear at the same time. Finally, apps will now launch faster from the Start screen if there are incoming Live tile updates at the same time.
We fixed an issue where Live tiles for certain apps (such as the Weather app) would sometimes unexpectedly be cleared of active notifications.
We fixed an issue in which the Start screen background would appear to stutter behind the tiles when scrolling up and down the Start screen on some devices such as the Lumia 950.
We fixed an issue where the keyboard would sometimes pop up when swiping over to the All apps list.
We fixed an issue where icons for certain apps would appear too tiny on Live folders on the Start screen if your phone was set to 350% DPI.
We fixed an issue where “More notifications” message in Action Center was not properly formatted.
We fixed an issue where for certain languages, pressing “@” button could result the contents of the clipboard being pasted.
We fixed an issue where notifications using custom sounds would be silent if the underlying audio file had been deleted. Now, if that file is not present, it will play the default notification sound.
Connected to wireless displays should now work by going to Action Center and expanding Quick actions and choosing “Connect”.
Known issues
We have updated the Bluetooth AVRCP profile on mobile to version 1.5. Some cars only tell Windows what they support and vice versa during the initial pairing ceremony. In order for this update to take full effect, you need to delete your existing Bluetooth pairing with your car and then re-pair. After doing so, if you notice any issues using media playback controls or missing artist or track info, please file a new feedback item including your car’s make, model, and year.
If you have a Microsoft Band 1 or 2 paired to your phone, it will no longer sync after updating to this build due to a system API failure that occurs after the update. If you want to get your Band syncing with your phone again – you can temporarily change the language of your phone as a short term workaround until we release a fix. Additionally, you can also choose to reset your phone to get out of this state – however you may experience this update issue again with the next build until we fix this issue. This issue may also impact Skype video and audio calls.
We are investigating an issue where the Gadgets app is not able to detect the Microsoft Display Dock on phones running Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview builds, and thus cannot update the firmware version. If you have a dock which has already been updated to version 4 then this will not affect you. If you have a dock that has not been updated, then you may experience some minor issues with USB-C stability.
Connectivity to older Wi-Fi networks using the WEP encryption security method may be broken. WEP is an insecure method for protecting your Wi-Fi connection but a small percentage of Windows users still use it. A workaround would be to configure your wireless routers to use WPA or WPA2 or wait for the next Insider flight when this is fixed.
As always – thank you for being Windows Insiders and make sure to send us feedback on any issues you run into with these builds in the Windows Feedback app.
Thanks,
g
Updated June 28, 2018 9:19 amOkay, this slender little book charmed my socks right off! That's a fact. And I write reviews of every book I read. Another fact. But for some reason I'm having a difficult time articulating exactly why I enjoyed this light-hearted gift so much. I think it's actually because there's quite a bit packed into this small package. What I can tell you is this: It brought a smile to my face when I was well and truly blue.
After a couple of very brief prefaces, the bulk of the book is made up of an alphabetical listing of fantastic creatures. There are 34 total, each with a two-page spread. Squeezed neatly into those two pages is a charming black and white illustration of a critter; a colorful description of its history, origin, habitat, etc.; and the "Evil Monkey Dialogues." Despite the bizarre name, this is simply a little light kibbitzing between husband and wife authors Jeff and Ann VanderMeer on the presumed kosherness of said creature. She's a member of the tribe, he's the Evil Monkey.
Of the 34 creatures covered, I was familiar with about a dozen of them. Some were as basic as a Dragon or Mermaid or Sea Monkey, but other creatures were exotic beasts from far away lands and cultures like the Jotai, the Encantado, and the Abumi-Guchi. I'm fairly positive at least one, the Borges, was made up entirely in the authors' imagination. As it happened, that was my favorite listing in the book.
After the creature listings, the final section of the book was discussion with chef/baker Duff Goldman about how one might prepare these creatures, kosher and treyf alike. Now I've never seen his TV show, Ace of Cakes, but he must be an entertaining guy because he's got a delightful sense of humor and a whimsical streak a mile wide. Not only does he discuss the creatures featured previously in the book, but he improvises with other imaginary animals. In fact, he may be a closet sci-fi fan, because he proposes recipes for a Chewbacca and a Tribble, which, let's face it, is pretty much a hairy Rocky Mountain oyster.
My copy of this book had a delightful bonus. Tucked inside were three postcards that the publisher had used for promotional purposes. They were recipe cards for the preparation of Mongolian Death Worm and other culinary delicacies.
I'll tell you what, this little tchotchke is the perfect gift for the person in your life who could use a little more whimsy, a little more magic, and a little more laughter--even if that person is you. I can only hope there's a second volume on the way!This artist's concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets' diameters, masses and distances from the host star, as of February 2018. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Exoplanet discovery
In a press release on February 22, 2017, NASA announced the discovery of the most Earth-sized planets found in the habitable zone of a single star, called TRAPPIST-1. This system of seven rocky worlds–all of them with the potential for water on their surface–is an exciting discovery in the search for life on other worlds. There is the possibility that future study of this unique planetary system could reveal conditions suitable for life.
In February 2018, closer study of the seven planets suggested that some could harbor far more water than the oceans of Earth, in the form of atmospheric water vapor for the planets closest to their star, liquid water for others, and ice for those farthest away. The new study pinned down the density of each planet more precisely, making TRAPPIST-1 the most thoroughly known planetary system apart from our own.
Contents
Exoplanet surface in 360 VR
Use your mouse or fingertip to experience a 360 view. On mobile, move your phone to see sky, ground and horizon. This is an artist's interpretation.
An artist's illustration of TRAPPIST-1d takes you to the surface of the third planet from the red TRAPPIST-1 star. From here, the star looms larger than our sun and its light casts a red glow across the sky. Look up, and you may catch a glimpse of its six sister planets, as visible as our moon is from Earth. View on YouTube
Planet hop from TRAPPIST-1e
An artist's fantasy of the surface of TRAPPIST-1e, a stop on a tour of this seven-world system.
Take a trip with the Exoplanet Travel Bureau to the fourth planet in the TRAPPIST-1 system, TRAPPIST-1e, a world swimming in water in perpetual twilight. Its sister planets gracefully light up the sky, promising another adventure just a hop away.
Download your own free poster
Interact with the TRAPPIST-1 system in 3D
You can fly through the TRAPPIST-1 planets and see an artist's concept of the surfaces on your phone or with a desktop app. Compare each planet to Earth or Jupiter, compare the TRAPPIST-1 system to our solar system, and see how far the habitable zone extends.
On mobile: TRAPPIST-1 system in 3D With the touch of a screen or the click of a mouse, you can visit the newly discovered TRAPPIST-1 system in the our exoplanet atlas. The New Worlds Atlas contains every exoplanet discovery, powered by NASA's Exoplanet Archive, the official database used by professional astronomers engaged in exploring new worlds.
Desktop app: Eyes on Exoplanets Get set for launch. Download “Eyes on Exoplanets” and it will fly you to any planet you wish—as long as it's far beyond our solar system. This fully rendered 3D universe is scientifically accurate, allowing you to zoom in for a close look at more than 1,000 exotic planets known to orbit distant stars, including the TRAPPIST-1 system. The program is updated daily with the latest finds from NASA and ground-based observatories around the world.
Latest images and videos
Images from 2017
Trappist-1 system Spitzer findings Before and after the discovery of four new planets Full resolution
Related Videos:
Panelists from the 2017 news conference
Michael Gillon
Title: Research Associate at the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS)
Institution: University of Liège, Belgium
Role in TRAPPIST-1 discovery: Initiator and lead.
Other missions/topics worked on: The detection and characterization of transiting exoplanets. PI of the projects TRAPPIST and SPECULOOS. PI of many Spitzer and ESO programs, and Co-I of the CoRoT and CHEOPS exoplanet space missions.
Sean Carey
Title: Manager, Spitzer Science Center
Institution: IPAC/Caltech.
Role in TRAPPIST-1 discovery: Co-author of paper.
Other missions/topics worked on: Spitzer, NEOCam and WFIRST. Additional scientific work includes the physics of the interstellar medium and studying the galactic distribution of planets via microlensing.
Thomas Zurbuchen
Title: NASA Associate Adminstrator, Science Mission Directorate
Institution: NASA, Washington, D.C.
Other missions/topics worked on: Please see Dr. Zurbuchen’s biographical page.
Sara Seager
Title: Professor of Planetary Science, Professor of Physics
Institution: MIT
Other missions/topics worked on: TESS Deputy Science Director. PI ASTERIA. Expert in biosignature gases in the search for life on exoplanets.
Nikole Lewis
Title: Assistant Astronomer/James Webb Space Telescope Project Scientist
Institution: Space Telescope Science Institute
Role in TRAPPIST-1 discovery: I co-lead the investigation of the TRAPPIST-1 planets with Hubble’s Wide-Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument.
Other missions/topics worked on: Specializes in understanding circulation and cloud/haze formation in exoplanet atmospheres. Currently a Deputy-PI of a WFIRST Coronagraphic Instrument (CGI) Science Investigation Team (SIT), the JWST Project Scientist at STScI, and part of a team (PI Sarah Horst, JHU) creating exoplanet hazes in the lab.
Related Articles
Science results:Image caption Jane Morris, wife of artist William, was the model for the goddess Proserpine
Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the defining images of the Pre-Raphaelite era, is to be auctioned at Sotheby's in London in November.
The drawing, in coloured chalks, comes to the market for the first time in more than 40 years and is expected to fetch up to £1.8 million.
Sotheby's Simon Toll hailed Rossetti's "instantly recognisable" masterpiece.
"This is one of the most important British pictures to be seen on the auction market in many years," he said.
The drawing "represents the artist at the zenith of his originality", Toll continued.
"In many ways it stands apart from much of the art created by Rossetti's contemporaries as something new and otherworldly, that was unlike anything else that had been seen before it."
Proserpine was begun in 1878, and acquired by William Graham, the MP for Glasgow, in 1880.
Graham was Rossetti's chief patron, eventually owning 35 of the artist's works.
The chalk drawing is among five versions of the image in existence, including three in oil and a watercolour replica.
The picture was last seen on the art market in 1970 when it was sold by the Stone Gallery in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
No details are available regarding its current owner.
The painting centres on the myth of the goddess Proserpine, who was abducted by Pluto and trapped in the underworld after eating pomegranate seeds.
Each year she was temporarily released to return to her mother, Ceres. Her emergence from the underworld is said to symbolise the coming of spring.
Jane Morris, the Oxford-born wife of the artist William Morris and Rossetti's chief muse, was the model for Proserpine.
Biographers claim her own life bore similarities to that of the captive goddess, suggesting she was caught between a loveless marriage and her intimate relationship with Rossetti.
Auction record
The sale of Proserpine coincides with a major Pre-Raphaelite retrospective, first held at London's Tate Britain last year.
The exhibition opened at Washington DC's National Gallery of Art earlier this year and can currently be viewed at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.
Earlier this week, a painting by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones became the most expensive pre-Raphaelite painting ever sold at auction.
Love Among the Ruins sold for nearly £15m (£14,845,875) at the sale at Christie's London auction house on Thursday
The sale easily outstripped the top estimate price of £5m and set a new world record for a piece by the British artist at auction.MPs broke out into laughter moments after voting to extend British air strikes into Syria, sparking outrage on social media.
The light-hearted moment came in response to a joke by the House of Commons Speaker and was not related to the conflict, but many viewers watching the culmination of the 11-hour debate missed the transition.
“Not only have innocent people been condemned to die, but the MPs are laughing about it,” one person wrote, while another said they were “sickened”.
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.
John Bercow read out the result of the historic vote in a solemn silence to MPs packed in the House of Commons chamber.
Politicians lined benches and stood with their hands clasped as the Speaker announced victory for the Government by 397 votes to 223.
“Order, we come now to the petition…” he continued, joking about the prospect of further Parliamentary business following 11 hours of debate.
Mr Bercow grinned as some MPs broke into relieved laughter before finally leaving the chamber.
Craig Stone shared a photo of the Speaker on Twitter, writing: “Air strikes approved, and the house erupts into laughter. Stay classy, politics.”
His tweet has since been shared more than 1,800 times, with commentators writing that the joke had been in “poor taste” and “inappropriate”.
“It frustrates me so much, how do they sleep knowing innocent civilians are going to die,” one person asked.
But many viewers defended MPs and pointed out that the laughter was not directly related to the vote on Syria.
“The Speaker was answering a point of order on a different subject. Don’t let that spoil your indignant rant,” Barry White wrote.
“I guess we don't know what it's like to debate for 12 hours with the tensions involved and then reach an end,” said another Twitter user.
It was not the only moment of levity during the marathon debate. Mr Bercow was also congratulated for spending more than seven hours in his chair by Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who added: “I must admire your bladder”.
Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Syria air strikes (2014) Show all 20 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Syria air strikes (2014) 1/20 Syria Syrian citizens check a damaged house that targeted by the coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Isis group, between the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib 2/20 Syria A Syrian boy (L) looking at a destroyed car that activists say was targeted by the coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State group, between the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib 3/20 Syria Parts of a missile that activists say was fired by coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Isis group, between the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib 4/20 Syria Tthe guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) launching Tomahawk cruise missiles against Isis targets 5/20 Syria The USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) launches a Tomahawk cruise missiles in the Red Sea, to conduct strike missions against Isis group targets in Syria 6/20 Syria The guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) launching a Tomahawk cruise missile against Isis targets in Syria, as seen from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) in the Arabian Gulf 7/20 Syria US navy sailors standing watch on the bridge while Tomahawk cruise missiles are launched against Isis targets in Syria, aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58), in the Arabian Gulf 8/20 Syria An F/A-18C Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 87 prepares to launch from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) in the Arabian Gulf, to conduct strike missions against Isis group targets AFP/Robert Burck 9/20 Syria The US-led airstrikes in Syria against Isis targets in and around the city of Raqqa 10/20 Syria A fighter from the Isis group holds a piece of what the IS is saying is a US drone that crashed into a communications tower in the Syrian city of Raqqa 11/20 Syria Fighters from the Isis organisation pray at the spot where the jihadist group said a US drone crashed into a communications tower in the Syrian city of Raqqa 12/20 Syria Fighters from the Isis group load a van with parts that they said was a US drone that crashed into a communications tower in the Syrian city of Raqqa 13/20 Syria Fighters from the Isis group load a van with parts that they said was a US drone that crashed into a communications tower in Raqqa 14/20 Syria Fighters from the Isis group gesture as they load a van with parts that they said was a US drone that crashed into a communications tower in Raqqa. A US-led coalition on carried out its first air strikes and missile attacks against jihadist positions in Syria, with Damascus saying it had been informed by Washington before the operation began 15/20 Syria A Syrian man rides his bike past a communications tower that was destroyed after a US drone crashed into it, according to fighters with the Isis group, in the Syrian city of Raqqa 16/20 Syria People inspect a shop damaged after what Isis militants say was a U.S. drone crashed into a communication station nearby in Raqqa 17/20 Syria A man holds the remains of what Isis militants say was a U.S. drone which crashed in Raqqa 18/20 Syria Resident gather in the back of a van the remains of what Isis militants say was a drone which crashed in Raqqa 19/20 Syria A man inspects the remains of what Isismilitants say was a U.S. drone which crashed into a communication tower in Raqqa 20/20 Syria A man inspects the remains of what Isis militants say was a U.S. drone which crashed in Raqqa 1/20 Syria Syrian citizens check a damaged house that targeted by the coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Isis group, between the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib 2/20 Syria A Syrian boy (L) looking at a destroyed car that activists say was targeted by the coalition airstrikes, in the village of Kfar Derian, a base for the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, a rival of the Islamic State group, between the northern province of Aleppo and Idlib 3/20 Syria |
carry their pregnancies to term. Nondiscriminatory funding would simply place the profoundly personal decision about how to treat a pregnancy back where it belongs -- in the hands of the woman who must live with the consequences of that decision.
Endnotes
1. Through its Medicaid program, New York funds medically necessary abortions for women whose family incomes are below 100% of the federal poverty level but denies abortion funding to women with family incomes between 100 and 185% of the poverty level. These women are eligible, however, to receive all other pregnancy-related services. See Hope v. Perales, 634 N.E.2d 183 (N.Y. 1994).
2. See Alaska v. Planned Parenthood, 28 P.3d 904 (Alaska 2001); Simat Corp. v. Ariz. Health Care Cost Containment Sys., 203 Ariz. 454 (2002); Committee to Defend Reprod. Rights v. Myers, 625 P.2d 779 (Cal. 1981); Doe v. Maher, 515 A.2d 134 (Conn. Super. Ct. 1986); Doe v. Wright, No. 91 CH 1958 (Ill. Cir. Ct. Dec. 2, 1994); Humphreys v. Clinic for Women, Inc., 796 N.E.2d 247, 260 (Ind. 2003); Moe v. Sec'y of Admin. & Fin., 417 N.E.2d 387 (Mass. 1981); Women of Minn. v. Gomez, 542 N.W.2d 17 (Minn. 1995); Jeannette R. v. Ellery, No. BDV-94-811 (Mont. Dist. Ct. May 22, 1995); Right to Choose v. Byrne, 450 A.2d 925 (N.J. 1982); New Mexico Right to Choose/NARAL v. Johnson, 975 P.2d 841 (N.M. 1998); Planned Parenthood Ass'n v. Dep't of Human Resources, 663 P.2d 1247 (Or. Ct. App. 1983), aff'd on statutory grounds, 687 P.2d 785 (Or. 1984); Doe v. Celani, No. S81-84CnC (Vt. Super. Ct. May 26, 1986); Women's Health Ctr. v. Panepinto, 446 S.E.2d 658 (W. Va. 1993).
3. In seven of these states, the bans have been challenged, but the courts have refused to order nondiscriminatory funding for abortions. See Renee B. v. Florida Agency for Health Care Admin., 790 So. 2d 1036 (Fla. 2001); Planned Parenthood v. Kurtz, No. CVOC0103909D (Idaho Dist. Ct. June 12, 2002); Doe v. Childers, No. 94CI02183 (Ky. Cir. Ct. Aug. 3, 1995), appeal dismissed, No. 95-SC-783-TG (Ky. Aug. 21, 1996); Doe v. Dep't of Soc. Servs., 487 N.W.2d 166 (Mich. 1992); Rosie J. v. North Carolina Dep't of Human Resources, 491 S.E.2d 535 (N.C. 1997); Fischer v. Dep't of Pub. Welfare, 502 A.2d 114 (Pa. 1985); Bell v. Low-Income Women of Texas, Inc., 95 S.W.3d 253, (Tex. 2002). In Indiana, a court rejected the claim that the state was required to cover abortions on the same terms as other pregnancy-related care, but did require that the state cover abortions for Medicaid-eligible women "whose pregnancies create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function." Humphreys v. Clinic for Women, Inc., 796 N.E.2d 247, 260 (Ind. 2003). See A Choice for Women, Inc. v. Florida Agency for Health Care Admin., No. 02-3079 (Fl. Cir. Ct. Apr. 4, 2002), appeal denied, No.3D0-3039, 2004 Fla. App. LEXIS 5493 (Apr. 21, 2004).
4. Heather Boonstra & Adam Sonfield, Rights Without Access: Revisiting Public Funding of Abortion for Poor Women, THE GUTTMACHER REPORT ON PUBLIC POLICY 3D No.2 (April 2000).
5. Stanley K. Henshaw, Factors Hindering Access to Abortion Services, FAMILY PLANNING PERSPECTIVES, 27TH.No. 2 (March/April 1995).
6. See, e.g., Committee to Defend Reprod. Rights v. Myers, 625 P.2d 779, 794 (Cal. 1981) (finding that ""whatever money is saved by refusing to fund abortions will be spent many times over in paying maternity care and childbirth expenses and supporting the children of indigent mothers"").Jordan Mills, from Lithonia, Ga., waits for a job fair to open Oct. 19 in Atlanta. Hundreds of applicants were in line before the 10 a.m. opening. (Bob Andres/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Associated Press)
It used to be that jobs returned swiftly after a recession. But since the 1990s, the labor market seems to have lost much of its natural buoyancy. The past three downturns caused extended periods of underemployment. Years after economic output had fully rebounded, there were still fewer people at work.
Economists have struggled to explain the forces behind these so-called “jobless” recoveries. A popular view is that recessions are times when companies clean house and find ways to become more efficient. In recent decades, that has often meant replacing employees with computers. This could explain why the jobs we lose in a recession don’t seem to return anymore: The positions became obsolete.
New evidence says there might be another reason for these stubborn spells of low employment: After a recession, the remaining job openings may become harder to fill because employers start to demand people with better skills, who can adapt to new technologies in order to be more productive.
In other words, it’s not just that many jobs go extinct during a recession. Even the surviving jobs sometimes shift beyond recognition — and beyond the reach of many.
These are the jobs that are never coming back
Both of these theories are significant because they link jobless recoveries to another unsettling trend — the replacement of manpower by machines, which has contributed to the hollowing out of the middle class.
A striking chart comes from economists Nir Jaimovich and Henry Siu, who find that job losses in recent recessions came almost entirely from occupations defined by “routine” tasks. These are the modest but sturdy occupations that once formed the bedrock of the American middle class — think secretaries, bank tellers and machine operators.
In the past, employment in those kinds of routine jobs would always snap back after recessions. But starting with the 1991 downturn, many of these occupations started to vanish permanently, as this chart from the economists shows.
Non-routine professions, on the other hand, have been much hardier. These are, by definition, the jobs that are harder to automate. In today’s society, they tend to be either highly paid or lowly paid: analysts and janitors, lawyers and home health aides, Silicon Valley programmers and Starbucks baristas.
What these workers have in common is that they all have to think flexibly and creatively throughout the day, whether that involves debugging a section of code or helping a customer choose between different kinds of seasonal lattes.
And these are the jobs that are evolving
But it’s not just that many automatable jobs are disappearing. The latest research finds that all our jobs seem to be more demanding of intellectual and social skills.
We know this thanks to new work analyzing millions of online job listings before and after the Great Recession. If it seems like it’s harder and harder to get a job lately, in part that’s because employers have gotten much pickier since the recession. Increasingly, they are looking for better-educated workers with more advanced qualifications — which might be one reason companies have been so slow to fill openings in recent years.
There are two ways to interpret this trend. Economists Alicia Sasser Modestino, Daniel Shoag and Joshua Ballance believe that employers became choosy during the Great Recession in order to take advantage of the abundance of people looking for work and to screen out low-achievers. They call the process “opportunistic upskilling,” and they have shown that it happens whenever there’s a glut of labor.
In a recent paper, they find that the troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, which periodically brought waves of veterans back to the United States, caused employers to raise job requirements in industries such as logistics, where veterans are disproportionately likely to look for work.
The same phenomenon seems to have occurred nationwide during the recession. It makes basic economic sense, Modestino said. With so many job-seekers, employers could afford to raise the bar. “I’ve sat in a room where people were writing these job postings expecting Jesus to walk through the door,” she said. “Recruiters saw the recession as a great time to acquire new talent.”
But economists Brad Hershbein and Lisa Kahn say that something else is also going on. They believe that the recession also accelerated how technology is changing how we work. Companies aren’t raising the bar because they want to but because they have to, in order to remain competitive.
“You’ll see the shift among salespeople, who are now required to use big data analytics to better target their clients,” Kahn said. Or quality control operators, she said, who are moving into more strategic roles now that machine vision technology has taken over watching production lines.
In a new working paper, the economists find that in areas most affected by the recession, job requirements rose permanently. Kahn and Hershbein looked not only at the desired education and experience levels but also for keywords involving critical thinking and computer skills.
Increasingly, employers have been asking for people with the ability to perform research, do their own analyses and make decisions. This chart from the paper shows how in the hardest-hit areas, the recession caused employers to be about two percentage points (or 12 percent) more likely to mention critical thinking in their job listings.
By 2015, the unemployment rate had fallen to nearly its pre-recession low, and workers were becoming harder and harder to find. Yet Hershbein and Kahn find that employers remained picky about people’s skills and experience. This suggests that the new skill requirements weren’t optional or opportunistic; they reflected how the jobs themselves had become more challenging.
What this means
The big picture here is that people need to develop skills that will complement what computers are bringing to the table now and in the future. Recessions have become excruciating in recent decades because they are causing longer periods of unemployment. In part, that’s because some jobs now just disappear permanently. And in part that’s because some jobs are changing permanently. We can ease both of these problems with better training and retraining.
It’s a moving target. Hershbein believes that everyone should be preparing for the day when technology comes for their profession. “People need to constantly be learning and keeping their skills up to date as technology changes and evolves,” he said. “If you learned how to do one thing and do it well for 15 or 20 years, and that’s all you really learned how to do — you’re going to be hard-pressed when you lose your job.”I asked 51 Bitcoin experts, ranging from founders of startups in the digital currency space to investors, authors and movie directors on their thoughts on what the future holds for Bitcoin.
This is a 4 part report, looking into the following:
How the regulation around Bitcoin will evolve over the next 12 months
The processes needed to get the mainstream to adopt Bitcoin
What impact the FBI’s supply of Bitcoin will have on the ecosystem
The big question; What will Bitcoin be trading at in 12 months?
This is part one, where we look into how regulation around Bitcoin will evolve over the next 12 months. Here’s what the experts had to say:
Jeremy Bonney, Product Manager at Coindesk responds:
It’s interesting that regulatory discussions around bitcoin have really ramped up over the past year – I think we’re going to see a continuation and increase of that this year. We’ve already seen countries like Germany classify bitcoin as private money and Finland classify it as a commodity.
China came out and issued some very tough restrictions on it. However, China has a history of wanting to control anything it sees as disruptive to the status quo (much like the Internet in the 1990s) – so the very fact that it has taken notice of bitcoin, and is trying to exert some control over it, is a positive sign for its disruptive potential.
Alena Vranova, CEO of SatoshiLabs (TREZOR) responds:
I’d rather expect further discrepancy than some international unification over the coming 12 months. The governments will continue in trying to get to know Bitcoin and to find a balance between the risks and business opportunities.
This will lead to arbitrage in creation and resettlement of bitcoin businesses to territories with more bitcoin friendly environment.
The government who will acknowledge the opportunity (like Cyprus or Singapore) will definitely find themselves in the winning positions, some might refine the rules (like Germany) and others will probably continue to discuss (France).
John Backus, Co-Founder of BlockScore responds:
I hope that the U.S. Government will take the time to understand cryptocurrencies like they did after the Silk Road 2.0 launch. The reality is that the protocol itself is not subject to regulation.
There is already regulation affecting bitcoin exchanges (money transmitter licenses, KYC requirements). I hope that the MTL process is eventually simplified so that one license permits operation in 50 states, effectively lowering an unnecessarily high barrier to entry.
Zach Harvey, CEO of Lamassu responds:
I think some jurisdictions will get better and some worse. I also expect widespread acceptance in the US to have an effect on future regulatory requirements, but am not too optimistic of Bitcoin service compliance becoming a viable option for small businesses.
Ken Lo, CEO of ANX responds:
There will become more regulations and many governments will start revealing their stance on how they want bitcoins to be regulated. This will be a bit painful in the beginning, but in the long run it will give a framework for bitcoin companies to work around.
Governments will choose regulation over something they know they cannot ban, else it will go underground. It’s pretty clear the government does not want that to happen because they would have just banned it very early on.
Adrian, Founder of SatoshiBet responds:
As bitcoin, and the bitcoin community grows, countries and jurisdictions will continue to regulate bitcoin. This is a sign of bitcoin maturing, and this is not a bad thing. If cryptocurrencies want to be accepted by society they need some clarity and context within the current currency laws.
Jaron Lukasiewicz, CEO of Coinsetter responds:
The regulation surrounding our industry will become much more clear over the next 12 months, making it possible for U.S. bitcoin companies to operate and grow.
Kingsley Edwards, Founder of LeetCoin responds:
Regulation will increase as politicians attempt to tame Bitcoin under the guise of protecting the population.
Francisco Tomas Buero, Co-Founder of Conectabitcoin responds:
Organically; unless the aggregate demand skyrockets, pushing the price above the value of one ounce of gold.
Nubis Bruno, Co-Founder of Conectabitcoin responds:
I think most jurisdictions will start accepting bitcoin is a digital good following the singaporean example. Most people will still be double or even triple taxed when dealing with bitcoin as we think it’s going to be paying a value added tax.
Rodolfo Novak, Founder of Coinkite responds:
Over the next 12 months, we do not expect regulation to change significantly, but we do expect to see “tax advice” to come out for more countries, much like the very reasonable notice from Canada’s CRA (our federal-level tax folks).
Kenneth Metral, CEO of Coingig responds:
Stopping Bitcoin transactions is not possible due to the nature of the Bitcoin protocol. However, US regulation on Bitcoin is still speculative but it seems that their initial stance on it seems to be one that is open for discussion.
Even more importantly, Bitcoin businesses are actively coming forth and working with the government in every way they can, because they want to see Bitcoin adoption and acceptance grow.
At Coingig, we are registered with FINCEN and provide them with a full report on any suspicious activity that we observe.
Jonathan Speigner, CEO of LiteTree responds:
It’s hard to predict what specific regulations will become the rules of engagement for companies wanting to use bitcoins. Once we have a clear definition of how each government is going to classify crypto currencies it will then define how it will be regulated.
We have seen different parts of the world classify it in all different ways so as of now in the US it’s a little unclear and even more unclear in other parts of the world. The simple answer would be that its adopted as a global currency and treated like any other currency.
Mike Yeung, Founder of SFU Bitcoin Club responds:
I believe we will see tighter KYC/AML protocols around all exchanges (physical and online), including ATMs, so that the entries in and out of bitcoins are kept clean.
In some places, merchants/businesses dealing with bitcoins may have to apply for licenses. Tax reporting practices for bitcoins and other cryptos will be more clear.
There may be the off-chance that some countries will “ban” bitcoins through what they call coin-validation: some coins will be deemed tainted while others can be used for legitimate purposes… obviously many bitcoiners including myself will find this to be unfavourable: it gives too much power to a governing body.
Vitalik Buterin, Author at Bitcoin Magazine responds:
I think we will see over half of the world’s governments take a formal position on Bitcoin by the end of this year.
I expect positive movements on the regulatory front; BTC is already increasingly establishing itself as a legitimate thing, and the conversation is already turning from “should we ban Bitcoin” to “banks are unfriendly to Bitcoin businesses, what can we as regulators do to provide more regulatory certainty?”.
We will likely see substantial reforms in some US states, allowing a specific licensing category for Bitcoin businesses, and we will continue to see more tax clarification.
Eric Calouro, Founder of NewsBTC responds:
Governments around the world are recognizing that bitcoin is undoubtedly catching on, and will be forced to start thinking harder about regulation.
As such, I would expect bitcoin to be regulated at some level or another in the next 12-24 months. It’s hard to say, exactly, but with the State of New York planning meetings on this topic soon, you can imagine other states will follow suit.
Matt Allen, CEO of BitcoinStarter responds:
I don’t believe regulation will be as harsh as everyone makes it out to be. I believe regulation will come in the form of a few stated rules handed down by the FinCEN (if in the U.S) detailing what is expected.
Frank Schuil, CEO of Safello responds:
As with other disruptive technologies legislators are trying to keep up with the pace of the market. In Europe we see an overall positive trend as is the case in the US. China has put a halt to the bitcoin craze, but I suspect it is temporary until the market has matured.
My prediction is that within 12 months there may be an European directive in place or in the making on crypto currencies that will replace or compliment the Virtual Currency directive that exists today.
The US will most likely take more time to get federal legislation in place, which forces Bitcoin startups to continue to follow state law for the time to come.
Elizabeth Ploshay, Manager at Bitcoin Magazine responds:
It is unclear precisely how the US government and governments around the world will specifically act. I see that one area of regulation will come in the realm of taxation. The IRS is to publish guidelines on how to consider digital currencies and what type of tax will be placed on these currencies.
As Bitcoin continues to become more mainstream and as larger and more prominent companies also start utilizing the currency, I believe we will see a larger group of companies requesting further regulatory clarity.
Additionally, there will be perhaps greater clarity in terms of regulations for banks offering accounts to Bitcoin related businesses.
Tony Tam, Co-Founder of Bitcoin Pulse responds:
I believe it will progress as it has been going – more countries becoming aware and deciding to take action. I’m not sure things will swing just one way. It’s more likely to be a case by case kind of thing (i.e. depends on the country and the powers at helm).
But the way I see it, Governments should regulate Bitcoin for their own sake since going against something like Bitcoin is only going to cost them in the long run – not just in terms of popularity from the technology crowd, but also fighting Bitcoin if it goes underground.
I believe it’s very clear that some parts of the community won’t drop Bitcoin even if Governments decide to outlaw Bitcoin/Fiat transactions.
Flavio Rump, Co-Founder of Bitcoin Pulse responds:
I think an important part will be how ‘traceable’ government bodies perceive bitcoin. With mixing services, unregulated exchanges like BTC-e it is not that hard today to actually make your transactions untracable, which may scare governments more than it will help.
At the very least, all exchanges will have to have KYC and AML best practices implemented, and the appropriate Money Transfer Licenses, in some cases bank licenses.
It is also interesting to observe that smaller countries tend to be more open to bitcoin than large ones (US, China). Maybe they are trying to stay/become more relevant when it comes to innovation/attracting capital and entrepreneurs and thus are much more open. I expect this general trend to continue.
Morgan Rockwell, Founder of Bitcoin Kinetics responds:
Regulation will nonexistent, irrelevant & burdening. It will be done by many nations, banks & corporations unfriendly to crypto currencies.
Nonexistent in the way that the US and other nations have said no to regulations are needed for crypto currency & it’s networks.
Irrelevant in the way that it is impossible to stop crypto currency use, adoption or its valuation.
Burdening in the way that when a regulation is passed & actually enforced by people with guns, this will only slow down and force Bitcoin business out of that nation or state.
Daniel, Founder of Dagensia responds:
Some of the countries will regulate bitcoin as a commodity and some of them as a virtual money. I believe bitcoin is more a currency than a commodity because bitcoin stores value, is easily divisible and can be transfered online.
Simon Edhouse, Managing Director of Bittunes responds:
My guess is that regulation will become more conspicuous, but most serious Bitcoin developers and those involved in financing Bitcoin related projects would welcome that.
But I think in fact the focus of concern will shift from Bitcoin to the multitude of Alt-Currencies that are springing up. Understanding these and their nature and implications will keep authorities very busy in 2014.
Peter Seed, CEO of Tradefor responds:
I believe that regulation around Bitcoin will not escalate significantly in the U.S. and will remain at the present level. The U.S. government has administrative power to enforce laws around money laundering. But present laws seem to be sufficient.
Developer/Webmaster of CryptoHits responds:
The thing about BitCoin is that it does not respond directly to regulation. At best they can regulate the exchanges which would temporarily impact the ‘price’ of BitCoin.
If they come down on exchanges too hard and the players involved throw their hands up and say enough of this. There isn’t much stopping vendors and people from using and exchanging BitCoin directly, without any currency exchange taking place. This type of activity, as near as I can tell, is impossible to regulate.
Ash Moran, Co-Founder of Bitcoin Manchester responds:
The current trend seems to be that people in national governments (e.g. Germany, Switzerland, Singapore) are cautiously receptive to Bitcoin, but banks are generally hostile (especially in the UK and China).
It’s impossible to predict how the regulation will go, and I don’t understand the global systems well enough to comment with any authority – but I can see it coming in two rounds. The first round is how to regulate it while it’s still small in currency scales, the second is if and when it competes with major national currencies.
What happens, for example, if a country with a struggling or failing economy finds its people dumping their local currency and saving and trading in bitcoins instead?
In 1933, the US government issued an order to confiscate all private gold so it could gain control of the money supply. Would we see such panic regulation again? I’m not convinced either politicians or banks are thinking this far ahead though, so I suspect we’ll see a mish-mash of inconsistent regulation in the mean time.
The situation in Germany is different though, it has a strong productive economy, has Austrian-school economists in government, and would probably like to free itself of the Euro. I expect the most positive Bitcoin regulation will come from there, ECB backlash notwithstanding.
Max, Co-Founder of Bitcoin Manchester responds:
This depends on what country. If we see the growth at the pace we seen it this year it will very much become a game of politics for acceptance of the currency. The more “open” the media is in a country the more likely they are too accept bitcoin. We have already seen the beginning of this with China.
Ron Gross, Mastercoin Foundation Executive Director of responds:
2013 was the year regulators throughout the world started paying attention to Bitcoin. In 2014 we are going to see some bold movements in that space. Governments like Honduras are pushing the regulatory limits (see Edan Yago’s work).
I believe that larger government are also going adjust their positions in 2014. Canada, Germany, Switzerland are all likely players to continue pumping out regulation that’s positive to Bitcoin.
I believe that key elements in the U.S leadership also want to keep U.S as one of the key players in the space, and will not allow U.S regulation to continue stifling startups, or even worse, pushing things like CoinValidation.
I do not expect any western government to outlaw Bitcoin (in 2014 or ever).
Vytautas Karalevičius, CEO of Spectro Coin responds:
Firstly, it has to be considered that 12 months is a short period of time and probably is only enough for a preparation of regulation framework, but not its implication.
However, in longer time horizon we expect virtual currencies to be covered under new edition of EU payment’s directive, which would put virtual currency transactions under similar framework as e-money transactions of fiat currencies. Similar process will be implemented in other jurisdictions.
From AML perspective, more work will be done inside regulatory bodies to develop techniques to watch flows in the virtual currencies economy itself and use benefits which public ledger provides to them and based on this practice tailored AML requirements for virtual currency companies will be proposed later on.
Also we expect of introduction of regulation for businesses, which are solely working with virtual currencies and do not directly use fiat currencies and in such way manage to avoid regulation today.
Dominik Weil, Co-Foudner of Bitcoin Azerbaijan responds:
The “Wild West” days of Bitcoin where you could completely fly under the radar with your Bitcoin business are definitely over (in case you serve a notable scale of customers and don’t try to run your business completely anonymous via the Darkweb – and even there the law enforcement will try to track you down, if you are involved in any “criminal activities” by their definition ) – and all the regulators around the world have done or are doing heavy scrutinies on how to deal with that new kind of technology.
12 months from here, the given regulatory framework will become much clearer – and if the governments are not acting stupid, they will provide a framework, which makes it possible for the Bitcoin economy to prosper.
It is very clear, that the governments as well as the most big players in the current financial system initially don’t like Bitcoin, due to the fact, that Bitcoin is diminishing their power.
If they could, they would have shut it down like they have done with other potential “threats” to their monopoly (e-gold, New Liberty Dollar etc.) – the thing with Bitcoin is: They just cant.
The idea is out there – and it will never go away. It cant be “undone”. There is not a single point of failure, which they could attack. So at this stage, they have to understand, the upside potential of Bitcoin – and that this kind of thing is the future.
If they don’t want to fall behind the development, they should provide a business-friendly and Bitcoin-friendly regulatory framework – in order to secure one of the front positions during the “global financial revolution” which is on the horizon thanks to the Bitcoin technology – and which will affect much more areas then just money/currency.
The currency/money function is just the beginning – and we will see many, many more developments on top of that over the upcoming years – some of them are in the pipeline already; some we probably even cant imagine now.
Matt Elias, Legal/Regulatory Advisor of Mastercoin responds:
In the West regulation will remain in a state of permissiveness, wherein Bitcoin is still very much a grey area. The possible introduction of “BitLicenses” in various U.S. states (NY & CA) may mark a change to a more prohibitory or regulated environment.
In the East, the rhetoric will continue to be that of restriction and caution, although demand will often circumvent these meek efforts. Smaller jurisdictions may devise innovative legal frameworks to attract startups and capital from abroad.
Kevin Barnes, CEO of Playcoin Entertainment responds:
Bitcoin as currency-Slowly as large corporations accept bitcoin as an added revenue source and accept it. Governments cannot completely prevent corporations from accept bitcoin. Thus they will tax it.
Governments will feel less pressure from the citizens regarding the countries fiat and inflation. As a percentage of the countries economy will be propped with free market bitcoin and related currencies.
So if the government officials want to remain in office,they will see that they can when a vote by being btc friendly.
My personal opinion, is cryptocurrency takes some of economic development responsibilities off the central banks/governments shoulders. That is why Playcoin Entertainment Corp. is dedicated to bitcoin enabling the video and gaming industries.
Teemu Päivinen, CEO of Coinmotion responds:
Bitcoin is still at a very early stage, where many of todays leaders and decision-makers do not quite understand the currency. It seems to me like everyone is waiting for someone to make the first move.
China did, which was to be expected, with its history of squashing similar phenomenon. The western world, though, seems more and more open to the idea of a virtual currency not restricted by geographic location.
On all subjects Bitcoin, the US is the thought leader, and will slowly aid in ushering in an era of virtual currencies. Other countries will then follow suite, creating new regulatory frameworks that can effectively be applied to virtual currencies.
Taxation policies will become increasingly unified and will end up closer to the policies applied to currency exchange than those applied to digital goods.
Keny, Founder of GetToKnowBitcoin responds:
The Federal Government has already stated the current regulations and laws that are on the books are sufficient in regulating and prosecuting illegal activity with bitcoin. So, I don’t see many changes on that level.
However, I think we’ll see a clear instruction on how the IRS will handle bitcoin. The IRS will determine if bitcoin will be taxed as capital asset or a currency. If I had to guess right now which direction the IRS will tax bitcoin, it would probably be as a currency.
Michal Handerhan, CEO of BitcoinShopUS responds:
It’s my believe that US government will finally take an action and provide a guidance in regards to Bitcoin transactions for both the customers as well as merchants operating in the Bitcoins commerce (like BitcoinShop.US).
In addition it’s extremely important for law makers to realize Bitcoin is a global financial vehicle so any tight regulations will simply push business like BitcoinShop.US outside the US borders. There is already handful of other countries that encourage Bitcoin economy (Swiss, Singapore, Canada etc.).
Wouter Vonk, Founder of Bitgild responds:
This is always a tough subject as many will argue that bitcoin can not be regulated. However in my opinion governments will not vanish within the next years so they will try to find a way to get more control over it.
Exchanges and bitcoin related companies will play a big part in this as they are the players that control large cash flows. Recently New York has thrown in the idea of Bitcoin licenses. I think we will see more ideas and attempts like that in the coming year.
Esther Tung, founder of The Bitcoin Co-op responds:
Several more countries will release their legal and official stance on Bitcoin, particularly around tax reporting.
It’s unlikely that countries will outright ban Bitcoin, as it’d be much more profitable for governments to co-opt it and try to turn it around into something that benefits only the people in power, keeping in line with our current financial system.
That’s why mainstream adoption of Bitcoin is important, so that more people get on board with working with keep that from happening.
Antony, Business Development at itBit responds:
itBit sees regulators accepting digital currencies as legitimate, and discussions starting around how they are treated – as a currency, commodity, voucher, or other asset. Or indeed a new class of assets.
John Delono, Founder of Bitcoin Reviewer responds:
I am confident that we will see a lot more government regulation this coming year. Authorities are starting to realize that Bitcoin can have a huge impact on the global economy.
It would not be possible for them to completely ban the use of cryptocurrency, and it’s obvious that lawmakers are trying to adapt existing laws to work with Bitcoin.
Eddy Travia, Co-Founder of Seedcoin responds:
I believe that various governments will issue regulation to enable Bitcoin to be used in a fully compliant manner with local money transmitting and fiscal laws and this will positively impact the whole Bitcoin ecosystem.
Nikos Bentenitis, Founder of CoinSimple responds:
Most regulators are still learning about Bitcoin. As the number of companies that accept and use Bitcoin increases, the number of people who can educate and influence regulators will increase.
Frederic Thenault, Founder of iceVault responds:
We are likely to see more regulation – and this is not necessarily a bad thing. For one thing, it means that governments are realising the fact that bitcoin has moved from being “something for geeks” to being something that the mainstream could be interested in.
You know the saying, first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then… The beginnings of Bitcoin were plagued with the negative purposes that people could use them for – from money laundering to drugs and arms trafficking.
But in fact, most tools and technologies, either digital or not, can be used for good or for bad. Same goes with Bitcoin (and you could say the same thing about cash by the way).
The point is, the vast majority of people want to hold and use Bitcoin for legitimate reasons. Some see it as a cheaper, faster way of making payments (especially when speaking of micro, international payment, it’s much more efficient than what the banks can currently offer). Others see it as an investment tool.
A reasonable amount of regulation means a safer range of services that can benefit users, especially since some of them have been defrauded from their Bitcoin holdings either through hacking or through misplacing trust in unreliable service providers.
The path to mass-market adoption (we are not there yet, even though recent adoption rate is quite impressive) demands guidelines and safety guards that reasonable regulations could help foment.
That being said, there is of course always a danger of over-regulation – or banning – in some countries, which is a cause for concern. Yet recent moves by major Western governments are quite encouraging.
Aaron Williams, Founder of Atlanta Bitcoin responds:
I think we’ll see more clarification of regs come out of the US govt regarding Classification, Taxes, and Money Transmitter definition. Business who exchange USD for Bitcoin will still be expected to create and maintain AML/KYC programs, but I think there will be some reform on how they are exactly classified.
We are already seeing NY take the lead on that and I think all the other states will wait to see what they do before making any changes in their states.
Michael Dunworth, CEO of snapCard responds:
I would prefer them to spend the next 12 months educating themselves on what Bitcoin is and what potential it has on a global scale.
Gabriel Miron, Founder of MEXBT.com responds:
Each country has their own regulations, and they will dictate the rules in a way it is more beneficiary for them. Our main concern is to apply proper AML/KYC procedures so that everything is in order if authorities decided to conduct any audit.
Daniel Mross, Director of The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin responds:
I expect regulation to evolve slowly, but steadily, especially as businesses start adopting bitcoin for use in commerce.
A lot of banks are still wary of bitcoin, mostly because of the regulatory uncertainty, but I suspect bitcoin is nearing the point where the burden and costs of moving regulation forward will be worth the early mover advantages.
I expect the SEC approval of the Winklevoss trust will pass, and if so it will open the floodgates for additional funds and financial products to include bitcoin and possibly other crypto-currencies.
For individuals, I think most Americans are eager to hear what the IRS decides regarding taxation and I believe we will see new tax rules that apply to digital currencies.
Alexander Lawn, director of KnCMiner responds:
I believe we all hope to see encouraging steps in the right direction. Governments are without doubt taking it more, and more seriously and I think for the most part are keen not to make rash decisions.
There is obviously an existing financial industry to consider, and whilst cryptocurrencies are here to stay at an institutional level they need to be able to integrate seamlessly.
Over the weekend the UK Government has revealed they are ready to alter their classification of Bitcoin from being a tradable voucher to that of a private currency, meaning VAT becomes non applicable, with only capital gain being applied if a sum is held for more than a year.
So I would rather they take their time to review the opportunities a burgeoning financial industry presents us all with. I believe governments are taking Bitcoin seriously enough to consider proactive regulation, and I welcome their discussion on the topic further.
Alan Silbert, CEO of BitPremier responds:
It will be an important year, as governments will further develop their regulatory framework around virtual currencies. That will probably include further AML/KYC requirements for companies in the Bitcoin ecosystem and stated guidance on tax issues.
Bitcoin will move out of the regulatory and tax ‘gray area’ in many countries, and the global picture for Bitcoin friendly/unfriendly countries will further develop.
|
days and an investigation into the matter had started when one of the wallet covers was found lying empty, they said.
The incident had happened when the officer - who gets a salary of around Rs 65,000-70,000 per month - visited the CSD canteen in the Madh Island air force base in Mumbai in February 2013
An officer said: 'When the CCTV footage was checked, it was observed that the officer of the rank of Flt Lt had picked up the wallet and put it in his rear trouser pocket for concealing it from canteen staff, and after that, he was attached for trial by the authorities concerned.'
Indian Money Rs 100 = £1.19 1 Lakh = 100,000 (hundred thousand) 10 Lakh = 1,000,000 (a million) 1 Crore = 10,000,000 (ten million)
The General Court Martial also found him guilty and recommended him to be severely reprimanded, pay back Rs 531 as the cost of the wallet stolen by him to the unit and also forfeit one-year service for the purpose of promotion.
However, the then Air Force chief took a lenient view of the case and removed the loss of seniority from his punishment but the officer decided to approach the Armed Forces Tribunal to get the proceedings against him to be quashed completely.
The General Court Martial also found him guilty and recommended him to be severely reprimanded, pay back Rs 531 as the cost of the wallet stolen by him to the unit and also forfeit one-year service for the purpose of promotion
The bench headed by AFT chairman Justice Virender Singh found him not only indulging in theft but also trying to conceal his act
In the tribunal, the judges watched the CCTV footage before deciding the case.
The bench headed by AFT chairman Justice Virender Singh found him not only indulging in theft but also trying to conceal his act.
It said it supported the decision taken by the IAF whose chief had already applied his mind in the case and given relief to the officer.1969 Baldwin Motion Phase III GT Corvette Reading time: about 3 minutes. American
Cars
Rare
The Baldwin Motion Corvette
The Baldwin Motion Corvette is the result of a collaboration between Motion Performance and Baldwin Chevrolet on Long Island, they were only built between 1969 and 1971, before the US Justice Department shut them down.
The Feds used the Clean Air Act of 1970 to launch their case, The U.S. Government Against Motion Performance, but in reality the clean air reasoning was just an excuse – the government was cracking down on performance and tuning companies like Motion Performance for safety reasons.
Both emissions and vehicle safety had become major concerns due to work spearheaded by safety campaigners like Ralph Nader, resulting in cars like the Baldwin Motion Corvette becoming one of the final jewels from the twilight days of the American muscle car era.
Motion Performance
Motion Performance was run by Joel Rosen as both a street car tuning house, and a racing team that would go on to set multiple AHRA and NHRA records with a succession of heavy modified Camaros and Corvettes.
The two most famous Motion Performance creations were almost certainly the Mako Shark Corvette replica and the Baldwin Motion Phase III GT Corvette – the former designed as a kit to convert a C3 Corvette into a close approximation of the original concept car, and the latter designed to be the fastest and most luxurious Corvette the world had ever seen.
The Baldwin Motion Phase III GT Corvette
The Baldwin Motion Phase III GT Corvette is a close approximation of what the original team behind the Corvette might have built if it wasn’t for the pesky Chevrolet bean counters not allowing things like blueprinted 535 hp engines.
Each Baldwin Motion Corvette was slightly different, as they were built to customer specification. That said, most of the 10 that were made followed the same basic formula. A 427 cubic inch V8 with an Edelbrock intake manifold, a Holley carburetor, recessed headlights, a fully functional hood scoop, flared fenders, fastback rear glass, reversed side vents, a Motion traction bar, Motion slotted wheels, slit taillights, and notably larger rear tires than the factory vehicles.
These Mickey Thompson rear tires helped each Baldwin Motion Corvette meet its famous mid-11 second 1/4 mile time – a guarantee made by Motion Performance, so long as the car was being driven by an approved driver on a sanctioned drag strip.
Of the 10 that were built, only 3 are currently known to have survived. The fact that 70% of them have disappeared likely has something to do with the fact that not everyone is capable of safely driving a 535 hp car without parking it sideways through a telegraph pole.
The 1969 Baldwin Motion Phase III GT Corvette Shown Here
The car you see here is one of the most famous, it’s still fitted with its original 427 V8, it’s Muncie M21 4-speed transmission, and it’s the only one that was built with Shelby-style side scoops on the B-pillars. Over the years it’s been featured in multiple magazines including Corvette Fever, Supercar Magazine, and Cars.
Under the hood you’ll find the 427 V8, fitted with an Edelbrock intake and Holley 4-barrel carburetor tuned to produce approximately 500 hp – to ensure it could hit a mid-11 second quarter mile with ease.
If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Mecum.Reto Trinkler (https://ch.linkedin.com/in/reto-trinkler-170a78106/en) will give a high level introduction to the Melon protocol, an in-depth analysis of the smart contracts that make up the protocol and a short demo of the protocol in action. Melonport (https://melonport.com/) is the private company building the open-source Melon Protocol; the Melon protocol is a blockchain protocol for digital asset management built on Ethereum. Reto is CTO of Melonport and host of Zurich's Blockchain Hacklab.
Dan Finlay (https://twitter.com/danfinlay) and Kevin Serrano (https://github.com/Zanibas) will share some of their latest work on Metamask (https://metamask.io/), and will give a look at the future of using Ethereum in the web browser. Dan and Kevin are half of the MetaMask team, which is working to bring Ethereum to ordinary browsers.
We also will hear from Dominic Williams (https://twitter.com/dominic_w) of String Labs (http://string.technology/) on DFINITY (https://dfinity.network/). Here is Dominic's abstract: The DFINITY Foundation is developing an experimental sister network for Ethereum where the traditional "The Code is Law" paradigm will be replaced by "The AI is Law". The project introduces new protocol techniques and cryptography such as Threshold Relay that dramatically improve the performance of the blockchain and lay a path to scalability. After a recent seed crowdfunding, the foundation has $10M in assets, and a main round will run once the test network is live that is capped at 20M CHF.Published: 22:04, 28 August 2017 | Updated: 22:04, 28 August 2017
When Leicester sacked Richard Cockerill at the start of this year, he declared that he was still the right man for the job and that conviction has been reinforced by events since – in the East Midlands and the south of France.
As he prepares for the start of the Pro14 season with Edinburgh, his third club in a turbulent year of personal peaks and troughs, the ex-England hooker evidently remains bemused by his demise at the Tigers, where he had been in charge for eight years.
The angst lingers on. Being made redundant knocked his self-belief, but he regained it sufficiently in a short spell at Toulon to suggest now that his former bosses at Welford Road made a mistake by removing him in the name of reinvention.
Richard Cockerill is targeting success with his new Edinburgh side ahead of the Pro14 season
Cockerill admitted getting the sack at Leicester dented his confidence as a Rugby coach
'Leicester wanted to change the way they play and all they've done is find out that they probably didn't want to change the way they play,' said Cockerill – after Kiwi coach Aaron Mauger followed him out of the club.
The Tigers went on to re-hire Matt O'Connor and Cockerill added: 'They've gone back to what they used to do and what they've always done because they don't really want that (new playing style) – the people who employed me just thought they wanted that.
'What I should have done is just go, "This is how we play, this is what I believe in, I know it works" – and been stronger in my conviction. A crisis for Leicester is finishing fourth and losing a semi-final.
'I got sacked and I'd never finished outside the top four. There are guys in the Premiership who've never finished in the top four and they're still doing their jobs.'
But it's all smiles again after his stint in charge of Toulon gave him his self-belief back
This is trademark Cockerill; defiant and strident. Leaving Leicester has not mellowed this famously combative character. He relishes the raw intensity of the club game's upper reaches – the backs-to-the-wall pressure and expectation. What he discovered at Toulon was that he could survive and thrive away from the place where he was such a long-standing stalwart. He fell just short of a stunning title-winning coup.
He won many honours as a player and a coach for Leicester, but they sacked him in January
'When you get sacked, it's pretty s***,' he said. 'You get dented, because they don't think you're good enough. When I took over as head coach (at Toulon) they had six games to the final. We won six games to get to the final, which has got to help your confidence as a coach; knowing that what you are doing is actually right.
'They sacked Mike (Ford) on the Monday and nobody trained. There's myself, Marc del Maso and Giteau – who's never coached – and we have to beat Toulouse at Marseille in front of 65,000 people. You have four days to get prepped with a coach who's never coached and a scrum coach who's got Parkinson's disease and has his own issues.
'You just have to find a way to win against one of the best teams. You think, "I'm leaving anyway so f*** it". You need to be a f****** strong personality in that environment because everyone's going, "You need to win". So you say, "No problem, I'm used to winning".
Cockerill fired Toulon to the Top 14 final after winning six successive games
'The stadium is awesome and you have Toulon and Toulouse queuing up. Where else would you rather be? That's the biggest club arena in world rugby when you get into that company – and I was more than capable of taking that team by the scruff of the neck and getting it to a point where it won six games on the trot.
'We lost the final by six points, having not won away from home in six months and people are going, "Well, f***, you went into a dysfunctional place, got some order and made it work". Your reputation could take double dents in the space of six months so I needed to get it f****** right, which I did.'
Cockerill's spell at Toulon ended on a Sunday in June and he arrived in Edinburgh two days later, ready for an altogether different challenge. His task in Scotland is to deliver success at a club where that is an alien concept. The capital-city side have not been a force in their league or in Europe for several years. Countless coaching regimes have tried and failed to transform fortunes there. Now the Englishman at the helm is on the hunt for identity, hard graft and character.
But his side eventually lost in Marseille against Clermont Auvergne to a score of 22-16
'The club has been around for 140-odd years, but no-one can really tell me what the culture is,' he said. 'We've got a lovely castle but there haven't been any battles there! From 1872 until now, there is a s***-load of history and it is missing somewhere, in a cupboard. We've got to go and find it.
'Everything is new to me here, so you have to forge your reputation all over again. I have to take this group by the scruff of its neck and help them realise their potential.
'If they work hard and play well, they will get picked (for Scotland). If they don't do it for us, I won't pick them and I hope they don't get picked for Scotland because they won't deserve to.
Now at Edinburgh, Cockerill is aiming to put the past behind him and get back to winning ways
'I feel, rightly or wrongly, that too many guys at Edinburgh, historically, have used it as a place to play a few games of rugby, to get themselves fit for the Test matches. Scotland don't want that and I won't tolerate that, because I have no interest in the national team, at all.
'That's not my job. My job is to get whatever team I'm coaching to do their job. They've got to do it for Edinburgh first and the sooner they realise that, the better it will be for everybody.'
Edinburgh's players have been warned. They are not going to have a comfortable existence, but it could be a highly rewarding one – in time. Cockerill rattles cages and he makes teams win. He did it for years in England, he did once in France and eventually, perhaps before this year of upheaval is over, he will be doing it again in Scotland.(TorqueNews) Detroit, MI - BMW's latest collaboration agreement on clean vehicle technology appears to be a deal with General Motors on fuel cell systems. The deal would give BMW access to GM's fuel cell technology, and in turn they'll work together on further development. The deal was reported today on the German news website, WirtschaftsWoche, whose report says that GM and BMW are nearing an agreement.
The report says to expect a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in mid-January, after the Detroit Auto Show, and that neither company would outright confirm this report. BMW would only confirm that they are in negotiation with an American company.
A fuel cell vehicle is an electric vehicle, that carries an on-board fuel cell to charge the battery pack. There is a trade-off between fuel cell, hybrid, and battery electric vehicles, in energy storage density, refueling speed, refueling infrastructure and how clean it is. The fuel for FCV's is hydrogen, and typically hydrogen is extracted from natural gas, but when consumed by the fuel cell to produce electricity the only "exhaust" is water vapor.
Last month BMW and Toyota announced an agreement to work on lithium battery technology at the cell level, apparently planning to work on battery chemistry refinements.
In March 2010 GM announced they'd developed a "production-intent" fuel cell system, small enough to fit into the space of a traditional four-cylinder engine, which they expect will ready for commercial production in 2015. The WirtschaftsWoche report reiterates GM's expectation to begin fuel cell vehicle production in 2015. BMW is said to envision fuel cells in "the second generation of electric cars", replacing the battery pack, but not before 2020.
As many have noted in the past, commercial fuel cell vehicle production always seem to be 3-5-10 years in the future. In that regard nothing is different in this announcement, it's still several years into the future. This can be seen as one of the competing lines of research which could lead to cleaning up the transportation system.A SAXON brooch and skull uncovered by a metal detecting enthusiast may point to a 1,500-year-old royal grave hidden beneath a farmer’s fields.
The Home Office has ordered the exhumation of an early sixth century skeleton found in West Hanney, near Wantage, on Sunday to allow archaeologists to investigate the size of the burial site.
The quality of the Saxon jewellery found pinned to the body has already been compared to treasure found at the Sutton Hoo burial site in Suffolk in 1939 (see panel), now on display at the British Museum.
Anni Byard, Oxfordshire County Council’s finds liaison officer, said the brooch was likely to have belonged to royalty, or somebody of considerable wealth.
She said: “It’s an important find with the burial still intact.
“Finds like this don’t come along very often.”
Chris Bayston, 56, from Yorkshire, picked up a signal at a weekend metal detecting rally at the farm, which is not being named to protect the site.
Digging down 13 inches, he found a copper alloy brooch, covered in gold and studded with garnets and coral. Alongside it was the skull.
Mr Bayston, who has been metal detecting for 14 years, said: “I lifted a shovel load of muck out and as I threw it down I saw the brooch.
“I poked a hole open and saw the bones, and that’s when I thought, ‘Christ, I better stop — I’ve hit a serious find.’ “I cannot get my head around it yet. It’s a dream come true really, just unbelievable. They may be able to learn a lot from this.”
Rally organisers immediately realised they had uncovered a find of national significance, and called police to protect the discovery overnight.
Professional archaeologists began excavating the site yesterday, exhuming the body and sifting the mud for jewels which may have come detached from the brooch.
It is not yet known how long it will take to complete the operation.
Rally organiser Peter Welch, of the Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club, said: “This is the biggest find I’ve had in over 20 years.
“It could be a Saxon princess or queen, but we will need more excavation to find out.
“The brooch shows some very skilful workmanship, on a par with the Sutton Hoo burial.”
lsloan@oxfordmail.co.ukToday we have a guest post, the wonderful John Lepp from Idea Design. He so graciously agreed to write a guest post about effective design, especially as it relates to direct mail.Thanks to Lindsey for asking me to write a guest post on her blog.I asked for some ideas on a subject matter, one of which was “What is effective design?” A favourite subject of mine. It’s a favourite because if you asked 100 designers what makes design effective you will likely get 100 different answers.To me the answer is simple.Results.I design to get results, not look pretty (although sometimes I hope it is pretty too!)Let’s look at direct mail.Once I read over the creative brief and read through the letter, I like to have a chat with the writer and make sure I understand what is the core of their messaging. My job is to create an envelope that will get opened.As you can imagine, even if the letter inside is from God Himself, if the donor doesn’t open the package – what does it matter? (In which case I would typeset simply – ‘Letter from God inside’ - maybe I would BOLD God.)I have to get people in that package, and it might be pretty or it might be ugly, but it depends on the subject matter and being appropriate to the audience and the charity.Being appropriate is a large part of what makes design effective. If your donors are old – do not use 9pt type. If your charity raises money for environmental issues – do not design a package with 5 inserts, an 8 page letter and a bunch of freemiums… I know it seems like a no brainer – but trust me – I’ve seen it – and it is obvious me to the designer (or someone) is not thinking.I honestly believe that any marketing and communications a charity does needs to push people to do something. It must have a clear call to action. That makes it effective.And if it effective, it will have the results to prove it.WASHINGTON — A trio of Democratic senators are calling for an investigation into Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to US President Donald Trump, after a report surfaced that he was a member of a Nazi-allied Hungarian group — to which he supposedly took an oath of lifelong loyalty.
Members of the group known as Vitézi Rend told The Forward Thursday that Gorka, one of Trump’s top counter-terrorism advisers, has been long affiliated with their order. The State Department has said the organization was “under the direction of the Nazi Government of Germany.”
In response, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security Friday asking for an investigation into the matter.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up
Among the main requests that the senators made was for the departments to look into whether Gorka falsified information on immigration materials when he became a naturalized American citizen in 2012.
“We urge you to immediately investigate whether senior White House counter-terrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka falsified his naturalization application or otherwise illegally procured his citizenship,” they wrote.
“We note that this Administration has expressed a special interest in ensuring that those with extremist views do not exploit our immigration laws,” the senators wrote. “We are deeply concerned by reports that Dr. Gorka concealed the material fact of his membership in the Vitézi Rend, a far-right anti-Semitic Hungarian organization, when he applied for US citizenship.”
Gorky has denied the allegations. He told Tablet Magazine he’s never had any such affiliation with the neo-Nazi nativist group. “I have never been a member of the Vitez Rend,” he said. “I have never taken an oath of loyalty to the Vitez Rend. Since childhood, I have occasionally worn my father’s medal and used the ‘v.’ initial to honor his struggle against totalitarianism.”
Gorka was photographed and interviewed at Trump’s inauguration wearing the uniform and medal of the Hungarian group. He may have inherited the medal and uniform from his grandfather, according to foreign policy site Lobelog.
Vitézi Rend was founded in 1920 by Miklós Horthy, who served as regent of Hungary until 1944. Horthy was an ally of Adolf Hitler and collaborated with the Nazis throughout most of World War II. During the war, confiscated Jewish property was distributed to members of the order by the Hungarian government.
The senators’ letter said there was added urgency to investigating the matter based on the administration’s history.
“We are particularly troubled by Dr. Gorka’s reported affiliation with an anti-Semitic organization because of the White House’s own checkered record on religious discrimination,” the senators said. “For the first time in decades, the White House’s statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day failed to mention the Jewish victims, an omission which Dr. Gorka publicly defended.”
They also said the president “was slow to condemn the wave of attacks on Jewish community centers and has yet to condemn the surge in anti-Muslim bigotry.”Having spent the past 5 weeks backpacking around Southern Africa and sleeping in some of the coolest hostels in the world, I feel it’s about time I shared my list of the 9 best backpacker hostels in South Africa. I have judged all the hostels I stayed in myself, and also chatted to all the other travellers I met along the way to see what their favourite hostels were to try to work out what makes a really great backpackers hostel. One I worked out what makes a good hostel (and what makes a bad one!) I wrote down all the places I stayed and that finally worked out my favourite 9.
PRO TIP: If you’re planning to travel in South Africa, be it on a budget or on a luxury tour, I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to have decent travel insurance – especially if you plan to tour by bike or scooter. I always use World Nomads, as they’re known as the best insurer for backpackers and long term travellers.
Where to next?? Ireland has some great hostels too!
Characteristics of the best hostels in South Africa;
They’re big enough to be able to make lots of new friends and meet people but no so big that it feels like a hotel and becomes difficult to make friends.
They all have a great atmosphere, helped along by friendly staff and a layout which encourages people to mingle rather than sitting alone. Think large tables which sit 10+ people or a bar with Table Football or a Beer Pong table, and nightly activities such as pub crawls, pool tournaments or theme parties.
Many organize family dinners which are often very cheap and mean that everyone gets to eat at the same time and make friends while doing so.
The hostel makes the destination. In many places in South Africa, people will drive 6 hours to stay in a hostel where there is virtually nothing to do except stay at the hostel. In South Africa, this defines a really great, and well established, hostel. People travel from far and wide simply to stay in the hostel.
They encourage people to hang around together. A great atmosphere and vibe in a hostel in a busy town or beach will also guarantee that most people will stay in the hostel all day hanging out by the swimming pool or sipping on beers instead of venturing out.
Location, location, location. Be it nestled under the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town, over looking one of the top surf beaches in the world or situated in a hidden bay along the Wild Coast, all of South Africa’s best backpackers hostels have being built in the most perfect locations, making exploring the local area or simply enjoying the view, that mush sweeter.
Good WiFi!! A hostel that does not have free (or at least good) WiFi in 2015 is seriously behind the times. Most hostels on this list (but not all, sadly) have excellent internet connections and allow anyone staying there to connect for free. South Africa is definitely still behind the rest of the world in terms of good internet connection, with many hostels only having WiFi close to the bar or reception area and most requiring you to log in with annoying little codes which only last for 30 minutes.
Right, so now that you know what makes a good hostel, let me present to you my 9 favourites. I don’t normally do these lists in order, but this time I have decided to as some of these were definitely better that other. Please let me know if you stayed in some great hostels in South Africa that you believe should be added to the list…I love hearing about great hostels that I missed or never stayed in.
9. Santos Express, Mossel Bay
Santos Express Train Hostel was the first hostel we stayed in on our road trip up the East Coast of South Africa and the view we were greeted with when we woke up was enough to give it a place in this list!! The hostel is actually a train, parked up on a hill running alongside Santos Beach in Mossel Bay. The cabins are pretty much just the way the would have been when the train was still in operation and one of the carriages has been renovated and is now a bar and restaurant with a large deck area and spectacular views over the bay.
While the hostel itself was a bit quiet, and there wasn’t really that much of an atmosphere in the bar compared to the other hostels on this list, Santos Express gets extra points for uniqueness and the price of the drinks…which were the cheapest we came across on our trip! The bedrooms / cabins also had the best morning view…a view that honestly couldn’t be beaten!
8. Wild Spirit Backpackers, The Crags
Wild Spirit Backpackers in The Crags, which is in the middle of The Garden Route, is one of those special places in South Africa that everyone should try and make it to. But only a rare few do…which is actually what keeps the spirit alive. Whether you are looking to hike, swim in the ocean with bio luminescent plankton or just laze learning to master some fire poi by a camp fire…this is your place! This eco-friendly hostel is surrounded by indigenous forests, well maintained organic gardens, yellow wood trees and stunning waterfalls.
You will be delighted to be placed in their bunk free dorms (hooray, no drunken climbing up triple bunks with no ladder!!) and the spectacular view from the rooms is hard to beat. The place is run by a load of volunteers who will always go out of their way to help you out and to make you feel at home. Many backpackers I encountered said their stay in this hostel made their entire South Africa trip and they would 100% recommend to all their friends.
Other people I chatted to said they had heard about it as far away as Hawaii and couldn’t wait to spend a few weeks there. Definitely a very special place.
7. Afrovibe, Sedgefield
Despite the fact that in rained for the full 3 days we stayed at Afrovibe, I could still see what huge potential this party hostel has. Located in Sedgefield along the Garden Route (half way between Knysna and Wilderness), the hostel is situated right on the beach in between large sand dunes. While the dorm rooms were nothing to write home about (although they were en-suite which was a big bonus!) the bar was the real winner here. The hostel has a huge bar and restaurant area, and to continue the beach vibe theme the entire area is covered in sand…including the inside area! There is also a massive bonfire lit each evening, a large beer pong table and some of the best wood fire pizza I tasted in South Africa.
The staff were really friendly and could be found hanging out in the bar or around the bonfire each evening, and were always willing to help out arranging activities or accommodation for other parts of your trip. Perfect hostel for any surfers looking for some good waves or just for beach bums looking to chill out on the dunes. This hostel also has a real novel way of welcoming people after they check in…they take them down to the beach and take photos with large wooden photo frames..to ensure you’ll never forget your stay at Afrovibe!
6. Away With The Fairies, Hogsback
Away With The Fairies, located in the village of Hogsback in the Amathole mountains, is one of South Africa’s true hidden gems. While a popular place among many intrepid backpackers, the town itself is still very sleepy and not known by most South Africans. What makes this place so special is that it is unlike any other place you will visit. The hostel and gardens that surround it are often covered in this mystical mist and fog that comes in from the mountains, obscuring one of the most spectacular views in the entire region.
This town is said to have a strong link with J R R Tolkien who lived here until he was four years old and returned many times in his later years. There is a real ‘Lord of The Rings’ theme going on everywhere you look, from rooms in the hostel named after characters from the books such as Samwise, Merry and Pippin, as well as signs to a local village called The Shire. In the evenings you can sign up for the family dinners served on a long table by a bug open fire, and if you feel like a bit of pampering you can sign up for a massage from the resident masseuse and tarot card reader. The main attraction in this place, however, is their incredible outdoor bath overlooking the valley below. The staff can turn on the hot water for you and you can hop into the most extreme bath tub you will ever come across in your life.
5. Ashanti Lodge Gardens, Cape Town
Ashanti Lodge and Gardens in Cape Town totally blew me away. More of a flashpackers than a regular hostel, this is the kind of place where you will find it very difficult to find any flaws. The entire hostel is spotless and all the bathrooms are kept super clean and tidy, somewhat of an anomaly in cheap hostels! There were plenty of plug sockets in the rooms and everyone has their own light above their bed. The rooms were spacious and my dorm even had a sink so we could brush our teeth without having to walk down the corridor to the bathrooms. Facilities wise, there was a big swimming pool with deck chair all nestled at the bottom of Table Mountain which meant amazing views while you lay sunbathing, a large chill out area both inside and outside and a bar with a pool table. It is by no means a party hostel and the bar does close pretty early, but it still gives solo travelers enough time to make friends with fellow backpackers before heading out to Long Street which is only a few minutes walk away. There is also a large garden out the front for having BBQ’s and the women at the travel desk was super helpful in helping me decide what activities to do each day. When I return to Cape Town, I definitely know where I’ll be staying! Fun fact: Ashanti was one of the first 10 hostels in the world to sign up to Hostelworld.com when it first started!
4. The Coffee Shack, Coffee Bay
The Coffee Shack in beautiful Coffee Bay is somewhat of an institution in South Africa. It’s being welcoming intrepid backpackers for over 15 years, having first opened its doors in February 2000. I was lucky enough to stay in this awesome hostel way back in 2004 so I was delighted to return this year and to see how much (or in this case how little) had changed. It’s amazing how the hostel has kept the same vibe and welcoming atmosphere for over a decade. The Coffee Shack is more like a tight knit community than your typical backpackers hostel. There are lots of volunteers, the staff will do whatever to make you feel at home and there are so many freebies such as buckets full of fresh mussels and free dinner on a Sunday evening! They give back to the community through scholarship and employment programmes and give guests the opportunity to integrate with the locals through home stays and village walks.
The dorms are in traditional Rondavels, small round huts that are the norm in this part of South Africa. The whole complex is a bit like a sprawling maze, with lots of places to sit and chill out, a lively bar and a cute garden (perfect for camping) with a view over the river mouth and coffee bay. There are nightly parties, family dinners and loads of fun activities including hikes to Hole in the Wall and the cheapest surf lessons in all of South Africa…just 50 rand (about 3 euro!) for a 2 hour lesson!!
3. Curiocity Backpackers, Johannesburg
I actually dedicated a whole blog post to this amazing hostel as I was really taken by surprise and couldn’t believe how much of a hidden gem it was. It honestly 100% made my trip to Johannesburg and If I had not stayed in Curiocity Backpackers, there is no way I would have hung around Joburg for 6 days like I did. The hostel is super new and modern, but in a very historic district and building, which gives the place a very cool edge. It’s located in a really safe area of Joburg and there are tonnes of cool bars and hipster cafes nearby. Their free Wifi was the best connection I found in South Africa, the staff were beyond helpful and everyone staying there ensured there was always a great atmosphere in the bar or on the sundeck, or if it was warm enough, in and around the awesome hot tub out back.
2. Buccaneers, Chintsa
The first comment I made to the receptionist in Buccaneers Hostel in Chinsta, which slipped out of my mouth just as she showed me into their ‘cheapest’ dormitory was, “You’re got to be kidding me!”. The view was literally insane. It was the best view from a hostel dormitory that I have ever seen and remains one of my top hostels in the world. The fact that it was only costing me about 8 euro a night was the real cherry on top. Buccaneers is a bit different from all the other hostels in that it is more like an all-inclusive resort than a simple hostel. They organize daily activities for guests such as Volley Ball tournaments and Treasure Hunts and they offer free boxed wine to everyone at 4pm everyday to try and get solo travelers mingling with everyone else. They offer horse riding, game drives, surf lessons and a range of other activities to ensure your days are full of fun. There are also massages on offer, a pool-side bar and restaurant, a swimming pool, volley ball courts, canoes and surf boards you can use and even yoga sessions in the mornings.
The ‘View of Africa’ restaurant, where they serve up delicious breakfasts and family style group dinners, has one of the most incredible views you will come across and will ensure that some days, like me, you will eat your breakfast overlooking the lagoon and bay and probably stay put for the whole day.
1. Island Vibe, Jeffrey’s Bay
Ahhhh Island Vibe, my happy place. It’s hard to pinpoint what makes this hostel so special but it pretty much bears all the characteristics mentioned at the top of this post that sum up a great backpackers hostel. First of all, the location is unbeatable. Situated on a hill top on the far Eastern corner of J-bay, it over looks the beach and many excellent surf breaks. There is a 180′ panoramic view of the beach from pretty much anywhere you look, and there are also backpackers sitting around on the picnic benches, deck chairs or just lazing on the grass enjoying the sunshine and wicked views. The ‘vibe’ here really is seriously special. The staff are hilarious, super friendly and always willing to help. They seem to know everyone’s name from the minute you arrive and are always happy to grab a beer with you, bring you surfing or to just lounge around and drinks some cold beers.
This is the kind of place where many backpackers gets stuck for many days or even weeks, unable to fight off that impending hangover and thus taking the easy option of continuing to keep drinking and challenging the new arrivals to a game of beer pong. Whether it’s doing one of Goodman’s excellent Township tours, going cliff jumping at the waterfall or signing up for an early morning surf lesson with Gabriel, your days at Island Vibe will be packed with endless fun. Or filled with nothing at all except for curling up in the shade with a good book and cold beer. That’s the joy of this place.By Leigh Torbin
When a pair of Notre Dame women's lacrosse alumni recently lost their fathers to cancer mere months apart, typically, head coach Christine Halfpenny and her program would not sit back idly. The good deeds of the Irish and partner Saint Joseph Health System during the inaugural "Daughters for |
. The team’s past three victories have all been by a 2-1 margin. Goalie Brian Elliott has been impressive lately, going 11-3-2 since Jake Allen suffered a knee injury in early January. Winger Jaden Schwartz has three goals in four games since returning from an ankle injury that cost him 49 games. Overall, winger Vladimir Tarasenko paces St. Louis in goals (27) and points (49).Media Releases
latest releases | archive
Scientists discover why we never forget how to ride a bicycle
You never forget how to ride a bicycle – and now a University of Aberdeen led team of neuroscientists has discovered why.
Their research, published this month in Nature Neuroscience, has identified a key nerve cell in the brain that controls the formation of memories for motor skills such as riding a bicycle, skiing or eating with chop sticks.
When one acquires a new skill like riding a bicycle, the cerebellum is the part of the brain needed to learn the co-ordinated movement.
The research team, which includes scientists from the Universities of Aberdeen, Rotterdam, London, Turin and New York, has been working to understand the connections between nerve cells in the cerebellum that enable learning.
They discovered that one particular type of nerve cell –the so called molecular layer interneuron - acts as a "gatekeeper", controlling the electrical signals that leave the cerebellum. Molecular layer interneurons transform the electrical signals into a language that can be laid down as a memory in other parts of the brain.
Dr Peer Wulff, who led the research in Aberdeen together with Prof. Bill Wisden at the University's Institute of Medical Sciences, said: "What we were interested in was finding out how memories are encoded in the brain. We found that there is a cell which structures the signal output from the cerebellum into a particular code that is engraved as memory for a newly learned motor skill. "
It could pave the way for advancements in prosthetic devices to mimic normal brain functions, which could benefit those who have suffered brain disorders, such as a stroke or multiple sclerosis.
Dr Wulff said: "To understand the way that the normal brain works and processes information helps the development of brain-computer interfaces as prosthetic devices to carry out the natural brain functions missing in patients who have suffered a stroke or have multiple sclerosis.
"Our results are very important for people interested in how the brain processes information and produces and stores memories. One day these findings could be applied to the building of prosthetic devices by other research teams."
This research was funded by the Medical Research Council.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Issued by the Communications Team, Office of External Affairs, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Regent Walk. Tel: 01224 272013. Contact: Joanne Rostron.
Ref: 211BikeMemory
Date: July 17, 2009
Issued by the Communications Team, Office of External Affairs, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen. Tel: (01224) 272014.
Issued on: Friday 17th of July 2009
Ref: 211BikeMemory
Contact: Joanne Rostron
<< backSaint Patrick may not have driven the snakes from Ireland, but a pair of warships named for Irish novelists are keeping them out. Prefaced with “Long Éireannach,” meaning “Irish Ship”, the patrol vessel L.E. Samuel Beckett will be joined by its sister ship the L.E. James Joyce this May, if commissioning goes ahead as planned. And when Joyce goes to war, he’ll bring along a host of robots.
L.E James Joyce is an “offshore patrol vessel." These ships surveil the exclusive economic zone off Ireland’s coasts, extending toward Great Britain in the East and into the Atlantic in the west. It covers over 158,000 square miles in area. To cover all that territory, Joyce will fly drones. Which drones exactly haven't been specified, but there are a few possibilities.
In 2013 the Irish Naval Service ran a practice exercise using Israeli-made Orbiter drones, the same ones Israel’s navy has launched from the decks of ships. The naval version of the Orbiter requires a small catapult on deck to launch it. SkyTec Ireland may also be developing a drone for the Irish fleet to use. Besides the drones in the sky, Joyce will also launch and control small robot submarines.
The rest of the ship will be more traditional fare. Like the Beckett before it, Joyce will be almost 300 feet long, powered by two diesel engines, and have a top speed around 26 mph, though it will more often patrol at around 17 mph. Its armament consists of a large Italian-made OTO Malar 76mm rapid-fire cannon, two smaller German-made rapid-fire cannons, and several machine guns. After it is commissioned in April, the L.E. James Joyce will, in the words of Joyce himself, serve Ireland on “The sea, the snotgreen sea, the (unprintable) sea.”Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The 25-year-old had unknowingly been communicating with undercover FBI agents
A former marine has been arrested by the FBI on suspicion of planning a terror attack in San Francisco over Christmas.
Everitt Aaron Jameson, 25, was held after allegedly discussing the plot with undercover FBI agents.
Criminal documents allege he planned to target the Pier 39 area, popular with tourists in the city.
Authorities say firearms, a will and a letter claiming the attack were found during a search of his home.
The FBI criminal complaint says that Mr Jameson's letter made reference to Donald Trump's decision to designate Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
They say Mr Jameson came to their attention in September after expressing "radical jihadi beliefs" and support of so-called Islamic State through social media use.
The FBI complaint said he had expressed his support of attacks, including the October 31 truck attack in New York.
Mr Jameson allegedly named the San Francisco's Pier 39 as a target, an area popular for its restaurants, shops and resident sea lions, because "he had been there before and knew that it was a heavily crowded area".
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The area is an attraction because of the sea lions that frequent Pier 39's famous K-Dock
Investigators allege Mr Jameson had expressed a will to use explosives in the attack to "tunnel" or "funnel" people into a smaller area to inflict casualties. The FBI says he sought materials that could be made into a pipe bomb from an agent.
But on 18 December Mr Jameson apparently hesitated, telling an agent: "I don't think I can do this after all. I've reconsidered."
A search warrant for his home was issued, where a number of firearms and related material was found.
He has been charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
Mr Jameson attended basic recruitment training for the US Marine Corps in 2009, but was reportedly discharged for not disclosing details of his asthma.They come through forests and farmers fields, in Quebec, Manitoba and the Prairies. Sometimes alone, sometimes with children and luggage, migrants are crossing into Canada from the United States. This isn’t unprecedented, or even particularly rare: there’s always been a slow trickle of would-be refugees and asylum-seekers slipping over the border. But hundreds have crossed already in 2017, at a rate far in excess of what we’ve seen in recent years.
Every migrant would have their own story, their own explanation of why they came. So far, it seems that they are running from fears there will be a crackdown on refugees and migrants under U.S. President Donald Trump. Or a ramping-up of deportations for illegal immigrants. Some of them may simply be seeking a more comfortable life in a country that has lately loudly advertised itself as a kinder, gentler analogue to its larger neighbour to the south. In any event, they are coming, and local jurisdictions are struggling to cope.
More police and border guards have been sent to remote areas well away from official crossing points. Small border communities, often little more than hubs for local farms, are having to establish shelters for those who arrive with only what they can carry. Private citizens are awoken in the dead of night by migrants knocking on their doors, asking if they’re in Canada and if they can come in out of the cold.
This is not a crisis, yet. It seems to be currently straddling a position somewhere between an inconvenience and a novelty, at least for those whose fields aren’t now transit corridors. But this is also happening in the dead of winter. The crossing will only get easier and more tempting as spring arrives and the weather warms. The trickle may turn into a flood.
There’s a small chance the currently hazy future of so many non-citizens living in the U.S. might clear up before then, convincing the thousands, or hundreds of thousands, who might now be pondering a northern exodus that it’s safe to stay where they are. But for the first time in generations, there is a real possibility of a genuine crisis on our undefended border with the United States. This is something the federal government must be preparing for. The sooner, the better.
Preparedness and the preservation of public order is the most fundamental mandate of any government. Canada, for almost 150 years now a land of peace and plenty with a powerful and friendly neighbour, has had the luxury of not worrying much about that. We take stability and peace so utterly for granted that we often think of government now as merely a somewhat inefficient but mostly harmless redistributor of wealth and provider of certain public services (and many of them we could just as easily live without).
But maintaining the integrity of our borders and protecting the safety of everyone, including those crossing our frontier, is not just a moral and legal obligation. It is literally what governments, in free societies, exist to do. This is Job One.
To that end, we have some questions for the federal government. Does Canada have enough border guards to patrol our frontier while also staffing our official border crossings? Do we have enough police to intercept those crossing the border illegally while also maintaining normal patrols? Because although Canada treats those entering illegally humanely, and provides them a fair asylum hearing, sneaking in is still illegal, and the migrants are typically released into the public until their hearing date.
Are there enough personnel to convene and adjudicate the review hearings in a reasonably timely manner? Do frontline personnel, both customs and police officers, have the tools and equipment to do a reasonable job monitoring Canada’s enormous and undefended land border?
The federal government seems not to yet have answers to all these questions. Indeed, the Liberals have been largely silent about any responses to the growing migrant numbers, satisfied so far with the boost this new phenomenon provides to their welcoming and inclusive political brand. That’s forgivable to a point: this is an unforeseen and surprising situation. But it is not likely sustainable. At the very least, it is imperative that Ottawa be asking itself these questions, and moving with determination and speed to address any gaps — we suspect there are more than a few — that these questions expose.
This is not about slamming the door to would-be refugees. We are a country of our word and those arriving in Canada outside of normal crossing points are entitled to a hearing and humane treatment in the interim (an agreement between Canada and the U.S. means that migrants arriving at official crossing points can be returned directly to the U.S., which is why migrants are crossing through fields and forests — perhaps something else the government must address).
But Canada owes everyone, including its own citizens and migrants, a proper and professional response to unsanctioned border crossings. After generations of peace and calm on the U.S. frontier, and successive governments that have taken matters of security and border control less seriously than they ought to have, it remains to be seen whether we are in a position to meet that basic, essential obligation.In news that should surprise absolutely no one, Kid Rock has defiantly dismissed protesters offended by his use of the Confederate flag at concerts.
The Michigan-born singer and rapper was the focus of a recent Fox News segment (which you can watch above) discussing the protest of a museum exhibit in Detroit devoted to his career. One might think that Rock, as one of the city's best-known performers, might get a free pass from the residents of Detroit, but in this case, he's being held to a higher standard by those who wish he'd set a better example and question the meaning of the Confederate flag to a guy who was neither born nor raised anywhere near the South.
As National Action Network director Sam Riddle puts it in the segment: "How in the hell can Kid Rock represent Detroit and wave that flag just generating millions and millions in ticket sales — a flag that represents genocide to most of Detroit?"
The flag has obviously been at the center of a huge national debate lately, but Rock — who's currently on tour with Foreigner — doesn't seem terribly interested in trading points of view. In response, he offered a written statement to Fox host Megyn Kelly, who read it on air: "Please tell the people protesting to kiss my... ask me some questions."
The iconography of the flag is an issue that a number of Southern artists have wrestled with in recent years — Lynyrd Skynyrd caught flak from fans when they expressed their discomfort with it — but anyone expecting a nuanced response from Kid Rock on this or any issue was bound to be disappointed. Those seeking a genuine Southern musician's thoughts on the matter are encouraged to seek out " The South’s Heritage Is So Much More Than a Flag," the recent New York Times editorial penned by Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood.
See 2015’s Biggest Rock News StoriesA Republican Congressman cited the biblical flood as an example of climate change that had not been caused by humans. Texas Rep. Joe Barton made those remarks Wednesday at the Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on H.R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act, a bill that would give Congress the authority approve the Keystone pipeline.
"I don't think it's a secret that I'm a proponent and supporter of the Keystone pipeline," Barton said.
Barton continued to say he didn't deny the climate was changing, but argued that the change was due to natural causes, as he has in the past.
"I would point out that people like me who support hydrocarbon development don't deny that climate is changing," he added. "I think you can have an honest difference of opinion of what's causing that change without automatically being either all in that's all because of mankind or it's all just natural. I think there's a divergence of evidence."
Barton then cited the biblical Great Flood as an example of climate change not caused by man.
"I would point out that if you're a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change and that certainly wasn't because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy."It’s really hard to get your own mailbag from me. As far as I can remember, it’s only happened once: when Bernard Karmell Pollard wrecked Tom Brady’s knee in 2008. But with America going Linsane in the Membrane, we didn’t have any choice — it’s time for the all-Linsanity mailbag. As always, these are actual e-mails from actual readers.
Q: Over/Under on Jeremy Lin references in your next mailbag: 13.5. Who could blame you for going over? You wrote the Bible of basketball, so you can provide context. Have you ever seen anything like this?!
— Chris H., San Diego
SG: Take the over. And no.
Q: Doesn’t LeBron James have to be kicking himself watching Jeremy Lin light up Madison Square Garden? LeBron could be the man lighting up the Garden, and he would be legendary for revitalizing basketball in New York! If he was ever to question his “Decision,” you’d think it would be on the night Lin put up 38 and drew “MVP!” chants against the Lakers.
— Casey, Dell Rapids, S.D.
SG: Poor LeBron — he really does get blamed for everything. Although you’re tapping into the single most important point of Linsanity something that, from a “shaping the history of the league” standpoint, probably transcends anything Jeremy Lin will do for the Knicks. You know, unless he wins three titles or something. Let’s keep going.
Q: Isn’t what’s currently going on with Jeremy Lin in New York the ultimate example of why Lebron should have signed there? The kid had a few good games and now OWNS the biggest city in America. Imagine what Lebron could have done there … I know it’s beating a dead horse at this point, but what a cop out.
— Steve, London, U.K.
SG: It’s not beating a dead horse. It’s a crucial point. One more e-mail on this
Q: Do you see how the Garden is electric with Jeremy Lin? He’s a legend in NY in less than 2 weeks. That’s what LeBron never realized. If he came to The NYK every single game would be like that. We as a city are so starved for basketball success that if he brought us a championship he would have been a Greek god in NYC just walking along with the mortals. I hate LeBron.
— KDubb, Queens, N.Y.
SG: You shouldn’t hate LeBron. You should hate the judgment/instincts/business acumen of his “advisors” (the numbskulls who pushed him toward Miami and/or didn’t talk him out of it); how he walked away from the single biggest basketball challenge (winning a championship with the star-crossed Knicks, which would have made him immortal); his bizarre choice to play with his biggest rival over trying to beat him (who does that???); the fact that he played in Madison Square Garden FOR SIX SEVEN STRAIGHT SEASONS without realizing there’s a different energy in that building (????); or this current NBA culture in which people look at themselves as “brands” instead of “basketball players” and make every decision accordingly (and ironically, no decision for LeBron’s “brand” would have been better than LeBron saving the Knicks).
Look, I love the Lin story — I can’t get enough of it. I have been following the NBA my entire life; it’s always the other leagues that had Fernandomania, Fidrych or Teeeeeee-bowwwwwwwww! Basketball isn’t supposed to have surprises like this. On a basketball court, talent always wins out no matter what game you’re watching. It happens at every level — whether you’re playing pickup, high school ball, intramurals, college ball, D-League, whatever. You always know who the best player is; you can always tell substance from sizzle; you can always differentiate the gamers from the frauds; and even when we have a late NBA bloomer (like, say, Bruce Bowen), it’s always someone who clearly had an elite skill, then figured out how to augment it with just enough other stuff to become a valuable player. People don’t come out of nowhere in the NBA. That’s why Billy Ray Bates was the go-to reference these past seven days — what else were you going to say? Even someone like Ben Wallace (a more modern example of a normal “late NBA bloomer”) excelled as a bench player for Washington before exploding for Orlando.
What’s happening with Lin right now? Unprecedented. I have never seen it before — shit, I’ve never even seen a homeless man’s version of it before. And we’re going to hit some of my favorite things about his ascent throughout this mailbag. Just know that LeBron’s shadow lingers over all of it. He could have owned New York, and more important, he should have owned New York. There was — literally — no reason that it shouldn’t have happened other than greed, hubris and (I hate to say it) just a hint of cowardice. I refuse to believe that, after playing in that building in front of those fans for seven years, it didn’t dawn on LeBron that he could have been immortal in New York. How could someone not see that? My friend Lewis (a die-hard Lakers fan) went to Friday’s Lakers-Knicks game as well as Game 7 of the 2010 Finals — he said that the crowds were identical. Think about that. Chew on it. That’s what LeBron James passed up. And I’ll bet anything that, at some point in his life, he’s going to regret it.
Q: You joked that Disney would call the Tebow movie “Fourth and God.” What’s the Lin movie going to be called?
— John, Berkeley, Calif.
SG: My first instinct was to give it a cute title like Linning Time, but when you consider this is following the real-life Rudy or Rocky script — and he’s more talented than either of them — wouldn’t we have to call it Jeremy? And have Pearl Jam remake “Jeremy” with lyrics that center around a Taiwanese-American Harvard grad saving the Knicks instead of, you know, a bullied kid destroying everyone in his class?
Q: What if Jeremy Lin is the Manchurian Hoopster, created and unleashed by ESPN to provide storylines during an otherwise dead sports period? I thought of this five minutes ago. Now I can’t fully talk myself out of it. It would be the absolute nadir (or pinnacle I guess, depending on perspective) of the evil powers of the NBA and ESPN combined. Please, talk me out of this being feasible.
— Jerod, Dallas
SG: No way — for that to be true, he would have to have attended a college filled with evil brainiac professors with a vested interest in brainwashing/corrupting him, and David Stern would have had to have gotten an honorary Ph.D. from that same college.
(Hey, wait a second )
Q: As Jeremy Lin continues to hit game-winners by day and sleep on Landry Field’s couch by night, many are comparing Tim Tebow’s improbable run to Jeremy Lin’s. What’s the difference you ask? Just think about the questions that went through your head as you watched Tebow and Lin the first few times. When you watched Tebow, you probably wondered things like: “How did Tebow just miss that throw? How is this guy even starting?! OH MY GOD how the hell did Tebow just win that game?!?!” But watching Lin, you ask questions like: “How did a guy this good go to Harvard? How did nobody draft this guy!? HOW THE HELL were Toney Douglas, Iman Shumpert, and even Mike Bibby’s corpse starting over him?!?!” And there’s your answer.
— Alex, Eugene, Ore.
SG: Absolutely. You nailed it. The best thing about Tebow: We knew it didn’t make sense and we didn’t care. We just held on for the ride. (While assuming that ride could end at any moment.) But Lin? I watched his last few games thinking, I don’t get it. How can 29 teams whiff so badly? He can beat people off the dribble, he can shoot, he rose to the occasion when it mattered at every level, he’s not a dick, he can run high screens, he has a high basketball IQ, and it’s not that he’s too small or something. Also, the league revolves around point guards in 2012 more than any other season before it, and we’re coming off a playoffs in which a similarly unique offensive weapon who killed it in college and eventually evolved into an asset as a scoring guard (J.J. Barea) just helped Dallas win the title.
So how did everyone miss? Yeah, he’s not the greatest defender. Yeah, he’s too careless with the basketball (at least right now, as a young player). But when you remember he won AND produced in high school and college, it’s strange that nobody ever gave him a real chance. A friend of mine knows Jeremy and says that when Jeremy got waived by the Warriors, he couldn’t believe it and started to wonder if he would ever get a fair shake. At no point did Lin ever feel like he didn’t belong in the league. He just wanted one chance.
On the other hand, if you zip through everyone’s rosters, it makes a little more sense: Either teams had already invested draft picks in young backup points (Jimmer Fredette, Avery Bradley, Josh Selby, etc.), traded for ones that needed to play (Goran Dragic, Jerryd Bayless, etc.), overpaid for them in free agency (Bassy Telfair, Jordan Farmar, etc.), made moves for a backup before Lin became available (Utah, New Orleans, Atlanta, etc.), couldn’t get rid of the ones they had (Derek Fisher, Chris Duhon, Beno Udrih, etc.) or were already stacked at the position (Denver, the Clippers, Portland, Philly, etc.). The only teams that had no excuse: Golden State (who had him!), Washington (unless you’re a big Shelvin Mack fan), Phoenix (who never should have invested in Telfair to begin with) and, of course, the Lakers (who totally whiffed). Of course
Q: This just hit me: If Stern doesn’t veto the Lakers/Rockets/Hornets trade Jeremy Lin would still be a Rocket. Houston couldn’t keep Lin because they already had 3 PG’s with fully guaranteed contracts (Lowry, Dragic, Flynn). If the trade is allowed to go through, Lin would have been able to take Dragic’s spot on the roster. Instead Stern vetoes the trade, and now Lin is singlehandedly saving the Knicks season, and keeping them out of the lottery. Oh ya, Houston owns New York’s first rounder (top 5 protected). Is it possible Stern knew all this, and this was his actual reason for vetoing the trade? Also is this Stern’s way of getting back at Houston for booing him after Game 7 of the NBA Finals? Let’s be honest, the man isn’t above grudges.
— Adam Spolane, Houston
SG: I love when Daryl Morey writes me with the alias “Adam Spolane.” And yeah, you’re right — if the Gasol trade goes through and Houston follows that up by signing Nene (something the Rockets believe would have happened, even if the rest of the league is dubious), here’s Houston’s team right now: Kyle Lowry, Courtney Lee, Chandler Parsons, Nene and Pau Gasol (starters); Jeremy Lin, Marcus Morris, Patrick Patterson, Jordan Hill, Chase Budinger, Free Agent 2-Guard to Be Named (bench). Pretty interesting. Daryl will now light himself on fire.
(PS: Did you notice Houston was awarded the 2013 NBA All-Star Game last week? My buddy House is convinced that was Stern’s way of apologizing for screwing the Rockets over. It’s like Warden Norton letting Andy Dufresne shine his shoes right after he killed Andy’s buddy who could have testified that Andy was innocent, and throwing Andy in the hole for two months for calling him “obtuse.” Sorry about what happened, Houston — here, shine my shoes with the 2013 All-Star Game!)
Q: Is Jeremy Lin the biggest star from Torrance since Eddie Adams?
— Matt, Los Angeles
SG: He’s a big, bright shining star. It’s a real point guard, Jack.
Q: Do you know what impresses me most about Jeremy Lin? The genuinely giddy reactions he inspires from his teammates. Watch the aftermath of his game-winning shot against the Raptors: Jared Jeffries nearly dislocates a shoulder with a flying hip-bump, Steve Novak inexplicably begins humping Linsanity’s leg, Tyson Chandler heaves him about two feet into the air. Not one teammate seems remotely jealous of his statistics, heroics, or instant worldwide adoration. And it’s not just any team rallying around his success; it’s the New York Knicks, the league’s most perpetually dysfunctional franchise (that doesn’t have Don Sterling’s greasy fingerprints all over it). Isn’t that more amazing than any shot he’ll ever hit in his life?
— S.K.E. Banerjee, NYC
SG: And that’s been one of my favorite things about Linsanity. The Knicks were going to miss the playoffs; even worse, it was genuinely depressing to watch them. Offensively, they looked broken — two ball-stopping forwards, no point guard, no shooters — and their coach was sitting glumly on the sidelines with one of those vacant “please, fire me, I’m not man enough to quit” looks on his face. Their fans were slowly starting to panic about Carmelo’s crappy season, especially with Danilo Gallinari (whom they loved last year) emerging as a star in Denver. If that wasn’t bad enough, anyone who lived in New York couldn’t watch the team because the MSG Network disappeared from their cable systems. There was just a general plague hanging over the team. You could feel it. Especially when you went to the games. Stuck at 8-15 without Carmelo and Amar’e, you could say they were — unequivocally — at the do-or-die portion of their regular season.
Then, Lin starts playing at point guard and within a week, they’re acting like a 15-seed pulling off a March Madness upset (only game after game). And yeah, I know race is hanging over this story — sometimes that happens for phony reasons, sometimes it happens for real ones, and in this case, it’s real and should hang over it a little. But if Lin happened to be white or black, I’d like to think this story would be 85 percent as fun — it’s mostly about his style of play (wildly entertaining), the whole out-of-nowhere underdog thing (always our favorite type of story as sports fans), its effect on Knicks players and Knicks fans (basically, it’s turned both groups delirious) and the fact that it’s the Knicks (who have four generations of fans, play in our biggest market and needed a feel-good story more than just about any other team). You know what’s really amazing? That he saved the Knicks’ playoff hopes AND saved his coach’s job has almost been an afterthought.
(Also an afterthought: What about Friday night’s Lakers game, when Lin was staring at a mountain of hype, a nationally televised audience, that super-excited Knicks crowd and an almost certain letdown game and instead, he rose to the occasion and enjoyed the best performance of his career? That performance single-handedly extinguished the “Is this a flash in the pan?” dialogue and made people recalibrate his NBA ceiling. Oh, and it ended up being the perfect ending to a sports movie that’s now on its seventh or eighth ending. He could have faded into Flip Murray-esque obscurity after that Lakers game and still lived off it for the next 20 years. Instead, it’s just a small part of a much bigger story. Incredible.)
Q: In ESPN fantasy, Lin went from 0% owned to 100% owned in less than a week. Is there anyone else in the history of fantasy sports that was picked up that fast?
— Tony, Plymouth, Mich.
SG: In my fantasy hoops league, every team has $83 total to spend on our weekly free agent auction. My buddy Hench paid $74 (everything he had left) for Lin on Sunday night. And you’re telling me Linsanity DIDN’T deserve its own mailbag???
Q: Is Jeremy Lin the NBA’s equivalent of CM Punk in the WWE this past summer?
— Billy M., Blacksburg, Va.
SG: Does this mean Carmelo is going to be Triple H — the egotistical, overrated star who couldn’t handle that something good was happening without him, so he interjected himself into the storyline and ended up throwing a wet blanket on all the momentum? I sure hope not. That reminds me
Q: How do Madison Square Garden fans react if Carmelo Anthony becomes a ball-stopping killer of the fun, “we’re passing to, and pulling for, our teammates” brand basketball Lin has brought to the Garden? How does D’Antoni react? How does Dolan react? Does Anthony remotely care about how the NY fans (clearly he doesn’t care about Denver fans) coach and owner reacts?
— William, Jersey City
SG: Are you kidding? This is one of the underrated Linsanity subplots — here’s Carmelo Anthony, one of the league’s best scorers and someone who desperately wanted to play in New York only it didn’t go well from Day 1 only now, he’s been given this mulligan (in every respect) because of Lin’s ascent only every Knicks fan is terrified that Carmelo is going to screw this up and by the way, if he messes it up even for one game, they’re going to turn on him faster than women turned on Angelina after she broke up Brad and Jen. Can you remember an NBA star dealing with more pressure from his own fans in the regular season than Melo playing his first MSG/Linsanity game? They will turn on him immediately if he screws it up. Repeat: immediately.
But here’s the fun part: Carmelo is really, really good. We saw him rise to the occasion during the 2008 Olympics: Give him good teammates, a great crowd and a little pressure and he will NOT shrink from the moment. When Carmelo has it going, he starts taking it to the hole like a hot running back, getting into the paint again and again — which will only help open the floor for Lin. We also haven’t seen Melo play with a point guard who can get him open jumpers or fast-break layups since he left Denver. So on paper, this partnership should work. But if New Yorkers turn on him and make him feel like it’s a no-win situation from Game 1? He’ll take it personally, he’ll get a little sulky and this will spiral toward a bad place.
Even on Friday night, one of my friends e-mailed me that he was leaving the Lakers game and heard five different giddy “What can we get for Melo???” conversations with Knicks fans. And that’s the thing: They could get a ton for him. They could package Chandler and Melo for Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu’s contract in about three seconds. They might be able to pull off a three-teamer that nets them Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and a pick (with Pau Gasol going to Houston). I’m pretty sure Golden State wouldn’t turn down Melo (for Monta Ellis and Klay Thompson); same for Indiana (for Danny Granger, Tyler Hansbrough and a pick) or Memphis (for Rudy Gay and a pick). I’m pretty sure Boston would trade Paul Pierce and multiple first-rounders for Carmelo in about 3.3 seconds. Did any of these ideas seem conceivable as recently as two weeks ago? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Of course not.
Having said that
I have enough faith in Carmelo’s basketball DNA to say this with complete confidence: He will rise to the occasion. He will. You watch. This will not be HHH 2.0.
Q: I’m hoping somewhere in a New York playground, Rumeal Smith is challenging Carmelo Anthony to a one-on-one pick-up game.
— Woozie, Seattle
SG: That might be the single most obscure movie reference in mailbag history and what really scares me is (a) I got it right away, and (b) it actually worked.
Q: The Giants won the Superbowl. ESPN consistently ranks the Rangers as the best team in the NHL. The Yankees just fixed their biggest problem (pitching). And Jeremy Lin energized the Knicks to an unbelievable degree and pushed them onto a five game winning streak without their two best scorers. Lin makes the Knicks play defense and makes Jeffries an offensive threat. That means that New York could possibly sweep all four titles. Please describe in detail the depressive stint you’ll go through if that happens. I mean in detail. A minute by minute breakdown of your breakdown please.
— Paul Leszczynski, New York
SG: I’m already operating under the assumption that this WILL happen. In fact, congrats to everyone in New York for sweeping the 2012 titles — it’s going to be an incredible achievement (one for the ages, as Jim Nantz would say) and you should all enjoy the ride. You’re going to make history this year. Congrats in advance.
Q: Jeremy Lin is a product of the packed-like-sardines-in-a-can NBA season. Fewer days, if any, between games means less scouting reports for unknown players. Lin has no outside jumper and he can’t go left. Just like a 2-pitch rookie pitcher that starts 4-0 while not topping 88 on the radar gun, Lin will fizzle out when the scouting reports catch up.
— Peter Stiefel, Iowa City
SG: Come on, the scouting reports already caught up with him — everyone knows he can’t go left, that he’s sloppy with the basketball, that you shouldn’t backpedal when it seems like he’s about to drive, and that you should attack him on the other end (like Calderon did in Toronto). Did that stop him from scoring the last six points and making the biggest shot of the Raptors game? No. It is what it is — he’s going to land somewhere between “J.J. Barea 2.0” and “Poor Man’s Nash” as a basketball player. Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the hell out of the ride.
Q: It has been such a thrill to watch the emergence of Jeremy Lin. In fact my only regret as a Knicks fan is we didn’t have him on the team last season so that Dolan could have included Lin in the package to Denver.
— Robert, Santa Monica
SG: (Applauding.)
Q: I just watched the Lin post-game interview after he dropped 38 on the Lakers. In the interview, he calls D’Antoni “an offensive genius.” Honestly, if you’re D’Antoni do you start believing in God real hard core? I mean this guy basically came out of nowhere, saved his job, makes him look like a genius, and talks about God non-stop. I think if you’re D’Antoni you believe this guy was sent to you directly from heaven. That sounds totally weird and totally rational at the same time.
— Geoff, New York
SG: Weird because it’s insane, rational because it’s true — D’Antoni was maybe two more losses away from getting fired, then taking over some ailing Division 1 school and reinventing himself as a run-and-gun college coach. If that didn’t work, the WNBA was the next stop. And by the way, if you don’t think any of this sounds realistic, check out Paul Westhead’s Wikipedia page.
Q: How would you rate Jeremy Lin’s unbelievable week in the context of NBA history? Has anyone else ever leapt |
college basketball, Smith might have had the game’s most obviously unfinished career. He won his first national title in 1982, when Georgetown’s Fred Brown tossed the ball to Worthy as the Hoyas were after the last shot. He won his next one in 1993, when Michigan’s Chris Webber had the mother of all vapor locks in the same situation. What it would have been like to have Smith retire without a national championship I have no idea — especially not in the win-or-die way we measure excellence these days — but it would have certainly been one of the greatest statistical anomalies of all time.
In style, Smith was the bench jockey’s bench jockey. He rarely rose, but he chewed on officials with the best of them. (Wooden was very much the same, according to a lot of people who played against his teams.) In fact, Smith remains only the second head coach ever to be ejected from a Final Four game (Al McGuire was the first), when he was asked to absent himself from the Hoosier Dome late in a semifinal against Kansas in 1991. He was the most famous sneak-smoker prior to the arrival on the national scene of Barack Obama.
All of which brings me to another Dean Smith story. On March 28, 1977, which actually was a rainy night in Georgia, his Tar Heels were contending with McGuire’s last Marquette team for a national championship. The Warriors had led by 12 at halftime, but they had frittered away that lead and North Carolina had caught them and tied the game. These were the days before the shot clock, children, and Smith had devised the four corners offense, which was essentially a very elaborate game of keep-away. His point guard, Phil Ford, happened to be a master of it. With Marquette on the verge of collapse, Smith went into the stall, and he did so with star freshman forward Mike O’Koren on the bench. Astonished by Smith’s move, McGuire had his team lay back in a zone, which allowed his players to catch their breath. Finally, with O’Koren at the scorer’s table hoping desperately to get back in the game, a North Carolina sub named Bruce Buckley took the ball to the basket. Bo Ellis slapped the shot away, and you could feel the momentum shift back again like the works of a great iron clock. Marquette won. It was the best sports night of my life, and I sent Smith a Christmas card every year after for the next five years. Really, I did.
He was very much an eccentric in his own way, and had his best days before the game was so homogenized and commercialized that the eccentricity was bled out of it. He coached at the same time as Bob Knight at Indiana, and Abe Lemons at Texas, and McGuire at Marquette. It was a game for poets then, not for the slick salesmen of the modern era. Some of them were beat poets, and some of them wrote epics. I always thought of Smith as one of those all-American craftsmen-poets — Longfellow, maybe, or Edgar Lee Masters. His lines were always perfectly metered. Lord, how his game always rhymed.
♦♦♦
Raleigh News & Observer/TNS
As I grow older, I grow impatient with the impermanence of memory, with history now considered to be whatever came over your iPhone 15 minutes ago. It is inadequate to what we are. It truncates the collective memory, and that is never a good thing. We are each other’s stories, all of us. We keep other stories alive so we can be assured that ours will stay alive too. That is the most devastating thing that happens with the disease that took Smith’s life. If we’re not very careful, and if we don’t make sure to keep the memories we have that are lost to the person with the disease, it breaks that cycle of collective memory and we are all less for that. I learned that watching this disease invade my own family, and it is why I try so very hard to remember my father’s voice, even though it’s mainly lost to me now.
So remember Dean Smith however you wish — as a coach, as a teacher, as a reluctant celebrity, or as a friend. For me, I will remember him in the cool shadows of the sanctuary on a bright Easter morning, listening to the words of men long dead and gone. I remember him there now, for his sake and for my own. I remember him there in the small piece of a very sacred place that his life had earned.Technicolor, the iconic French company that invented the process that enables color movies, is looking for large patent payoffs from major mobile vendors, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. The company holds more than 40,000 video, audio and optics patents, and reportedly employs a team of 220 people who dissect every new smartphone and tablet from vendors such as Apple, Samsung and HTC. The team is responsible for locating patent infringements within each device. “We usually send manufacturers a big file, with photos of the guts of their products, pointing to where they’ve been using our technology without paying for it,” said Beatrix de Russe, a lawyer and executive vice president of intellectual property at Technicolor. “Once those images have sunk in, we can start negotiating.” Technicolor has agreements with “all major manufacturers” and is also in talks with multiple vendors over new devices, although de Russe declined to elaborate with further details. The company’s patent licensing division is its most profitable business and accounts for nearly 13% of Technicolor’s total revenue.
ReadThis year (due to the Republicants not wanting to pay for colored people’s education) I, like a bunch of part-time teachers, got laid off. It is the first time in over 20 years that I did not teach summer school involuntarily. All the jobs were taken by the full timers, who incidentally (except for one) are white.
I had applied for a full-time job but did not get the job despite having thirty years of teaching under my belt and teaching part time at the University of California in upper division. But lower division classes Community Colleges are different, I guess. So a bright young white female got the job.
It didn’t really upset me until I got laid off and, for the first time ever in my life, I went on unemployment. It was an exceptionally easy process. I went online, filled out the form, and, wow, in 14 days I got a check. Not as much as I would make teaching, not enough to pay the rent and food bill, but it was enough for diapers and formula for my son. (In case you didn’t know, my wife and I adopted a new baby in December–talk about a life changer.)
So I started scrambling around for work and now have a project in the works that is going to help fund efforts that facilitate Democratic County Central Committees to get in the vote. I intend to focus on the Latino vote. The beauty of this project is it also promotes health at the same time; it is a race. Did you know that the ASPCA gets like $40K a year from a run? Some groups raise $100K per race for their organizations. I figure I can take this statewide and raise $1 million a year to help Latino voters vote. What a concept.
In the meantime, the economy still sucks. Here is the question of the day: Why is it taking so long for the federal stimulus money to hit main street?
I think I know. Ready for the conspiracy theory? Where Republicants are in charge, they don’t spend the money. Case in point, we have had $400 million sitting in California for over a year that is not being spent. The Republicant administration says it takes a long time to get bids out.
Here is a concept, give to the cities and counties with the stipulation that it can only be spent in the designated areas of spending. I mean, we are short $40 million here in Sacramento County. We could use this money right now to employ county workers who are being laid off. But you see, the Republicants want to be able to say that jobs are being lost every month. As long as they can say that, the Big O is in trouble.
I got to ask all the tea timers out there who have lost their jobs, what are you doing?
I mean, there is a lot of public money for the hiring of employees and you all are crying about whether the Big O is a US citizen.
Let’s get with it, America. Call your governor today; ask him/her where is the federal stimulus money and why is it not being spent.
The Big O is doing what he said he was going to do. Am I the only one that noticed that the last combat brigade in Iraq came home? We got health care, we got bank reform, and we got money to fix stuff. The only problem is that the Republicants want to keep it from being spent.
They are the bums to throw out. Throw them all out. Kick them to the curb. And, yes, end the Bush tax cuts that only affect people who make a ton more than I did when I was on unemployment, which is what Obama has in the works.
Classes start next week. I am going back to school to teach critical thinking. I know where we are going to start: a comparative analysis of the Bush years and the Obama years. And in Sacramento, California, on Labor Day, about10,000 Democrats and I will be cheering for Jerry Brown as he begins his Race for Democracy!
Steven J. Ybarra
©Steven J. Ybarra JD is a retired civil rights attorney who operates a consultant company in California. He is a member of the California Democratic State Party and is Chair of the Chicano Latino Caucus Voting Rights Committee and a long time political activist. Contact Steven at: sjybarra@aol.com. This article is copyright by Steven J. Ybarra JD, originally published in www.Hispanicvista.com but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media if this entire credit paragraph is attached.The Mistral-class helicopter carrier Vladivostok in Saint-Nazaire shipyard. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe Russia has given France until the end of November to deliver the first of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers currently stuck in a shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, according to reports.
The ship, the Vladivostok, was scheduled to be delivered on Friday, but that deadline is now certain to be missed. In response a senior Russian source told the state-owned news service Sputnik International that the French side had until the end of the month to hand over the ship or the whole deal could be in jeopardy.
"We are preparing for different variations. We'll wait until the end of the month, and then we'll make serious claims," the source told Sputnik.
Since the onset of the Ukraine crisis the French government has agonised over the €1.2 billion contract. After tense negotiations, France succeeded in getting existing contracts excluded from the European Union's package of sanctions against Russia over its role in supporting rebels in eastern Ukraine.
At the time, French President François Hollande told reporters:
"The Russians have paid. We would have to repay €1.1 billion [if they were not delivered]... at this stage, there are no sanctions imposed that would oblige us to renounce [the contract]."
However, with the original deadline for the handover of the Vladivostok fast approaching, Hollande imposed two conditions necessary for the sale. These were a cease-fire that was being observed by all sides and tangible evidence of progress toward a political settlement over Ukraine's future.
Despite reaching a cease-fire deal in September, the failure of both sides of the Ukraine conflict to stick to it has so far prevented the French president's conditions from being met. Reports on Wednesday from NATO that Russian troops and artillery were moving into the country may have finally extinguished what little hope France held that the deal could be salvaged.When I moved to Kraków a couple of years ago, I didn’t expect that I would be able to spend so much time hiking in the mountains. What I hadn’t realized was that the breathtaking Tatra mountains are just a short drive away. I couldn’t believe that such pristine natural settings were only a couple of hours away from my home. That is how the Tatra range has become my personal retreat into crude mountain silence.
Each venture would start in the town of Zakopane which I passed through not only for the stunning mountains, but also the culture of the Polish highlands that I’ve learned to enjoy a lot. Over my visits I found myself liking the local music, the wooden architecture and even the initially reserved attitude of the indigenous Gorals more and more.
Rapt in Yellow in Western Tatra
Last fall, I embarked on another trip that turned out to be one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had in the Tatra mountains. The combination of red and yellow leaves standing out against the gray rocks and shimmering streams was simply unforgettable.
But that’s not what I found particularly striking about that trip.
My hiking trip to Wołowiec, during which I passed through Grześ and Rakoń was amazing and deserves a special place in my memory.
Let’s start with some down to earth information. The trip to that location is excellent for people of all ages. I learned that the route is also frequented by enthusiasts of High Tatras, especially the ones who would like to get away for a moment from the rocks, chains, and ladders that are part of their usual experience.
It’s smart to start the journey from the mountain hostel managed by PTTK on the Chochołowska Glade (1148 m) which automatically saves a few hours of hiking that you can instead spend high on the trail. I remember my surprise when I first visited a traditional mountain hostel in Poland.
These hostels are part of the Polish tradition of mountaineering. I can’t even remember how many times I felt the utmost relief when that I saw the roof of such a hostel in front of me after very long and tiring hike. There is a reason why it’s called ‘shelter’ in Polish. It always feels cozy and welcoming, with warm dishes available for exhausted wanderers – the atmosphere in a mountain hostel is simply one-of-a-kind.
But let’s go back to my hiking trip. Reaching Grześ (located at 1653 m) takes approximately one hour and 10 minutes. It’s a yellow trail and the views are simply breathtaking.
Having reached the hostel on the Chochołowska Glade, I turned right and began to walk following the yellow trail. A few moments later, I saw the signpost for Grześ and Wołowiec. At that point, I knew I was on the right track.
Following the Wavelike Path
Entering the forest, I marched along a comfortable path and admired the scenery, taking in the amazing smells of the forest. On my left side, I could see the dried riverbed reminding me of the landscape’s history.
That’s when I began to hike the trail in earnest. A very comfortable path took me through the forest, but soon the trail began to climb up, and after a while, I reached a crossroads.
I decided to turn right in order to check out the Bobrowiecka Pass. It takes just five worthwhile minutes to reach the spot which allows for a closer look at Bobrowiec, the majestic mountain standing right above the valley.
After some rest, I resumed my journey, returning to the crossroads where I turned left to continue following the yellow trail. The path wound through the forest, wrapping around several times before leading me out of the woods.
Within a quarter of an hour, I was able to see my first destination, Grześ. I remember the amazing smell of the mountain pine and cowberry. I could finally take a real full breath, a sharp and welcome contrast to the suffocating feeling of being in the city.
My next stop was Rakoń (1879 m). This time I followed the blue trail, and it was quite spectacular. The path starts out easy, beginning with a slight descent before shifting back to a climb. When the pine forest disappeared, I knew I was close to Rakoń – but I had to pass several hills first.
A Calming Emptiness
Once I reached Rakoń, I decided to take a few moments and reflect on the view in front of my eyes. It is worth spending a couple minutes here before going forward to Wołowiec, the final destination on the hiking trail.
The panoramic view of the Slovak part of the West Tatra is breathtaking. But the continuity visible in the landscape also reminded me that boundaries are constructed by humans. Nature knows no boundaries. In the eyes of nature, what I saw was a single ecosystem, a single entity.
The contrast between nature and human civilization reminded me once again how humanity shapes and defines boundaries; how we establish borders and decide to guard them, even when they’re invisible. We need them to order the natural environment, to differentiate between one territory and another.
But then another thought occurred to me – that boundaries are also disappearing. The European Union’s way of governing these man-made boundaries is an example of that process. Can it be that the geographical borders only represent our own limitations?
From Rakoń I continued my hike to Zawarcie, and finally reached my destination – the majestic mountain of Wołowiec.
Standing at over 2000 m, it was quite a sight to behold. I had to be careful because the path leading to Wołowiec was located in a rocky chasm. It’s quite a climb, and the wind blows hard, so travelers need to be extra cautious when walking through that trail.
Return to Good Old Civilization
To return, you can go either through Chochołowska Valley and further to the Chocholowska Glade, or simply continue down to the Kończysty Wierch and turn to the spectacular Trzydniowiański Wierch. The second route offers an opportunity to bypass the Chocholowska Glade from which I departed.
The second option was attractive, but I was tired and I had no energy left for taking in more spectacular mountain sights. So I decided to stick to the simpler trail and head back home, admiring the autumn leaves mingling with the unique mountain views.
I’m sure that I’ll visit that trail the next time fall rolls around, or whenever I feel that my mind needs a purifying goneness.
The Western part of the Tatra mountains offers variability during each and every season. I’ve never been to the mountains in autumn before, and my trip only convinced me further that there is no right or wrong period to hike in the Polish mountains.
No matter when you go, or how many times you hike through, you can count on a different experience each time – while the Tatra are always beautiful, they never look the same.
AdvertisementsA healthy teenager suddenly got sick and died within days, and officials say it’s due to a rare brain-eating amoeba she likely contracted from swimming in creeks in Cecil County, Maryland.
The amoeba can travel through the nose into a person’s brain, nearly always causing death.
Kerry Stoutenburgh, 19, was visiting family in Cecil County where she went swimming in several freshwater creeks, CBS Baltimore reports.
Doctors say after the teen returned home, she starting having headaches. Within days a brain-eating amoeba had killed her.
Health officials say the amoeba, called Naegleria fowleri, occurs naturally in fresh warm water. If people get contaminated water up their nose, in rare circumstances it can lead to a deadly brain infection, primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).
There have been several other cases reported in the U.S. this year.
Last month in South Carolina, 11-year-old Hannah Collins died after being exposed while swimming in a river. An Ohio teen, Lauren Sykes, died in June after falling in the water on a North Carolina rafting trip.
In South Florida, doctors scrambled last month to save the life of an infected 16-year-old boy – and he beat the odds.
“Now he’s currently walking, talking. It’s a miracle. It’s a miracle,” said Dr. Humberto Liriano of the Florida Hospital for Children, where the teen was treated.
“We are so thankful that God has given us this miracle,” said his mother, Brunilda Gonzalez.
Out of 138 cases reported over the past half-century, only three others survived.
The family of the latest victim, Kerry Stoutenberg, is grieving her sudden loss. “Kerry was a beautiful soul both inside and out. She was taken from this world way too soon, but her memories will stay with us forever,” the family said.
Cecil County officials say the risk of contracting the infection is very low, but ever-present in warm fresh water. Officials say if you jump in any river, lake or stream, hold your nose or wear nose clips as a precaution.If you look at the bottom right corner of the manga, in this picture, you can see that it says “海外の2ちゃん的な掲示板で大人気!!”. Which translates to “On a foreign 2chan-like board, this manga has become extremely popular!!” And the ‘foreign 2chan-like board’ in question is indeed our home 4chan.
When I originally typeset chapter 2 on a whim, on /a/, all those months ago I never thought something like this would happen. And you know what? That’s pretty damn cool. Of course this definitely would not be possible without all you guys out there reading it, and subsequently buying it, regardless of if you’re from /a/ or not, be proud of yourselves.
(Image from Akiba Blog.)
Update #1: Holy crap, you guys managed to get it to #1 on CDJapan books!
Update #2: WOW. Over the course of the night it reached #1 overall on CDJapan!With just one day left until America votes, people are really stressing right now.
They keep looking at all the polling data and then wondering “What happens if everything goes wrong and the wrong person gets elected?”
Well, I can’t tell you how to vote. But I can tell you what to do after the election, especially if your candidate doesn’t win. Which is: Be more like Milo Murphy.
Disney
You’ve heard about “Milo Murphy’s Law,” right? That new animated series for Disney XD series where the title character is supposed to be the great great great grandson of Edward Aloysius Murphy Jr. Who is the real-life aerospace engineer who gave us the world the adage: “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”
You’d think – what with this show being built around a 13 year-old boy who deals with disaster every time he walks out his front door -- that “Milo Murphy’s Law” would be a pretty bleak viewing experience. Kind of like watching a Road Runner cartoon that was only made up of Wile E. Coyote scenes.
But that’s where you’d be wrong. Because “Milo Murphy’s Law” is this genuinely sweet, surprisingly optimistic TV series that’s loaded with big laughs. Largely because of the two men behind this new Disney XD show, Dan Povenmire & Jeff “Swampy” Marsh.
Rick Rowell / Disney Dan Povenmire (L) and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, creators of Disney XD’s “Phineas & Ferb” and “Milo Murphy’s Law.”
Given that Povenmire & Marsh are the creators of the Emmy Award-winning “Phineas & Ferb,” they know a thing or two about crafting a clever cartoon. Which isn’t to say that they immediately got all of the elements right on “Milo Murphy’s Law.”
“You have to understand that – on ‘Phineas & Ferb’ – a lot of the humor on that show came out of everything always going right for those characters. Phineas & Ferb always had this Ferris-Bueller, everything-goes-right-for-them vibe going for them. Whereas on ‘Milo,’ a lot of the humor was supposed to come from everything always going wrong for this show’s title character. And we initially weren’t used to that. Which then made it really hard to write scripts for this show early on,” explained Dan during a recent phone interview. “It wasn’t until Al came on board as the voice of Milo that it then became that much easier for us to write for this character. Because then you knew exactly how he was going to say those lines.”
The “Al” that Povenmire is referring to is Weird Al Yankovic, the Grammy Award-winning singer / songwriter / parodist. Who – Dan insists – is surprisingly not weird in real life.
Rick Rowell / Disney Weird Al Yankovic recording vocals for Disney XD’s new animated series, “Milo Murphy’s Law.”
“When people meet Al, they often say ‘He’s so much more normal than we thought. A nice, normal, sedate guy,’ “ Povenmire stated.
“Somebody said the weirdest thing about him is just how normal he is,” Marsh laughed.
“As to why we cast him in this role, it all came about from me listening to an online interview with Al. And after hearing his normal talking voice, I thought that -- if we could just keep him in the higher part of his register -- Al would be perfect for Milo,” Dan continued.
As for Yankovic, what appealed to him about ‘Milo Murphy’s Law” was (Well, besides Povenmire & Marsh’s track record) how positive this show’s title character was.
Disney
“I mean, Milo’s not a super broad character. He’s very positive and very energetic. Which I think that really plays to my strengths,” Al said. “As they say, the comedy’s in the writing. And what’s really great about the character that I get to voice on this show is that Milo’s this really positive kid who thrives on all of the unexpected things that keep happening in his life.”
Which brings us back to tomorrow’s election. Instead of stressing about who’s going to wind up as President, maybe it’s time to start embracing the unexpected. Try to get some joy & excitement out of the fact that – in today’s world – things rarely go the way that they’re supposed to.
Because – when you really think about it – wouldn’t we all really like a life like the one Weird Al sings about in this animated show’s theme song? Where our life was “ … never boring, not for a minute”?
Disney
Mind you, it’s probably a lot easier to deal with life’s rude shocks when you’re carrying a backpack like one Milo has. One that’s loaded with items like galoshes that are hazmat-rated for a Level 4 biohazard. Which will then allow you to wade through any oil spills you might encounter.
So maybe that’s what you should do out ahead of Tuesday night. Load up a backpack with items that – you hope – will then help you get through watching the election returns. (In my own case, that backpack would need to contain a security blanket and a fifth of Gin).
On the other hand, if waiting to see whether Hillary or The Donald becomes our next Commander-in-chief sounds like an entirely too stressful way to spend Tuesday evening, you could always DVR tonight’s episode of “Milo Murphy’s Law” (which airs on Disney XD tonight at 8:00 / 7:00 c) and just watch that instead.
DisneyThe heart of Counter-Strike, since its inception, is that it is a team-based game. Sure, some outstanding players may receive more praise than their teammates for big plays or overall consistency, but the foundation for every player is made solely through teamwork and cooperation. The best team in the world is a stone wall on defense, and a cleaving axe as offense. Five fingers to the same hand, and one overall goal: to win. Teams use player roles to help define what a certain person's job is during a round. It could be leading the charge into a site, or staying behind and eliminating rotating enemies. Everyone has a job, and these roles can be the difference between a successful round and a failed waste of time. Let's talk about some of the most prominent roles that can be utilized in any scenario, and what makes them difficult to master. Note that some players can have more than one role in any given round; for instance, one player could take the Support role and then be a Lurker for the remainder of the round. Notable pro players who mainly compete in these roles will be mentioned at the bottom of each description.
Entry Fragger (Terrorist): The first ones in, and usually the last ones out. These guys bleed confidence. As the Entry Fragger, your job is to be the first member of your team to breach a bombsite, and pick up as many kills as you can and lead the charge for everyone else. You have to be quick to react to interchanging enemy movements, and be able to pick up kills on the fly. Quick eliminations are crucial; the longer it takes to get into a site, the longer the defenders have to rotate and backup their own teammates. Speed and precision are your most valuable attributes.
Notable Pro Players: fREAKAZOID, k1oshima
Second Entry (Terrorist): Let's face it; not every site breach is perfect. Sometimes, Entry Fraggers can't always get the job done. Think of the Second Entry role as the team maid; this player cleans up what's left over from the Entry's initial fights. If the Entry goes down, it's up to Second Entry to finish his work and get the rest of the team onto the site for the bomb plant.
Notable Pro Players: shroud, friberg
Lurker (Both Sides): If you look up the definition of "wild card," you'll probably find something close to this. This player has so many jobs to do in a single round, and arguably requires the most experience and knowledge of game sense to fulfill. Your job as a Lurker is to gain information of the enemy's whereabouts away from your team, and to assist on site takes/retakes by taking the enemy flank. Imagine you're a Counter-Terrorist on Mirage, and the Terrorists take B site. You, as a lurker, might move through Underpass into B Halls to take their flank and attack from an angle they may not expect. This role requires communication and the ability to keep calm under pressure, as the stakes are rise dramatically by leaving your teammates alone to find fights elsewhere and hope the timing works out in your favor.
Notable Pro Players: GeT_RiGhT, Hiko
Lurking is especially challenging to newer players, without a prolonged and seasoned insight into game sense.
Main AWPer (Both Sides): This role requires the perfect balance between speed and patience at all times. Different from a main rifler, this can be classified as a role considering that usually only one player holds an AWP on either team. As a Main AWPer, your job would be to find long-range opening picks. Sounds simple enough, until you discover you have to fight your way through an implanted meta full of options and playstyles developed specifically to avoid such a dangerous weapon as the AWP. It also doesn't help that elsewhere on the map, odds are that there's another enemy with the same intentions as you. AWPers are always attempting to move against the natural flow and attempt increasingly outrageous or improvised shots to help with defending or attacking. This role requires precision and the ingenuity in the best and worst of scenarios.
Notable Pro Players: GuardiaN, JW
Support/Anchor (Both Sides): These two roles usually go hand-in-hand; players can switch between each on either side. As the unsung heroes of attacking and defending a site, Support players set up smokes and timed flashes for their teammates to entry/retake with. While it isn't one of the most difficult or respected positions, its importance cannot be denied. Likewise, the Anchor role is important for stopping overrotation on the Counter-Terrorist side. Imagine the Terrorists performing an execute on A site of Cache, and you're over on B. Your fellow sitemate rotates to help defend, but it's your job to stay and keep defending B site in case the Terrorists pull a fake and attack B. You wouldn't rotate until the bomb is either planted or down in a safe and recoverable area. Both roles are equally important to the stability and success of any team. (Likewise, a "Rotate" player would move in between sites at the sight of an enemy, feeling out the round and deciding where defense will most likely be needed most.)
Notable Pro Players: KRiMZ, n0thing
In-Game Leader (Both Sides): Arguably the most intellectual of all roles, this player is the brains of the organization. As an IGL, your job is to essentially decide what your team does every round. You coordinate site takes, flashes, smokes, and overall strategies that your team will use to win the round. Your job starts right from the get-go; you need to decide how best to counter the enemy's setups and use your teammates to poke and prod at their defenses. The best IGL's in the world never start a round by calling a strategy; the goal is to find the weak points and exploit it. Rounds usually consist of waiting for an opening pick, then calling a pre-set strategy. This role requires intelligent, multi-stage thinking, all while having the ability to frag and carry your weight on the scoreboard.
Notable Pro Players: MSL, flusha
These are a collection of roles used frequently by professional teams around the world, and each is equally as important as the next. Debates can be held on which supplies players with the most visibility, but no one can deny that each is crucial to the overall success and well-being of any competitive Counter-Strike team. As the underlying meta of the game changes, so will the roles, but these have stood the test of time as crucial above all else.
Get your own AKRacing Chair here and support our players, all profit goes towards the teams!Currently many mature libraries and frameworks exist for each programming language and many advanced features were added to the languages. But what about the old projects where the language features were not advanced as now and no many mature libraries existed yet?
Let’s explore some old well implemented projects and discover how they are implemented.
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia is a fantasy platform game, originally developed by Jordan Mechner and released in 1989 for the Apple II, that represented a great leap forward in the quality of animation seen in video games. On Apr 17, 2012 Jordan Mechner released the source code of Prince of Persia.
Many gamers remember this amazing game, and maybe some of you played with it for many months.
The developers of these days remember there was a time when a typical personal computer might have an 8 Mhz processor, 1 megabyte of memory, a 20 megabyte hard disk, and a floppy disk drive. It was a big challenge to develop a game like Prince of Persia.
Moreover in those days, Google was not there to help developers resolve their technical issues quickly; some technical problems could take the developers many days to fix them. And the cherry on the cake was developed using 6502 assembly language.
However, with all these constraints, the source code is well implemented:
It’s modularized using directories and files:
Modularity is a software design technique that increases the extent to which software is composed from separate parts, you can manage and maintain modular code easily.
Prince of Persia was modularized using directories and files, this modularity is provided by the operating system and can be applied to any language.
The code is split into many files, here’s a list of some of them:
The naming is easy to understand
When exploring the source code, you don’t find variable names such as a, b or x, like many recent developed projects. The names are well chosen and no need to comments to explain why we need them.
The code is split into many small subroutines
The 6502 assembly language is very low level, and to make the code easier to understand and maintain, the “Divide and Conquer” principle is applied. Indeed the code is split into many small subroutines, what makes them easy to read and maintain. Here’s an example of a small subroutine defined in its source code:
Even If in 1989 many constraints complicated the task for developers, the code is very well implemented. So why in 2014 with powerful computers, powerful languages, Many thousands of libraries and Google, some projects are bad implemented?
Languages and frameworks are just tools to build applications, but the main actor is the developer. You can use the best language, the best frameworks and produce a bad code.
Many practices to make the code clean are not language dependent. A good developer must have the good sense and make its code clean and easy to understand whatever the language used.
Doom 3
Doom 3 is a video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. The game was a commercial success for id Software; with more than 3.5 million copies of the game were sold.
On November 23, 2011 id Software maintained the tradition and it released the source code of their previous engine. This source code was reviewed by many developers, here’s as example the feedback from fabien (orginal source):
Doom 3 BFG is written in C++, a language so vast that it can be used to generate great code but also abominations that will make your eyes bleed. Fortunately id Software settled for a C++ subset close to “C with Classes” which flows down the brain with little resistance: No exceptions.
No References (use pointers).
Minimal usage of templates.
Const everywhere.
Classes.
Polymorphism.
Inheritance.
Many C++ experts don’t recommend any more the “C with classes” approach. However, Doom3 was developed between 2000 and 2004, what could explains the not use of the modern C++ mechanisms.
Let’s go inside its source code using CppDepend and discover what makes it so special.
Doom3 is modularized using few projects, here’s the list of its projects, and some statistics about their types:
And here’s the dependency graph to show the relation between them:
Doom3 defines many global functions. However, most of the treatments are implemented in classes.
The data model is defined using structs. To have a concrete idea of using structs in the source code, the metric view above shows them as blue rectangles.
In the Metric View, the code base is represented through a Treemap. Treemapping is a method for displaying tree-structured data by using nested rectangles. The tree structure used is the usual code hierarchy:
Project contains namespaces.
Namespace contains types.
Type contains methods and fields.
As we can observe many structs are defined, for example more than 40% of DoomDLL types are structs. They are systematically used to define the data model |
, it starts to seem like the narrative concerns of programs created by men are the only narrative concerns that matter. They're not.
Simply from a commercial perspective, the short history of Netflix's original programming is instructive: "Orange Is the New Black," which was created by a woman, has helped put Netflix on the map because its stories and characters were not what TV viewers usually see. If the companies that commission TV shows want to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment -- or perhaps would like to cater to an American population that is half female and will soon have a non-white majority -- don't they need, or possibly want, as many fresh voices, ideas and perspectives as they can get?
It's not as though nothing is changing. As noted in my end-of-year Top 10 list, a number of current dramas feature complex, interesting women, and more platforms seem willing to tell offbeat or unusual stories about a more diverse array of characters. And it's possible that the networks have some dramas in development that are being made by women and people of color. Some of those shows may actually make it on the air. If that happens, swell.
But what little change is happening has been glacial in most areas.
According to the most recent stats from the Writers Guild of America, about 30.5 percent of TV staff writers are women, and about 15.6 percent of TV writers are people of color; both numbers represent modest gains from the past. San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, which uses a different calculation method, puts the percentage of female TV writers for the 2012-13 season at 34 percent.
Yet according to SDSU's most recent study, 27 percent of women bear the title executive producer, and 24 percent are a "creator" -- numbers that have remained stagnant for a long time. In the 2010-11 season, "just 24 percent of the pilots in the pipeline for the season had at least one woman writer attached, while only 9 percent of the projects had at least one minority writer," according to the WGA.
A reminder: At the prestige networks, in the dramatic arena, those numbers are generally lower. A lot lower.
Years of writing about these issues and talking to writers and producers on and off the record have made a few things clear: Far too many in Hollywood are willing to tolerate tokenism in writers' rooms. (What's it like to be the "diversity hire," who is often low-ranking and lacks power? It's often like this.) Far too few studio and network executives actively and consistently pursue a true diversity of ideas and personnel when choosing which storytellers to hire and which stories to tell. Shonda Rhimes should be applauded for addressing these problems in blunt public comments, but if you're less powerful than she is -- and most aspiring creatives are -- there's a good chance you could be penalized for speaking up about this kind of stuff.
The industry's unwillingness to make serious and lasting changes to the way it does business makes sense from a certain perspective. Business as usual for the Hollywood decision-makers has no concrete, short-term downside. On the rare occasions when they're asked about these matters, many executives pass the buck: It's always somebody else in the Hollywood food chain who is responsible. Or they trot out a series of Hollywood chestnuts: It's a meritocracy, the best work always rises to the top, everyone gets an equal shot, if only more women and people of color wanted to get in the game, our door is open to everyone, there is no problem, not really. Nothing to see here.
This is a narrative in which powerful media executives portray themselves as unwitting bystanders: They just can't help the way things are. But aren't they the ones who control the meta-narrative (not to mention the enormous budgets)? From where they stand outside the universe of individual shows, do they not see this pattern, this flat circle?
But as is the case with Cohle's partner, Marty Hart, maybe it's easier for executives and the media conglomerates that pay them to look away, and to come up with a story in which things just worked out a certain way and nobody is to blame.
To be clear, HBO isn't the whole story. A few outlets aren't the whole story. But these numbers mean something. When audiences want to check on the state of high-end drama -- TV that examines, articulates and interrogates the human condition -- these places are among the first places they look. They're among the outlets that tell us who we are and who we could be. The kind of places that are supposed move the ball forward when it comes to the evolution of the art form.
Many at the head of the pack, however, are behind the curve.
THE NUMBERS
The following list of original one-hour dramas and dramatic miniseries debuted on HBO, Showtime, AMC, FX and Netflix in the noted time frames. The people identified here are the creators, writers or narrative architects of a show when it debuted. Inclusion is not necessarily related to an official title. When a "created by" title was available, that was used. When a "created by" was not available, the project's writer was identified (when a project had only one or two writers, as is often the case for miniseries). When neither option was available, the networks were asked to identify the individual who served as the narrative architect -- chief adaptor/lead developer/head writer/showrunner, etc. -- at the time of a program's launch.
HBO
The following list includes programs created by the main HBO network in the U.S. It does not include imports (from other countries or other branches of HBO), half-hour series, talk shows, TV movies, sports series, documentary series, family and children's programming or anthology series like "Tales From the Crypt." The list is restricted to original one-hour dramatic series and dramatic miniseries between 1975 and April 15, 2014.
"Angels in America"
Written by Tony Kushner
"Band of Brothers"
Lead developers/adaptors: Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Erik Jendresen
"Big Love"
Created by Mark V. Olsen, Will Scheffer
"Boardwalk Empire"
Created by Terence Winter
"Carnivale"
Created by David Knauf
"The Corner"
Lead writer/developer/adaptor: David Simon
"Deadwood"
Created by David Milch
"Elizabeth I"
Written by Nigel Williams
"Empire Falls"
Written by Richard Russo
"The Far Pavilions"
Written by Julian Bond, M.M. Kaye
"From the Earth to the Moon"
Lead writer/developer/adaptor: Tom Hanks
"Game of Thrones"
Created by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
"Generation Kill"
Lead writers/developers/adaptors: David Simon, Ed Burns
"John Adams"
Written by Kirk Ellis
"John From Cincinnati"
Created by David Milch, Kem Nunn
"Laurel Avenue"
Written by Paul Aaron, Michael Henry Brown
"Luck"
Created by David Milch
"Mildred Pierce"
Written by Todd Haynes, Jon Raymond
"The Newsroom"
Created by Aaron Sorkin
"The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency"
Lead developers/adaptors: Richard Curtis, Anthony Minghella
"The Pacific"
Lead developers/adaptors: Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Bruce McKenna
"Parade's End"
Written by Tom Stoppard
"Rome"
Created by Bruno Heller, John Milius, William J. McDonald
"Oz"
Created by Tom Fontana
"Six Feet Under"
Created by Alan Ball
"The Sopranos"
Created by David Chase
"Tell Me You Love Me"
Created by Cynthia Mort
"Treme"
Created by David Simon, Eric Overmyer
"True Blood"
Created by Alan Ball
"True Detective"
Created by Nic Pizzolatto
"Tsunami: The Aftermath"
Written by Abi Morgan
"The Wire"
Created by David Simon
From 1975 to April 15, 2014, 38 people created or were the narrative architect of a one-hour drama series or dramatic miniseries for HBO at the time of the program's premiere. Of those, 8 percent were women (Mort, Morgan and Kaye). Of those three, only one woman, Mort, created a drama series (which ran for one season). During that timeframe, HBO aired 17 one-hour dramas created by men, and only one creator/narrative architect (2.6 percent) was a person of color.
From Jan. 1, 2002 to April 15, 2014 (the time frame for the FX and Showtime lists below), 31 people created or were the narrative architect of an HBO original drama or miniseries. Two (or roughly 6.5 percent) were women; not one was a person of color.
Showtime
Below are Showtime's original one-hour dramatic series and dramatic miniseries that premiered between Jan. 1, 2002, and April 15, 2014 (the somewhat arbitrary beginning date has been used to correspond with the time frame used for the FX list); it excludes categories as listed above. ("The Big C" is also omitted: The concluding arc was done as four one-hour episodes, but it was conceived of and ran for the majority of its duration as a half-hour show.)
"The Borgias"
Created by Neil Jordan
"Brotherhood"
Created by Blake Masters
"Dead Like Me"
Created by Bryan Fuller
"Dexter"
Developed for television by James Manos Jr.
Lead writer/showrunner at debut: Clyde Phillips
"Fidel"
Writer: Stephen Tolkin
"Homeland"
Developed for television by Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon
"Huff"
Created by Bob Lowry
"Jeremiah"
Created by J. Michael Straczynski
"The L Word"
Created by Ilene Chaiken, Michele Abbot, Kathy Greenberg
"Masters of Sex"
Developed for television by Michelle Ashford
"Odyssey 5"
Created by Manny Coto
"Out of Order"
Created by Donna Powers, Wayne Powers
"Ray Donovan"
Created by Ann Biderman
"Shameless"
Developed for U.S. television by John Wells
"Sleeper Cell"
Created by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris
"Street Time"
Created by Richard Stratton
"The Tudors"
Created by Michael Hirst
During that time, 23 people created or were the narrative architect of a Showtime one-hour drama or miniseries at its premiere. Of that group, six were women (26 percent). No persons of color.
FX
Original programs, as above, that premiered between Jan. 1, 2002 (the year FX began broadcasting original one-hour programs) and April 15, 2014.
"American Horror Story"
Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk
"The Americans"
Created by Joe Weisberg
"The Bridge"
Lead writers/developed/adapted by Meredith Stiehm, Elwood Reid
"Dirt"
Created by Matthew Carnahan
"Damages"
Created by Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, Daniel Zelman
"Fargo" (debuts April 15)
Lead writer/developed/adapted by Noah Hawley
"Justified"
Lead writer/developed/adapted by Graham Yost
"Lights Out"
Created by Justin Zackham
Lead writer/showrunner at debut: Warren Leight
"Nip/Tuck"
Created by Ryan Murphy
"Over There"
Created by Steven Bochco, Chris Gerolmo
"Rescue Me"
Created by Denis Leary, Peter Tolan
"The Riches"
Created by Dmitry Lipkin
"The Shield"
Created by Shawn Ryan
"Sons of Anarchy"
Created by Kurt Sutter
"Terriers"
Created by Ted Griffin
"Thief"
Created by Norman Morrill
During that time, 22 people created or were the narrative architects of an FX one-hour drama or miniseries since its premiere. Of that group, one was a woman, who has since left the show (4.5 percent). No persons of color.
AMC
AMC's programming, as above, belonging to the network's current era of original programming, premiering between June 25, 2006 (the debut of "Broken Trail") and April 15, 2014.
"Breaking Bad"
Created by Vince Gilligan
"Broken Trail"
Written by Alan Geoffrion
"Hell on Wheels"
Created by Joe Gayton, Tony Gayton
"The Killing"
Lead writer/developed by/adapted by Veena Sud
"Low Winter Sun"
Lead writer/developed by/adapted by Chris Mundy
"Mad Men"
Created by Matthew Weiner
"The Prisoner"
Written by Bill Gallagher
"Rubicon"
Created by Jason Horwitch
"Turn" (debuts April 6)
Created by Craig Silverstein
"The Walking Dead"
Lead writer/developed by/adapted by Frank Darabont
During that time, 11 people created, developed or were at the creative helm of an AMC drama or miniseries when it began. One was a woman; one was a person of color (each 9 percent).
Netflix
From the network's current era of original programming.
"Hemlock Grove"
Created by Brian McGreevy
"House of Cards"
Created by Beau Willimon
"Orange Is the New Black"
Created by Jenji Kohan
Three people created or were at the helm of a Netflix drama when it began. One was a woman (33 percent); none was a person of color. (Obviously, this is a much smaller sample size compared to other networks. Also, I consider "Lilyhammer," from Norway, to be more of a comedy, thus its exclusion.)
TOTALS
Number of creators/narrative architects on all five lists: 97
Number of women: 12
People of color: 2We waste a third of our lives sleeping – or that’s how some people see it. When there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day, you yearn to be like the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was said to get by on just four hours sleep a night, or the artist Salvador Dali who wasted as little time as possible slumbering.
There is a quite a range in the number of hours we like to sleep. As Jim Horne writes in Sleepfaring, 80% of us manage between six and nine hours a night; the other 20% sleep more or less than this. But how easy is it to change your regular schedule? If you force yourself to get out of bed a couple of hours early every day will your body eventually become accustomed to it? Sadly not.
There is plenty of evidence that a lack of sleep has an adverse effect. We do not simply adjust to it – in the short-term it reduces our concentration, and if it’s extreme it makes us confused and distressed, and turns us into such poor drivers that it’s the equivalent of being drunk. The long-term effects are even more worrying. Repeatedly getting less sleep than you need over the course of decades is associated with an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
But what about those people who do happily appear to manage on fewer hours than the rest of us? Why does it not seem to make them ill?
Firstly, you can console yourself with the fact that there are plenty of myths about people’s bold claims. Napoleon allegedly said that sleep was only for weaklings, but in fact he got plenty of shut-eye.
But there are a few very rare individuals who can manage with only five hours sleep a night without experiencing deleterious effects. They are sometimes known as the “sleepless elite”. In 2009, a team led by geneticist Ying-Hui Fu at the University of California San Francisco discovered a mother and daughter who went to bed very late, yet were up bright and early every morning. Even when they had the chance to have a lie-in at the weekend (a tell-tale sign that you are sleep-deprived) they didn’t take it.
Tests revealed that both mother and daughter carried a mutation of a gene called hDEC2. When the researchers tweaked the same gene in mice and in flies, they found that they also began to sleep less – and when mice were deprived of sleep they didn’t seem to need as much sleep in order to catch up again. This demonstrates that genetics play at least some part in your need for sleep; unfortunately the sleepless elites’ enviable state of affairs isn’t available to rest of us, because at the moment we are stuck with the genes we have (that’s my excuse anyway).
But while it might not be possible to train yourself to sleep less, researchers working with the military have found that you can bank sleep beforehand if you plan well in advance. At the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research they had people go to bed a couple of hours earlier than usual every night for a week. When they were subsequently deprived of sleep they didn’t suffer as much as the people who hadn’t had the chance to bank sleep in advance.
This does involve a lot of effort, so in general what you need to do is work out your personal sleep requirement and then try to stick to it. In his book Counting Sheep Paul Martin describes a method of working this out. You probably need to do it while you’re on holiday because you need to wake up naturally, rather than rely on an alarm clock. Every night for two weeks you go to bed at the same time and see what time you wake up by yourself next morning. For the first few nights you might well be catching up on missed sleep, but after that the time you wake up gives an indication of the length of your ideal night’s sleep.
You might be disappointed to find you need more sleep than you’d hoped, but don’t see it as a waste. This is time spent valuably allowing your body and mind to function at their best during waking hours. It may use up a third of your life, but it makes the other two thirds so much better. The politician whose sleep patterns inspire me isn’t Margaret Thatcher, but Winston Churchill. He disliked getting out of bed so much that he stayed there working all morning, even receiving visitors in his bedroom.
If you would like to comment on this article or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
You can hear more Medical Myths on Health Check on the BBC World Service.
Disclaimer
All content within this column is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. The BBC is not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based on the content of this site. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites. Always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health.Attempts by Climate Progress to link the UEA email hacking to News Corp have little basis in fact, and make advocates of climate action look silly
Last week I looked (very briefly) at MMR conspiracy theories advanced by Age of Autism in the wake of the News International scandal. Not to be outdone, Climate Progress waded in with a devious plot of their own linking News Corp to the hacked climate change emails at the University of East Anglia.
Their theory goes roughly like this:
We don't know who hacked the UEA e-mails
Scotland Yard, who investigated, had links to News International
News Corp doesn't like climate scientists
Neil Wallis, an ex-News International journalist with links to the Met, also did PR for UEA after 'Climategate'
WE NEED TO INVESTIGATE NEWS CORP OVER CLIMATEGATE!!!
It's pretty desperate stuff, which fails to provide any real evidence or logic to link the facts into a coherent argument.
The idea that the Murdochs coordinate an editorial position against climate science falls apart pretty quickly when you look at the work of Mark Henderson's science team at The Times. Then there are the views of James Murdoch, who has publicly called for stronger policies on climate change, and if you think that's purely posturing then consider that his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, was a senior director at the Clinton Climate Initiative, and that both serve on the board of the Kew Foundation.
In short, there's nothing to suggest that the behaviour of individual News Corp businesses reflects wider policy, and quite a bit of evidence that the attitudes exhibited by, say, Fox News are at odds with current thinking at their parent company. A New York Times profile of the "Murdoch-in-waiting" in February even suggested: "James Murdoch's views raise the question of whether he would interfere with Fox News's coverage if he were running the News Corporation."
Leaving all that aside, the e-mails emerged not in a News International publication, nor in any other mainstream media organ, but in the blogosphere. There they were pushed by hard-of-thinking internet eccentrics like James Delingpole, until proper journalists eventually took notice and began covering the news. It seems like a pretty circuitous way to break a story, like the Telegraph getting hold of the MPs' expenses documents and handing them over to Guido Fawkes.
The climate debate is of course full of conspiracy theories, with varying degrees of merit. The arguments of denialists (as opposed to'skeptics', it's wrong to tar genuine climate skeptics with the denialist brush) almost inevitably degenerate into conspiracy theories when challenged. As the Denialist blog neatly puts it:
"This is because denialist theories that oppose well-established science eventually need to assert deception on the part of their opponents to explain things like why every reputable scientist, journal, and opponent seems to be able to operate from the same page."
It's disappointing to see climate campaigners getting sucked into the same game. Lumping mismatched and dubious "facts" into a dark narrative populated with sinister characters and devious plots isn't useful. It just makes people look a bit silly, and undermines the serious points about corporate responsibility and climate change than need to be made. There's enough fiction in the climate debate as it is.This morning's red post collection includes Meddler with a State of the Season post, Xypherous with a long post looking at the tentative Mana, MP/5, AP, and MR item changes headed to the PBE soon, SmashGizmo and ricklessabandon on upcoming Graves and MF PBE changes, and more!
Table of Contents
State of the Season: Coming up on mid-season
Meddler
"Hey folks,
It’s time for another check-in from the dev team on the ‘State of the Season’ - an experimental dev blog where we run through some of our thoughts on different parts of the game. In the sections below we’ll cover how we feel recent work (pre-season changes, new champs, reworks etc) has gone and current issues we see.
We’ll also be talking about our plans for a mid-season patch. Mid-season’s going to be like a smaller version of a pre-season, with significant changes focused on both short term problems and longer term opportunities.
Note that things outside of the core SR experience, like Hextech Crafting, Dynamic Queue, Rotating Game modes, etc, won’t be covered here. This will be focused on the part of LoL where you’re playing on Summoner’s Rift.
Andrei “Meddler” van Roon, Lead Designer"
Champion Updates:
Right now:
Shen’s our most recent update and so far seems to be both fairly balanced and has improved game health compared to his previous kit. Overall, however, we don’t think he’s completely hit the mark thematically, with the floating sword feeling a bit disconnected from his fantasy. It’s not something we have plans to change - there are other champions that would benefit significantly more from having update time spent on them - but a lesson for when we take on future projects.
Taric’s going to be our next significant update and is close to release. He’s a full update, with new abilities, models, spell effects, voiceover, etc. Our goals with Taric have been about adding more skill expression and distinctiveness to his kit, with an accompanying update to his aesthetics. We’ve worked to maintain Taric’s core gameplay contributions (he still stuns, protects, etc) and his fundamental personality. He should look and sound a lot better though, while feeling like a more cohesive part of Runeterra.
As far as the Marksman update from preseason goes, we’re pretty happy with how distinct the different marksmen have remained. They’re doing different things in different ways. That said, some of them - Corki, Graves and Quinn, specifically - are a little too strong, and that strength’s leading them to be successful regardless of position. We like the idea of classes being able to occupy a range of positions, and are happy seeing those champs played outside of a duo lane, but we hoped to see them there for specific reasons. Right now these three are just good universal choices, with strong laning and team fight contributions.
As a side note, we’d eventually like to get more non-Marksmen into the farming position in a duo lane. Doing it without the right systems and support in place (items, ways for other classes to take turrets, etc), however, is a lesson we learned with Mordekaiser and something we don’t want to feel so forced.
Future:
Updates to a number of mages will be the single biggest part of the mid-season patch. Those updates will be aimed at giving those mages more distinctive gameplay, better ‘playing against’ experiences and more cohesion with their themes. We’ll be making moderate sized changes to 6 mages (Vel’Koz, Zyra, Malzahar, Vladimir, Brand, Cassiopeia) and smaller changes to a number of others. Those smaller changes, by the way, will generally be about amplifying existing strengths and weaknesses using a champion’s current kit, rather than significantly changing abilities. We’re still locking down exactly which mages, but the likely candidates are: Veigar, Annie, Ziggs, Anivia, Xerath, Syndra, Fiddlesticks, with room for a few more.
New (ish) Champions:
Illaoi:
Illaoi’s been quiet for a while - in part since she came out during the preseason, and so was harder to assess than most new releases. We’ll be making some modifications to her E in particular, aimed at reducing frustration and lack of options when playing against the Vessel state. That might potentially give us room to buff her late game, given she performs pretty well in lane but feels like she falls off a bit too much later on.
Jhin:
Jhin’s looking a bit strong at present, but he seems to be in a pretty good position in terms of overall style of play. We’ll be trimming a little power off, then assessing whether we need to do further work. At present, Jhin’s Q’s doing a bit too much work and the correct play is to sometimes not use E much - or even put a point into it early.
Aurelion Sol:
Is finally out! Initial reaction so far is that he’s difficult to play, and we’re seeing a lot of young dragons struggling on the Rift. That said, once he gets a number of games under his belt, Aurelion Sol’s success ramps up past almost any champion release thus far. We’re shaving some power early and then we’ll assess again thereafter.
Items:
Right now:
We’re happy with how Marksmen item variety’s stayed significantly higher than it was before the pre-season. Overall balance seems reasonable too. It’s been good to see Zz’Rot Portal getting some use (finally), though it’s probably still too strong. If a niche item is being used all the time, its stats are almost certainly too high.
We’ve also seen mixed defense/offense builds be too effective (Titanic, Maw, Sterak’s). There’s value in not requiring champions to be all offense or defense, like allowing for flexibility to game needs, less binary ways to shut down a fight (teams being able to choose between protecting a single glass cannon vs. fielding multiple offensive threats), and potentially more calculated risks in personal build paths (if I feel I’m tanky enough, can I build an offensive item? What if they pull ahead?). That said, having a ‘default’ offensive/defensive core build can lead to really flat experiences, pushing out the champions who don’t benefit from said items and nullifying those who rely on burst damage to take out high-priority targets. We’d like to see champions (like Graves) who opt into the mixed defense/offense build make some tradeoffs for the extra survivability.
Future:
We’ve got some changes to AP items coming in the mid-season, with a focus on better meeting CDR needs for mages and making mana components in items more functional by themselves. We’ll also be making changes to both Devourer and Rageblade, both of which have created some balance and game health issues with their current designs.
Game Pacing & Objectives
Objectives:
We’ll be making adjustments to a number of objectives in the mid-season patch. At present, a number of objectives aren’t offering sufficiently powerful, or appropriately focused rewards. That leads to teams focusing primarily, or purely, on turrets. Objectives like Dragon, Rift Herald, Red, and Blue Buff should be valued and contested significantly in most games, and we’ll be making adjustments to their rewards and encounters as a result.
Death Timers:
We’ll be lowering death timers a little shortly, targeting the 30-45 minute period. In an ideal world, we’d like there to be some tension - losing a teamfight equating to real loss - but not losing an entire lane of objectives and potentially the game on one bad fight.
Turrets:
Turret diving’s a bit too safe for the aggressors, so we’re experimenting with having turret damage to champions ramp up harder on subsequent shots (if you didn’t know, turrets hit harder the more they hit champions). Early game pushing, in pro play especially, also looks a too strong so we’re considering making turrets a little more resistant to damage early on.
Final Thoughts:
Overall we’re happy with the diversity we’re seeing in team compositions and how players are adapting to the shifting landscape. Now that we’re getting comfortable with these ‘roster’ updates (juggernauts, marksmen, and mages), our hope is to continue on this path with larger, targeted updates aimed at making each champion more distinct and have a reason to be played. Where we’re hoping to improve is on the objective-level pacing of the game - providing more reasons to be fighting on the Rift and opportunities to counter your opponent's strategies. You should see more in the mid-season, so we’ll talk then."
Meddler
Meddler
"Quote:
So, in regards to lane swapping at a pro level. It feels to me like there's a lot more to it than just towers being too weak or other objectives not being worth enough. It seems that the team that initiates the swap has all the advantages, and the only option left for the other team is to do the exact same thing or fall too far behind. Do you think any of the changes mentioned will impact this or do you think more will have to be done later? We do think some of the changes we've talked about here should have some impact on tower trading in pro play. Pro play does often favor taking the safe, equalizing play when available (you go for our outer tower, we go for yours). We have in the past seen Dragon be a major driver of early conflict when the reward's been sufficient though, with teams prioritizing taking it over towers. Smaller objectives also have some value there as a way to help create situations where 'just go for one of their towers' isn't so often the correct response.
Risk defending towers is the other lever we're looking at. As player skill's got better, both in pro and regular play, towers have become increasingly dangerous to defend, with good agro juggling especially allowing much earlier safe ish dives. That means that defending a tower while outnumbered's the wrong choice more often than it should be. Our first step there's going to be making tower damage ramp harder, particularly when they're swapping targets, making dives riskier and defense therefore a bit more appealing. We're also looking into whether minion damage against towers early on's potentially too high, resulting in pushes that grind through a tower too quickly early game (as with agro juggling players have also gotten a lot better at wave manipulation over time).
If putting sufficient power into other objectives, stronger tower ramp and potentially better defense against minion damage isn't sufficient to create a more dynamic early game we'll then look into other options. Not certain as to details yet, that'll depend on how those changes go. I'd expect additional work to make it more practical and rewarding to defend towers early to be where we start though."
Meddler
"Towers currently drop a lot of their ramped damage when they swap targets during a dive. We're considering having that ramp transfer over (tower's warmed up, and stays warmed up, versus more damage repeatedly hitting one target effectively) to make agro juggling riskier."
Meddler
"Yeah, we've been talking a lot recently about the dominance of tanky builds even on some champions that should feel more rewarded for building offense. We're currently looking at changes to:
Grasp of the Undying (potentially only starting in combat with champions)
Iceborn Gauntlet (100% damage instead of 125%, feeling being it's just too strong in general)
Early lane sustain which is making it hard to justify early aggression/offensive play (higher CD on Feast, less health from Corrupting Potion, possibly more)"
Meddler
"Quote:
Are you thinking of making blue and red buff's power scale into late game? That'd be cool. Yes. Feeling is that Red/Blue should be things you care about more, and contest sometimes, throughout the game. To accomplish that we'll almost certainly need to make those buffs more powerful than they currently are later in the game."
Meddler
"Quote:
Will there be something there so that Red buff is relevant for more than just melee and ADC champs? Conversely, blue buff offers a tiny pittance of AP for mages, but its CDR and mana regen makes it useful for most champions. Will this be expanded so that both buffs are relevant for all champions? We do want each buff to feel at least noticeably useful to anyone that happens to get it. Goal isn't to make each buff equally appealing to everyone though. There should be at least one champion on each team however for whom Red or Blue is really valuable."
Meddler
"Quote:
Will the "other" mages be getting dev blogs soon? So far Annie is the only one that's had one so far, just wondering if there will be more. We won't be doing dev blogs for all the other mages. For most of them there isn't sufficient change to justify that level of visibility/discussion, more an emphasis on existing elements of their kits. Tentative changes on Ziggs for example include buffs to his passive CD/AP ratio to give him more tower taking power, removing the ult double damage to minions to avoid him stalling games excessively, lowering the ult CD at higher ranks since it won't be as stalling and allowing his W to execute low health towers, giving him additional tower taking power but in a really risky way (puts his escape and only hard CC on CD).
We'll certainly be talking about all the mages in detail both once they hit PBE and once they go live though of course. The directional posts we're doing where we think it's particular important to talk about intent, scope and type of change."
Meddler
"Quote:
My favorite part of this dev blog is that it gave us more insight into the mage rework comming up, although im curious as to why ziggs is being listed in it.
The mage update seemed it was aimed more at the immobile mages that struggle against these super high mobility champs so when they hit they should hit hard and not lackluster.
Ziggs has his litle jump thing, does that not count him as a mage with mobility? or is it because his playstyle is very linear that changes will be made? Immobile mages was a short hand we used to describe a few categories of mage we were looking at. The longer version is that the mages we're making changes all fall into categories we're describing as:
Battle Mage (short-medium range, sustained damage dealers with some sustain or defense - Vlad, Ryze, Cass etc)
Burst Mage (single target focused, with solid CC as a pick option and strong burst - Syndra, Veigar etc)
Artillery Mage (extremely long range, unreliable at short range, consistently squishy - Xerath, Ziggs, Vel'Koz etc) Ziggs falls into the Artillery Mage category. Mobility's not generally a strength of any of the above categories of mage, the descriptions for those subclasses are very much guidelines rather than rules though, every champ breaks at least one of them (and needs to to be sufficiently distinct from their peers).
We'll also be talking in more detail about how we view classes/subclasses overall shortly in another dev blog for anyone interested."
"For the mage update we've focused on three types of mages as described here:
Karma's a support/mage mix by contrast, along with some other champs like Orianna and Lulu. We're with you should could do with some more distinct tools, for the mid-season we chose to focus on the linked subset of mages though. We would like to get to supports and utility heavy mages at some point, other classes also have really strong arguments going for them too though (e.g. assassins and diving fighters)."
Meddler
"Quote:
You didn't mention Karthus in the mage update.
Does this mean you're confident the AP itemization changes will help him out? The mage update's mainly focused on distinctiveness and game health. Karthus does well in those regards. As with all users of squishy AP items we'll take a look at him after the mid-season's out in terms of where he's landed power wise."
Meddler
"The initial 5 cast limit hit him pretty hard, we saw his performance improve a lot over the course of the patch though as people got used to playing with it. The buff to his Q damage also added a surprising amount of power to him, which does seem to have helped out at a range of skill levels. We don't have any current plans for him, besides the rework underway, if anything though at high level play he's looking on the strong side rather than the weaker side again."
Meddler
"Quote:
Wonder what will happen regarding Quinn (and Graves, but mainly Quinn).
Will they see nerfs in 6.7 already? Or will there be a period to assess the fallout from nerfing Maw and Warlord's Bloodlust?
|
Palmyra.
"There are plans, but we don't know when the zero hour for a military act in Palmyra [will be]," Barazi said without elaborating.
The capture of Palmyra has stoked fears that ISIL might try to destroy one of the Middle East's most spectacular archaeological sites - a well-preserved, 2,000-year-old Roman-era city on the town's edge - as they have destroyed others in Syria and Iraq.
Ryan Rifai in Doha contributed to this reportCasting Call: Hollywood Needs More Women
Enlarge this image toggle caption Gemma La Mana/Twentieth Century Fox via AP Gemma La Mana/Twentieth Century Fox via AP
Summer is the perfect time for a night out at the cinema, but maybe you've noticed something missing at the movies: women.
Women make up a minority of movie creators: 7 percent of directors, 13 percent of writers and 20 percent of producers; that's nearly five men for every woman working behind the scenes.
Out of last year's biggest movies, 28 percent of speaking characters were female. That's down from a third just five years ago, according to the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California.
"Just based off last few movies I've seen, they've all been male-centric like World War Z and Man of Steel and This Is The End," says 20-year-old moviegoer Melissa Hattab. "I know that I love going to the movies and I like seeing women I can relate to."
That's not to say no women are making and having lead roles in films, recent examples include Sofia Coppola's Bling Ring and The Heat, which opened this weekend and stars Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. The Heat was also written by a woman, Katie Dippold.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Chris Pizzello/AP Chris Pizzello/AP
The 'Thelma & Louise' Syndrome
The female buddy-cop movie The Heat echoes what was billed as the ultimate chick flick, 1991's Thelma & Louise starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon.
"Every time there's a movie starring women, the media is very excited to say, 'Well, this changes everything,'" Davis tells NPR's Jacki Lyden. "That's what happened with Thelma & Louise... and nothing changed."
Davis says the same things were said after more recent movies like Bridesmaids and The Hunger Games, but not much changed "and it's not going to," she says.
Lately, Davis has been busy trying to figure out why women aren't better represented in film, and how to turn it around. In 2004, she founded The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.
"When my daughter was 2 years old and I started watching [kids programming]... I was floored to see a huge dearth of female characters," Davis says. "I knew that there were fewer female characters in general in Hollywood... but I didn't know that applied to what we show kids."
Davis' think tank commissioned numerous studies on women and media. Despite women making up half of all moviegoers, the studies showed that in family films and children's programming there was only one female character for every three male characters, she says. But it's not all bad news.
"We were able to see an increase in the percentage of female characters in family films," she says. At the current rate, however, reaching a parity of female and male characters would take about 700 years, she says.
Davis jokingly says her organization is dedicated to cutting that number in half. Humor aside, she says the disparity of female-to-male characters in media is a concerning issue.
"What we're in effect doing is training children to see that women and girls are less important than men and boys. We're training them to perceive that women take up only 17 percent of the space in the world," she says. "And if you add on top of that, that so many female characters are sexualized, even in things that are aimed at little kids, that's having an enormous impact as well."
Sleepless in Hollywood Tales from the New Abnormal in the Movie Business by Lynda Obst Hardcover, 283 pages | purchase close overlay Buy Featured Book Your purchase helps support NPR programming. How?
Shifting Audiences
Longtime producer Lynda Obst has watched Hollywood undergo some seismic changes, and they haven't been good for women. She says it was much different 30 years ago.
"You could make up an idea, pitch it to your boss and if you were lucky and he liked the idea and you had a good writer, you could sell it and it might get made into a movie," Obst tells Lyden.
Obst calls those days "the old abnormal," when she produced numerous hits including Flashdance, Sleepless in Seattle and One Fine Day. These days, Obst says it's "the new abnormal" trying to get studios to pick up a movie.
"What they want are ideas known around the world before they even get made because it makes marketing the ideas even easier," she says, "which is why they want ideas that can easily be made into sequels and then become franchises."
Obst calls these movies tent poles: dependable blockbuster brands like Spider-Man, the X-Men and Harry Potter. She writes about the changes in her new book, Sleepless in Hollywood, and what exactly accounts for the "new abnormal."
Obst says the collapse of the DVD market — which once accounted for about 50 percent of profit in the movie business — forced Hollywood to look elsewhere for revenue. They found it in international audiences, particularly in Asia and South America. The problem, she says, is the kind of movies those audiences want.
"The kinds of movies that they like abroad are movies with huge special effects," she says, "and moreover, they don't like movies with too much dialogue.... So women's movies — romantic comedies [and] dramas — they don't play well overseas."
The other issue, Obst says, is that Hollywood marketers are only concerned with catering to men in their advertising because the general attitude is that "women will go anyway."
Obst suggests Hollywood could make one less $200 million tent pole movie a year, and instead put that money toward multiple smaller movies that serve another audience.
"Women have been incredibly supportive in showing that there is an audience," she says, "and we also have to be conscious of making those movies good enough for the audience to show up for."
Perhaps there is hope. For its opening weekend, The Heat came in at strong second place and made $40 million, beating out the male-driven action-adventure movie White House Down.WASHINGTON — A Kuwaiti man held by the United States without trial for nearly 13 years in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was released early Wednesday, the military said. His repatriation is the first transfer to result from a new system of parole-board-like hearings to periodically review whether it is still necessary to keep holding prisoners.
The Kuwaiti, Fawzi al Odah, is also only the second low-level prisoner to be released from Guantanamo this year. Last year, President Obama had pledged to revive his efforts to close the prison. Administration officials said an end-of-year flurry might be coming: The Pentagon has notified Congress that nine other detainees, including six bound for Uruguay, may soon be transferred.
Still, there are signs that disagreements remain within the administration over how much risk to accept as it tries to winnow down the population of low-level inmates and close the prison.
Advertisement
The administration had been poised to repatriate four Afghans who have long been approved for transfer, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recently pulled back from that plan, according to officials.
Get Ground Game in your inbox: Daily updates and analysis on national politics from James Pindell. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations, said the administration decided at a “principals’ committee” meeting on Oct. 3 in the White House Situation Room, chaired by Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, to proceed with notifying Congress that it intended to repatriate the four Afghans.
The notice was supposed to be given within a week after the State Department obtained an unspecified security assurance from the Afghan government. That was completed three weeks ago, they said, but Hagel has still not sent the notice.
Although the Pentagon signed off on their repatriation as part of a 2009 interagency task force, officials familiar with the deliberations said Hagel decided to reassess the timing after General John F. Campbell, the top military leader in Afghanistan, and General Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed concerns that they might attack US troops.
The officials also said that Hagel was still actively considering the proposed Afghan transfers.
Advertisement
A spokesman for Hagel, Rear Admiral John Kirby, declined to specifically comment about the Afghans. But he described the department’s deliberations about whether security risk has been mitigated as including “inputs from commanders in the field, whose perspectives are not only greatly valued by the secretary but heavily relied upon.”
It is unusual for a Cabinet secretary to independently reconsider a decision reached at a principals’ committee meeting. But Guantanamo transfers are an unusual type of policy decision because Congress has vested that authority in the secretary of defense. A statute says that at least 30 days before any transfer, he must notify lawmakers that he has determined that it would be in the national interest.
In an agreement with the Kuwaiti government, Odah, whose name is sometimes spelled Fouzi al Awda, will now live in custody there as part of a yearlong rehabilitation program, officials said.
He is the first detainee to be transferred since May, when the Obama administration sent five high-level Taliban prisoners — who were not recommended for release — to Qatar in a prisoner swap for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the only US prisoner of war from the Afghan war. Angering lawmakers, Hagel did not provide 30 days’ advance notice to Congress for that swap; the administration said any delay could have endangered Bergdahl’s life.
Since 2009, the executive branch has used a more stringent process of individualized review before releasing detainees. About 19 percent of former detainees released during the Bush administration have been deemed confirmed recidivists, compared with 6.8 percent of those released under the Obama administration.
Advertisement
Odah, the Kuwaiti released Wednesday, was a plaintiff in a case that helped establish that courts have jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus lawsuits filed by Guantanamo detainees. But in 2009, a judge upheld Odah’s wartime detention.Gov. Bobby Jindal said Mariner Energy officials told him this afternoon that all seven wells that were operating at Vermilion Block 380 at the time of the fire today have been shut in, which would mean no oil is leaking.
"If that's true it's a very important step," Jindal said, adding that state officials are still seeking independent verification of the company's claim.
He said it's too early to know what sparked the fire, which was first reported to the Coast Guard at 9:19 a.m. by workers at an adjacent rig. As of early this afternoon, he said the rig was still burning. He said Mariner Energy officials said the burn could be caused by oil that was stored on the rig.
At the time of the fire, the wells were producing 1,400 barrels per day of crude oil and 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas, Jindal said.
The 13 workers who were on board the rig are currently on board a vessel, the "Candy Apple," and will be taken by helicopter to Terrebonne General Hospital for observation, Jindal said.
He said there have been unconfirmed reports of a "sheen" in the area near the fire, but that Coast Guard officials could not verify it during a flyover.Doughnuts, also known as donuts, were circular cakes with a hole in the middle. They were often covered in different types of icing. They were a favorite food of Zeltrons. They were also enjoyed by Hiromi, who discovered them in the royal kitchens when they invaded Zeltros.[1]
Porcellus, Jabba's chef, brought vine-coffee and a doughnut to Princess Leia while she was enslaved by the Hutt, but the coffee and doughnut were appropriated by Lando Calrissian.[2]
When Kyle Katarn infiltrated the Imperial facility on Danuta to steal the plans to the Death Star, he shot an Imperial commando who was eating a doughnut.[3]
Dexter Jettster owned a doughnut shop called Dex's Donuts where he served such varieties as iced donuts with shredded Ishi Tib-cracked coconut or dark matter sprinkles, Dianoga cream-filled donuts, Yowvetch custard-filled donuts, Muja fruit-filled donuts, and powdered Christophsian sugar donuts.[4]
Contents show]
Appearances Edit
Sources Edit
Notes and references Edit
Donut on WikipediaGetty Images
Ordinarily, when a team trades up in the second round to draft a player, that player’s roster spot is safe for at least a couple years. But Roberto Aguayo is no ordinary second-year player.
Aguayo, the kicker the Buccaneers drafted last season, had a terrible rookie year and will have to compete with veteran Nick Folk for the kicking job. He says he embraces that.
“It is motivation,” Aguayo told PewterReport.com. “When I was in college there would be walk-on kids come in and I didn’t know who they were or if they were good or whatever. But whoever they were, it was always a competition for me. Just seeing someone else out there trying to compete. I like it.”
Aguayo said he thinks both he and Folk will benefit from the pressure of a camp competition.
“I look at it like playing golf,” Aguayo said. “When you go out there playing by yourself you are playing to shoot par or shoot your best, but when you have someone else out there it’s like, ‘Well he hit a good shot so I want to hit a good shot.’ So it is good motivation for both of us and it is just going to make both of us better. And the better one will come out on top.”
The Bucs’ decision to draft Aguayo was widely criticized at the time and will be criticized even more if he can’t beat out Folk this summer. He sounds confident that he can vindicate the team’s faith in him.Prominent bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox posted an update on its website on Tuesday, saying a "decision was taken to close all transactions for the time being," citing "recent news reports and the potential repercussions on MtGox's operations."
(Read more: Bitcoin's Mt.Gox disappears, insolvency feared )
The website went dark on Tuesday and its chief executive told Reuters that the business was "at a turning point." Mt.Gox halted withdrawals earlier this month after detecting what it called "unusual activity."
"We will be closely monitoring the situation and will react accordingly," the website said.
(Read more: Mt.Gox CEO says bitcoin exchange at 'turning point')
Six bitcoin exchanges distanced themselves from Mt.Gox in a statement, calling the exchange's activities a "tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt.Gox."
Not a 'death knell': Official
New York state's superintendent of financial services Benjamin Lawsky weighed in on the bitcoin turmoil.
"I think that the question is, is this a continuing of the shaking out of a fledgling industry? My gut is that's part of what you're seeing. It's a new industry," Lawsky told CNBC. "It's obviously not regulated in any significant way yet...It may be a significant bump in the road, but I don't think they're going away or it's any kind of death knell."Dark Edition Skylanders starter packs and their exclusive toy variants have always vexed collectors, but the upcoming SuperChargers Dark Editions add a deeper level of frustration in the form of two different Nintendo sets, each with their own exclusive Skylander/Amiibo toys.
The standard Skylanders SuperChargers Dark Edition for PlayStations and Xboxes come with four toys instead of the basic three, each sporting a black and silver paint scheme. Dark Spitfire, Dark Hot Streak and Dark Super Shot Stealth Elf are joined by the Dark Sea Shadow. The extra character and the Kaos Trophy (which unlocks special in-game content) justifies the $99 price tag, $15 more than the regular starter pack.
Pretty standard here. Collector’s wanting to catch all the variant toys for PlayStation or Xbox One alone will have to snag a Dark Edition starter. It’s a mechanic that generally works out nicely for folks that want to play on multiple platforms.
But this year they’ve got special Dark Edition sets for the Wii and Wii U, each featuring a unique coloration of the Bowser and Donkey Kong Skylanders that double as Amiibo.
Advertisement
And so we have the Dark Edition Wii U starter pack, the only place to get Dark Turbo Charge Donkey Kong and his Dark Barrel Blaster.
Advertisement
As well as the Dark Edition for the original Wii, the only place to get Dark Hammer Slam Bowser and his Dark Clown Cruiser sky vehicle.
So, in order for a Skylanders toy collector to acquire all of the Dark Edition SuperChargers figures and vehicles, they’ll need to purchase the $99 Wii Dark Edition, the $99 Wii U Dark Edition and one additional $99 Dark Edition version in order to grab the toys replaced by Bowser and Donkey Kong in the Nintendo versions.
For Amiibo completionists it’s pricier still. They’ll need the two Dark Editions plus the normal versions of the toys, which as of right now are exclusive to the Wii U (Donkey Kong), Wii and 3DS (Bowser) starter packs respectively. I’d opt for the $75 Wii U pack and the 3DS pack, which only runs $64 and contains a completely different game (as does the original Wii, but shouldn’t that be mulch by now?).
Advertisement
This is exactly which I decided two games back not to count repaints in my collection—as long as I can activate the character in-game, I don’t care what color it is outside.
Skylanders SuperChargers arrives for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U, 3DS and iOS on September 20.SASEBO, Japan, July 20 (UPI) -- The staff at a Japanese hotel manned entirely by robots includes a realistic-looking woman and a bow tie-clad velociraptor.
The Henn na Hotel -- which translates to "Weird Hotel" -- features the humanoid robot and English-speaking dinosaur as receptionists and also features a tulip-shaped concierge robot, named Tuly, in charge of controlling lights in the rooms, as well as giving information on the time and weather.
An automated porter robot carries luggage to guests' rooms, which use photos to create facial recognition room keys.
The hotel, located at the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, offers rooms for between $60 and $153.
"In the future, we're hoping to build 1,000 similar hotels around the world," Huis Ten Bosch President Hideo Sawada told Nikkei News.
The hotel is not the first business in Japan to employ robots -- the Mitsukoshi Nihombashi department store in Tokyo featured a robot receptionist earlier this year containing 43 motors to allow her to gesture, blink, move her lips, create facial expressions and make other movements while giving preprogrammed answers to customers' questions.Looking for news you can trust?
Subscribe to our free newsletters.
Three basic facts of life: The planet you live on isn’t cooling, you should never forget to bring a towel, and conservative commentators aren’t very good at putting together lists of conservative things.
When John J. Miller of National Review compiled his “50 greatest conservative rock songs” in 2006, his selections—which for some odd reason included “Janie’s Got a Gun” by Aerosmith—were so often perceived as baseless that the hoopla even provoked a response from the guy who wrote the No. 1-listed tune (a fact Miller clearly relished). On Human Events‘ 2005 list of “Most Harmful Books” written in the 19th and 20th centuries, Darwin and John Stuart Mill are put in the same ballpark as Hitler and Mao.
And on Wednesday, conservative Brit Nile Gardiner trotted out his rundown of “The top 10 conservative movies of the modern era” in a blog post for the Telegraph. Gardiner writes that these movies “can be taken to heart [by conservatives] in both the United States and Great Britain,” and that they “celebrate conservative values, the defence of the free world, deep-seated patriotism and individual liberty.” He also insists that the films promote capitalism and are sure to “offend Left-wing sensibilities.” (Click here for another one of Gardiner’s crushingly lame top-ten lists, this one targeting the Obama administration.)
Amazingly, Red Dawn doesn’t even get an honorable mention!
As my colleague Adam Serwer jokingly points out, it might at first glance seem like the “overwhelming majority of these films are about kicking the shit out of brown people” (i.e. Zulu, Black Hawk Down, 300, Tears of the Sun, and so on).
Also, the Russell Crowe vehicle Master and Commander (listed at No. 4), set during the Napoleonic Wars, is hailed as “one of the greatest odes to leadership ever committed to celluloid” that “should be essential viewing for any Commander-In-Chief.” But Gardiner takes things a step further with his “British Imperialism Ra-Ra-Ra!” attitude, by viewing the movie as an ode to the “determination that forged the British Empire“:
Needless to say, it should be shown at the next EU summit by the UK delegation for the benefit of Nicolas Sarkozy when he gets on his high horse and starts lecturing Britain about French superiority.
Strangely, several of the listed films aren’t right-wing flicks, at all. The Deer Hunter (No. 6) is more about the intensely personal tragedies of war than it is about pissing off the Reds or straight-up patriotism. Hotel Rwanda (Honorable Mention), if anything, comes out against the traditionally conservative principle of non-intervention in humanitarian crises. Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (No. 8) is a non-ideological, sloppily researched army flick (albeit, a viscerally thrilling and visually impressive one). United 93 (Honorable Mention) just isn’t political—or at least heroism on 9/11 shouldn’t be political. And the Will Smith-starring The Pursuit of Happyness (No. 10, and somehow described as a 2006 “classic”) is recast as a tribute to minorities subscribing to Reaganomics.
And Roland Joffé’s The Killing Fields (No. 7) is by no means a conservative movie. It is, by all accounts, a human rights movie, and humans right awareness is—if I am to continue on this ridiculous path of generalization that this debate unfortunately demands—something that is inextricably associated with causes of the bleeding-heart left. It’s also worth noting that The Killing Fields—a film that slams the genocidal horrors perpetrated by Cambodia’s hyper-Maoist Khmer Rouge—was made by a British leftist filmmaker in 1984. Right around this time, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were supporting the Khmer Rouge insurgency in its bid to land a seat at the UN just a few years after Vietnamese troops overthrew the regime.
To live in a world dominated by facile conservative talking points is, evidently, to have no sense of historical irony whatsoever.
But, hey, I’m not totally above playing along. Without further ado, as a rebuttal based on comparable logic and sweeping generalizations, here are the TOP THREE LIBERAL MOVIES OF THE MODERN ERA IN WHICH STUFF BLOWS UP GOOD:
1. Aliens, dir. James Cameron
Since American leftists are renowned for heroically chipping away at the exploitation inherent in free markets, it’s refreshing to see that one of the all-time great sci-fi action movies features a human villain who’s a weaselly capitalist toad (played by comic Paul Reiser) who puts marines’ lives at risk for the sake of turning a healthy profit. He ends up getting his face bitten off by a towering space-monster, which is patently a metaphor for the revenge of the 99 percent, we’re pretty sure.
Naturally, the day is only saved when valiant feminazi Sigourney Weaver shows up to own some intergalactic ass. We just regret that the day had to be won through animal cruelty.
2. Die Hard 2: Die Harder, dir. Renny Harlin
The first sequel to the 1988 masterwork has Bruce Willis going all Church Committee on a squad of ex-special forces trying to reinstall a Noriega-esque, anti-communist authoritarian/drug kingpin.
Needless to say, it should be shown at the next EU summit by the UK delegation Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks get-together for the benefit of Nicolas Sarkozy George H.W. Bush when he gets on his high horse and starts lecturing Britain student protesters about French superiority American exceptionalism.
3. Glory, dir. Edward Zwick
The best movie about the triumph of big government over states’ rights, Glory is essential in helping white Democratic voters cope with their crippling white liberal guilt. In the film, President Lincoln wages his righteous war of aggression against über-racist-y, inferiorly dressed Southerners with the help of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, a black unit that, if it were around today, Fox Nation would likely label as “tyrannical and loud former ACORN volunteers.”
Okay, I’ll stop.
But please list your favorite “conservative” or “liberal” movies in the comments below.Why is there so much hate online? In the words of one beat-up, mistreated, and racially-targeted victim, why can’t we all just get along?
Yes, this is about the Adria Richards/SendGrid/PlayHaven/PyCon thing. And this is about the inevitable clash between a boy’s club locker room culture and women in technology. But much, much, much more than that, it’s about the reaction.
Update: Adria Richards’ statement
Or should I say the reactions. By everyone involved.
I have been in email communication with both the fired Adria Richards and the fired PlayHaven developer for the past two days. They are reasonable, normal, approachable people. And right now they’re both scared and bewildered at all that has happened.
But this morning Adria broke my heart, and the hearts of all those who give a damn about women in technology.
Last night, at about 2 a.m., after a series of emails with her, I said this:
Tell me at least that u will not be the next Kathy Sierra.
Kathy Sierra is a smart, passionate, funny woman in technology who essentially said her goodbyes to the online world after receiving multiple rape and death threats for, essentially, being a woman in technology. Hacker Andrew Auernheimer, who was just sentenced to 41 months in jail for an unrelated (and controversial) crime, was one of those who harassed her. Sierra’s last blog post, from her awesome “Creating Passionate Users” blog, was in 2007.
The worst thing that could happen here in this new situation — along with a developer losing his job and his ability to provide for his children — is that as a result of this incident, we’d lose another smart, passionate, funny, and awesome woman in technology. But that might happen.
Her answer, at 6:05 AM this morning?
I’m staying safe.
And that broke my heart. And that made me get up and write this on my day off. And I hope it breaks yours.
Look, whatever “side” of this you’re on, here’s what happened:
Some guys made some guy jokes about guy stuff A woman got offended and did something that was probably an over-reaction Some conference organizers over-reacted A company (PlayHaven) over-reacted The internet (all of us, but especially Anonymous) over-reacted Another company (SendGrid) over-reacted
I’ve been cursed and pilloried and told to go kill myself by people on both sides of the issue just for writing about these events. People from both sides see what they want to see and, like trained attack dogs, go in for the kill with little consideration, no mercy, no nuance, no shades of grey. They are so blinded by their self-righteousness that they’re perfectly OK with perpetrating more metaphorical violence in the service of their almighty god-blessed cause.
It’s been unbelievably worse for Adria.
She’s been extensively hated on. Threatened with rape. Threatened with decapitation — I saw the tweet with a picture of a stripped dead woman, bloody on a bed, head unattached to the torso, myself. (It’s now deleted and the Twitter account has been suspended.)
And yeah, it’s been horrible for the PlayHaven developer who lost his job. Who had his character and reputation assaulted in public. Who now has to find a new job in tech to support his kids. What’s worse, is that he’s not in Silicon Valley, where coders are in crazy urgent over-demand and a job is a cheap commodity to be tossed aside and picked up again whenever you wish. It won’t be easy for him.
So now here we are.
A developer has lost his job for no really good reason (as Richards has also said). The Internet exploded, with a significant chunk of it spewing hate and vitriol, including rape and death threats. A developer evangelist has lost her job too, for no really good reason. And women and men in technology have even more baggage and mistrust to process.
All because a developer and a developer evangelist made a couple of mistakes.
Where’s the forgiveness? Where’s the acceptance? Where’s the ability to not fly off the handle and go apeshit at zero to sixty when we see something we don’t like or we have a problem? Why do we feel we can call people whores, or idiots, or scumbags, or worse, just because there’s a computer and some wires between us and them?
Do we now live in a culture where there are no second chances, where there’s no ability to call a Mulligan, get a do-over, or just have a bad day?
Who can live that like? Who’s the perfect one among us who doesn’t screw up?
I’ve been slandered by both sides for my perceived bias on this, and I agree that no person and no journalist is completely unbiased. I’ve tried to draw a balanced line here, but I figure that if I’m going to be damned, I might as well be damned for what I actually believe.
So here it is:
I think this would never have hit the fan if the PlayHaven developer had just told one or two jokes, then let other people actually listen to the presentation. I think this would never have hit the fan if Adria had just turned in her seat and said, “Hey guys, do you mind?” I think this would never have hit the fan if the conference organizers had just gone up to the developer and said, “Hey, can you tone it down, please?” I think this would never have hit the fan if PlayHaven had not taken this slim pretext to fire a developer for a couple of dongle jokes.
But everyone over-reacted.
Everyone escalated, instead of taking a half a moment to think, relax, chill, give the benefit of the doubt, be a little easy-going, and realize that everyone is bloody well human and we all make mistakes.
Once the PlayHaven developer was fired, that was the tipping point. Then the Internet erupted, as male developers saw one of their own attacked for something that just about every man can envision himself doing. Then hackers targeted SendGrid with a DDOS attack.
Then SendGrid took the next step in escalation. And cowardice. They cut and run, and left their employee hanging in the wind. And made a bad situation even worse.
But SendGrid had another option.
Its leaders could have taken a leadership role. Maybe create a forum to talk about this issue. Bring Richards and the PlayHaven developer together for a public conversation. Ask Richards to extend an olive branch, which she already basically has done, by saying she didn’t intend for him to lose his job and that she feels bad that he did. Offer the dude a job. Ask Richards and him to come to a public understanding. Wrap it up in a bow and turn poisonous lemons into lemonade: a chance for us to advance the conversation between women and men in technology without the yelling, without the threats, without the hate.
And I think they would have come out like heroes.
What does this mean for women in the future who try to take a stand (whether right or not)? What do you do now if you are a woman in technology and you feel harassed or abused and want to shine a light on it, but now see this prominent woman totally abandoned by her company?
I’ll tell you what you do, unless you’re a saint or a hero. You shut up. You put your head down. You grin and bear it, because it’s a man’s world. And you leave, eventually, for a better place.
And we’re all poorer as a result.
Adria Richards’ Twitter account has 32,383 tweets and 12,204 followers. Most days, she would post multiple times, adding her voice to the wider conversation that is technology.
Since March 20, she has not published a single tweet. There have been no new posts on her blog.
She’s been silenced.
Congratulations, Internet.
photo credit: Chuckumentary via photopin ccYou can count the GPU teraflops, the pixel-pushing power and the platform exclusives all you want, but for developers to fully display the potential a new milestone gaming hardware device offers, that elusive 'killer app' is still paramount to success.
It’s a conundrum both Sony and Microsoft are facing with their PS4 Pro and Xbox One X consoles respectively – each mighty gaming machines, but (thanks in part to a commitment to supporting older console revisions) each not doing much beyond resolution bumps to set them apart from their forefathers.
Nintendo is actually very adept at pulling this feat off. Wii Sports perfectly illustrated the potential magic of the Wii’s motion controls. There was arguably an even greater revolution with the N64 and Super Mario 64 – its 3D worlds were so perfectly realised, its control scheme so perfectly executed, that it caused a sea change. There was no turning back.
Now, just over a year after the Oculus Rift’s consumer headset released, virtual reality has its Super Mario 64 moment, and its name is Lone Echo.
The zero-G dream
Oculus Rift exclusive Lone Echo is not the first VR game to put you in space – a number of spaceship fighter sims have already attempted it, as did the stomach-turning space disaster astronaut adventure Adrift.
But Lone Echo is the first one to get it so very right. So right, in fact, that my memories of playing it are not so much of me settling down to play a game, but more akin to ‘real’ memories that I have of moments out in the physical world.
You play the role of Jack, an AI housed in a robotic body, aboard a space station that (inevitably) experiences... difficulties, to put it euphemistically. It’s up to you to find out what’s going wrong with the aid of your human companion Liv, the captain of the ship.
VR always promises to give the player a sense of ‘presence’ not possible in other gaming mediums, and setting the title in space (wish fulfilment that it is) can bring with it unique problems – namely, pulling off that sense of zero gravity movement.
It’s something the majority of people will never truly experience, and yet can perfectly imagine what they’d assume it feels like. Get it wrong in VR, and it’s a recipe for motion sickness.
Lone Echo solves this in an incredibly novel way, taking full advantage of the intuitive complexity of the Oculus Rift Touch controllers, that let you make natural hand gestures like pointing and grabbing with ease.
Rather than pushing a stick to move forward, or teleporting like some VR games require you to do in order to circumvent the limitations of a constricted real-world play space, Lone Echo lets you grab onto surfaces, structures and items around you, and pull and push them to launch yourself off in a desired direction – just like those videos we’ve all seen of astronauts clambering around the International Space Station, and pretty much most of the film Gravity.
Little jet rockets on your wrist let you fine-tune a trajectory, and within moments you’re sweeping around the space station, with a sense of gravitational freedom comfortably at odds with the fact you know full well that your feet are actually firmly on the ground.
A space prodigy
The reality is, of course, all that’s really moving is the digitised position of your head, with your little robotic legs appearing to trail behind you. But between the novelty of zero-G movement, the fact you don’t know what robot legs would feel like, and the physicality of each grasping, pulling motion, your brain completely invests in the experience, with very little in the way of the negative side-effects usually associated with discombobulating VR movement.
The way the controller tracks the intentions of your fingers, splaying out across surfaces, is remarkably immersive, as is the way it intelligently guesses at the position of your arms. It’s like you’re really there.
Beyond the groundbreaking, Lone Echo pulls off the ‘everyday’ of gaming with aplomb too. It’s one of the most visually accomplished VR games I’ve seen so far, with developers Ready at Dawn again showing off their skill at facial motion capture.
The script is well written and equally well delivered, while the seven-or-so hour adventure (a perfect length for a VR game) is peppered with secrets to discover and multiple conversation options, offering reasons to replay.
And while I’ve not ventured into multiplayer as much as the single player campaign, I’ve heard good things about Lone Echo’s competitive component, which uses the novel navigation system to create a Tron-like game of zero-G space rugby.
Barriers to entry remain for virtual reality, though. To play Lone Echo you not only have to buy the game of course, but the headset, touch controllers and three motion tracking sensors to deliver the 360-movement the game requires. That’s before factoring in the cost of the PC to run it, and the unavoidable (but more than bearable) discomfort of having a screen strapped to your face with wires coming out of it.
But it’s as close to a literal out-of-this-world experience that many of us will ever |
pain due to want is removed, but is only varied: and the limit as regards pleasure in the mind is begotten by the reasoned understanding of these very pleasures and of the emotions akin to them, which used to cause the greatest fear to the mind.
Doctrine 19. Infinite time contains no greater pleasure than limited time, if one measures by reason the limits of pleasure.
Doctrine 20. The flesh perceives the limits of pleasure as unlimited, and unlimited time is required to supply it. But the mind, having attained a reasoned understanding of the ultimate good of the flesh and its limits and having dissipated the fears concerning the time to come, supplies us with the complete life, and we have no further need of infinite time: but neither does the mind shun pleasure, nor, when circumstances begin to bring about the departure from life, does it approach its end as though it fell short in any way of the best life.
Doctrine 21. He who has learned the limits of life knows that that which removes the pain due to want and makes the whole of life complete is easy to obtain, so that there is no need of actions which involve competition.
Doctrine 22. We must consider both the real purpose and all the evidence of direct perception, to which we always refer the conclusions of opinion; otherwise, all will be full of doubt and confusion.
Doctrine 23. If you fight against all sensations, you will have no standard by which to judge even those of them which you say are false.
Doctrine 24. If you reject any single sensation and fail to distinguish between the conclusion of opinion as to the appearance awaiting confirmation and that which is actually given by the sensation or feeling, or each intuitive apprehension of the mind, you will confound all other sensations as well with the same groundless opinion, so that you will reject every standard of judgment. And if among the mental images created by your opinion you affirm both that which awaits confirmation and that which does not, you will not escape error, since you will have preserved the whole cause of doubt in every judgment between what is right and what is wrong.
Doctrine 25. If on each occasion, instead of referring your actions to the end of nature, you turn to some other nearer standard when you are making a choice or an avoidance, your actions will not be consistent with your principles.
Doctrine 26. Of desires, all that do not lead to a sense of pain, if they are not satisfied, are not necessary, but involve a craving which is easily dispelled, when the object is hard to procure or they seem likely to produce harm.
Doctrine 27. Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life, far the greatest is the possession of friendship.
Doctrine 28. The same conviction which has given us confidence that there is nothing terrible that lasts forever or even for long, has also seen the protection of friendship most fully completed in the limited evils of this life.
Doctrine 29. Among desires some are natural (and necessary, some natural) but not necessary, and others neither natural nor necessary, but due to idle imagination.
Doctrine 30. Wherever in the case of desires which are physical, but do not lead to a sense of pain, if they are not fulfilled, the effort is intense, such pleasures are due to idle imagination, and it is not owing to their own nature that they fail to be dispelled, but owing to the empty imaginings of the man.
Doctrine 31. The justice which arises from nature is a pledge of mutual advantage to restrain men from harming one another and save them from being harmed.
Doctrine 32. For all living things which have not been able to make compacts not to harm one another or be harmed, nothing ever is either just or unjust; and likewise too for all tribes of men which have been unable or unwilling to make compacts not to harm or be harmed.
Doctrine 33. Justice never is anything in itself, but in the dealings of men with one another in any place whatever and at any time it is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.
Doctrine 34. Injustice is not an evil in itself, but only in consequence of the fear which attaches to the apprehension of being unable to escape those appointed to punish such actions.
Doctrine 35. It is not possible for one who acts in secret contravention of the terms of the compact not to harm or be harmed, to be confident that he will escape detection, even if at present he escapes a thousand times. For up to the time of death it cannot be certain that he will indeed escape.
Doctrine 36. In its general aspect justice is the same for all, for it is a kind of mutual advantage in the dealings of men with one another: but with reference to the individual peculiarities of a country or any other circumstances the same thing does not turn out to be just for all.
Doctrine 37. Among actions which are sanctioned as just by law, that which is proved on examination to be of advantage in the requirements of men’s dealings with one another, has the guarantee of justice, whether it is the same for all or not. But if a man makes a law and it does not turn out to lead to advantage in men’s dealings with each other, then it no longer has the essential nature of justice. And even if the advantage in the matter of justice shifts from one side to the other, but for a while accords with the general concept, it is nonetheless just for that period in the eyes of those who do not confound themselves with empty sounds but look to the actual facts.
Doctrine 38. Where, provided the circumstances have not been altered, actions which were considered just, have been shown not to accord with the general concept in actual practice, then they are not just. But where, when circumstances have changed, the same actions which were sanctioned as just no longer lead to advantage, there they were just at the time when they were of advantage for the dealings of fellow-citizens with one another, but subsequently they are no longer just, when no longer of advantage.
Doctrine 39. The man who has best ordered the element of disquiet arising from external circumstances has made those things that he could akin to himself and the rest at least not alien; but with all to which he could not do even this, he has refrained from mixing, and has expelled from his life all which it was of advantage to treat thus.
Doctrine 40. As many as possess the power to procure complete immunity from their neighbours, these also live most pleasantly with one another, since they have the most certain pledge of security, and after they have enjoyed the fullest intimacy, they do not lament the previous departure of a dead friend, as though he were to be pitied.
The Principal Doctrines – Paraphrases and References
1. Any being which is happy and imperishable neither has trouble itself, nor does it cause trouble to anything else. A perfect being does not have feelings either of anger or gratitude, for these feelings exist only in the weak.
Alternate Translations: Bailey: The blessed and immortal nature knows no trouble itself nor causes trouble to any other, so that it is never constrained by anger or favor. For all such things exist only in the weak. Yonge: The blessed and immortal nature knows no trouble itself nor causes trouble to any other, so that it is never constrained by anger or favor. For all such things exist only in the weak.
Letter to Menoeceus : First of all, believe that a god is an incorruptible and happy being, even as the common notion of a god is implanted in the minds of men. But attach to your theology nothing which is inconsistent with incorruptibility or with happiness, and believe that a god possesses everything which is necessary to preserve its own nature. Indeed the gods do exist, and Nature gives to us a degree of knowledge of them. But gods are not of the character which most people attribute to them, and the conception of the gods held by most people is far from pure. It is not the man who discards the gods believed in by the many who is impious, but he who applies to the gods the false opinions that most people entertain about them. For the assertions of most people about the gods are not true intuitions given to them by Nature, but false opinions of their own, such as the idea that gods send misfortune to the wicked and blessings to the good. False opinions such as these arise because men think of the gods as if they had human qualities, and men do not understand that the gods have virtues that are different from their own.
Letter to Herodotus : As to the heavenly phenomena, such as the motion and course of the stars, their rising and setting, the eclipses, and all other appearances of this sort, we must beware of thinking that they are produced by any superior being whose business it is to regulate the order of the world. For a god is a being which is immortal and perfectly happy, free of cares and anxieties. Benevolence and anger, however, far from being compatible with perfection, are on the contrary the consequence of weakness, of fear, and of the desire which a thing has for something that it lacks. Therefore we must not fancy that the globes of fire which roll on in space are gods which enjoy a perfect happiness, and which give themselves, with reflection and wisdom, the motions which they possess. On this subject we must respect the established notions, but only if they do not at all contradict the respect due to the truth. For nothing is more calculated to trouble the soul than the strife of contradictory notions and principles. We must therefore conclude that from the first movement of the heavenly bodies at the time of the organization of the universe, there results some sort of necessary cause which regulates their course to this very day. Let us be well assured that it is to natural science which belongs the determination of the causes of these heavenly phenomena. Happiness comes through the study of natural science, by which we acquire the knowledge of analogous phenomena, which then aids us in the understanding of ethical matters. The heavenly phenomena, on the other hand, admit of several explanations. There is no reason that they must necessarily be of a particular character, and one may explain them in various manners. In short, a moment’s consideration will show that the heavenly phenomena have no relationship with gods, which are imperishable and happy beings which suffer no destruction or confusion.
Letter to Pythocles : Further, the forecasts some give based on the conduct of certain animals arise from a fortuitous combination of circumstances; for there is no necessary connection between certain animals and winter. These animals do not produce winter; nor is there any divine being sitting aloft watching the exits of these animals, and then fulfilling signs of this kind. No folly such as this would occur to any being who is even moderately comfortable, much less to a god who is possessed of perfect happiness.
Lucretius De Rerum Natura Book II: For by nature of the gods must always in themselves of necessity enjoy immortality together with supreme repose, far removed and withdrawn from our concerns. This is because a god is exempt from every pain, exempt from all dangers, strong in its own resources, not wanting anything of us, and it neither gains by favors nor is moved by anger. And if any one thinks proper to call the sea Neptune and corn Ceres and chooses rather to misuse the name of Bacchus than to utter the term that belongs to that liquor, let us allow him to declare that the earth is mother of the gods, if he will in truth forbear from staining his mind with foul religion.
NewEpicurean Commentary: Nature has endowed men with Anticipations that gods do exist, and the clearest of these anticipations is that a god is perfect a perfect being which has no troubles of its own, nor does it cause trouble to anything else. A perfect being has all of its needs already fulfilled and is without weakness of its own, and as a result such a being does not feel anger or gratitude, as such emotions exist only in beings that are weak. It is therefore false to believe that a perfect “God” intervenes in the lives of men, for good or evil, nor does such a being seek to punish you or reward you for your actions, either during your life or after your death.
2. Death is nothing to us, because that which is dead has no sensations, and that which cannot be sensed is nothing to us.
Alternate Translations: Bailey: Death is nothing to us: for that which is dissolved is without sensation; and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us. Yonge: Death is nothing to us: for that which is dissolved is without sensation; and that which lacks sensation is nothing to us. Strodach: Death means nothing to us, because that which has been broken down into atoms has no sensation, and that which has no sensation is no concern of ours.
Letter to Menoeceus : Next, accustom yourself to think that death is a matter with which we are not at all concerned. This is because all good and all evil come to us through sensation, and death brings the end of all our sensations. The correct understanding that death is no concern of ours allows us to take pleasure in our mortal lives, not because it adds to life an infinite span of time, but because it relieves us of the longing for immortality as a refuge from the fear of death. For there can be nothing terrible in living for a man who rightly comprehends that there is nothing terrible in ceasing to live. Seen in this way, it was a silly man who once said that he feared death, not because it would grieve him when it was present, but because it grieved him now to consider it to be coming in the future. But it is absurd that something that does not distress a man when it is present should afflict him when it has not yet arrived. Therefore the most terrifying of fears, death, is nothing to us, since so long as we exist death is not present with us, and when death comes, then we no longer exist. Death, then, is of no concern either to the living or to the dead – to the living, death has no existence, and to the dead, no concerns of any kind are possible.
Cicero’s Defense of Epicurus: Observe that if one removes from mankind of all the faculties that Nature has provided, nothing remains.
Cicero’s Defense of Epicurus : Let us imagine a man who is living in the continuous enjoyment of numerous vivid pleasures, of both body and of mind, and who is undisturbed either by the presence or by the prospect of pain. What possible state of existence could we describe as being more excellent or more desirable? A man so situated must possess in the first place a strength of mind that is impregnable against all fear of death or of pain. He will have no fear of death because he will know that death only means complete unconsciousness, and he will have no fear of pain, because he will know that while he is alive, pain that is long is generally light, and pain that is strong is generally short. In other words, he will also know that the intensity of pain is alleviated by the briefness of its duration, and that continuing pain is bearable because it is generally of lesser severity. Let such a man moreover have no fear of any supernatural power; let him never allow the pleasures of the past to fade away, but let him constantly renew their enjoyment in his recollection, and his lot will be one which will not admit of further improvement.
Cicero’s Defense of Epicurus: The fear of death plays havoc with the calm and even tenor of life, and it is a pitiful thing to bow the head to pain and bear it abjectly and feebly. Such weakness has caused many men to betray their parents or their friends; some even betray their own country, and very many utterly fall to ruin themselves. On the other hand, a strong and lofty spirit is entirely free from anxiety and sorrow, and makes light of death, for the dead are only as they were before they were born. It is wise to recall that pains of great severity are ended by death, and slight pains have frequent intervals of respite; while pains of medium intensity lie within our ability to control. If pains are endurable then we can bear them, and if they are unendurable, we may choose ourselves to leave life’s theater serenely when the play has ceased to please us.
Lucretius De Rerum Natura Book III : Death is nothing to us, concerning us not at all, since the nature of the mind is mortal. Think how in times gone by we felt no distress when the Carthaginians from all sides came together to do battle, and all things were shaken by war’s troubling uproar, shuddering and quaking beneath high heaven, and mortal men were in doubt which of the two peoples it would be whose empire would fall by land and sea. So the same applies when we ourselves shall be no more, when our body and soul are separated, out of the both of which we are formed into a single being. You may be sure that for us, who shall then be no more, nothing whatever can happen to excite sensation, not if earth itself should be overturned to mingle with the sea and the sea with heaven. And even supposing the nature of the mind and power of the soul do have feeling, after they have been severed from our body, that is still nothing to us, who by the marriage of body and soul are formed into one single being.
And even if time should gather up after our death that material from which we are made and put it once more into the position in which it now holds, and give the light of life to us again – even this result even would not concern us at all. This is because the chain of our self-consciousness has been snapped asunder, just as we now have no concern about any life which the material from which we are made might have held before our birth, nor do we feel any distress about that prior life. When you look back on the whole past course of immeasurable time, and think how many are the combinations which the motions of matter take, you may easily believe that the very same seeds from which we are now formed have often before been placed in the same order in which they now are. And yet we can recall no memory of this — a break in our existence has been interposed, and all the materials from which we are made have wandered to and fro, far astray from the sensations they once produced. For he to whom evil befalls must exist as his own person at the time that evil comes, if the misery and suffering are to happen to him at all. But since death precludes this, and takes away the existence of him on whom evil can be brought, you may be sure that we have nothing to fear after death. He who does not exist cannot become miserable, and once death has taken away his mortal life, it does not matter at all whether he has lived at any other time. Therefore when you see a man bemoaning his hard life, worrying that after death he shall either rot with his body laid in the grave, or be devoured by flames, or by the jaws of wild beasts, you may be sure that there lurks in his heart a secret fear, though he may declare that he does not believe that any sense will remain to him after death. Such a man does not really hold the conclusion which he professes to hold, nor believe the principle which he professes.
For such a man may profess that his body is fully dead, but yet unconsciously imagine something of self to survive, and worry that birds and beasts will rend his body after death, moaning for his end. Such a man does not separate himself from what remains after he has died, and instead he fancies himself to be those remains, and he stands by and impregnates those remains with his own sensations. For this reason he makes much of bemoaning that he has been born mortal, and he does not see that after death there will be no other self to remain and lament to itself that he has met death, and to stand and grieve that he is lying there mangled or burnt. For if it is an evil to be pulled about by the devouring jaws of wild beasts after death, I cannot see why it should not be just as cruel a pain to be laid on fires and burn in hot flames, or to be placed in honey and stifled, or to stiffen with cold, stretched on the smooth surface of an icy slab of stone, or to be pressed down and crushed by a load of earth above.
Some men say to themselves: “No more shall my house admit me with glad welcome, nor a virtuous wife and sweet children run to be the first to snatch kisses and touch my heart with joy. No more may I be prosperous in my doings, a safeguard to my own. One disastrous day has taken from me, luckless man, all the many prizes of life.” But these men do not add: “And now no longer does any craving for these things beset me either.” For if these men could rightly perceive this in thought, and follow up the thought in words, they would release themselves from great distress and apprehension of mind: “You, even as you are now, sunk in the sleep of death, shall continue so to be so for all time to come, freed from all distressful pains. But we who remain, with a sorrow that could not be healed, wept for you when close you turned to an ashen heap on your funeral pile, and no length of days shall pluck from our hearts our ever-during grief.” To those who mourn for the dead, this question should be asked: “What is there in death so extremely bitter, if it comes in the end to sleep and rest, that anyone should pine over the dead in never-ending sorrow?” This too men often love to say, when they have reclined at table, cup in hand, and shaded their brows with crowns:” Short is this enjoyment for poor weak men; presently it will have passed and never after may it be called back!” Such men say this as if, after their death, their chief affliction will be thirst and parching drought, burning them up, luckless wretches, or craving for any thing else. What folly!
No one feels the need for himself and life when mind and body are together sunk in sleep. For all we care, this sleep might be everlasting, and no craving whatever for ourselves would move us. And yet those first beginnings throughout our frame wander far away from their sense-producing motions before a man starts up from sleep and collects himself. Death therefore must be thought to concern us much less than sleep, if less there can be than what we see to be nothing during sleep, for a greater dispersion of our first-beginnings follows after death, and no one wakes up once the chill cessation of life has come. If Nature could suddenly utter a voice and address us in person, she might use words such as these: “Why do you, O mortal, go on to such length in sickly sorrow? Why do you bemoan and bewail death? For have you had a good life, and do you say that the life you have lost has been welcome to you, and that your blessings have not all been poured as if into a perforated jar, from which they have run through and been lost to no avail? If your life has been so blessed, why not then depart from life like a guest filled with food and drink as if at the end of a party, and with relief that it is over enter upon untroubled rest?”
“But if on the other hand you have had a bad life, and all that you enjoyed has been squandered and lost, and if life is a grievance to you, why seek to continue that life any longer, to be wasted in its turn and utterly lost for nothing? Why not rather make an end of life and its troubles? For there is nothing more which I can contrive for you to give you pleasure. All things are always the same, and even if your body is not yet decayed with age nor worn out and exhausted, yet all things will remain the same, even if you should outlast all men now living – even if you should never die!” What answer could we give to Nature, but that her case is well-founded and that she pleads it honestly and well? If, however, a man more advanced in years should complain about his death more than is right, would Nature not with even greater cause raise her voice in words such as these: “Away with thy tears, rascal; a truce to your complaining. Your death comes after full enjoyment of all the prizes of life. Because you nevertheless yearn for what you do not have, and despise what you do have, life has slipped from your grasp unfinished and unsatisfied. And now, before you expected it, death has taken its stand at your bedside, before you can take your departure satisfied and filled with good things. Give up those things that are unsuited to your age, and with good grace and nobility get up and go: you must.”
Nature’s charge would be brought with good reason, for old things must give way and be supplanted by the new, and new things must ever be replenished out of old things. No one is delivered over to the pit and black Tartarus to be utterly destroyed – matter is needed for future generations to grow. All of these, too, will follow you when you have finished your term of life, just as all those that have come before and after, no less than you, have and always will come to their own ends. Thus one thing will never cease to rise out of another – life is granted to none to possess forever, to all it is only a loan. Think how the bygone antiquity of everlasting time before our birth was nothing to us. Nature holds those ancient days up to us as a mirror of the time yet to come after our death. Is there anything in this that looks appalling, anything that appears gloomy? Is this not a rest more untroubled than any sleep?
Lucretius De Rerum Natura Book III : This too you may sometimes say to yourself, “Even worthy Ancus has seen his eyes close to the light, and he was a far better man than you. And since then many other kings and potentates have been laid low. Even that great king who once paved a way over the sea as a path for his legions to march, and taught them to pass on foot over the roaring of the sea, trampling on it with his horses, had the light taken from him and shed forth his soul from his dying body. Even the son of the Scipios, thunderbolt of war, terror of Carthage, yielded his bones to earth just as if he were the lowest laborer. Think, too, of the inventors of all sciences and arts, think of those such as Homer, who was without a peer, but yet now sleeps the same sleep as the others. Then there was Democritus who, when he found that his memory was failing him in old age, offered up himself to death. Even Epicurus himself, who surpassed in intellect all other men and quenched the light of all rivals, as the sun quenches the stars, passed away when his light of life had run its course. Will you then hesitate and think it a hardship for you to die? You for whom life is not far from death even while you yet live and see the light of day? You, who spends the greater part of your time in sleep, and snore even when you are wide awake, and never cease seeing visions? You, who have a mind troubled with groundless terrors, and cannot discover what it is that troubles you? You, pitiful man that you are, pressed on all sides with many cares, who constantly stray due to the tumbled wanderings of your mind?
If, just as men feel the weight of the load on their minds which oppresses them, they would understand from what causes this load is produced, and why such a weight lies on their hearts, they would not spend their lives as we see most of them do. Such men never know – any one of them – what they want, and thus always seek a change of place as though they might there lay down their burdens. Men who are sick of being home often issue forth from their mansions, but just as suddenly come back to it, once they find that they are no better off abroad. Such men race to their country-house, driving his horses in headlong haste as if hurrying to bring help to a house on fire. But then the moment he reaches the door of his house he yawns, and sinks heavily into sleep, seeking forgetfulness, or even in haste goes back again to town. In this way each man flies from himself, but as you may be sure is commonly the case, he cannot escape from himself, which always clings to him against his wishes. Such a man hates himself because he is sick, but does not know not the cause of his sickness. For if he could rightly see into these matters, giving up all other distractions, he would study to learn the Nature of things, since the point at stake is his condition – not for one hour – but for eternity: the state in which all mortals must pass all the time which remains after death.
Once more, what evil lust for life is this which constrains us with such force to be so troubled by doubt and danger? A set term of life is fixed for all mortals, and death cannot be avoided – meet it we must. Moreover, we are always engaged in the same pursuits, and no new pleasure is available by living on. But so long as we crave what we lack, that desire seems to transcend all the rest. When once it is obtained, we then crave something else, and ever does the same thirst for life possess us, as we gape for with open mouth. It is quite doubtful what fortune the future will bring with it, or what chance will bring us, or what end is at hand. Nor, by prolonging life, do we take one moment from the time we pass in death, nor can we by worrying spend a moment less in the eternity of death. You may live as many generations as you please during your life, but nonetheless everlasting death will await you. For the man who ended his life today will be no less time in nonexistence than the man who died many months or many years ago.
NewEpicurean Commentary: In regard to death, we must keep in mind that we are conscious that we are alive only because we experience life through our eyes, ears, and our other sensations. When we die, these sensations come to an end, and thus so does our ability to experience anything. For that reason, death is not to be feared, because once you are dead, your sensations end, and thus your consciousness ends. Even if the components which made up your consciousness continue to exist in some form, in such a state whatever is left of you has no sensation and therefore no ability to feel any kind of pain. Further, do not allow yourself to feel any regret that your consciousness will not live forever. You do not now worry about your condition during all the time that passed before you were born, and in the same way there is no need for you to worry about the eternity that will pass after your death. All the things that will happen after your death are simply a mirror of all that happened before you were born — neither should cause you to fear to live today to its fullest potential. This is not to say that death is of no significance to us. Death is a part of our nature as human beings, but Nature has designed us to live, and our natural goal is to live a life of happiness. A life of good health and happiness is to be pursued with all our strength, and the ending of that life is certainly of very great significance. What is referred to here is simply that death is the end of our consciousness, and we have no continued state after death to be concerned about, and so in that context, indeed, death is nothing to us.
3. The limit of quantity in pleasures is the removal of all that is painful. Wherever pleasure is present, as long as it is there, there is neither pain of body nor of mind, nor of both at once.
Alternate Translations: Yonge: The limit of quantity in pleasures is the removal of all that is painful. Wherever pleasure is present, as long as it is there, there is neither pain of body nor of mind, nor of both at once. Strodach: The quantitative limit of pleasure is the elimination of all feelings of pain. Wherever the pleasurable state exists, there is neither bodily pain nor mental pain nor both together, so long as the pain continues.
Letter to Menoeceus : For you see when we lack pleasure and we grieve, we have need of pleasure, because pleasure is not present. But so long as we do not grieve, life affords us no lack of pleasure. On this account we affirm that Nature has provided that Pleasure is the beginning and end of living happily; for we have recognized that Nature has provided that happiness is the first good that is innate within us.
Letter to Menoeceus : When, therefore, we say that pleasure or happiness is the chief good, we are not speaking of the pleasures of debauched men, or those pleasures which lie in sensual enjoyment, as some allege about us who are ignorant, or who disagree with us, or who perversely misrepresent our opinions. Instead, when we speak of pleasure or happiness as the chief good, we mean the freedom of the body from pain and the freedom of the soul from confusion. For it is not continued drinking and reveling, or the temporary pleasures of sexual relations, or feasts of fish or such other things as a costly table supplies that make life pleasant. Instead, Nature provides that life is made pleasant by sober contemplation, and by close examination of the reasons for all decisions we make as to what we choose and what we avoid. It is by these means that we put to flight the vain opinions from which arise the greater part of the confusion that troubles the soul.
Cicero’s Defense of Epicurus: The happiness we pursue does not consist solely of the delightful feelings of physical pleasures. On the contrary, according to Epicurus the greatest pleasure is that which is experienced as a result of the complete removal of all pain, physical and mental. When we are released from pain, the mere sensation of complete emancipation and relief from distress is itself a source of great gratification. But everything that causes gratification is a pleasure, just as everything that causes distress is a pain. Therefore the complete removal of pain has correctly been termed a pleasure. For example, when hunger and thirst are banished by food and drink, the mere fact of getting rid of those distresses brings pleasure as a result. So as a rule, the removal of pain causes pleasure to take its place. For that reason Epicurus held that there is no such thing as a neutral state of feeling that is somewhere between pleasure and pain. This is because for the living being, the entire absence of pain, a state supposed by some philosophers to be neutral, is not only a state of pleasure, but a pleasure of the highest order. A man who is living and conscious of his condition at all necessarily feels either pleasure or pain. Epicurus holds that the experience of the complete absence of all pain is the highest point, or the “limit,” of pleasure. Beyond this point, pleasure may vary in kind, but it does not vary in intensity or degree.
To illustrate this, my father used to tell me (when he wanted to show his wit at the expense of the Stoics) that there was once in Athens a statue of the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus. This statue was fashioned with Chrysippus holding out one hand, in a gesture intended to indicate the delight which he used to take in the following little play on words:” Does your hand desire anything, while it is in its present condition?”” No, nothing.”” But if pleasure were a good, it would want pleasure.”” Yes, I suppose it would.”” Therefore pleasure is not a good.” This is an argument, my father declared, which not even a dumb statue would employ, if a statue could speak. This is because the argument is cogent enough as an objection to those who pursue sensual pleasures as the only goal of life, but it does not touch Epicurus. For if the only kind of pleasure were that which, so to speak, tickles the senses with a feeling of delight, neither the hand nor any other member of the body could be satisfied with the absence of pain, if it were not accompanied by an active sensation of pleasure. If, however, as Epicurus holds, the highest pleasure is experienced at the removal of all pain, then the man who responded to Chrysippus was wrong to be misled by his questions. This is because the man’s first answer, that his hand was in a condition that wanted nothing, was correct. But his second answer, that if pleasure were a good, his hand would want it, was not correct. This was wrong because the hand had no need to desire any additional pleasure, because the state in which it was in – a state without pain – was itself a state of pleasure.
Cicero’s Defense of Epicurus: Further, we do not agree with those who allege that when pleasure is withdrawn, anxiety follows at once. That result is true only in those situations where the pleasure happens to be replaced directly by a pain. The truth is, in general, we are glad whenever we lose a pain, even though no active sensation of pleasure comes immediately in its place. This fact serves to show us how life in the absence of pain is so great a pleasure.
NewEpicurean Commentary: Nature has established that the greatest pleasure toward which all men should strive is the achievement of a state where one has eliminated from one’s life all mental and physical pain whatsoever. The state of being alive and conscious is a great pleasure, in fact the greatest of them all, but the nature of existence is that throughout our lives we have needs that cause us to experience pain. As a result most of our life is spent fulfilling our needs, such as those for food, water, air, shelter, etc. Because every gratification of a need or satisfaction of pain brings with it a great pleasure, and because a life completely without mental or physical pain is itself the greatest of pleasure, we are required to face appetites that are by nature incapable of being satisfied. Rather, each of us is provided by Nature with a path to achieving all the pleasure that can be achieved by devoting ourselves rationally to the elimination of pain in our lives. Once we have achieved pleasure, we have no need of anything else, because we then neither lack anything to satisfy any need, nor need anything further to attain pleasure.
4. Bodily pain does not last continuously. The most intense pain is present only for a very short time, and pain which outweighs the body’s pleasures does not continue for long. Even chronic pain permits a predominance of pleasure over pain.
Alternate Translations: Bailey: Pain does not last continuously in the flesh, but the acutest pain is there for a very short time, and even that which just exceeds the pleasure in the flesh does not continue for many days at once. But chronic illnesses |
on these lists. He’s in first by a mile.
Numbers Never Lie Numbers Never Lie Stat Wright Second Place FG% 62.9% 59.1% TS% 64.3% 61.1% eFG% 62.9% 59.2% Off Rating 126.2 118.1
What’s more, Wright trails only Nowitzki in career PER and win shares per 48 minutes — the first number measures efficiency while the second approximates a player’s value.
Compare and Contrast Compare and Contrast Stat Nowitzki Wright Third Place PER 23.5 22.1 20.8 WS/48.208.203.154
How is this possible for a player who’s only on the floor for 18 minutes per game? Typically metrics like PER tend to favor guys who play heavy minutes, as the more time they spend on the floor, the more time they have to fill out their statistics. Wright’s insanely high PER is more a testament to his own efficiency and the way he’s used than it is to a weird quirk within the stat itself. Wright is absolutely in elite company despite playing fewer minutes per game than all but one player in the top 50. Among players behind Wright on the PER list: James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul George, and Joakim Noah — and each of them played at least 35 minutes per game, or nearly twice as much as Wright.
Again, how is it possible?
For starters, Wright is used in such a way that highlights his strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. He’s almost exclusively a catch-and-shoot player and excels in rolling to the rim off a screen. He was assisted on seven of every eight made field goals and almost 73 percent of his FG attempts came from within five feet, per NBA.com, and 61 percent of them came from within three feet. It’s generally considered pretty easy to finish at the rim in the NBA, but Wright has better hands and a softer touch around the basket than just about every other big in basketball. He’s also got a sweet stroke from 10-14 feet away, as well, where he hit exactly half his attempts in 2013-14.
Wright is also regularly used in combination with perimeter guys who can play off his screens. Last season, for example, he was assisted by Vince Carter 53 times, Monta Ellis 45 times, Devin Harris 40 times. When defenses played the Mavericks last season, they tended to focus more on the ball-handler off a pick-and-roll than they did the roller (unless the roller was Dirk). And after checking Wright’s shot chart from the last few seasons, it’s safe to say the Mavs will happily prefer to see that coverage again this season, when Wright will be backing up fellow elite roller Tyson Chandler. Between those two and Nowitzki, Dallas will trot out perhaps the best collective set of hands at the power forward and center positions in the league. Each of them are huge targets going toward the basket — and to the three-point line, in Dirk’s case — which is a huge luxury to ball-handlers like Ellis, Harris, and new signing Chandler Parsons.
The catch-and-shoot strategy with Wright also limits his turnovers. The big man has the best career turnover percentage in team history — his 7.6 percent mark sits ahead of second-place Nowitzki’s 8.8 percent. Again, having big men who can consistently catch the ball and get a shot off without turning it over is nearly an unquantifiable luxury, but in Wright’s case you can at least start with wins and losses to gauge his value. When he played last season, Dallas was 36-22. In games he played in that Dallas won, the team put up a 116.6 offensive rating and an equally impressive 101.2 defensive rating while he was on the floor.
He was also a part of the Mavs’ best five-man unit last season — the group of Harris, Jae Crowder, Carter, Dirk, and Wright was possibly the best lineup featuring mostly reserves in the entire NBA, and the Mavs bench figures to be just as deep, if not deeper, this season. If Wright can remain as efficient next season as he’s been these last few seasons, the Dallas bench will continue to fill it up and, more than likely, the Mavs will continue their winning ways.In this June 18, 2011 file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. Should Perry conclude that voter discontent has left him an opening to enter the presidential race, the longtime Texas governor would be among the GOP field's most conservative candidates. File,AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Texas governor Rick Perry looks, at the moment, like the man many Republicans have been waiting for. Perry has yet to enter the presidential race - he looks likely to do so in August - but he is already polling close to ostensible frontrunner Mitt Romney.
The buzz around Perry isn't just driven by the polling. It's grounded in the fact that Perry could potentially bridge the divide between the Tea Party conservatives and the party establishment. To borrow a phrase from Perry's predecessor in the Texas governor's office, who went on to bigger things: Perry could be a uniter, not a divider, that the GOP is desperate to find.
Consider: Romney, like fellow Massachusetts politician John Kerry before him, cannot seem to escape the perception that he is ultimately an establishment figure - and is thus viewed with skepticism (or worse) by many in the Tea Party and social conservative circles. Rep. Michele Bachmann, by contrast, is beloved by many Tea Partiers and social conservatives, but she's largely dismissed inside the Beltway as a fringe figure with little in the way of legislative accomplishment or policy chops.
CBSNews.com special report: Election 2012
Perry can potentially bridge that divide: He aggressively embraced the Tea Party as it was getting off the ground, pushing a message of limited federal government (he's a strong critic of the federal health care overhaul). And his Texas swagger - the often cowboy boot-clad governor once shot a coyote that menaced his puppy during a jog - doesn't hurt. In a McClatchy-Marist poll last month, Perry was the most popular GOP presidential contender among Tea Party supporters.
And Perry is an evangelical Christian who knows how to win over social conservatives through both his policies - he signed into law a bill mandating that a woman seeking an abortion see a sonogram first - and his public acts. On August 6, he's hosting a much-publicized prayer and fasting eventto heal "a nation that has not honored God in our successes or humbly called on Him in our struggles."
Yet Perry is also an establishment figure who is well-liked by top party figures. He runs the Republican Governor's Association, a post that affords him important contacts across the country and the ability to do favors that can eventually be called in, thanks in large part to the RGA's fundraising prowess. During Perry's long tenure in Austin, Texas has been one of the nation's few bright spots when it comes to job creation, affording Perry credibility in making the case to business leaders and average Americans that he be a better steward of the economy than President Obama. Perry would enter the race with an extensive donor network, a coterie of well-respected aides and the likely tacit support of a Republican establishment that sees Bachmann as a hopeless general election candidate and Romney as far from ideal.
But the enthusiasm over a possible Perry candidacy has thus far clouded one inconvenient truth: While the governor is currently the model of a Tea Party politician, his past includes plenty to give Tea Partiers and social conservatives pause if and when they decide to take a closer look.
That fact was highlighted last Thursday, when former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took a very pointed shot at Perry. "For all his new found commitment to hyper-conservatism," said the former GOP presidential candidate, "he'll get to explain why he supported pro-abortion, pro-same sex marriage Rudy Guiliani last time."
Perry's support for Giuliani - whose moderation on social issues alienated social conservatives and contributed to his dramatic flameout in the 2008 presidential race - isn't his only potentially problematic endorsement. He doesn't much like to talk about it these days, but Perry was actually a Democrat until 1989; the year before he converted to the GOP, he served as Texas chairman for then-presidential candidate (and current target of conservative disdain) Al Gore.
Then there are the issues, chief among them immigration. Perry, who presides over a state with a large and growing Hispanic population. has been criticized by Texas Tea Party groups for not pushing hard enough to pass a "sanctuary city" ban and other hard-line immigration legislation. In 2001, he signed the Texas version of the DREAM Act allowing children of illegal immigrants access to in-state college tuition. As Arizona Sen. John McCain's reelection campaign illustrated last year, any perceived softness on immigration issues can become a major headache in a Republican primary.
There are niche issues that could hurt Perry, like his support for the (never-created) Trans-Texas Corridor, a toll-road despised by small-government types that would have meant the appropriation of an estimated 81,000 acres of rural land. Or the executive order he signed in 2007 requiring that Texas sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer. (The order was ultimately blocked, but the order outraged many conservatives.)
And then there's the elephant in the room: Texas' debt problem. In the 2010 governor's race, Democrat Bill White pointed out that Texas' debt has doubled under Perry. Since 2001, according to the Star-Telegram's Mitchell Schnurman, Texas' debt has grown at a faster rate than that of the U.S. government. Perry assumed office in December 2000.
All this could lead Republican voters to the same conclusion about Perry that many have made about Romney, whose position on a number of issues has shifted over the years: That he is a political opportunist without core beliefs. Some conservative bloggers have already seized on a list of 14 reasons Perry "would be a really, really bad president." The list points to many of the issues mentioned above as well as tax increases. One blogger, citing the list, derides Perry as "a big-time globalist."
Perry's past breaks with Tea Party-orthodoxy could potentially stay below-the-radar if he enters the race. But Perry's rivals for the nomination are unlikely to ignore them, particularly if Perry is as strong a candidate as he looks. The question for Perry, if he runs, is whether he will be able to convince Tea Partiers and the rest of the GOP base that, occasional missteps notwithstanding, he is ultimately one of their own.tdu Full Citizen
Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 250
Quote: boxlight Originally Posted by I've been watching a lot of Netflix lately and was eating up my 80G cap quickly, so I called Rogers to discuss. Turns out I was free to cancel my service (because I was no longer under contracts or commitments), so I politely suggested that their competition's plan with high bandwidth is a better fit for my needs. He offered me 80% off their 150G plan as long as I committed to keeping my three services (internet, tv, home phone) for two years.
I accepted the deal -- I'm basically paying $15 a month for a 150G cap -- but I have to say, with HD Netflix, I can burn through that 150G in a month. I have to keep an eye on it, and when I get to about 80G, I downgrade the picture quality from "best" to just "good".
Might be a silly question, so excuse me but the Rogers account isn't and never has been in my name. Are you under a contract with the high speed internet service? I know I obviously am with my phone. We don't have TV though, and home phone is the only other service. There is nothing to prevent me from just switching internet service? I think I will take this approach. I am considering Wightman Telecom since I can get their service in my area and people seem pretty happy with them. But if Rogers discounted our bill I might stay with them out of convenience.Might be a silly question, so excuse me but the Rogers account isn't and never has been in my name. Are you under a contract with the high speed internet service? I know I obviously am with my phone. We don't have TV though, and home phone is the only other service. There is nothing to prevent me from just switching internet service? __________________
2011 iMac, MacBook 2.4 ghz Black, iPhone 4Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 9, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Bourg
When it became clear that President Donald Trump was seriously considering nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, the conservative judge’s former law clerks swung into action as among his most energetic public cheerleaders.
But in making the case for him in the media on issues including his stance toward abortion, healthcare and an expansive view of religious liberty, they may have opened up lines of attack on Kavanaugh by Democrats and liberal advocacy groups seeking to derail his nomination in the U.S. Senate.
Trump named Kavanaugh, 53, on July 9 to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Before he can assume the lifetime job on the nine-member court, the Senate must vote to confirm him. No date has yet been set for the customary Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.
Kavanaugh has served for 12 years on an influential federal appeals court in Washington. Several of the 48 lawyers who served as his clerks – a year-long job working for a judge, usually straight out of law school – appeared on cable TV shows, wrote opinion articles and spoke to reporters, often trying to shore up support among conservatives.
Their comments may have helped Kavanaugh’s cause before Trump nominated him by pushing back on complaints by some conservatives that the judge would not lean far enough to the right on social issues like abortion as well as on a conservative legal challenge to the Obamacare healthcare law.
But the chief threat to Trump’s nominee now is the Democratic campaign to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation in a Senate in which the president’s fellow Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority.
Of the 48 clerks, 34 signed a letter calling for the Senate to confirm his appointment. Many secured prestigious Supreme Court clerkships after working for Kavanaugh and subsequently landed jobs at law firms, law schools and in government.
‘ROCK SOLID RECORD’
One clerk, Sarah Pitlyk, wrote a piece for the conservative National Review a week before the nomination was announced in which she touted Kavanaugh’s “clear, consistent and rock solid record on the issues that matter most to social conservatives.”
Pitlyk, who could not be reached for comment, said that “no court of appeals judge in the nation has a stronger more consistent record” than Kavanaugh on “protecting religious liberty and enforcing restrictions on abortion.”
Democrats have raised the possibility that the Supreme Court, with Trump’s appointment of a second justice in Kavanaugh, could overturn the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion nationwide. Conservatives had advocated a broad view of religious liberty and free speech, arguing for example that certain types of businesses can refuse to serve gay couples if they have a religious objection to same-sex marriage.
Another clerk, Justin Walker, wrote an article in another conservative publication, The Federalist, defending Kavanaugh against criticism from the right about a 2011 opinion he wrote concerning Democratic former President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law.
Walker talked up Kavanaugh’s conservative credentials on Fox News ahead of the nomination. “He is a warrior with a backbone of iron,” Walker told Fox, also calling Kavanaugh “a fighter for conservative legal principles” who would not “go wobbly” if appointed to the Supreme Court.
“I felt like his record was being misrepresented,” Walker said in an interview, adding that he was speaking only about Kavanaugh’s approach to the law, not his politics.
Christopher Kang, who worked in the Obama White House and helped with the nominations of liberal Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, said he was surprised by some of the comments by Kavanaugh’s clerks.
“I think that is really striking. We would not have used clerks to talk about a judge’s political philosophy,” said Kang, who now works for Demand Justice, a liberal group that opposes Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Supreme Court nominees routinely try to avoid being pinned down during confirmation hearings on how they would rule on given issues, especially controversial ones like abortion. But some of the comments made by clerks, Kang said, will “make it harder” for Kavanaugh to fend off questions about whether he will rule conservatively on social issues.
Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Will DunhamPROSPECT HEIGHTS — A man was killed when a tractor trailer slammed into him near the Barclays Center Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
The man, who police said was in his late 40s, was hit as he crossed between cars at the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues about 12:50 p.m., an FDNY spokesman said.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The truck remained at the scene and the investigation was ongoing, police said Wednesday evening.
Witnesses described a grisly scene immediately following the collision.
"People were running toward it," Muhammed Karim, who was selling soda nearby. "I got scared and queasy and had to leave."
Intersections on Flatbush Avenue near the Barclays Center have been problematic for a long time, according to neighbors familiar with the area.
“It’s always been a very busy intersection and it’s always been a bit of a nightmare crossing it,” James Knock, 31, told DNAinfo.com New York after a man was killed by a sanitation truck outside the Barclays Center last year.Has Greta Van Susteren been remiss in regard to a key disclosure?
As host of Fox News’ prime time show “On the Record,” Van Susteren has talked about Herman Cain’s presidential candidacy at length.
But she has failed to disclose the role of her husband, prominent Washington lawyer John Coale, as an advisor to the candidate.
ABC News reported Tuesday that Coale is “now informally advising” Cain as he faces allegations of a 13-year affair (not to mention the allegations of sexual harassment from four different women). ABC also reported that Coale is not getting paid, which removes one potential conflict, but he does seem quite involved.
Coale was on a conference call Tuesday morning in which Cain said he was reassessing his campaign. Coale was also the one who reportedly told the New York Post’s Cindy Adams that Sunday’s big media dinner for Cain would have to be cancelled.
Also Read: Herman Cain May Drop Out of Presidential Race After Affair Allegations
Barbara Walters, Matt Lauer, Bill O’Reilly, and, yes, Van Susteren, wereall supposed to be in attendance. Adams told New York One that Coale cancelled it after Ginger White claimed she and Cain carried on a consensual affair for 13 years.
And yet when Van Susteren, who already scored an interview with Cain's wife, Gloria, discussed Cain both on Monday and Tuesday, she failed to mention any of this. On Monday, she spoke on her show with ABC News' Rick Klein. On Tuesday, after the ABC report, she spoke with Fox's own Brit Hume.
Van Susteren posted a note on her blog in response to the allegations, listing her husband’s friends in Washington and insisting that her husband “does NOT WORK for any of them and NEVER HAS.”
Fox News executive VP of programming Bill Shine has directed journalists to Van Susteren’s blog, claiming it is enough of a disclosure. Shine declined to explain why Van Susteren didn’t mention the relationship — however deep it is — on the air.
Fox has tried to avoid any appearance of bias with other candidates, taking both Rick Santorum and Next Gingrich off the air because of their campaigns.Julio Cortez/Associated Press
After the San Francisco 49ers lost inside linebackers Patrick Willis and Chris Borland to retirement in the offseason, most assumed general manager Trent Baalke would address the position in the draft. When Baalke did not select a player to compete for the second spot on the inside next to NaVorro Bowman it seemed like he had chosen to stick with what he already has, but that is some way from the truth.
Niners head coach Jim Tomsula said after the draft, per David Fucillo of Niners Nation, that inside linebackers who were on their radar went four or five picks before San Francisco's turn and that Baalke opted to stick to his board, which of course is what many NFL general managers try to do. Yet, with their second-round pick, the 49ers brought in a player who can help the team overcome the losses of Willis and Bowman.
San Francisco selected safety Jaquiski Tartt out of FCS program Samford at No. 46, a pick few would have anticipated but one that could turn out to be an astute move on the part of Baalke.
The 6'1" and 221-pound Tartt impressed at the Senior Bowl and has both the size and the athleticism to play the strong safety position. He delivers a thumping hit on contact and is quick enough—he clocked 4.53 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the combine—to get downhill and make plays in run support.
Coming from a small school and with doubts over his ability in coverage, it would perhaps be unrealistic to expect Tartt to come in and be an effective starter right away, particularly when the 49ers already have two starting safeties in Eric Reid and Antoine Bethea who have each been to the Pro Bowl in the last two seasons.
Yet Tartt's athleticism and skill set should allow him to make an immediate impact as a situational player and offset the departures of Borland and Willis, who was well known for being an excellent all-round linebacker and providing an intimidating presence due to his physical style of play.
That physicality will be missed but can also be replaced by the presence of Tartt, who is a strong fit to perform a similar role to the one Kam Chancellor does for the division rival Seattle Seahawks as an in-the-box safety who patrols the middle of the field and delivers punishing blows when defending both the run and the passing game.
A player with the capability to fulfil that role would enable the Niners to give their defense a fear factor that has perhaps been lost with the offseason exits. However, with the defensive landscape in the NFL undergoing something of a revamp, Tartt can be more than just a big-body thumper in the early stages of his career in the pros.
John Froschauer/Associated Press
In a league where the passing game is becoming more and more established as the king, nickel and dime schemes are being used as base defenses rather than sub-packages and that is why a player like Tartt is so valuable.
With Willis and Bowman the Niners had two inside linebackers who were both outstanding in coverage. Bowman, providing he has not lost a step following his knee injury, should still be one of the better pass-defending backers in the league, but the same cannot be said about the rest of the linebacking core.
Michael Wilhoite, the most likely starter next to Bowman, received a 2.1 pass coverage grade from Pro Football Focus in 2014, while the Niners' most recent free-agent addition at inside linebacker, Philip Wheeler, was given a -4.2 for his play in coverage, excelling more as a run-stopper with the Miami Dolphins last year. Ahmad Brooks—who could move in from his outside backer spot—also failed to impress in that area, earning a grade of 0.5.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press
With Willis and Bowman on the team, the 49ers had in the past left their linebackers in the game in nickel situations and took out one of the their down linemen. However, the presence of Wilhoite, who did appear a step off the pace on multiple occasions last season, as a permanent starter may affect their ability to do that on a regular basis going forward.
The more athletic Tartt, with his ability to drop down into the box, would prove an upgrade on Wilhoite and the other inside backers due to his blend of size, quickness and physicality, which could prove extremely useful in a division where the Seahawks added a considerable offensive threat in Jimmy Graham.
As Baalke—per Fucillo—states, it is a stretch to suggest a rookie could stop one of the best tight ends in the league.
Jimmy Graham's a Pro Bowl Tight End, so I'm not going to sit here and say a rookie coming into the National Football League is going to shutdown Jimmy Graham. That's an awfully good football player. We've got to find some ways within our schemes. At times, you're going to single him. At times, you're going to double him, you're going to squeeze him. But that's for the coaches. I don't getting into the X-ing and O-ing. But we feel good about his ability to line up and cover people.
While Tartt may not be able to shut down the likes of Graham in his first year in the league, he does give the Niners the opportunity to matchup due to his athletic traits. He is bigger than prospective starting nickelback Jimmie Ward, who was drafted by San Francisco in the first round last year. He could be inserted in place of his former high school teammate or Wilhoite as a pass defender or run-stopper in a sub-package that more offenses are attacking with the ground game.
In the dime, Tartt has the ability to fill in for Wilhoite as one of the two inside backers or operate as one of the six defensive backs. In either case, it seems likely that San Francisco, as the division rival Arizona Cardinals did in 2014, will play a number of downs with four safeties on the field in Bethea, Reid, Ward and Tartt, which should enable them to match up better against tight ends and wide receivers in the slot.
In an ideal world an inside linebacker would have fallen to the Niners at a spot where they felt comfortable taking one. Instead Baalke chose to address a position that could become an area of need in the coming years due to Bethea's age and Reid's history of head injuries and add a player with the versatility to fulfil a number of roles in sub-packages.
Tartt will probably have to go through a learning curve before becoming a four-down player in the NFL and the odds are Wilhoite will still see a lot of action in 2015. But Tartt's addition gives the Niners another option should they feel uncomfortable with Wilhoite in certain situations or if defensive coordinator Eric Mangini wants a more intimidating presence akin to Chancellor to patrol the middle of the field. Willis and Borland may be gone but because of that you can expect to see more sub-packages from San Francisco in 2015 and plenty of Tartt in his rookie year.
Nicholas McGee is a San Francisco 49ers Featured Columnist based in Leeds, England. Follow him on Twitter @nicholasmcgee24.Chick-fil-A West Hartford’s owner/operator said he’s excited for the February 2017 opening and looking forward to serving and supporting the West Hartford community.
By Ronni Newton
Chick-fil-A Owner/Operator Daryl Jackson said that his West Hartford restaurant has gotten the green light, and the 509 New Park Ave. location will open to the public on Feb. 9, 2017.
Plans to open in West Hartford were announced just over a year ago, and now signs are now hanging on the outside of the building, gleaming stainless steel equipment is in the process of being installed in the kitchen, benches and tables are waiting to be unpacked, and the drive-thru order board has been delivered and will be hooked up.
The West Hartford Town Council approved the application for Chick-fil-A in May 2016, and construction started during the summer. As Jackson gives a tour of the space, he is visibly proud and very excited about the opening.
Jackson is new to restaurant/retail management, but is no stranger to the area. He was born and raised in Naugatuck and earned a B.S. in finance from Central Connecticut State University. After earning an MBA at Purdue, he returned to Connecticut and spent nearly a decade working in manufacturing finance at United Technologies and then nearly eight years at Stanley Black & Decker.
He’s lived in the south for the past several years, working as CFO for Berkshire Hathaway’s Marmon Group first in Virginia and then in Alabama.
What made Jackson apply to become a Chick-fil-A owner/operator was the positive experience of his former Stanley Black & Decker colleague Todd Langston, the owner/operator of the Wallingford Chick-fil-A. When he spoke with Langston, “It sounded like he had found his calling,” Jackson said.
Jackson decided to apply in December 2015, right after his move to Alabama and while he was in the process of relocating his family. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people apply for the opportunity to become a franchise owner every year, and Jackson knew it could take two or more years to get through the vigorous vetting process. His approval was much faster.
Jackson knew he wanted to be back in the northeast and when he found out the company planned to open in West Hartford he thought the location would be perfect. On Oct. 31, 2016, he said he was awarded the West Hartford franchise and in late November he and his family left the house in Alabama that they had bought just months earlier and moved to Connecticut.
Jackson and his wife – who is expecting the couple’s first baby in March – and the nephew they are raising are renting a house in West Hartford right now.
“I really like West Hartford. West Hartford is great,” Jackson said. He loves the Center, the town’s unique neighborhoods, and the up-and-coming New Park Avenue corridor where Chick-fil-A is located.
A marketing team from the corporate office will assist with the grand opening week, with special events including the signature “First 100” overnight campout the day before the Feb. 9 opening. The first 100 customers will receive a card good for a year’s worth of free Chick-fil-A. (Click here for more details.)
Jackson looks forward to meeting those who come to the First 100, and providing them with samples of menu offerings. “It will be a great opportunity to serve folks who are there for the event,” he said.
He will also host a grand opening team dinner for employees the week before the opening, a “first bite” ribbon cutting, and a premiere breakfast event. He said that many don’t realize Chick-fil-A serves a great selection of breakfast items including chicken biscuits, oatmeal, fruit cups, yogurt parfaits, and bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits.
Chick-fil-A will seat 126 in the restaurant, and will have capacity for approximately 15 on the patio. The West Hartford location will be open from 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
West Hartford, like all of the other Chick-fil-A locations, will be closed on Sundays. Jackson said that founder S. Truett Cathy was working around the clock when he opened his first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill, in Georgia in 1946. “He needed a day to recharge and wanted that to apply to his employees,” Jackson said. Like Cathy, Jackson said he thinks the work-life balance is important and embraces the Sunday closing.
Jackson will be very involved in the day-to-day running of the restaurant, and is currently deep into the process of hiring a management team and anywhere from 80-100 employees for a mixture of full and part time positions. At last count he had already received more than 400 applications.”I’m hoping that’s a good indication of interest,” he said.
“I am hiring for character,” he said. “We will train for everything else.”
In the past Chick-fil-A has been criticized for statements made by CEO Dan Cathy, who professed support for “traditional marriage” but later admitted that he made a mistake.
Jackson is committed to being completely non-discriminatory.
“I don’t care if they are red, blue, what their beliefs are. I will hire anyone and we will serve everybody,” said Jackson.
“We are in the restaurant business. I am focused on serving high-quality, delicious meals with excellent customer service. My job is to ensure that every customer who walks through the door has a remarkable experience,” said Jackson.
Most of the food is handmade, Jackson said, and people don’t realize that. “We’re squeezing the lemons for lemonade every day. We make the dough for the biscuits from scratch.”
The chicken is all hand-breaded, he said, showing off the breading table which is the “heart” of the kitchen. It’s near the oven where chocolate-chunk cookies will soon be baking.
With its distressed wood paneling and subway tile, the West Hartford location has a more contemporary feel than some of the other Connecticut Chick-fil-A restaurants, and Jackson is very pleased with the way it turned out.
Right near the counter will be an area of high-top tables made from reclaimed wood that have been made by those who have turned their lives around. Their stories are inscribed on the underside of the tables, Jackson said.
Chick-fil-A will have drive-thru service – something that is permitted only in industrial zones in West Hartford. “Speed of service is something we’re striving for,” Jackson said.
Service to the community is also a key focus of the brand, something Jackson said not everyone realizes. It’s also important to Jackson personally, and he has a particular interest in supporting youth-based organizations. “I plan on pouring myself into the community,” he said.
Jackson said he welcomes input. Eventually the best way to reach him will be email, but until the systems are all up and running the best method is to send a message through the restaurant’s Facebook page. Those who follow the location on Facebook will also be kept up-to-date on news and special offers.
For more information about Chick-fil-A, including history and menu offerings, visit the company’s website.
Like what you see here? Click here to subscribe to We-Ha’s newsletter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s happening in West Hartford!ByRamdev’s political fortunes haven’t surged the way Patanjali’s valuation has, but they’re both benchmarked by his ability to stay fixed in the public eye.With the added zing of activism, Ramdev became larger than life, not merely a celebrated TV personality but a standard bearer for nationalism, probity in public life and swadeshi. By now it was clear that the yoga guru was open to the idea of parleying his mass appeal into votes. As secretary of Bharat Swabhiman Andolan, Rajiv Dixit [Ramdev’s close collaborator, behind his pro-swadeshi, anti-MNC, anti-FDI tirades] openly declared that it was a political party with clearly defined objectives and would contest elections. But that was not to be, partly because of Dixit’s untimely and controversial death.Around this time, Baba Ramdev had not only been in communication with leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Right-wing outfit aligned to the current ruling government at the Centre, the BJP, but articulated a considerable degree of affinity with its perspectives and objectives. It occurred to him that instead of forging a new political instrument, the RSS could reshape the BJP to fulfil common objectives — eradication of corruption and black money, a rollback of neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism and national reconstruction through cultural consciousness.In 2010, he reportedly sent a proposal to the RSS headquarters at Nagpur, suggesting a “kayakalp” or transformation of its political arm, the BJP. An eleven-member panel be set up to restructure the BJP constitution, he proposed, with senior BJP leader L K Advani overseeing a sort of “maha-Kamaraj” plan,The proposed timeline for the overall “kayakalp” envisaged thirty days for restructuring and ninety days for a new constitution. Baba Ramdev also mooted the setting up of a six-member committee comprising two nominees each from the RSS, BJP and Bharat Swabhiman Andolan, to oversee their joint campaign for political and social change.Almost a year later, in March of 2011, the RSS top brass met at Udupi (Karnataka) and reportedly discussed the proposal. A few weeks later, on 7 April 2011, the RSS sarsanghchalak, Mohanrao Bhagwat attended a function organised by Ramdev in Haridwar. After it was over, the two met in private and Bhagwat handed over a written note to Baba Ramdev suggesting he speak to the BJP directly. In effect, the RSS had rejected his proposal. When asked about the episode, Baba Ramdev responded perfunctorily... ‘Let it be. It is now an old story.’Ramdev’s old-time friend K N Govindacharya was unsure whether the Indian electorate was ready to see a saffron-clad renunciate in a political role. While swamis and sadhvis had become Members of Parliament — why, Uma Bharti had even become chief minister of Madhya Pradesh — none had actually led a political party. Indian tradition, Govindacharya felt, accepts an ascetic or rishi governmental posts, in order to devote themselves to organisational work as a Royal Preceptor or Rajguru (much like Drona in the Mahabharata), but not principally as a ruler or raja.Even before the RSS snub, Baba Ramdev’s political ambitions had suffered a setback when Rajiv Dixit (his close aide) suddenly took ill and died on 30 November 2010 in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh). The cause of death, according to Patanjali, was a “cardiac arrest” but strangely, a post-mortem was not conducted, nor was the media told of his passing. The cremation was conducted by Baba Ramdev and Rajiv’s brother, Pradeep, to the accompaniment of uneasy murmurs from the late activist’s associates.In 2012, Baba Ramdev would tell the media that he feared a conspiracy to implicate him in Dixit’s death. Another mysterious death — or disappearance — had already been hanging over the yogi’s head since July 2007 when his mentor, Shankar Dev, then aged seventy-seven, had gone missing (the ageing guru had named Baba Ramdev as his successor before his mysterious disappearance). Baba Ramdev’s closest aide, Balkrishna, had even lodged a missing person’s complaint with the local police on 14 July 2007, but the case came to naught as the investigation didn’t lead the authorities to any conclusive evidence.And there the matter may have rested, but |
the state’s largest, an unfair competitive advantage and siphon business from other conference hotels, especially those in downtown Denver.
They also question why a new application wasn’t required when the original developer, Gaylord Entertainment, dropped out. They point to an internal document showing RIDA Development, the new developer, needed only $735 million, rather than $823 million initially proposed, making state incentives unnecessary.
Hogan addressed that last point on Thursday, saying the hotel’s estimated costs will come in within 3.5 percent of the original amount stated in the application.
An Adams County judge last month invalidated an election in Aurora that OK’d a higher tax rate on the Gaylord land, which could cut into part of the $300 million of local incentives awarded the project.
Hogan said the ruling, if it stands, could jeopardize numerous special district tax increases approved by landowners, and he expects Aurora will win on appeal.
Aurora can still collect the base lodging and sales tax, given that the election was only for a tax increase. While he doesn’t expect it will be needed, Hogan added he is confident voters would provide approval.
Hogan said RIDA has the equity and other financing necessary to start construction. Incentives won’t kick in until the project starts collecting lodging and sales taxes.
In other business, the commission approved job growth incentive tax credits from four employers who have applied to bring in or retain 1,344 jobs.
The largest request, for 693 jobs, was for a financial services firm currently in Denver looking to expand in Colorado or Texas. The firm, which already has a large presence in Denver, likely would need to find much larger office space to accommodate the new hires.
The commission approved several nonprofit projects within enterprise zones, including credits to contributors helping fund a new aerospace building and sports field at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
By a narrow 5-4 vote, the commission rejected an enterprise zone contribution credit for Metro’s hospitality training program.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/aldosvaldiThe former professional footballer, who is now 43, is finally able to talk publicly about the horrific abuse he suffered from the age of 11 by one of his coaches, in the hope that others will come forward too
It isn’t easy sitting opposite Andy Woodward and hearing, close up, the unspeakable horrors of his childhood and the reasons why, at the age of 43, he finally feels able to tell his story and free himself from the secret – “the massive, horrible burden” – that has shaped his life.
It has been there since the age of 11 when a football-daft kid from a family of Manchester United supporters first came to the attention of the coach, scout and serial paedophile Barry Bennell and it is difficult even to contemplate how much Woodward has suffered before reaching this point where he has offered to waive his anonymity and speak publicly about it for the first time.
Neil Warnock ‘sad and sickened’ to hear of abuse suffered by Andy Woodward Read more
He is doing so in the belief there are many others – potentially hundreds, he says – who are living with their own secrets, given Bennell’s employment at Crewe Alexandra in the 1980s and 1990s and close association in the past with Stoke City and Manchester City, as well as junior teams in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester.
Bennell was sentenced to nine years in prison in 1998 after admitting 23 specimen charges of sexual offences against six boys aged nine to 15. Woodward was among the victims at Crewe and knows of other former pros who were targeted. Many more, he suspects, never made it as professional footballers, whereas his own career, also featuring spells at Bury, Sheffield United and Scunthorpe United, ended at the age of 29 because he was unable to cope with the horrendous aftereffects of what he had to endure.
Woodward had to fake an injury during one game because he was having the kind of panic attack that became a regular feature in his career. He has been suicidal “on probably 10 occasions”. He has spent his professional life battling depression and anxiety, and is haunted by what a man who described himself in legal proceedings as a “monster” told him about some of the other victims.
“My life has been ruined until the age of 43,” Woodward says. “But how many others are there? I’m talking about hundreds of children who Barry Bennell cherry-picked for various football teams and who now, as adults, might still be living with that awful fear.
“We’ve seen with the Jimmy Savile case how people have had the courage, yet I’d say within the football world it’s even harder to speak out. Only now, at the age of 43, I feel I can actually live without that secret and that massive, horrible burden. I want to get it out and give other people an opportunity to do the same. I want to give people strength. I survived it. I lost my career, which was a massive thing for me, but I’m still here. I came through the other side. Other people can have that strength.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andy Woodward in action for Crewe in August 1993. Photograph: Neal Simpson/EMPICS Sport
Woodward’s ordeal began when he was playing for Stockport Boys and Bennell invited him to train with one of his teams on Manchester City’s pitches at Platt Lane. Bennell talent-spotted boys, aged nine to 14, around the north-west and Midlands over three decades and Woodward was talented enough to be directed towards Crewe’s youth setup. “I just wanted to play football. My mum and dad will say that I always had a football in my hands, wherever I went. I saw Crewe as the start of that dream. But I was soft-natured, too, and it was the softer, weaker boys Bennell targeted.”
Bennell arranged for him to stay at his house on the edge of the Peak District. “It was like a treasure trove, a child’s dream,” Woodward says. “When you walked through the door there were three fruit machines. He had a pool table. There was a little monkey upstairs in a cage who would sit on your shoulder. He had two pyrenean mountain dogs. He even kept a wild cat. It was my dream, remember, to be a footballer and it was like he was dropping little sweets towards me: ‘You can stay with me and this is what I can do for you.’ Plus he had a reputation as the best youth coach in the country. So I’d stay at weekends and summer holidays and even take time out of school sometimes. I’d go to all the Crewe matches with him. He liked dark-haired boys. I was a kid, I trusted him to begin with.”
When the abuse started, Bennell used threats and blackmail to make sure his victims did not go against him. “What he’d do sometimes, to show the fear factor and make sure I never told anyone, was get out some nunchucks,” Woodward says. “He was a master with them. He’d tell me to hold out a piece of paper. I’d be physically shaking. Then he’d hit it with enough force to split it in half and make a little comment: ‘You see what I can do, you see how powerful I am?’
“It was either threats of violence or he’d use football to manipulate control. If I upset him in any way, he’d drop me from the team. ‘At any point,’ he’d tell me, ‘you will go, you will disappear and that dream won’t happen.’ It was emotional blackmail, all the time.”
It felt like I was in two worlds. I’d be training when I just wanted to burst into tears.
The young Woodward became “very introverted, I didn’t lead a normal teenage life”. Yet there are other parts of this story that make it even more chilling. When Woodward was 14, Bennell started having a relationship with his victim’s 16-year-old sister. “He was so much older he didn’t want people to know at first and told me I would never play football again if I breathed a word of it,” Woodward says. “I was frightened to death because he had complete power over me by that stage. It was like a double whammy and he would try to abuse me sometimes even with my sister in the same house. Later, when their relationship became public, he would come round for Sunday dinner every weekend, sitting with my mum and dad and my family, laughing and joking. I was so frightened of him I just had to suffer in silence.”
The wedding took place in 1991 and Woodward, at 18, had to go through the hellish ordeal of seeing the man who had exploited, controlled and abused him for years become his brother‑in‑law. “I had to live with that on top of everything else,” he says. “I had to attend that wedding, standing in the church when I really wanted to rip his throat out. It was torture – that’s the only word to describe it.”
Despite everything, Woodward progressed through the ranks at Crewe and made his first-team debut a year later. Mentally, however, he could not cope. “From the age of 11 I had lived with a secret. And living with a secret is probably one of the hardest things you can ever live with. If you look at my career you will see I was plagued with quite a few injuries. A lot of those injuries were actually mental injuries.
“I had desperately wanted to be a footballer. It’s all I lived for. Yet there was so much anger and hurt within me that it was actually football, this game I loved, that took away my life as a child. It felt like I was in two worlds. I’d be training when I just wanted to burst into tears. A coach might be screaming and shouting and all I wanted to do is punch him in the face because ‘you’ve no idea what you coaches have done to me’. There have been lots of dips.”
He signed for Bury in 1995 and after a productive first season at Gigg Lane everything started to unravel again. “At one point during the police investigation I went to see [the manager] Stan Ternent in his office and explained what had happened to me. It was hard because us footballers are supposed to be butch and strong, aren’t we? It’s all banter and changing-room jokes, supposedly. But I’d been having a mental breakdown. I’d lost a couple of years and I felt I had to tell him.”
One of Bennell’s victims had reported him and the Cheshire, Derbyshire and North Wales police forces began an investigation that also involved allegations of him preying on boys on football courses in Spain and the United States, as well as at the Butlin’s in Pwllheli. The judge talked of Bennell exploiting the power he had to “point young boys in the right direction and help them with their careers and wishes to become successful footballers. They were prepared to do almost anything you asked.”
The hearing at Chester crown court was told one of Bennell’s offences took place on one of Crewe’s training pitches. Another occurred at the home of Dario Gradi, the club’s manager, though the court heard Gradi did not know about it. One of Bennell’s tricks was to encourage boys to stay in his bedroom by frightening them with horror films or ghost stories. He was initially charged with 45 offences, including buggery and attempted buggery, but 22 were allowed to lie on file.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andy Woodward, middle, celebrates with his Bury team-mates after a goal against Brentford in March 1997. Photograph: Matt Risby/Action Images
Woodward was 24 when Bennell was jailed. “For the next two seasons I played some of the best football of my career. Maybe I felt I had got it off my chest and I could finally get on with my life. I was kidding myself but for a while I had loads of positive energy. Neil Warnock had taken over as manager and in November 1999 he told me he was going to Sheffield United. ‘I’m going to take you and [the goalkeeper] Paddy Kenny,’ he said, ‘you’re the only ones I want, my best two players.’ It was a chance for me to play for a bigger club, even though I loved it at Bury. I went shopping at Tesco that Sunday night and – boom – I don’t know what hit me. I genuinely thought I was going to collapse and die. My heart was racing. All the adrenaline had rushed to my head. I managed to get home, called an ambulance and went to hospital and they explained it was a panic attack.”
The following week, Bury played at Gillingham and it hit him again. “The match reports will say I pulled my hamstring but that was just the excuse I used. I’d actually had another full‑blown panic attack. We were midway through the first half. I went down to my knees and I just knew I had to get off the pitch. I went to the dressing room and started crying my eyes out, thinking my whole life was ending.”
He did confide in Warnock and, as with Ternent, will always be grateful for his manager’s support. Yet the player did not feel able to tell his team‑mates. “In 2016, at least people have an understanding of anxiety and panic attacks. Back then, I suffered in silence. That was the way football was – and it was horrendous.”
Woodward did eventually move to Bramall Lane but he had been receiving treatment in the Priory clinic and his medication affected his weight and fitness. He made only three league appearances for his new club before moving to Scunthorpe on loan. He then had a short spell at Halifax and, finally, Northwich Victoria before giving up. In total, a player Warnock rated as one of the best defenders he had ever managed made only 154 league starts in 10 years.
In his worst moments, Woodward has been “a mess, spiralling to the point where I wasn’t going to be here any more. I’ve parked in my garage with a pipe. I’ve been to woods with a rope. I’ve had tablets, ready to go. I took it to the point where I couldn’t be here any more. I’ve been there, physically, and it frightened the life out of me. People talk about it being for attention or a cry for help but I can say, categorically, mine was because I didn’t know how I could live. The only thing that ever stopped me was knowing the devastation it would cause others.”
Bennell, now 62, was jailed for two years in May 2015 for another historic case involving a 12-year-old boy in Macclesfield and admitted in a 2012 interview with the Sunday Times that Gary Speed was one of the youngsters who stayed at his house. Bennell told the newspaper he had not abused Speed, but added that even if he had done he would be unlikely to admit it anyway. When the reporter told him he would be left in peace, he replied: “There’s no peace now. How can you have peace when you’ve killed somebody?” He added: “To me, killing someone is what you’ve done to them, because their life’s never the same again.” Lawyers for Speed’s wife, Louise, subsequently put out a statement saying they had been assured that the former Wales manager was not one of Bennell’s victims.
Woodward strongly suspects Bennell, who adopted the name Richard Jones and was living in Milton Keynes before his last prison sentence, colluded for a long time with at least one other paedophile who has never been detected. This, fundamentally, is one of the reasons why he hopes other victims will feel able to come forward. “I’m convinced there is an awful lot more to come out. I also know this will not be a total shock to some people within football that others were involved. This has taken an immense amount of strength and courage but I need closure. I can finally have a voice and I want to give others a belief. We were victims in a profession where we were all so desperate to succeed as footballers. Some of us were fortunate to experience that, yet others weren’t. We all suffered the same pain.”
Woodward spent 12 years in the police after his football career had ended but encountered problems of his own and was dismissed last week after a disciplinary tribunal for having a relationship with the adult sister of a crime victim.
Life is a permanent battle but he is getting by, eternally grateful for the therapy he has received from the Sporting Chance clinic and clinical psychologist Dr Lee Martin. There are times when he does break down emotionally and, taking everything into consideration, it is remarkable he has kept his sanity. “I didn’t tell anybody until the police started their investigation. At first, I told them nothing happened but then I couldn’t bottle it up any longer and that was the moment my family found out. That’s been one of the hardest things, seeing the devastating effect it has had on my family. My sister has suffered massively. She left him immediately. My parents know everything and have to live with it every day. We have a good relationship considering everything but there’s no doubt it has had a big effect on all of us and probably will do for the rest of our lives. Without the love and support of my partner, Zelda, I would not have survived the last 18 months.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andy Woodward says he played ‘some of the best football of his career’ after Barry Bennell had been jailed. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
He tells his story with great courage and eloquence and it would be wrong to assume he is angry with the world at large. He does, however, feel let down by the sport he grew up loving, and the dressing-room culture of the day, he says, that meant keeping everything in-house. “Throughout those years at Crewe, so many people used to talk about it. Other players would say directly to my face: ‘I bet he does this to you, we know he does that.’ There was all that dressing-room bravado. Then, outside the club, it was never discussed. That’s how football worked back then: ‘We can talk about it within these walls, but we keep it watertight and it doesn’t go any further.’ Nobody wanted to break that circle of trust.
“That club has been never been held accountable. My belief, after all these years, is that it must have been well known within the club that he had young boys staying over. That’s the reason why I feel let down by Crewe. I wasn’t at school but I was at a professional football club who had a duty to protect children, and there were hundreds of children running around that place.”
Talking about what happened, he hopes, will give him some form of closure. But it will be always with him and he still suffers, every single day. “Even now, when the results come through on a Saturday and it says ‘Crewe Alexandra’ I get that awful feeling and my stomach turns. And that’s me at 43.”
He did, however, play against them for Bury a couple of times, home and away. “At Gigg Lane I had one of my best games for a long time. I was brilliant that day and it felt like it was me fighting back. Then at Gresty Road I scored – and I’d never scored. But the truth is that going back to Crewe haunted me. It took a lot of inner strength on the coach heading down the motorway and I haven’t been there since. I avoid Crewe now. I will never set foot anywhere near that town again.”
• In the UK, The Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14.We got the lowdown on Toshiba's latest four-inch LCD a couple of days ago, and today at SID 2011 we got up close and personal with the pixel-packed display. It's one thing to read about a 367ppi screen that shows native 720p video, and it's quite another to experience it in person. We can report that it is, in fact, as awesome as it sounds -- onscreen images were clear, crisp, and chromatically brilliant. Pixel density enthusiasts will also be happy to hear that Toshiba confirmed the display will make it to market this year. Of course, the rep wouldn't tell us which phone will take the iPhone 4's crown as the ppi champ, though we imagine it'll be something powered by little green bots. See the new king in action in the video after the break.@sdoots said:
@mortalemperor said: We'll be removing lore scrolls from Duel mode in an upcoming patch. This isn't a fix. If people are so desperate to try and get these things that they are exploiting a game type for them, maybe the fix should be in how they are distributed?
I've mentioned this before, but it might be beneficial to add additional scroll spawns throughout the course of a match, with the spawns tied to hidden timers. The timers would be picked from a pool of options when the game starts, to prevent players from knowing when to start searching again. That way, even once players have figured out that scrolls can start to spawn at the 3 minute mark, or the 6 minute mark, they have no way of knowing if that will actually hold true for the match currently being played. It might be 2 minutes, 4 minutes, etc.
I get that you want these to be rare, and that's reasonable. I'm simply suggesting a way you could make these items more obtainable while still maintaining the item hunt aspect, and without breaking the flow of a match.
@MortalEmperor Sooner rather than later, hopefully. What of the Scrolls already gained via the exploit? For some, the whole reason to collect them is the prestige of having done so, this exploit - especially if its impact remains - would likely devalue that quite a bit. Minor issue, but curious none the less.
For example, will all Scrolls gained via Duel be retroactively removed? All Scrolls gained within the past few days?
@Sdoots I tend to disagree. It's not so much that they are desperate to get them that's the issue, but that the exploit was found (and is still functional).
More specifically, however, I don't think your suggestion would be without its (arguably more) severe drawbacks, I.e. people focusing too much on finding the lore, and not enough on the match.
Another alternative could be to tie it specifically to how much you play a Champion, with some degree of randomness involved. For example have a hidden Challenge that when completed, unlocks a scroll for the Champion.
Since they'd be hidden, they could be far more down-to-earth variants of Rune Challenges - get RL God once instead of five times, for example.
Furthermore, to avoid being stuck on Tri-bolt god, the "Lore Challenge" could add in an alternative challenge every 5 matches or so, so after 15 matches of not getting your Lore Challenge Scroll (Scrolls from pots wouldn't factor in), you'd have 4 Challenges that grant you 1 Scroll once you complete one of them, after which the Lore Challenges reset to just 1 (still hidden).
That way, you have an easier time unlocking Scrolls for characters you prefer to play, but will still semi-passively gain Scrolls for other Champions as well. And it would do so without opening up for players potentially buying their way to the Scrolls (e.g. if they dropped from backpacks), nor would it divert attention too much away from the actual match, and it would tie in neatly with the Rune Challenges.DAVID BROOKS:
Yes.
Well, you know, I suspect — my theory would be that these things have always been happening, and we just haven't known about it and talked about it, or without the cop cam in this case, we probably wouldn't know about this at all. It would just be an invisible case for most of us.
And so I'm ambivalent about cop cams, because I think a lot of what police is, they go into homes of people at their most vulnerable moments. I'm a little nervous about the cameras in those circumstances. I'm also a little nervous about the way the camera may interfere with trust, a trusting relationship with a civilian and a police officer.
Nevertheless, in this case, it's a clear, obvious good thing that we have the cam. We can find out exactly what happened. And it's very clear. He shot the guy when he was in his car. And so I do think this is a case where finally we have the technology that gives us the information.
As to why the murder rates are rising, my reading of the research on this is that first there's a lot of gang activity and a lot of it is extremely localized. But if police — we have seen all these cases of police abuse. But the police are there for a reason and they generally do good and they generally prevent crime.
And if the police are being a little less aggressive, sometimes for good reason, it's not totally surprising you're going to see an uptick in crime.Holy shit was this hard to upload.
Mkay, the problem was me uploading directly from the folder with the images in, so I just saved the one I put on facebook which was slightly lower in resolution, I have a feeling it was the resolution causing the problem.
So, maybe from now on I'll have to do that. Unless DA stops being stupid and fixes that.
Done before the 40th part.
I have finally finished the Team Fortress 2 Stock Sniper Rifle.
I have to say this has been a brilliant build, nice and challenging without any stress, 4 weeks, 2 of which were just building and the other 2 were painting and lacquering.
Edit 1; Changed main file to something more presentable.
Will not cosplay with it as I really dislike some of the inaccuracies, but I will sell it.
Edit 2; She has been sold.BIKE LOCK BASHER Eric Clanton ALSO Attended Antifa Stabbing Spree in Sacramento (VIDEO)
Sacramento, CA – The Antifa thug who left a Trump supporter bloodied after hitting him over the head with a bike lock has been unmasked and identified as a professor named Eric Clanton.
It turns out that this professor just can’t get enough of communism and violence. He was spotted at a Sacramento rally in a 2016 video provided by Freedom Daily. Antifa thugs showed up to a right-wing rally and a huge stabbing spree erupted.
Recognition technique 4chan, /pol/ used to identify Eric Clanton
Eric Clanton is clearly seen in this video. This rally in Sacramento, California back in January of 2016 turned out to be a huge stabbing spree. Multiple people were stabbed and police claim that Antifa started the violence (shocker).
The Freedom Daily reporter was attacked by these violent leftists just because he was standing there reporting with a camera as a person from ‘right wing media’, although the reporter told the fascists that he was from a Military-backed Libertarian faction.
BAMN (By All Means Necessary) founder, Yvette Felarca is also in this video with a bloody head claiming the right wingers were the ones who instigated the violence. As usual, Felarca is lying to advance her violent leftist agenda.
VIDEO (LANGUAGE WARNING)
Breaking – Eric Clanton Identified at 2016 Sacramento Stabbings https://t.co/EB2CrTzhO5 — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) April 26, 2017The producers of Netflix and Rai’s “Medici: Masters of Florence” have completed casting for season two, with Daniel Sharman and Bradley James among the new names on the Frank Spotnitz and Nicholas Meyer-created Italian period drama, Variety has learned.
An international cast is headed by Sharman (“Fear the Walking Dead”), who will take the lead role, playing a young Lorenzo the Magnificent in 15th century Florence. James (“Damien”) will star as his brother Giuliano.
Shooting on the €24 million ($28 million), eight-episode, series gets underway in Rome on August 24. Other key cast members for season two include Julian Sands (“Gotham”) as Lorenzo and Giuliano’s father, Piero, and Sebastian De Souza (“Crossing Lines”) as their friend, Sandro Botticelli.
The sophomore season of “Medici” is set 20 years after the events of the first. A young Lorenzo, the grandson of Richard Madden’s character Cosimo from the first series, is forced to take over the family bank, which has been mismanaged by his father.
As Lorenzo, his brother, and Botticelli set about trying to make Florence a great financial and cultural center, they face off against the Pazzi family, and Pope Sixtus IV, played by Raul Bova (“Alien vs. Predator”).
Related Sandra Bullock Moms Who See 'Bird Box' Will Think: 'That River Is My Journey as a Parent' Felix Mallard Joins Netflix's 'Locke & Key' (EXCLUSIVE)
Sean Bean had already been announced as the Medici family’s nemesis Jacopo Pazzi. Lorenzo’s mother is played by Sarah Parish “Hatfields & McCoys”) and his mistress by Alessandra Mastronardi (“Master of None”).
The series is produced by Italy’s Lux Vide, public broadcaster Rai’s drama unit, and Frank Spotnitz’s company Big Light. “The X Files” writer Frank Spotnitz created the series with “Star Trek’s” Nicholas Meyer. Jon Cassar, executive producer and director on “24: Legacy” and “24: Live Another Day” will direct.
“Medici: Masters of Florence” will be a Netflix Original in the U.S., U.K., Canada, India, and Taiwan and Rai is the broadcaster in Italy. Altice Studio is a co-production partner and has it for its SFR Play streaming service in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. In Spain, it is with Telefonica’s Movistar Plus.Yep, its that time of year again folks …
Once upon a time long long ago … there existed a magical garden that had been created by a supernatural entity, and into this garden it put the first man and first woman that ever lived. Sadly the woman was tricked by a talking snake into eating some fruit, and so the magical super-entity became angry and tossed the pair out.
[roll forward in time to about 2,000 years ago]
The magical super-entity decided to sort all this out once and for all, so it impregnated itself into a human woman and was born human. Its goal was to simply kill itself as a human sacrifice to itself to appease its own anger towards all of us simply because this first ancestor had been swindled by the talking snake.
If I submitted the above to a modern publisher of children’s stories, I’d be laughed out of the office … yet we are all asked to accept this as the deepest of deep truths, so deep in fact we should not question it, nor criticize or mock it in any way. I was told the other day that I’m apparently “shallow” on the basis that I don’t accept this, so if you also don’t accept it, then I guess we are in the same shallow category together.
To be totally honest, it is indeed deep … deeply stupid and utterly insane.
Now lets put this in its proper context. Our ancestors struggled to make sense of the world, and as part of that process, they crafted poetical myths to try and make sense of the world around them, so we can applaud their efforts, and also admire the poetry of such stories which are early attempts to arrive at an understanding; my criticism is not aimed in their direction. Today we have better explanations, yet for some bizarre reason many prefer to embrace these older myths as the best answer – that’s the insanity here.
Now, just to make all this a bit more interesting …
Its not a fixed date – instead the date is determined by the movements of the moon. Yes I know, its tied in with the Jewish passover, but that’s an attempt to sidestep the point that it is related to earlier more primitive forms of belief that treat the moon as a deity.
There is no actual agreement on the date. In Western Christianity, they use the Gregorian calendar to calculate it, but Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian Calendar
Easter eggs – this is a far older more primitive tradition that relates to the rebirth of the Earth … a celebration of spring.
The modern English term Easter developed from the Old English word Ēastre or Ēostre, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to Eostur-monath (Old English “Ēostre month”), a month of the Germanic calendar named after the goddess Ēostre. There is no certain parallel to Ēostre in North Germanic languages though some speculate that the east wind, “a spirit of light” named Austri found in the 13th century Icelandic Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, might be related.
As for the Easter bunny … yep we are back to the ancient goddess once again …customs and imagery involving hares are linked to Ēostre and the Norse goddess Freyja
And since we are thinking about the Norse deity Freyja, this is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death … and so we have one day each week that is named after her … Friday.
Not all believers acknowledge Easter, some embrace it, some reject it, some sort of acknowledge it, but don’t deem it to be all that special.
It goes without question that all modern believers would dismiss the pagan symbols and beliefs as superstitious nonsense and would simply identify all such associations as historical baggage that now has no meaning … but then should they not also consider their beliefs to be the same, surely the belief that a supernatural deity giving birth to itself so that it could kill itself as a sacrifice to itself falls into the same category?
I do indeed think so … and so should you.
Share this: Facebook
Twitter
Reddit
Tumblr
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Pocket
Skype
WhatsApp
Email
Print
Like this: Like Loading...In the world we live in today, technology is refreshed annually, or even semi-annually. Why are video game consoles different? It's probably the last piece of technology I can think of that still operates with this outdated thinking.It just seems baffling to me that people will buy a new phone every single year, but are otherwise not open to doing the same thing with a video game system. What baffles me even more is that consoles are cheaper than most phones that come out. So, what's the deal here? Is phone subsidization the real ticket?If there's one thing I took away from the recent Apple event, which was otherwise a complete letdown for me as expected, it was that they are introducing a subscription model for their phones. If you pay around 30-40 dollars per month, you get a brand new, unlocked phone every year with warranty. That's an $800 plus piece of kit. This equates to roughly 400-500 dollars a year, which is about half the cost of buying one straight up.If we've nailed the architecture moving forward down to x86 for the most part... what's the hold up here?If you're not an enthusiast for performance, stick with the old model for 2-3 years and you'll be OK. Pick up the new model any given year for 300-400 dollars (since most would argue that's the sweet spot for time/value) and off you go. If you are an enthusiast, maybe MS or Sony develops a similar hardware subscription model and, all things to consider still, you pay like... $20 a month maybe?Am I taking crazy pills here, or am I not the only one that would be interested in this?Edit: Another mix in to this, is this not what we're thinking Valve is going to try with Steam Machines?. He didn't guess right about it happening at E3, but they discuss it.LA Weekly on Tuesday published a story about a rumored purchase of the Tribune Company by the Koch Brothers.
As you might imagine, this has gotten great attention in the media world:
The latest rumor about the next owner of the L.A. Times, which is for sale, is a doozy. A bombshell. It's a doozy wrapped in a bombshell exploding inside a Drudge siren. Multiple sources tell L.A. Weekly that Charles and David Koch -- the infamous right-wing billionaire brothers -- are considering an offer on either the Tribune Co. newspaper group, which includes the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun or the entire Tribune Co., which includes more than 20 stations like WGN and KTLA Channel 5.
The author made it clear that "these are unverified rumors that should be taken with a grain of salt if not a whole dollop."
Adding to the intrigue was the Atlantic just an hour ago:
What makes the L.A. Weekly report all the more exciting — if a little far fetched — is the looming giant in the wings: Murdoch has been eyeing the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune for months now. It's been reported that Murdoch "covets" the Times as a potential addition to his empire of more than 175 newspapers. There were reports of his interest as far back as last June. Then there were dueling reports of Murdochian interest in the Times, in particular, in October: one from the Times itself, and another from Murdoch's Wall Street Journal. This was described by Daily Intel's Joe Coscarelli as "media mogul equivalent of flirting." In December, Murdoch was planning "to take a close look at Tribune Co.'s newspaper assets once they’re available," Bloomberg's Lee reported.
As such, in the Atlantic's view, this could turn into a "bidding war."
Reached for comment via email, Melissa Cohlmia, Director, Corporate Communication, Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC said:Bobby Parnell hates sandwiches.
This unfortunate fact came to light during an intrasquad scrimmage at the beginning of last year’s training camp. On March 3rd, Parnell came upon 22-year-old Noah Syndergaard eating a sandwich in the Port St. Lucie clubhouse, instead of cheering on his teammates from the dugout. The sight of this apparently horrifying act prompted the bearded righty into an unquenchable rage.
While team captain and infallible superstar, David Wright, engaged in polite discussion with the Norse god of pitching about the merits of sandwich consumption versus team unity, Parnell waged battle against the sandwich in question. The once-closer, recovering from Tommy John surgery, emphatically slammed Synder |
records of pool maintenance - which led to a score of 82. Employees corrected most of the problems, and in an inspection on May 12, the pool earned a score of 91.
To prevent pool-related illness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all swimmers shower before entering the water, to remove sweat and other body fluids that can reduce the potency of the chlorine in the water.
Swimmers should look for clean - and safe - swim conditions when they are going to the pool this summer. That means minding not just the color of the water, but looking for safety equipment, ladders and light.
"Safety violations and problems with cleanliness are equally concerning as these conditions can cause injury to the public," Swinney wrote.Back in late September, not long before Vernon Adams broke his foot and missed four games of the 2014 season, and long before the idea of transferring to Oregon had even congealed in anyone’s mind, I drove to watch him throw a football. It was a balmy evening in Northern California, and his Eastern Washington team was playing at UC Davis. What resulted was far from Adams’s most prolific effort, but it was still kind of beautiful to see, the way he slowly and subtly picked apart the Davis defense with short throws, completing every one of his passes in the first half, and then put the game away in the third quarter with a couple of well-placed deep balls.
Adams completed 23 of 28 passes that day for 298 yards and two touchdowns; the Eagles led 9-7 at the half and wound up winning 37-14. Numberswise, this was actually well below the mean for Adams, given Eastern Washington’s uptempo system: In a 49-46 upset win over Oregon State in 2013, he’d passed for 411 yards and four touchdowns; and in a near upset of Washington a few weeks before the Davis game, he threw for 475 yards and seven touchdowns (the Eagles lost 59-52). During the 10 games he played in 2014, he threw for fewer than 300 only one other time.
I went to Davis mostly because I wondered whether Adams might be able to make it in the NFL as an FCS-level quarterback who is well under 6 feet tall (and Adams is at least an inch shorter than the 6 feet he’s listed at on the EWU roster). I wanted to know whether the success of Russell Wilson had made things any easier for a largely unknown commodity like Adams to get a chance in pro football. Best as I could tell, the answer was largely a resounding no. The road for Adams, if he stayed at EWU, would have been difficult (he admitted to me that he sometimes has trouble seeing passing lanes since he can’t peer above the bodies of his linemen). But now that he’s at Oregon, I assume many of those questions will largely answer themselves over the course of the season, as Adams (presuming he wins the starting job) faces first-rate defenses like Michigan State and Stanford.
It’s almost stupidly easy to compare Adams and Wilson at this point. They’re roughly the same height and they wear the same number. Adams will now be a fifth-year transfer student at Oregon, just as Wilson once was at Wisconsin. But when I spoke to Adams, he brought up quarterbacks like Drew Brees and Tom Brady as much, if not more, than he mentioned Wilson. He is a precision passer who happens to be relatively mobile. He was never particularly tall for his age group, but his father pushed him to play quarterback anyway, and when he came out of high school in Southern California, FBS schools backed away from making scholarship offers because of those concerns about his height.
And this is why Oregon appears to be the perfect fit for a quarterback like Adams: He doesn’t fit the mold. Because none of Oregon’s quarterbacks have fit the mold up to this point, and because I imagine, as long as the Ducks are running Chip Kelly’s uptempo, run-oriented system, they never will. Even Marcus Mariota, one of the most graceful college quarterbacks I’ve ever seen play, is slowly slipping down draft boards as scouts and analysts fret almost reflexively about his place in a pro-style offense. This is what pro scouts do, and to be fair, this is a key aspect of their job: They find reasons to cast doubt on everything. But for Oregon, none of this matters; for the Ducks, a quarterback who is a dual threat, who can make accurate throws and run the ball when he needs to, is exactly what they’re looking for.
This was shaping up to be a transitional year for Oregon, a year of uncertainty and concern, and it still could be. It’s possible that Adams will struggle; it’s possible that it might take time for him to grasp the Ducks’ system, and that he might not have fully grasped it by September 12, when Oregon plays at Michigan State in the second game of the season. The Ducks also play on the road at Washington, Arizona State, and Stanford; it’s a difficult enough schedule that they might not make it back to the Pac-12 championship game, let alone the national championship game.
It’s possible that Adams’s height was an FBS limitation for a reason. But for both parties, this seems like a worthy risk to take. Oregon made its name by refusing to conform to conventional wisdom about offensive football; Adams made himself worthy of Oregon’s attention by defying the conventional wisdom about quarterbacks. If it works, maybe it alters the conventional wisdom altogether.
Michael Weinreb (@michaelweinreb) is the author of Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games.As we pass the quarter poll of the 2017 MLS Regular Season, you, the fans voted on some early season superlatives. Check out the results below.
Best Newcomer - Jonathan Spector 73%
The offseason acquisition of Jonathan Spector has clearly stood out to Orlando City fans. They wouldn’t be the only ones to recognize his efforts as also earned a handful of MLS Team of the Week honors in the early going.
Biggest Surprise - Scott Sutter - 50%
Runner up: Carlos Rivas - 34%
Coming from Swiss Super League club BSC Young Boys, Scott Sutter wasn’t on many people’s radar when he was brought in right before the start of the season. After coming on as a substitute in the third match of the season, Sutter has played every minute of the season since. He has provided a steady defending and attacking presence on the right side of the pitch that city has lacked in recent years.
Most Promising Prospect - Tommy Redding - 82%
The 20-year-old center back has been nothing but solid when called upon so far this season. The youngster has helped Orlando City record two clean sheets in his six starts this season. This week, he was named to the U.S. Roster For the 2017 U-20 FIFA World Cup where he will likely start.
Best Individual Performance - Joe Bendik in the Home Opener - 45%
Runner up: Jonathan Spector in the Home Opener - 20%
Six huge saves for Joe Bendik helped Orlando City secure a massive shutout in the opening match of 2017. He game-saving save in the final minutes of the match was voted MLS Save of the Week.
Giving a new contract to this guy was one of 'the easiest' decisions Coach has ever made. 😏
Story | https://t.co/8sKh4LBNuQ pic.twitter.com/RTananM1xj — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) March 15, 2017
Best Moment - Home Opener National Anthem/Tifo - 38%
Runner up: Kakà Celebrates with The Wall - 27%
There are certain moments in this sport that can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. The pageantry as Orlando City was opened for the first time was certainly one of those moments.
Best Goal - Carlos Rivas vs. Colorado - 52%
Runner up: Will Johnson vs. LA Galaxy - 20%
Just watch the video below. No other words are needed.
Best Match - 2-1 Win vs. LA Galaxy - 38%
Runner up: Home Opener vs. NYCFC - 33%
We thought it would be tough to out-do the home opener, but then this match happened. A nail biter to the very end, Cyle Larin’s winner is one that many in the City Beautiful will never forget.
Clutch Coaching Decision - Rivas/Kaka Combo Sub vs. Colorado - 44%
Runner up: Switch to the diamond - 23%
Have to give some love to Jason Kreis on this one. As the clock hit the sixty minute mark in a 0-0 home affair against the Colorado Rapids, the head coach made a switch that changed the game instantly. Kaká and Rivas would both find the back of the net before the match was over, giving City their fifth consecutive home victory of the season.
59' | Orlando City substitution: Giles off for Carlos and Kaka is on for MPG.
0-0 | #ORLvCOL pic.twitter.com/yptGWvFYa9 — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) April 29, 2017
Best Social Media - Antonio Nocerino - 33%
Runner up: Kakà - 26%
Tuugether! The Instagram maven, Nocerino has clearly made an impact with the fans, providing an inside look into the locker room and even his personal life. Give the man a follow and join the tuugether movement!
going training singing with guys @matiperez08 @kaka @cristianandres94 @josema021 @rafaelramos_27 @carlitosri11 😂😂😂 crazy mini vans 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹 A post shared by Antonio Nocerino 23 (@antonocerino) on Feb 3, 2017 at 4:57am PST
A post shared by Antonio Nocerino 23 (@antonocerino) on Feb 3, 2017 at 4:57am PST
Best Hair - Giles Barnes - 45%
Runner up: Jonathan Spector - 25%
We like to talk hair at OrlandoCitySC.com, so we had to throw this one in. Giles Barnes takes the title at the quarter point of the season, we’ll see if any strong challengers emerge by season’s end.
Best Teammate - Will Johnson - 30%
Runner up: Kaka and Antonio Nocerino - 19% each
The offseason veteran addition has provided some excellent veteran leadership in 2017. Our Twitter account has dubbed him “Wild Man” Will due to his incredible energy on the pitch and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the fans.
Most Valuable Player - Joe Bendik - 45%
Runner up: Jonathan Spector - 33%
Defense reigns supreme in the early season MVP voting. Bendik’s early season performances have certainly earned him this honor. He also became the first Orlando City player to ever win MLS Player of the Month this April.Orlando City SC midfielder Yoshi Yotún fulfills his international duty this Tuesday night as Perú takes on Colombia in a critical World Cup qualification match.
Perú - Yoshi’s home country - takes on los Cafeteros in the final matchday of CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying.
Match: Perú vs. Colombia
CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifier
Tuesday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m. ET
Here’s what the CONMEBOL table currently looks like:
Team Points Goal Differential Brazil 38 +27 Uruguay 28 +10 Chile 26 +2 Colombia 26 +2 Perú 25 +1 Argentina 25 +1 Paraguay 24 -5 Ecuador 20 -1 Bolivia 14 -20 Venezuela 9 -17
Traditionally, CONMEBOL is a highly competitive qualification group. The top four nations after the final matchday automatically qualify for the World Cup, while the fifth-place nation plays an intercontinental playoff match with the victor advancing to Russia 2018.
Three points against Colombia would put Yotún and Perú through to the World Cup next summer. Drawing on Tuesday night would not necessarily be a poor result; a point could be enough, although anything but a win against Colombia would put the Peruvians in a precarious situation.
If Perú is able to secure a winning result against a talented Colombia side, it would be the first time La Blanquirroja qualify for the World Cup since 1982.
Yotún, who joined Orlando City in August, has two goals and seven assists in over 60 international appearances with Perú.DC Appeals Court Says Anti-SLAPP Laws Shouldn't Apply In Federal Courts
from the ruh-roh dept
Under the Federal Rules, a plaintiff is generally entitled to trial if he or she meets the Rules 12 and 56 standards to overcome a motion to dismiss or for summary judgment. But the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act nullifies that entitlement in certain cases. Under the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act, the plaintiff is not able to get to trial just by meeting those Rules 12 and 56 standards. The D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act, in other words, conflicts with the Federal Rules by setting up an additional hurdle a plaintiff must jump over to get to trial.
We've discussed for quite some time the importance of anti-SLAPP laws, and how it's ridiculous that we don't have a federal anti-SLAPP law. Once again, anti-SLAPP laws are used to toss out bogus lawsuits that were clearly filed for the sake of silencing someone's speech (SLAPP stands for "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation"). Right now only some states have them, and there are many variations in the various state laws, with some much better than others. Unfortunately, a new ruling in the DC Circuit appeals court may make state anti-SLAPP laws much less effective. That's because it says, more or less, that state anti-SLAPP laws only apply to cases in state/local courts, and not those that are in federal court (such as any case between two parties in different states).In other words, in the DC Circuit, this finding says that as long as the dispute is between two parties in different jurisdictions, the anti-SLAPP law is basically toothless. Its reasoning is that Federal Rules of Civil Procedure list out the processes under which a court can dismiss a claim before a trial, and it doesn't include the same process as the anti-SLAPP process. And thus, the Federal Rules effectively overrule any local anti-SLAPP law in federal court.As Paul Levy notes in the link above, this finding goes against findings in the First, Fifth and Ninth Circuits and creates a circuit split that he hopes will be appealed to the Supreme Court (even though the appeals court eventually did dismiss the case on other grounds).Either way, this really (once again) reinforces the absolute need for a. Not only would it solve messes like this, but it would protect free speech rights across the country, rather than allowing some states to protect them, while others allow people to be silenced via bogus lawsuits.
Filed Under: anti-slapp, circuit split, dc circuit, diversity, federal courts, free speech....................................................................................................................................................................................
Copyright © 2017 Albuquerque Journal
The budget battle between Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry and the City Council came to an explosive head Monday, with councilors overriding the mayor’s veto of the spending plan.
ADVERTISEMENTSkip
Berry vetoed the council’s $534.1 million budget last week, calling it “a recipe to overpromise and underdeliver.”
But in the end, the council garnered the required six votes to override the veto. In doing so, the council majority rejected a compromise substitute budget worked out by Berry and City Councilors Brad Winter and Pat Davis.
Councilor Klarissa Peña complained that the compromise budget had not received the public input that the budget approved by the council had received.
“The council did pass a budget. There are some issues with it, clearly. No doubt about that,” said Council President Isaac Benton. “But I think the corpus of what we passed is definitely defensible.”
The override means the budget the council approved in May will go into effect on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. But the council will likely make changes to the spending plan at its next meeting, and those changes will go to Berry for consideration.
Voting for the override were Councilors Benton, Peña, Ken Sanchez, Dan Lewis, Diane Gibson and Don Harris. Trudy Jones joined with Davis and Winter in voting against it.
ADVERTISEMENTSkip
The Mayor’s Office blasted the vote in a statement.
“For seven years, the Berry administration has worked on a bipartisan basis with the City Council to pass budgets that were balanced and commonsense,” Berry spokeswoman Rhiannon Samuel said.
“Unfortunately, tonight that ended when six city councilors, five of whom are up for election, voted for a budget that they admitted is utterly broken. Chalk this one up to politics – not good government.”
Prior to the vote, Davis argued that since the council initially approved the budget, the revenue picture has become clearer.
“We simply can’t afford everything. I can’t imagine we’d want to put the city on a credit watch,” he said, referring to concerns raised by the administration that the council budget could result in the city’s credit rating being downgraded.
He told the Journal after the meeting that the council budget has a $3 million to $4.5 million hole that needs to be plugged. The council had initially planned to cover $3 million of that through anticipated savings from a proposed four-month hiring freeze, but the Berry administration warned that doing so would place the city’s credit rating in jeopardy.
ADVERTISEMENTSkip
Several of the councilors who voted for the override noted that the council budget can be amended to fix the “glitches.”
Indeed, Harris said some of the fixes contained in the compromise bill would likely be adopted by the council at its next meeting.
Those fixes include things such as ensuring that the current longevity pay for veteran police officers will remain in place come July 1. The current language in the council bill makes that longevity pay contingent on the city meeting its revenue projections.
Sanchez argued for the override, saying that the council’s budget prioritizes public safety.
Among other things, the council budget sets aside $4 million for longevity pay for veteran police officers, but only if the city meets its revenue projections. The city currently sets aside $2.4 million for police officer longevity pay. The council budget also sets aside enough money for 3 percent raises for firefighters and a 1 percent across-the-board raise for American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees.
The compromise budget had sought to leave the longevity pay at its current level, and it would have provided fire union employees with 1.5 percent pay raises and 1 percent pay raises for all other city employees.
In his veto message, Berry said the council budget leaves the general fund structurally imbalanced, meaning that expected revenues aren’t in line with proposed expenditures. Among the other reasons cited for the veto were that it jeopardized the current longevity pay program for police officers, and that it reduces general fund reserves and the risk recovery fund, which is used to cover lawsuits.Teva Offers to Buy Mylan in $40.1B Cash-and-Stock Deal
By Linda A. Johnson, AP
ABC News, April 21, 2015
Generic drug giant Teva formally offered to buy fellow drugmaker Mylan for about $40.1 billion in cash and stock on Tuesday, despite Mylan’s cold shoulder and the certainty the proposed acquisition will bring intense scrutiny by antitrust regulators.
If Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. succeeded, the combination would dominate the global generic drug market, be a major contender in some other specialty drug categories — and have the leverage to try to raise generic drugs prices.
After years of stability, generic medicine prices recently have risen several percent a year on average. Some have skyrocketed by up to 1,000 percent, generally when competition vanishes due to consolidation or shortages caused by manufacturing quality problems.
A tie-up wouldn’t just increase Teva’s scale, allowing it to boost profitability by cutting jobs and other costs. It would increase its leverage in negotiating drug prices with insurers and other payers, noted Les Funtleyder, health care portfolio manager at E Squared Asset Management.
“That’s going to feed into regulators’ interest,” he said.
That’s particularly true in the U.S., where seven of eight prescriptions filled are for generics and employers, insurers and government health programs encourage their use to hold down costs.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/teva-offers-buy-mylan-401b-cash-stock-deal-30476610
****
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
New pharmaceutical products usually enter the market at the maximum prices that the market would bear. So it was always a relief when the patents expired and patients could obtain much less expensive generic versions of these drugs.
Now that almost 90 percent of prescriptions have generic versions available, the industry is busy trying to find ways of increasing generic drug prices, and they have been successful with prices rising as much as tenfold. One of the methods has been to gain greater control of markets through consolidation. That explains Teva’s interest in purchasing Mylan. Drug shortages, whether or not contrived, have also been a method of boosting prices. In many instances, drug prices sharply increased after the line was purchased by another firm, partly to recover capital investments, but no doubt to simply increase profits.
Is that the way markets should work? Supposedly markets should bring prices down, but today’s market innovations have been raising prices – almost intolerably so in the drug markets. The greater dependency on pharmacy benefit managers has only added a new wasteful administrative layer on top of our already overpriced drugs.
This would not be tolerated under a single payer system. Our own public purchaser of health care products and services would demand appropriate pricing – just enough profit to keep the pharmaceutical firms interested in pursuing their fair portion of our national health expenditures. But PhRMA had a front seat when the Affordable Care Act was constructed. That lobbying investment is really paying off for them now.The cows will still give their milk and their owners will still savour frothy mouthfuls straight from the farm. But now, the infamous cow-share program of Durham, ON, is legal in the eyes of the law. In a surprise move, a Newmarket court ruled Thursday that dairy farmer Michael Schmidt is allowed to continue his raw milk co-operative and that his venture does not break laws against selling unpasteurized milk.
Michael Schmidt, who was acquitted in Newmarket of illegally selling unpasteurized milk, hosts as glass outside the courthouse scores of supporters cheer him on. ( DAVID COOPER / TORONTO STAR )
Government officials had little to say about the decision Thursday afternoon. But dairy experts say the ruling will spur more cow-share programs to form and encourage the underground co-ops already operating in Ontario to surface. And, they say, it will likely force the government to change its laws to allow the sale and distribution of raw milk in the province. Food activists, chefs, proponents of the local and slow food movements and those who scorn excessive government regulations see the ruling as a victory for their causes. But few were more thrilled than Schmidt’s dedicated contingent of some 200 cow-share members. “This is beyond our wildest hopes,” said Judith McGill, who has been a cow-share member at Schmidt’s Glencolton Farms for four years. “We are now out and we will build.”
Article Continued Below
Toronto chef and restaurateur Jamie Kennedy was one of the more than 100 people waiting outside the courthouse who greeted news of the ruling with cheers, hugs and happy hand shakes. “This is a wonderful first step because it recognizes that raw milk is in our society, that there are people who freely choose to engage and feed their families this product,” Kennedy told the Star Thursday evening from his Gilead Café and Bistro. The next step, he said, is to fight to make raw milk available to anyone who wants it in Ontario. He hopes one day to be able to serve foods made from raw milk in his restaurants. “It would contribute to the experience of my patrons who have come to my place to eat,” he said. “And that’s where we are going in our sophistication in food culture.” Art Hill, professor and chair of the University of Guelph’s Department of Food Science, said the ruling, which provides a legal way for Ontarians to consume raw milk and for farmers to sell their farm-fresh product, will likely prompt changes in the dairy industry. “This ruling signals that it is time to create a system where the sale of raw milk is legalized, but controlled,” said Hill. “We have to work now at finding ways to make raw milk available as safely as we can.”
Hill noted the sale of raw milk is not uncommon in other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom. About half of U.S. states have legislation that allows consumers access to raw milk, either directly from farms or at grocery stores. Justice of the Peace Paul Kowarsky ruled Schmidt’s cow-share program is exempt from legislation set out in Ontario’s Health Protection and Promotion Act and the Milk Act. He found Schmidt not guilty on 19 charges under the two acts. The verdict came one year after Schmidt’s trial began in January 2009. The 55-year-old farmer defended himself against the charges.
Article Continued Below
In his 40-page ruling, which took almost three hours for him to read to the court, Kowarsky said it was beyond his jurisdictional authority to abolish or amend the legislation that requires all milk sold or distributed in Ontario to be pasteurized. Kowarsky said he focused his decision on whether or not Schmidt’s cow-share program circumvented the law. Schmidt has long maintained he does not break the law by providing milk to the cow’s owners, all of whom purchase a portion of the cow and pay to board the animal at Glencolton Farms. The prohibition on raw milk in Ontario does not apply to farmers drinking raw milk from their own cows. Kowarsky ruled Schmidt’s cow-share program did not break the law because the farmer only provided milk and raw milk products to his members, did not advertise or market his operation, and that cow-share members were aware they consumed milk at their own risk. He said it was also essential to note “There is no evidence that anyone ever became ill as a result of the consumption of the defendant’s milk products...” Hill said consumers need to be aware the purported benefits of raw milk do not outweigh its well-established and substantial risks. Milk that has not been pasteurized can contain potentially deadly pathogens, including Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli 0157:H7, the same strain that killed seven people in Walkerton in 2000. Warnings against drinking raw milk are regularly issued by Health Canada, medical associations and local health units. Officials maintain the laws are in place to protect public health. According to the Ontario’s ministry of health, there were 145 cases of reportable enteric illness associated with unpasteurized milk in Ontario between 2005 and 2009. Spokespersons for two local health units, the health ministry and Ontario’s ministry of agriculture, food and rural affairs said each is carefully reviewing the court’s decision. “There is an appeal period and we are considering our next steps, which may include an appeal,” said health ministry spokesperson Andrew Morrison. The Dairy Farmers of Ontario has its legal counsel reviewing the decision and has already expressed its support and concern directly with the Ministry of the Attorney General, said spokesperson Bill Mitchell. “At this point, my expectation would be that the Ontario government would appeal the decision and defend the legislation and take all steps necessary to protect public health,” Mitchell said. Kathryn Boor, professor and chair of Cornell University’s Food Science Department, said the ruling is “absolutely being watched outside of Ontario.” Earlier this month, health officials warned B.C. residents against drinking unpasteurized milk distributed from raw milk producers in that province. Ontario raw milk advocates say a similar trial over the constitutionality of raw milk laws is expected in British Columbia. “The entire population of people who drink raw milk, and which seems to be growing, is certainly mindful this case was underway,” said Boor. “The expectation is that a ruling of this nature would have an impact on some arguments made in the U.S. as well.” As he left court Thursday, Schmidt drank deeply from a glass of raw milk, thanked his supporters and said he was glad to help in their fight for food rights. “We want to be responsible for our food,” said Schmidt, who mentioned his intent to run for provincial government. “Standing up for basic rights is a moral obligation and that's what we did. I could not have done this alone.”Adam Gillet has agreed his girlfriend can sleep with other men (Picture: Facebook)
A man has agreed that his girlfriend can have sex with other men while he remains faithful – on the condition she doesn’t leave him.
Adam Gillet, 27 and partner Beatrice Gibbs, 22, say their one-sided open relationship makes them happy and they’re not concerned with what others think of them.
They came to the unorthodox agreement after Beatrice, a make-up artist, confessed that she didn’t think she could resist sleeping with other men.
She explained: ‘I love Adam, but I wasn’t ready to settle down and commit to just one man.’
When she tried to break up with Adam, he was devastated. He suggested they stay together, agreeing she could have sex with other men so long as she was completely honest about it.
Beatrice says the arrangement keeps them happy (Picture: Twitter)
‘It’s the perfect situation, I have a boyfriend I love but also get to have fun with other men when I want to,’ she told The Sun.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Beatrice says she sometimes feels a little guilty about seeing other people, but after a chat and a cuddle with Adam things quickly get back to normal.
Explaining why he sacrificed his preference for monogamy, Adam said he’d rather this than lose her completely.
Adding: ‘We decided this is the best way to take the relationship forward so I have become used to it.’
He insists he’s not interested in chasing other women and while he feels jealous when she talks about bedding other guys, he keeps his emotions inside, claiming he’s learnt to deal with his feelings.
Adam and Beatrice met back in February 2014 on a pub crawl. They ended up sleeping together but didn’t officially become a couple until April 2015.
Beatrice was worried about committing to him full time so decided to end it just a month later, but Adam was able to convince her to stay with him on the condition she saw other men.
Beatrice has lost count of the number of men she’s kissed since she and Adam agreed to have an open relationship, but claims she’s slept with five other guys in 18 months.
Most are one-night stands, but there is one man she sees around once a fortnight.
She keeps things purely physical with other guys and Adam says the arrangement takes away the worry of her cheating on him.Byron Bay fish captures global attention after diver finds it hitching ride in jellyfish
Updated
A small Byron Bay fish is becoming world famous after being photographed swimming inside the bell of a jellyfish only slightly larger than itself.
Byron Bay photographer Tim Samuel spotted the fish while on a free-diving trip off the coast of the popular New South Wales town.
He first posted a photo to his Instagram account in December, saying "I found a fish inside a jellyfish!"
"He was trapped in there, but controlled where the jellyfish was moving."
Two weeks later he posted a second image, which a commenter described as "amazing and creepy and baffling", showing his dive partner Franny Plumridge in the background.
The images came to global attention after Instagram account DiscoverOcean shared Samuel's original picture.
On Sunday, Samuel shared a third image, saying his phone had been "going crazy".
On social media site Reddit, Samuel added that the fish "would have a difficult time swimming in a straight line".
"The jellyfish would knock him off course though, and every now and then it would get stuck swimming in circles," he said.
Several followers on Instagram and Reddit questioned whether the fish could survive, but Samuel said he "let nature take its course".
"It was a difficult decision though, I did think about freeing him," he added.
The fish could have been a juvenile trevally, which are known to hide among the stingers of some species of jellyfish, according to Associate Professor Ian Tibbets from the University of Queensland.
"It's difficult to tell whether disaster has just struck, or whether the fish is happy to be in there," Dr Tibbets told Australian Geographic.
"Although by the photographer's description of the fish swimming, my guess is that it is probably quite happy to be protected in there."
Dr Tibbett added that the jellyfish looked like a type of stinging jellyfish called a cubomedusan, a group which includes the box jellyfish.
Topics: offbeat, animals, byron-bay-2481
First postedFor nearly a month, Jeb Bush has established himself as the leading Donald Trump attacker, convinced that relentlessly criticizing the Republican front-
runner’s temperament and rhetoric will draw fresh support.
So far, it hasn’t worked very well.
Bush remains stranded at the back of the GOP pack, polling at around 4 percent nationally and little better in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Trump, meanwhile, has actually gained ground over that time — and has only intensified the barrage of insults he routinely lobs at Bush.
In the past week, Bush has called Trump a “jerk” who is “not serious” and is running a “chaos campaign.” The former Florida governor has also run ads calling Trump “unhinged” and also torn into the front-runner for praising the leadership qualities of Russian President Vladimir Putin and for talking about deporting Latinos and barring Muslims.
[This is what it’s like to be a Bush stuck at the bottom of the polls]
Republican candidate Jeb Bush throws a fist in the air after hugging political activist Beverly Bruce at a town hall style meeting at Nashua Community College in Nashua, N.H., on Thursday. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
“I’ll continue to call Trump out for his outrageous comments & naive ‘foreign policy.’ Even if no one else will,” Bush tweeted Monday.
Trump, of course, has responded in force, hitting Bush almost daily with a mix of his trademark insults and put-downs on social media, at rallies, in television interviews and on the debate stage. Amid his regular barbs at Bush as too “low energy” to be president, Trump in recent days has called him “a weak and ineffective person” who is “going to be off the stage soon.”
“Being at 2% and falling seems to have totally affected his confidence,” Trump said of Bush on Twitter. “A basket case!”
Bush’s decision to go after Trump comes with risks, as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) learned this week. The senator ended his White House bid Monday after facing strong attacks from Trump, who once gave out Graham’s cellphone number to a large crowd in retribution for an attack. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former governor Rick Perry of Texas also tried concerted attacks on Trump before dropping out of the Republican race.
Bush, who long vowed to run “joyfully” above the fray, is clearly uncomfortable as an attack dog and often appears hesitant or awkward in the role. He stops short of refusing to support Trump if he wins the party’s nomination, and Bush demurred when asked on CNN if Trump would be a better president than Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Trump said Bush is “an embarrassment to the Bush family, and in fact he doesn’t even want to use the Bush name, which is interesting.”
Bush said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “I don’t take it personally” when Trump hurls insults. “He shouldn’t take it personally either, but someone needs to call him out,” Bush said.
New Hampshire voters listen to Republican candidate Jeb Bush at a town hall style meeting at Nashua Community College in Nashua, N.H., on Thursday. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Bush trails far behind Trump and Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas. Trump received 26 percent support among likely Republican voters in New Hampshire in a poll released Friday by Franklin Pierce University and the Boston Herald, while Bush was in fourth place at 10 percent in his strongest state. That same day, a Fox News survey of Republicans nationally showed Trump getting 39 percent and Bush 3 percent — record highs and lows, respectively, for the two.
[Jeb Bush said Donald Trump would be in decline by Dec. 15. That didn’t happen.]
The idea that Bush is the only candidate brave enough to take on Trump is a theme strongly embraced by his campaign and supporters in recent days. The campaign has released several slickly produced anti-Trump videos — including one released Monday that faults Rubio, Cruz and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for failing to confront Trump. When Trump accused Bush on Twitter of distorting his statements, the Bush campaign replied later with a web-only video to bolster his points.
Separately, Right to Rise USA, the super PAC backing Bush’s bid, is airing a new ad nationally on Fox News Channel that uses debate clips to highlight Bush’s attacks on Trump. Another message airing on Fox labels Bush “One candidate tough enough to take on the bully.... One candidate tough enough to take on ISIS.”
The super PAC had vowed to focus on positive advertising, but its ads are now roughly two-thirds negative and one-third biographical, according to a person familiar with its plans who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the group’s strategy.
[Jeb Bush super PAC attacks Trump, Cruz and Rubio in new TV ad]
The PAC’s spending plan remains critical because it raised $103 million even before Bush declared his candidacy, giving him a sizable cash advantage over his rivals. A recent Washington Post analysis found that the group has spent nearly half that much so far.
Many donors say they are pleased with their candidate’s focus on the front-runner.
“It’s important to stand up against Donald Trump. It’s a risky strategy, but he does not represent the values of the vast majority of the party and, frankly, I wish the [Republican National Committee] didn’t feel like it needs to be so neutral,” said William Kunkler, a Chicago-based businessman and Bush bundler. “I think we’ve got to write rules that if someone behaves this way, you disqualify yourself.”
Another Bush bundler, who requested anonymity to discuss campaign strategy, said that “conventional wisdom for a long time was don’t bash Trump because it would hurt you. Well, Trump has thumped Bush |
first husband Paul Bernardo, raped and murdered at least three minors. She attracted worldwide media attention when she was convicted of manslaughter following a plea bargain in the 1991 and 1992 rape-murders of two Ontario teenage girls, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as the rape and death of her sister Tammy.[3]
Homolka and Bernardo were arrested in 1993. In 1995, Bernardo was convicted of the two teenagers' murders and received life in prison and a dangerous offender designation, the full maximum sentence allowed in Canada. During the 1993 investigation, Homolka stated to investigators that Bernardo had abused her and that she had been an unwilling accomplice to the murders. As a result, she struck a deal with prosecutors for a reduced prison sentence of 12 years in exchange for a guilty plea to the charge of manslaughter. Homolka scored 5/40 on the Psychopathy Checklist, in contrast to Bernardo's 35/40.[4]
However, videotapes of the crimes surfaced after the plea bargain and demonstrated that she was a more active participant than she had claimed.[5][6] As a result, the deal that she had struck with prosecutors was dubbed in the Canadian press the "Deal with the Devil". Public outrage about Homolka's plea deal continued until her high-profile release from prison in 2005.[7]
Following her release from prison, she settled in the province of Quebec, where she married again. She briefly lived in the Antilles and Guadeloupe but by 2014 was back in Canada and living in Quebec.[8][9]
Victims [ edit ]
During the summer of 1990, according to Karla, Bernardo became attracted to her younger sister, Tammy Homolka. Tammy was romantically interested in Bernardo as well. Homolka hatched a plan to frame Bernardo for drugging Tammy, seeing an opportunity to "minimise risk, take control, and keep it all in the family."[10] In July, "according to Bernardo's testimony, he and Karla served Tammy a spaghetti dinner spiked with Valium stolen from Karla's workplace. Bernardo raped Tammy for about a minute before she started to wake up."[11]
Six months before their wedding in 1991, Homolka stole the anesthetic agent halothane from the Martindale Veterinarian Clinic where she worked. On December 23, 1990, after a Homolka family Christmas party, Bernardo and Karla Homolka drugged Tammy Homolka with the animal tranquilizers. Bernardo and Karla Homolka raped Tammy while she was unconscious. Tammy later choked on her own vomit and died. Before calling 911, they hid the evidence, redressed Tammy, who had a chemical burn on her face, and moved her into her basement bedroom. A few hours later, Tammy was pronounced dead at St. Catharines General Hospital without having regained consciousness. Bernardo told police he tried to revive her, but failed, and her death was ruled an accident.[11]
Aftermath [ edit ]
Publication ban [ edit ]
Citing the need to protect Bernardo's right to a fair trial, a publication ban was imposed on Homolka's preliminary inquiry.[12]
The Crown had applied for the ban imposed on July 5, 1993, by Mr. Justice Francis Kovacs of the Ontario Court (General Division). Homolka, through her lawyers, supported the ban, whereas Bernardo's lawyers argued that he would be prejudiced by the ban since Homolka previously had been portrayed as his victim. Four media outlets and one author also opposed the application. Some lawyers argued that rumours could be doing more damage to the future trial process than the publication of the actual evidence.[13]
Public access to the Internet effectively nullified the court's order, however; as did proximity to the Canada–US border, since a publication ban by an Ontario Court cannot apply in New York, Michigan, or anywhere else outside of Ontario. American journalists cited the First Amendment in editorials and published details of Homolka's testimony, which were widely distributed by many Internet sources, primarily on the alt.fan.karla-homolka[14] Usenet newsgroup. Information and rumours spread across myriad electronic networks available to anyone in Canada with a computer and a modem. Moreover, many of the Internet rumours went beyond the known details of the case.
Newspapers in Buffalo, Detroit, Washington, New York City and even Britain, together with border radio and television stations, reported details gleaned from sources at Homolka's trial. The syndicated series A Current Affair aired two programs on the crimes. Canadians bootlegged copies of The Buffalo Evening News across the border, prompting orders to the Niagara Regional Police Service to arrest all those with more than one copy at the border. Extra copies were confiscated. Copies of other newspapers, including The New York Times, were either turned back at the border or were not accepted by distributors in Ontario.[13] Gordon Domm, a retired police officer who defied the publication ban by distributing details from the foreign media, was charged and convicted of disobeying a lawful court order.[15]
Plea bargain controversy [ edit ]
Jamie Cameron, Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall, noted that "at the time of the Homolka trial, three features of the case worried and concerned the public. Little was known about the respective roles Homolka and Bernardo played in their actions and the killing of their victims. By spring, 1993, it was clear that the Crown's case against Bernardo depended on Homolka's evidence. In simple terms, to secure a conviction against him, her story had to be believed. Yet on no view of the facts then known could she be exculpated; by casting her as a victim of his predatory behaviour, her responsibility for the crimes that were committed could be diminished and her credibility as a witness preserved."[16]
Trial [ edit ]
Arraignment [ edit ]
On May 18, 1993, Homolka was arraigned on two counts of manslaughter. Bernardo was charged with two counts each of kidnapping, unlawful confinement, aggravated sexual assault and first-degree murder as well as one of dismemberment. Coincidentally, that day Bernardo's original lawyer, Ken Murray, first watched the rape videotapes. Murray decided to hold onto the tapes and use them to impeach Homolka on the stand during Bernardo's trial. Neither Murray nor Carolyn MacDonald, the other lawyer on the defence team, were deeply experienced in criminal law and it was only over time that their ethical dilemma showed itself also to be a potentially criminal matter, for they were withholding evidence. By October 1993, he and his law partners had studied over 4,000 documents from the Crown. Murray has said he was willing to hand over the tapes to the Crown if they had let him cross-examine Homolka in the anticipated preliminary hearing.[17] The hearing was never held.
Hearing [ edit ]
Homolka was tried on June 28, 1993, though the publication ban the court had imposed limited the details released to the public, who were barred from the proceedings.[18]
Evidence [ edit ]
Murray said the videotapes showed Homolka sexually assaulting four female victims, having sex with a female prostitute in Atlantic City, and at another point, drugging an unconscious victim.[17]
During the summer of 1994, Murray had become concerned about serious ethical problems that had arisen in connection with the tapes and his continued representation of Bernardo. He consulted his own lawyer, Austin Cooper, who asked the Law Society of Upper Canada's professional-conduct committee for advice.
"The law society directed Murray in writing to seal the tapes in a package and turn them over to the judge presiding at Bernardo's trial. The law society further directed him to remove himself as Bernardo's counsel and to tell Bernardo what he had been instructed to do," Murray said in a statement released through Cooper in September 1995.[19]
On September 12, 1994, Cooper attended Bernardo's trial and advised Justice Patrick LeSage of the Ontario Court's General Division, lawyer John Rosen, who replaced Murray as Bernardo's defence counsel, and the prosecutors about what the law society had directed Murray to do. Rosen argued that the tapes should have been turned over to the defence first. Murray handed the tapes, along with a detailed summary, to Rosen, who "kept the tapes for about two weeks and then decided to turn them over to the prosecution."[11]
The revelation that a key piece of evidence had been kept from police for so long created a furor, especially when the public realized that Homolka had been Bernardo's willing accomplice. The tapes were not allowed to be shown to the spectators; only the audio portion was available to them. Moreover, Bernardo has always claimed that, while he raped and tortured Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, Homolka actually killed them.
After the videotapes had been found, rumours spread that Homolka was an active participant of the crimes. The public grew incensed as the full extent of Homolka's role in the case was finally exposed and the plea agreement now seemed unnecessary. However, as was provided in the plea bargain, Homolka had already disclosed sufficient information to the police and the Crown found no grounds to break the agreement and reopen the case.
Appeal and inquest [ edit ]
Homolka's plea bargain had been offered before the contents of the videotapes were available for review.[20][21] Anne McGillivray, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Manitoba, explained the continuing public antagonism against Homolka: There was widespread belief that she had known where the videotapes were hidden, that she wilfully concealed the Jane Doe incidents and, most centrally, that her claims of being under Bernardo's control – a central tenet of the plea bargain – were dubious. Speculation was fed by a publicity ban on the plea bargain which stood until Bernardo's trial.
"Print and website sources imagined demonic duos, vampirism, Barbie and Ken perfect-couple perfectmurderers [sic], sexy "Killer Karla", the comic "Karla's Web" featuring Homolka's psy [sic] confessions. The gaze centres, always, on Homolka (italics added).... That [Bernardo] would be incarcerated for his mortal lifespan seemed a foregone conclusion. Homolka, in the popular view, should have taken her seat beside him in the prisoner's box and seat of ultimate evil.... Homolka promised full disclosure and testimony against Bernardo in return for reduced charges... and a joint sentencing recommendation. In so doing, she escaped central blame for the deaths."[22]
Although the contents of the videotapes would likely have led to a conviction of murder for Homolka,[22] an inquiry into the conduct of the prosecutors who had made the plea bargain found their behaviour "professional and responsible" and the "resolution agreement" that they had established with Homolka "unassailable" under the Criminal Code.[21] Judge Patrick T. Galligan, reporting to the Attorney General on the matter, indicated that in his opinion "the Crown had no alternative but to...[negotiate with the accomplice] in this case" as "the 'lesser of two evils' to deal with an accomplice rather than to be left in a situation where a violent and dangerous offender cannot be prosecuted."[21]
In December 2001, Canadian authorities determined that there was no possible future use of the videotapes. The six videotapes depicting the torture and rape of Bernardo's and Homolka's victims were destroyed. The disposition of the tapes of Homolka watching and commenting on the tapes remains sealed.
Prison [ edit ]
After her 1995 testimony against Bernardo, when Homolka returned to Kingston's Prison For Women, her mother started to suffer annual breakdowns between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The collapses were severe enough that she was hospitalized, sometimes for months at a time.[23] Homolka was moved from Kingston in the summer of 1997 to Joliette Institution (a medium security prison in Joliette, Quebec, 80 km northeast of Montreal), a facility called "Club Fed" by its critics.[24]
In 1999, Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shephard came into possession of copies of her application to transfer to the Maison Thérèse-Casgrain, run by the Elizabeth Fry Society, and published the story noting the halfway house's proximity to local schools, hours before the Canadian courts issued a publication ban on the information.[25] Homolka sued the government after her transfer to a Montreal halfway house was denied.[26]
Before her imprisonment, Homolka had been evaluated by numerous psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health and court officials. Homolka, reported one, "remains something of a diagnostic mystery. Despite her ability to present herself very well, there is a moral vacuity in her which is difficult, if not impossible, to explain."[27] As Homolka proceeded through the Canadian prison system there were frequent flashes that illuminated this perception.
In Joliette, Homolka had a sexual affair with Lynda Véronneau, who was serving time for a series of armed robberies and who reoffended so that she could be sent back to Joliette to be with Homolka, according to the Montreal Gazette.[28] Her letters to Véronneau, wrote Christie Blatchford in her column in The Globe and Mail, were "in French and on the same sort of childish, puppy-dog-decorated paper she once wrote to her former husband... the same kind of girlish love notes she sent to him." Her language, Blatchford noted, was "equally juvenile".[29]
While being evaluated in 2000, Homolka told psychiatrist Robin Menzies that she did not consider the relationship to be homosexual, as Véronneau "'saw herself as a man and planned to undergo a sex operation in due course,' the psychiatrist wrote."[28] Psychiatrist Louis Morisette, meanwhile, noted in his report that Homolka "was ashamed of the relationship and hid it from her parents and the experts who examined her. The psychiatrist mentions in his report that under the circumstances, the relationship was not abnormal."[28]
Again, it demonstrated Blatchford's observation that "what is particularly compelling – and telling – is how radically different are the faces she presents"[29] to each audience. Her former veterinary clinic co-worker and friend, Wendy Lutczyn, the Toronto Sun declared, "now believes Homolka's actions were those of a psychopath, not of an abused, controlled woman".[30] Homolka, Lutczyn said, had promised "she would explain herself", yet though the women exchanged "a series of letters while Homolka was... waiting to testify at Bernardo's trial" and after she had completed her testimony, Homolka never did try to explain to Lutczyn "why she did what she did".
On January 11, 2008, the Canadian Press reported that letters written by Homolka to Lutczyn had been pulled from eBay, where they had reached $1,600 with a week to go. Lutczyn said she did not want them any more.[31]
In a letter of apology to her family, she continued to blame Bernardo for all her misdeeds: "He wanted me to get sleeping pills from work... threatened me and physically and emotionally abused me when I refused... I tried so hard to save her."[32] Tim Danson, lawyer for the victims' families, has said that she has never apologized to them.
Homolka took correspondence courses in sociology through nearby Queen's University[33] which initially caused a media storm. Homolka was required to pay all fees, as well as her personal needs, from her fortnightly income of about $69,[34] although, she told author Stephen Williams in a subsequent letter, "I did get some financial assistance".[35] Homolka later graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Queen's.[36] News of Homolka's self-improvement courses was greeted in the media with disdain: "Nothing has changed. Concepts of remorse, repentance, shame, responsibility and atonement have no place in the universe of Karla. Perhaps she simply lacks the moral gene," wrote another Globe columnist, Margaret Wente.[27]
The complexities and challenges of completing behavioural studies of women who are suspected of having psychopathic traits have been noted in the forensic literature.[37] The various different masks that the female psychopathic killer displays at different times often have more to do with the audience and the manipulation at that moment that will benefit the individual wearing the mask than the true nature of the individual wearing the mask.[38]
Dr. Graham Glancy, a forensic psychiatrist hired by Bernardo's chief defence lawyer, John Rosen, had offered an alternative theory to explain Homolka's behaviour, noted Williams in Invisible Darkness, his first book on the case. "She appears to be a classic example of hybristophilia, an individual who is sexually aroused by a partner's violent sexual behaviour, Dr. Glancy suggested."[39]
Williams, who wrote Invisible Darkness,[40] later reversed his opinion about her and began corresponding with her. This formed the basis for his second book, Karla – a Pact with the Devil. In her letters Homolka also disparaged a number of the professionals who had examined her and said she did not care "what conditions I would receive upon release. I would spend three hours a day standing on my head should that be required."[41] Upon her release Homolka vigorously fought a string of conditions imposed upon her by a court (see Post-Prison, below).
Homolka participated in every treatment program recommended by prison authorities, until she was asked to participate in a program that had been designed for male sex offenders. She refused, on the grounds that she was neither male nor a convicted sex offender.
During Homolka's release hearing (under section 810.2 of the Criminal Code), Morrisette said the then-35-year-old did not represent a threat to society.[42] Various hearings over the years have left a mixture of opinions. If she posed any kind of danger, said Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem, a forensic psychologist for Correctional Services Canada, it lay in the ominous but not unlikely possibility of her linking up with another sexual sadist like Bernardo. "She is very attracted to this world of sexual psychopaths. It's not for nothing that she did what she did with Bernardo," he told the National Post after reviewing her file. A scheduled newspaper interview with Homolka was quashed by her lawyer.[39] It was not just the facts of the case that shredded Homolka's cloak of victimization. Her demeanour on the witness stand had been at times "indifferent, haughty and irritable".[39]
Release [ edit ]
Where other inmates might apply for parole at the first opportunity, Homolka refrained from doing so. "Because she was deemed a risk to reoffend, she was denied statutory release two-thirds of the way through her sentence,"[43] Maclean's reported in explaining what had exempted Homolka from the parole restrictions meant to ease an offender's integration into mainstream society. In 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation noted that "The National Parole Board has ruled that Karla Homolka must stay in prison for her full sentence, warning that she remains a risk to commit another violent crime."[44] While the NPB noted that she had made some progress toward rehabilitation[44] it expressed concern that Homolka had begun corresponding with a convicted murderer whom she had met when they were both being held in different parts of a prison handling unit in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec. As a result it decided to keep her in prison.[44] The Toronto Sun reported that Homolka had had sex in prison with "a male inmate she now wants to marry, a former cell pal says."[45]
According to former inmate and Homolka confidante Chantel Meuneer, the Sun reported, Homolka and the inmate stripped at a flimsy fence, touched one another sexually and exchanged underwear. At the same time, Meuneer told the Sun, Homolka was still in a lesbian relationship with Lynda Véronneau, who had spent $3,000 on her at Victoria's Secret.[45] The NPB reprimanded Homolka: "you have secretly undertaken an emotional relationship with another inmate, and evidence gathered seems to indicate that this relationship rapidly became sexual," the panel stated.[45] On December 6, 2001, only seven days before Homolka dumped Véronneau, Meuneer said she asked Homolka why she continued her lesbian relationship while being in love with a man. Meuneer recalls Homolka saying, "I don't let go right now because I want my clothes and I want my computer."[45]
According to the Sun, Meuneer later began living with Véronneau.[45] Véronneau, together with writer Christiane Desjardins, wrote Lynda Véronneau: Dans L'Ombre de Karla, published in 2005 by Les Éditions Voix Parallèles.
Homolka gave her the incentive to finish her schooling, Véronneau said.[46] Véronneau, who identified as a man and was scheduled to undergo gender reassignment surgery, said Homolka "liked to be tied up, something that disturbed Véronneau, who was serving a sentence for robbery. She said one game seemed to simulate rape," the Post reported.[46] This article, along with numerous others, whipped up public opinion as the date of Homolka's release neared. A rumour that Homolka intended to settle in Alberta caused an uproar in that province.[43] Maclean's weighed in with a series of possible scenarios: "The most educated speculation has Homolka staying in Quebec, where language and cultural differences supposedly muted the media coverage of her case, and where she'll be less recognizable. Another rumour suggests she will flee overseas, restarting in a country where her case is unknown. Or sneak into the United States, using an illegal identity to cross the border and living out her life under a pseudonym."[43]
Michael Bryant, Ontario's Attorney General fought to get Homolka on the agenda at a meeting of Canada's justice ministers. "He wants the federal government to expand the category of dangerous offenders to 'catch those slipping between the cracks.'"[47] "Bilingual and armed with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Queen's University, Homolka may choose to try to live a quiet life in Quebec, where her crimes are not as well known as they are in English-speaking Canada," reported CTV in May 2005.[48]
On June 2, 2005, the network said, "the Ontario Crown will ask a Quebec judge to impose conditions under Section 810 of Criminal Code on Homolka's release."[48] "The French and Mahaffy families want even tighter restrictions on Homolka, including asking that she submit to electronic monitoring or yearly psychological and psychiatric assessment," CTV said. These conditions are not allowed under Section 810 because they cross the line between preventive justice versus punitive measures, but "that's why [Toronto lawyer Tim Danson, acting on their behalf] believes the families want the government to amend the Section."[48]
A two-day hearing was held before Judge Jean R. Beaulieu in June 2005. He ruled that Homolka, upon her release on July 4, 2005, would still pose a risk to the public-at-large. As a result, using section 810.2 of the Criminal Code, certain restrictions were placed on Homolka as a condition of her release:
She was to tell police her home address, work address and with whom she lives. She was required to notify police as soon as any of the above changed. She was likewise required to notify police of any change to her name. If she planned to be away from her home for more than 48 hours, she had to give 72 hours' notice. She could not contact Paul Bernardo, the families of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French or that of the woman known as Jane Doe (see above), or any violent criminals. She was forbidden to be with people under the age of 16. She was forbidden from consuming drugs other than prescription medicine. She was required to continue therapy and counselling. She was required to provide police with a DNA sample.[7][49]
There was a penalty of a maximum two-year prison term for violating such an order. While this reassured the public that Homolka would find it difficult to offend again, it was felt by the court that it might be detrimental to her as well, because public hostility and her high profile might endanger her upon release.[50]
On June 10, 2005, Senator Michel Biron declared that the conditions placed on Homolka were "totalitarian", according to an interview with CTV Newsnet.[51] Two weeks later, Biron apologized.[52]
Homolka then filed a request in the Quebec Superior Court for a wide-ranging injunction aimed at preventing the press from reporting about her following her release.[citation needed]
While at Joliette Institution, Homolka received death threats and was transferred to Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison north of Montreal.[citation needed]
On July 4, 2005, Homolka was released from Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison. She granted her first interview to Radio-Canada television, speaking entirely in French.[53] Homolka told interviewer Joyce Napier that she chose Radio Canada because she had found it to be less sensationalist than the English-language media. She said that she had likewise found Quebec to be more accepting of her than Ontario. She affirmed that she would be living within the province but refused to say where. She said she had paid her debt to society legally, but not emotionally or socially. She refused to speak about her alleged relationship with Jean-Paul Gerbet, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence at Ste-Anne-des-Plaines.[53] During the interview, her solicitor, Sylvie Bordelais, sat beside Homolka; however, she did not speak. Homolka's mother was also present but off-screen, and was acknowledged by Homolka.[53]
Freedom and relocation to Guadeloupe; subsequent return to Canada [ edit ]
The national media reported in July 2005 that Homolka had relocated to the Island of Montreal. On August 21, 2005, Le Courrier du Sud reported that she had been sighted in the South Shore community of Longueuil, across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.[54]
On November 30, 2005, Quebec Superior Court Judge James Brunton lifted all restrictions imposed on Homolka, saying there was not enough evidence to justify them.[55] On December 6, 2005, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld Brunton's decision.[56] The Quebec Justice Department decided not to take the case to the Supreme Court, despite Ontario's urging.[57]
TVA reported on June 8, 2006, that Homolka's request to have her name changed was rejected. She had attempted to change her name legally to Emily Chiara Tremblay (Tremblay being one of the most common surnames in Quebec).[1]
Sun Media reported in 2007 that Homolka had given birth to a baby boy.[58] Quebec Children's Aid said that despite Homolka's past, the new mother would not automatically be scrutinized. Several nurses had refused to care for Homolka before she gave birth.[59] On December 14, 2007, CityNews reported that Homolka had left Canada for the Antilles so that her now one-year-old could lead a "more normal life."[59][60]
On Friday October 17, 2014, the jury in the first degree murder trial of Luka Magnotta heard that Karla Homolka is living in Quebec.[8]
A poll of 9,521 voters concluded that 63.27% believed that the public had the right to know Homolka's location, 18.57% of voters believed that she deserved anonymity, and 18.16% believed that Homolka should be permitted to receive anonymity in about 50 years.[61]
News reports as of April 20, 2016, placed Homolka as living with her children in Châteauguay, Quebec. Homolka was reportedly angry with reporters' attempts to speak with her.[62] Parents of children attending the same school as Homolka's children expressed great concern, despite reassurances from the school and the school board.[63]
Possibility of pardon [ edit ]
On April 19, 2010, The Vancouver Sun reported that Homolka would be eligible to seek pardon for her crimes in the summer of 2010.[64][needs update] Offenders convicted of first- or second-degree murder or with indeterminate sentences cannot apply for a pardon due to the fact that their sentences are for life, but Homolka was convicted of manslaughter, and received less than the maximum life sentence, making her eligible. If she is successful her criminal record will not be erased but will be covered up in background checks, except those required for working with children or other vulnerable persons. The Canadian government introduced legislation later in the year to make pardons more difficult to get. On June 16, 2010, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said an agreement had been reached between all federal parties to pass a bill that would prevent notorious offenders like Karla Homolka from obtaining a pardon.[65]
In popular culture [ edit ]
In 1997, Lynn Crosbie, Canadian poet, novelist and cultural critic, published Paul's Case, termed a "theoretical fiction". After systematically analyzing the couple's crimes, it provided an examination of the cultural effects of the shocking revelations and controversy surrounding their trial.[66]
The MSNBC documentary series Dark Heart, Iron Hand devoted an episode to the case, which was later rebroadcast as an episode of the series MSNBC Investigates, retitled "To Love and To Kill".[67][68]
In 2004, Quantum Entertainment released the film Karla (which had the working title Deadly),[69] starring Laura Prepon as Homolka and Misha Collins as Bernardo. Tim Danson, lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families, was given a private screening, and announced that the families had no objection to the film's release.[citation needed] Nevertheless, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty called for a boycott.[70] The film was given a limited release in Canada by Christal Films.
A 2000 episode of Law & Order (Season 10 Episode 15, "Fools For Love") was inspired by this case.[71]
An episode of Murder Made Me Famous on the Reelz Television Network, airing December 8, 2018, chronicled the case.[72]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers said on Sunday they had found a safer way to transform ordinary skin cells into powerful stem cells in a move that could eventually remove the need to use human embryos.
It is the first time that scientists have turned skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells — which look and act like embryonic stem cells — without having to use viruses in the process.
The new method also allows for genes that are inserted to trigger cell reprogramming to be removed afterwards.
Stem cells are the body’s master cells, producing all the body’s tissues and organs.
Embryonic stem cells are the most powerful kind, as they have the potential to give rise to any tissue type. However, many people object to their use, making iPS cells an attractive alternative, provided they can be made safely.
Researchers have known for some time that ordinary skin cells can be transformed into iPS cells using a handful of genes.
But to get these genes into the cells they have had to use viruses, which integrate their own genetic material into the cells they infect. This can cause cancer.
The alternative approach, described in the online edition of the journal Nature by two teams of researchers from Britain and Canada, appears to avoid the risk of such abnormalities.
“PIGGYBAC” RIDE
The researchers harnessed a little piece of DNA called a transposon — sometimes known as a “jumping gene” because of its ability to move around inside the genetic code — to carry four genes.
The version used is dubbed “piggyBac” and has been used by researchers to genetically modify a range of organisms.
“It is a step toward the practical use of reprogrammed cells in medicine, perhaps even eliminating the need for human embryos as a source of stem cells,” said Keisuke Kaji from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Center for Regenerative Medicine in Edinburgh.
He and Andras Nagy from the University of Toronto used the technique in both mouse and human skin cells and found the reprogrammed cells behaved just like embryonic stem cells.
Ian Wilmut, head of the MRC center and one of the scientists who cloned the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, said it would take time before the new iPS cells could be given to patients, but the new technique was an important step forward.
“Combining this work with that of other scientists working on stem cell differentiation, there is hope that the promise of regenerative medicine could soon be met,” he said.
Doctors hope one day to use stem cells to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s, diabetes, cancer and spinal cord injuries.This post was corrected. See the note below
Officials ended an emergency alert at the San Onofre nuclear power plant after containing an ammonia leak that prompted the warning, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison said Tuesday evening.
The Level Two alert at the plant was called off shortly after 6 p.m. and normal operations were resumed, the Orange County Emergency Operations center said in a statement. Utility spokeswoman Lauren Bartlett said the plant's two units were operating normally throughout the day.
Officials have set up a hotline if people have questions about the alert that was declared at the Orange County facility. People are asked to call (714) 628-7085. The hotline will be open until 9 p.m.
Bartlett said the leak occurred about 3 p.m. in a make-up water-treatment system in a non-nuclear part of the facility. As a precautionary measure, some workers were evacuated.
Under federal regulations, there are four emergency levels depending on severity. Level two involves any "potential substandard degradation in the level of safety of the
plant."
"There is no danger to the public at this time," the Orange County Emergency Operations center said.
[For the record: 9:17 p.m. Nov. 1, 2011: A previous version of this post incorrectly reported that Bartlett said normal operations had resumed at the plant.]
ALSO:
Costa Mesa considers banning smoking at city parks
Audit slams Montebello for'self-dealing,' misused funds
Occupy Oakland's general strike call prompts city to prepare for protests
-- Andrew Blankstein (twitter.com/anblanx) and Robert J. Lopez (twitter.com/LAJourno)
Photo: San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TimesGoogle Glass is often viewed with disdain in public spaces, and now that includes the cinema. The Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theater Owners have decided to ban the device and its ilk from movie theaters nationwide.
The pair have instigated a "zero-tolerance" rule that bans "wearable recording devices." In truth, they don't get much more specific than that, but it clearly includes Google's Glass and could, perhaps, at a stretch even mean that smartwatches with a camera are banned, too. (Though, recording a film with your watch sounds a little impractical.)
Advertisement
Apparently theater staff won't automatically whip your smart glasses off as you reach the box office; rather, they'll invoke the rule if they believe you're trying to pirate the movie. But you should certainly not wear them during the showing—as ushers will apparently kick you out on sight.
All of this raises one question though: who the hell would watch a move pirated using Google Glass? [NATO via Hollywood Reporter via Engadget]Sharrouf's children (clockwise from back left) Zaynab, Hoda, Abdullah, Humzeh, and Zarqawi. It is the second time Sharrouf has been reported dead. In June 2015, it was reported that he was killed by a drone strike that also killed his friend and fellow fighter Mohamed Elomar. It later emerged that Sharrouf was injured but had survived and was in hiding. National security sources told Fairfax Media on Wednesday that they believe Sharrouf is dead. The Turnbull government's national security committee of cabinet held a regular meeting on Tuesday and is understood to have been briefed on the situation.
However, family members in Sydney have not gathered to mark the death, as they did in Elomar's case. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, speaking in Canberra, said it would be prudent to await further information. "It's always very difficult to confirm these reports, given that we're dealing with war zones in Syria and Iraq," he said. "The point to make is that no Australian would mourn the loss of Khaled Sharrouf. He's a terrorist, he sought to harm Australians and, if he returned to our country, he would be a significant threat to the Australian public." He said the reported death of Sharrouf's children would be regrettable but an inevitable outcome.
"Nobody would want to see Australian children die, nobody would want to see any children die," he said. "But the fact is Sharrouf and his wife took their children into a war zone, and if they had been killed, what other outcome would they expect? They're obviously horrible people [and] atrocious parents." Attorney-General George Brandis similarly said of Sharrouf's children that their father had "exposed them to the barbaric practices of Islamic State". "Australians will well remember the chilling images of Khaled Sharrouf encouraging his own children to hold aloft the severed heads of victims of ISIL. It is incomprehensible that any parent would behave in such a way." Abdullah, one of the sons understood to have been killed in the recent strike, was shown holding the severed head of a Syrian man in pictures that shocked in the world in 2015.
Senator Brandis said he was aware of reports of the deaths but said "the government's capacity to confirm reports of deaths in either Syria or Iraq is extremely limited". A media release from the coalition military force's Operation Inherent Resolve said two vehicles were struck in one of 26 air strikes near |
WA Premier Colin Barnett calls Fremantle 'disloyal' for axing Australia Day celebrations
Updated
WA Premier Colin Barnett says he is "extremely disappointed" by the City of Fremantle's decision to axe its Australia Day celebrations.
Fremantle has abandoned its Australia Day festivities in favour of what it describes as a culturally inclusive alternative celebration two days later.
The council voted in January to can its Australia Day fireworks display and replace it with a new event, called One Day.
It said it wanted to celebrate being Australian in a way that included all Australians, and believed moving away from the January 26 date was more in line with Fremantle's values.
Mr Barnett has made it clear he does not support the move.
"I am extremely disappointed in the Mayor and the City of Fremantle for doing that," he said.
"It's disloyal to our country, it's disloyal to our state, and I think it's disloyal to the community of Fremantle.
"There are people from all over the world who live in Fremantle and we come together as one people, one country on Australia Day — no one should undermine that.
"Everyone understands the history and the debate about Australia Day but Australia Day is our national day, most Aboriginal groups accept it and history is put to one side.
"Australia Day is now a day for all Australians — whatever their background, wherever they were born — and I think any group that tries to detract from that does a disservice to our country and to our people, all of our people."
The City of Fremantle has previously said the move has the support of Aboriginal people in the Fremantle area and denies the council is trying to be politically correct.
Topics: australia-day, government-and-politics, fremantle-6160, wa, perth-6000
First posted© Sputnik/ Dmitriy Vinogradov
The Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, a NATO member country, has come out in support of Russia's involvement in the Syrian conflict."Whether an American attack on the targets of the Islamic State or a Russian attack would be successful, in both cases this is the same thing," Fico said in an interview with the Slovak Radio on Saturday, adding that aOn Saturday, Russia continued its airstrikes against the ISIL terrorists. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian Air Force had carried out about 40 new attacks in Syria over the last 24 hours, destroying 49 terrorist targets.Russian major-general Igor Konashenkov said that the ISIL terrorist militias have changed their tactics amid airstrikes and "decentralized" their ammunition stores and command posts. However, Russian fighter jets have still managed to discover and destroy several positions of the terrorists.Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that Russia is defending its national interests in Syria and stressed that it is acting according to an official request of the local leadership.In his statement, however, Medvedev slightly distanced himself from Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad, saying that the goal of Russia's military operation is not to back up the current Syrian government, but to fight the terrorists who took large parts of the country under control.“This is an extensive body of secret law,” the Brennan Center for Justice said of opinions, memos and letters kept secret by the Justice Department, pictured above, and other federal entities. (J. David Ake/AP)
The Justice Department has kept classified at least 74 opinions, memos and letters on national security issues, including interrogation, detention and surveillance, according to a report released Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Also still classified are between 25 and 30 significant opinions issued between 2003 and 2013 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the secretive federal court that interprets the law governing foreign intelligence-gathering inside the United States.
And at the State Department, 807 international agreements signed between 2004 and 2014 have not been published.
Despite President Obama’s pledge to make government more open and transparent, federal agencies are still keeping a considerable amount of policy and legal interpretations under wraps, the Brennan Center found.
[Read the Brennan Center’s report]
The opinions and memos by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) were written between 2002 and 2009, said the report’s author, Elizabeth Goitein, who obtained several data sets through Freedom of Information Act requests.
“This is an extensive body of secret law, which is fundamentally incompatible with democratic self-governance,” said Goitein, the co-director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program. “When the government makes law out of the public eye, the results are more likely to be tainted by bias or groupthink, and are frankly more liable to violate statutes or to be unconstitutional.”
But senior national security officials said the government has in fact been particularly transparent in recent years.
“In the last several years the government has engaged in an unprecedented level of transparency regarding its intelligence collection authorities,” said Brian Hale, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Hale said that the transparency includes releasing thousands of pages of documents related to foreign intelligence surveillance on U.S. soil and numerous FISC opinions, including five opinions this year.
The Office of Legal Counsel material that is still secret includes memos documenting advice given over the phone to agencies. They also cover the United States’ response to terrorism, the country’s intelligence activities and international humanitarian law, Justice Department officials said.
Goitein cited as a particularly disturbing example a 2002 OLC memo advising the White House that torturing al-Qaeda terrorists in captivity abroad “may be justified” and that the international laws against torture “may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations.”
That memo, written by then-OLC head Jay S. Bybee, became public only after it was obtained and published by The Washington Post in 2004. The White House subsequently disavowed the memo.
It is possible that some of the still-classified advice involves little in the way of new legal analysis, but “we have no way of knowing whether that’s the case,” Goitein said. And, she said, “such a large quantity of secret law on these significant topics is inherently problematic.”
Justice Department spokesman Kevin Lewis said the department’s goal is to make OLC opinions available when possible while still protecting classified national security information. “Some opinions may not be appropriate for public release because they could reveal classified national security information or implicate confidential executive branch deliberations,” he said in a statement. “OLC opinions often contain information classified by another agency, and in those circumstances the department typically would not be able to disclose that information unless it was declassified by the originating agency.”
The State Department’s international agreements are binding agreements between nations negotiated by the president under authority delegated by Congress. There is no legislative ratification. Published agreements have dealt with issues such as food safety and commitments to partner with foreign militaries in training exercises.
But 42 percent — almost half — of all international agreements and treaties dating from 2004 to 2014 have not been published. The Case Act of 1972 requires that international agreements be made public, but it allows for certain exemptions, such as for national security purposes.
“The number is pretty stunning if they’re right,” said Oona Hathaway, an international law professor at Yale University and a former national security lawyer in the Defense Department’s Office of General Counsel.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that “not every non-publication of an agreement is due to national security purposes.” The law affords multiple exemptions, he noted. He also said that some matters might be the subject of ongoing litigation, which the department cannot comment on.
Between 25 and 30 significant opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court through June 2013 remain classified, the center reported, citing Justice Department data.
“The government,” Hale said, “continues to review for declassification and public release additional older FISC opinions as part of the on-going transparency effort.”
On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion in the FISC, seeking the release of all the court’s important, still-classified rulings since Sept. 11, 2001. These opinions cover topics including cellphone location tracking by “Stingray” devices and the government’s use of malware to hack targets’ computers.
After the 2013 disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, Congress last year passed the USA Freedom Act, which requires the director of national intelligence to conduct a declassification review of each opinion that includes a significant interpretation of law, and to make the opinion public “to the greatest extent practicable.” At the very least, the intelligence director must make an unclassified summary of the significant interpretation of the law.
All of the significant opinions and orders from June 2015 to the present have been declassified and released pursuant to the new law, according to the national intelligence director’s office.
Read more:
Verizon provided call records to U.S. under court order
Justice Department memo says torture ‘may be justified’
New interrogation details emerge as administration releases Justice Dept. memosEarlier in the year, I wrote a guide to ‘Brewery Creek’ which got both positive and negative feedback. Of course, regardless of the criticism, I couldn’t just stop there as there are many other breweries that need tackling. So here’s part two: a complete guide to the breweries located in the neighbourhood known as ‘yeast van’ (I hate that term). Agree with me or not, here we go.
One of the newest kids on the block, Andina really isn’t hard to miss with their giant yellow exterior and mural. They focus on pairing flavours of South America with the West Coast.
Top contenders:
Ay Ay Ay Pale Ale- It’s tasty and has hints of grapefruit and pine.
Mapale Milk Stout- This isn’t always available, but when it is, it’s a popular choice among the crowd.
Eats:
Honestly this is where Andina shines. They do a rotating ceviche every day with plantain chips, and they make really freaking good empanadas! Eat here, it’s way better than brewery food should be.
Don’t bother with:
I’m sorry but I absolutely hate the Maraca PassionFruit Black IPA. Hate is a harsh word, and one I don’t often say in reference to beer, but yes, I HATE IT.
Top contenders:
Parklife Passionfruit Ale- This beer is delicious and a perfect summer sipper. Unfortunately it is seasonal, so you’ll only see it during the summer.
Russian Imperial Stout- Another seasonal release, but fortunately during the winter months so you can switch between Parklife and this; it’s a bold stout at 9.5% and deceptively easy to drink.
ESB- A strong contender for a West Coast/British ESB. It’s a solid beer that’s available year round.
Eats:
Bomber doesn’t do food, so grab some food somewhere else.
Don’t bother with:
Bomber IPA- Simply because there are better IPA’s in this list. Including one that’s right next door at Off The Rail.
Callister is a unique brewery; not only do they have some great rotating exhibits of local artists but they also operate as a co-working space for independent brewers (like former resident Boombox Brewing), meaning you get some very unique beers coming out of here.
Top contenders:
Zwirbelbart Dunkelweizen- This is a good beer and a great Dunkel.
Any IPA- Callister does a great job with their IPA’s, and if you’re lucky, a double IPA will be on tap.
Any guest tap- Obviously this is a bit of a crapshoot, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend the brewers being featured at Callister as it’s small batch and experimental.
Eats:
Nothing more than your typical pepperoni sticks and cheese breads.
Don’t bother with:
The taps rotate so often, bad beers don’t have much of a chance of sticking around.
One of the smallest breweries in Vancouver, Doan’s makes up for it with character. They regularly have lego nights, there’s an arcade and board games to keep you entertained in the small space.
Top contenders:
Altbier- This German style pale ale is complex and drinkable with a nice subtle hint of German hops.
Kolsch- Crisp, clean and easy to drink. Also very easy to recommend.
Eats:
There are some vegan/vegetarian snacks, but nothing substantial.
Don’t bother with:
Doan’s only has four core beers, you can do a flight and basically try everything.
Italian inspired in both decor and brewing, Luppolo is another fresh contender to the brewing scene that has already made a strong impression (they won best new brewery in the Georgia Straight).
Top contenders:
Farmhouse Ale- This ale combines the best of the West Coast with Belgian style Farmhouse brewing to make something drinkable and complex.
Saison- Another very easy to drink, but more complex than expected, offering. Luppolo does an excellent job with lighter fare beers.
Eats:
Italian snacks like olives, meats and cheeses are always a good choice, as are the Piadina flatbread sandwiches. On the weekends, the Focaccia is excellent.
Don’t bother with:
Robust Porter- As mentioned above, Luppolo is strongest when working with farmhouse, saisons, sours, etc. The porter isn’t bad, but not their best.
Located right down the street from Bomber brewing, Off the Rail might be small, but they are cranking out some quality beer and have a very bright and open space to enjoy a few pints.
Top contenders:
Classic Pale Ale- Rather than a West Coast pale, this is brewed in the traditional English style and is excellent.
Raj Mahal India Ale- Super creative with notes of lemongrass and kaffir lime. Don’t miss this if it’s on tap.
Belt Up ESB- Another classic English style beer, this bitter has a nice earthy malt with just enough bitterness to it.
Eats:
Typical beer snacks that you’ll find across other breweries as well.
Don’t bother with:
East Bound Nut Brown- A little too much nutty flavour for my taste.
Arguably one of the biggest craft breweries in Vancouver, Parallel 49 recently renovated their tap room and are constantly pairing up with other brewers to release limited edition collab brews.
Top contenders:
P49 Craft Lager- One of the best lagers in the province. It’s clean drinking without washing out subtle tastes.
187 on an Undercover Hop- Not only is this Imperial IPA high in alcohol at 10%, it also hits you hard with an explosion of hops.
Wobbly Pop Pale Ale- Liked this pale ale way more than expected.
Eats:
Fish tacos and fried chicken & waffles from the indoor food truck, nuff said.
Don’t bother with:
Orale Tequila Gose- Something about it doesn’t work for me, might be the strong tequila taste.
Ruby Tears Red Ale- It’s just kind of a boring beer.
Bet you didn’t know that Vancouver’s oldest microbrewery was in the seedy Patricia hotel? Yep, Pat’s Pub has been around for over 100 years, and brews their own beer.
Top contenders:
Pat’s Classic Lager- Vienna style lager that is actually pretty damn good.
Eats:
Go with Pat’s classic burger, 7oz of fresh beef on a kaiser bun.
Don’t bother with:
Anything else; you’re here for the lager really.
Postmark lives in the Settlement Building which has the trifecta of a craft brewery, winery and kitchen all in one. It’s a beautiful spot to hang out, and there’s pretty much something for everyone.
Top contenders:
Postmark Stout- This is one of the lightest stouts you’ll find, and it’s delicious to boot.
Spruce Tip- I quite like this beer, a crisp Golden Ale brewed with Cascade hops and conditioned with fresh Vancouver Island Spruce Tips.
ISA- A very crushable beer that has the taste of a proper IPA with a much lower ABV.
Eats:
Belgard Kitchen is very good, you’ll find a lot of options. Come here for brunch and try the bread pudding french toast, it’s ridiculous.
Don’t bother with:
Raspberry ale- I’d go for the Bomber passionfruit ale before the raspberry, but I’ll drink it.
Top contenders:
Old Jalopy Pale Ale- An absolute must try. This beer is so fantastic as a representation of a classic English pale ale. There’s a reason it continues to win award after award.
Lazy D’Haze IPA- A Northeast style hazy IPA, super juicy and super delicious.
Dive Bomb Dark Ale- This dark ale is light and refreshing. Flavours of caramel, toffee, chocolate and nuts.
Eats:
Mixed nuts.
Don’t bother with:
Amarillo Sour- Sorry but this lacto kettle sour just doesn’t do it for me.
Storm Brewing is that weird uncle everybody has; it produces great craft beer, but bring your friends to this garage-style brewery and they may think you’re crazy. They’ll change their mind after a few samples (which are free!).
Top contenders:
Basil IPA- Can’t speak highly enough of this beer; if you like basil, you’ll love this IPA
Black Plague Stout- One of their staples, it’s a very good stout that is used as a base for a lot of their experimentations.
Pineapple Pilsner/Jalapeno Pilsner- Toss up between these two, both are very different from one another, but the fresh additions of pineapple or jalapeno make for an interesting pilsner.
Eats:
There is no food, and you don’t want to eat here anyway (you’ll understand).
Don’t bother with:
Pizza Pilsner- Look some lines just aren’t meant to be crossed.
Imperial Flanders Sour Ale- This one’s tricky, as I actually really do like the Flanders, however it is SO puckeringly sour it’s hard to recommend to anyone but a diehard sour fan.
Strange Fellows is all about embracing the weird, and to that end, they’ve taken a dedicated focus on beers with wild yeast, sours and barrel aging. Many of their best beers come around once/twice a year.
Top contenders:
Jongleur Wit- A nice and refreshing wit beer that works really well as a mainstay for the brewery.
Roxanne Sour- Made with fresh raspberries this sour is excellent but only comes around every so often.
Popinjay Sour- Same as the Roxanne, it’s a rare sour that really shines.
Eats:
Another stop with the standard bar snacks.
Don’t bother with:
Talisman Pale Ale- Like I said, Strange Fellows is best at the weird, so this pale ale is too ‘normal’ to really stand out from the rest.
A massive tasting room compared to its neighbours, Strathcona has a cool vibe and has tried to set itself apart by focusing on more malt forward beer.
Top contenders:
British IPA- Softer hops than the West Coast counterparts, it’s a great IPA that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Strathcona Gold- Honestly where else are you going to get craft beer in a 40oz bottle?
Cherry High- A new addition to the lineup; made with sour cherries it’s not as sour as you’d think and very, very drinkable.
Eats:
Made to order think crust pizzas, the funghi is pretty damn good.
Don’t bother with:
Strathcona Beach- I’m probably going to get shit for this one, as radlers are all the rage right now, but this lemon mandarin radler is just too much like juice. I like tasting the beer in my radler.
AdvertisementsCorrection: An earlier version of this article misidentified the newspaper affiliated with the Falun Gong movement as the Global Times. It is the Epoch Times. This version has been corrected.
Jakarta, Java, INDONESIA: A Falungong activist (R) displays a placards during an anti-China demonstration in front of the Chinese embassy in Jakarta, 30 May 2007. (Photo credit should read BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)
Four years ago, shortly after Indonesian followers of China’s banned Falun Gong movement set up a radio station here, Beijing’s embassy in Jakarta sent a stern letter to Indonesia’s government.
Denouncing what it called an “evil cult” and a “tool for overseas anti-China forces,” the embassy urged Indonesia to pay “close attention to the matter” and “take measures” to halt the radio broadcasts so as to avoid upsetting relations with Beijing.
Gatot Machali, the director of the station, got a leaked copy of the letter and laughed off China’s demand. “It was ridiculous,” he recalled.
Today, the 51-year-old Falun Gong devotee is on trial for illegal broadcasting, the climax of a long campaign by Indonesian authorities to shut down Erabaru Radio, an unlicensed station that mixes pop music, news and fervent hostility to China’s ruling Communist Party.
The tiny station — still on the air despite a police raid on its studios, years of legal battles and the confiscation of transmitting equipment — stands at the center of some very big questions: How will a rising, authoritarian China use its clout, and how will other nations, particularly democracies including Indonesia, respond?
Falun Gong practitioners play instruments during a protest in front of the Chinese Embassy Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010 in Jakarta, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
At a sentencing hearing last month in Batam, an Indonesian island near Singapore, the prosecutor asked a panel of three judges to offer Machali a deal: He pays a modest fine of $5,800, gets a year’s probation and stays out of jail — so long as he abides by the law and stops what authorities view as unlawful broadcasting.
Media advocacy groups in Indonesia and abroad accuse Jakarta of bowing to Chinese pressure. Indonesian officials deny this. “We have not been influenced in any way,” said Agnes Widiyanti, director of broadcasting at the Communications Ministry.
When China first demanded that Erabaru, or New Era, be shut down, however, Indonesia’s Home Affairs Ministry and other government departments held an urgent meeting to review and apparently endorse Chinese concerns, according to an official document presented in court last year during a separate legal action.
The document, prepared by lawyers for the Home Affairs Ministry’s national unity and politics directorate, noted that Machali’s radio station “may disturb — make less harmonious — relations between Indonesia and China.” As a result, the directorate’s lawyers reported, authorities “have not given a broadcast license to Falun Gong in Batam or in any other area.”
Widiyanti said she was not aware of those deliberations.
The Chinese Embassy in Jakarta declined to comment on its protests, saying it could not discuss “internal documents.” Spokesman Hua Ning said that China “respects measures taken by Indonesia in accordance with the law” against the Falun Gong broadcaster.
Beijing often puts pressure on foreign governments and organizations to curb activities it doesn’t like, a trend that has accelerated in tandem with an increase in China’s economic and diplomatic muscle. Targets for Chinese ire have ranged from a film festival in Australia showing a movie that annoyed Beijing; the Frankfurt book fair, which invited — and then disinvited — authors Beijing objected to; and the Nobel Peace Prize committee, which in December honored jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.
But it is Falun Gong — a jumble of folk Buddhism, Taoism, breathing exercises and fierce anti-communism — that has most aggravated Beijing, particularly since an incident in 2006 when a devotee heckled President Hu Jintao on the South Lawn of the White House.
The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders recently reported that China had “successfully pressured” Vietnam to detain two Falun Gong members who ran an unauthorized shortwave radio station.
Many overseas followers
Falun Gong has been proscribed in China since 1999 and largely uprooted there through harsh repression. But it has built an extensive network of followers overseas. Its reclusive founder, Li Hongzhi, now lives in self-imposed exile in New York. Unlike exiled Chinese democracy campaigners, who have mostly faded into obscurity or become mired in infighting, Li and his supporters have formed a highly organized, disciplined and mysteriously well-funded movement.
The organization’s deep pockets help fund a media empire including New Tang Dynasty Television, a satellite broadcaster; a newspaper, the Epoch Times; and the Sound of Hope radio, which is affiliated with Machali’s station in Batam.
In its letter of protest, the Chinese Embassy asserted that Falun Gong headquarters in the United States ordered followers in Indonesia to use Batam as a broadcasting base to “fulfill their plots” in Southeast Asia. The movement, it said, has a “growing tendency toward violence and terrorism.”
Falun Gong has no record of terrorism and denied taking instructions or money from overseas. Machali said he and two other Indonesians founded the station on their own initiative and with their own cash. It operates from a hilltop villa purchased by one of the founders, a businessman. Revenue from advertising is thin, but the station still employs seven full-time staff members.
A civil engineer who also runs a small construction company, Machali said he’s put about $11,000 of his money into the venture. He is also the head of the Indonesian branch of Falun Gong, which had its application for formal registration rejected but hasn’t been banned.
Erabaru Radio broadcasts largely in Chinese, which is incomprehensible to most Indonesians, including Machali, but is understood by Batam’s community of ethnic Chinese and residents of nearby Singapore. Much of its daily programming avoids politics, but its news reports sometimes feature reports on Chinese repression of Falun Gong activists and others. It has also broadcast the group’s “Nine Commentaries,” a lengthy denunciation of the Chinese Communist Party.
“If we just broadcast Falun Gong stuff all the time, it gets boring,” said Raymond Tan, one of the founders.
Determined to broadcast
Machali, the man on trial, said he never had much interest in China until he stumbled across a Falun Gong meeting in 2001. An immediate convert, he started doing breathing exercises, gave up booze, dumped his mistresses and stopped paying bribes. He also embraced the movement’s loathing for Chinese leaders, whom he now calls “evil thugs.”
When the station first applied for a license in 2007, it got a preliminary thumbs-up from the Batam arm of the Indonesia Broadcasting Commission. But after Chinese diplomats protested, officials in Jakarta rejected the application.
Widiyanti, the broadcast chief, said Erabaru Radio lost out to other stations because it broadcasts largely in Chinese, in violation of Indonesian law.
Erabaru paid no heed and kept on broadcasting. Fed up with the defiance, authorities raided its studios last year. Erabaru shut down for six days and then started up again.
Tempo, Indonesia’s leading newsmagazine, and newspapers have protested China’s role, as has a vice president of the European Parliament. That official, Edward McMillan-Scott, wrote to the Indonesian president that he was “deeply troubled” that China, a country “with such a poor human rights record could lobby and influence the Indonesian government to close down its own free domestic media.”It could be back to the drawing board for Roger Goodell. (Andrew Nelles/AP) It could be back to the drawing board for Roger Goodell. (Andrew Nelles/AP)
On Aug. 29, 2013, the NFL and over 4,000 former players who had sued the league agreed to a settlement totaling $760 million. The lawsuits stemmed from the contention that the NFL knew about the dangers of on-field head injuries long before it did enough about them, and that those players affected have not been helped enough in their post-football lives. The settlement came after more than two months of intense negotiations, and was given to Judge Anita Brody for preliminary approval
On Tuesday, Judge Brody denied that preliminary motion, stating in her ruling that she was concerned with a lack of documentation regarding the fairness of the final monetary figure, and whether the players involved would be diagnosed and paid properly based on their claims.
"Counsel for the Plaintiffs and the NFL Parties have made a commendable effort to reach a negotiated resolution to this dispute," Judge Brody wrote. "There is nothing to indicate that the Settlement is not the result of good faith, arm's-length negotiations between adversaries. Nonetheless, on the basis of the present record, I am not yet satisfied that the Settlement has no obvious deficiencies, grants no preferential treatment to segments of the class, and falls within the range of possible approval.”
As Judge Brody also wrote, players diagnosed with head trauma-related illnesses would be eligible for fixed monetary awards -- $1.5 million for Level 1 Neorocognitive Impairment; $3 million for Level 2 Neurocognitive Impairment; $3.5 million for Alzheimer's Disease; $3.5 million for Parkinson's Disease; $5 million for ALS; and $4 million for Death with CTE. While it may seem cold to attach numbers to such horrible circumstances, class-action cases are often partitioned as such.
[si_video id="video_8880514A-1C4E-70E4-D8DC-926DDDED164F" height="470"]
The problem, as Judge Brody sees it, is that the numbers simply don't add up.
The Settlement fixes the size of the Monetary Award Fund. It also fixes the Monetary Award level for each Qualifying Diagnosis, subject to a variety of offsets. In various hypothetical scenarios, the Monetary Award Fund may lack the necessary funds to pay Monetary Awards for Qualifying Diagnoses. More specifically, the Settlement contemplates a $675 million Monetary Award Fund with a 65-year lifespan for a Settlement Class of approximately 20,000 people. Retired NFL Football Players with a Qualifying Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, for example, are eligible for a maximum award of $3.5 million; those with a Qualifying Diagnosis of ALS may receive up to $5 million. Even if only 10 percent of Retired NFL Football Players eventually receive a Qualifying Diagnosis, it is difficult to see how the Monetary Award Fund would have the funds available over its lifespan to pay all claimants at these significant award levels.
More worrisome seems to be the fact that Judge Brody was not provided with the financials she sought.
Plaintiffs allege that their economists conducted analyses to ensure that there would be sufficient funding to provide benefits to all eligible Class Members given the size of the Settlement Class and projected incidence rates, and Plaintiffs’ counsel “believe” that the aggregate sum is sufficient to compensate all Retired NFL Football Players who may receive Qualifying Diagnoses. Unfortunately, no such analyses were provided to me in support of the Plaintiffs’ Motion. In the absence of additional supporting evidence, I have concerns about the fairness, reasonableness, and adequacy of the Settlement.Two stories surfaced last week that amount to a loud vote of no confidence in Rick Santorum as the GOP nominee. ABC News reports that a top Republican senator wants a new choice if Santorum wins Michigan. Why? “ ‘He’d lose 35 states,’ the senator said, predicting the same fate for Newt Gingrich.”
This senator is not alone. Mike Allen reports:
A tippy-top Republican, unprompted,... sketched the germ of a plan for a new candidate if Rick Santorum upsets Mitt Romney in the Michigan primary on Feb. 28. Our friend brought visual aids: chicken-scratched versions of prosaic documents that are circulating among GOP insiders like nuclear-code sheets: In case of mayhem, break glass!
Most reporters still think Romney “will find a way to win Michigan.” Nevertheless, some of the nation’s most powerful Republicans are poring over filing deadlines and pondering worst-case scenarios.
Our friend handed us a printout of FEC deadlines for ballot access, with five of them circled and starred: California (March 23), Montana (March 12), New Jersey (April 2), New Mexico (March 16) and South Dakota (March 27). The point: Even after Feb. 28, it might be possible to assemble a Hail Mary candidacy that could garner enough delegates to force a CONTESTED convention (a different nuance than BROKERED, which implies that someone is in charge).
In other words: “Whom are we kidding? We’ll get slaughtered with Santorum as the nominee.”
You see, right-wing, socially conservative pundits don’t actually have to win elections, but experienced senators and party operatives who know how to win races outside Republican strongholds aren’t putting their heads in the sand. Santorum’s views and persona have limited appeal in a general election, and they know it.
There are, of course, many problems with the knight-in-shining-armor plan. Romney wouldn’t necessarily get out of the race, and the not-Santorum vote would then be subdivided. A new candidate who actually wants to run and hasn’t stood up the party at the altar would have to be located. And the knight might not be so popular with actual voters.
But put that aside for the moment. There is no “back-up” plan circulating if Romney wins. The assumption is that he’d do fine in a general election, so there’s no need to find a knight to block him from the nomination. But for Santorum, the opposite is true: His nomination, experienced Republicans know, would sink the party.
But, but — you say — these people were the ones who wanted Charlie Crist instead of now-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). But, really, Santorum is no Marco Rubio. Whereas Rubio expands the party’s base of support, Santorum shrinks it. Whereas women, independents and young people see Rubio as a forward-looking reformer, Santorum seems stuck in a time warp from a different era, someone chasing issues that were “lost” decades ago.
Republicans should remember 2010. Republicans could well have had control of the Senate had they not nominated characters such as Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle and Ken Buck — fire-breathing Tea Partyers, who were unable to win in swing or blue states.
Those Republicans scurrying for a back-up plan don’t want to lose the White House (and likely the House, in the event of a landslide) as they did Senate seats in Delaware, Nevada and Colorado. Voters concerned about electability should take note.Minutes after arriving at Denver International Airport, I found myself standing near the baggage claim, gaping at a bizarre mural called “The Children of the World Dream of Peace.” A creation of artist Leo Tanguma, it depicts a gas-masked soldier brandishing a gun and stabbing a dove with a sword while a group of children cower amid ruins nearby.
Whoa. Welcome to Denver!
I have to admit, though — I wasn’t totally surprised by what some might see as a child-terrorizing image.
Denver: How to get there, where to stay, what to do and more
A map locating Denver, Colorado (By Laris Karklis/The Washington Post/The Washington Post)
I read a lot. And ever since the 2008 release of “The Hunger Games,” the first book in the best-selling sci-fi trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the rumors have been floating around: Denver is quite possibly home base for — cue Beethoven’s Fifth — the forces of evil.
Seem impossible? Consider this: The novel, set in a post-apocalyptic, starvation-plagued North America, describes the decadent futuristic capital of the totalitarian dictatorship of Panem as “built in a place once called the Rockies.” Suspicious, no?
The Capitol, as this city is called, is ringed by 12 poverty-stricken districts that it exploits for its own well-being. Two teenagers from each district — known as “tributes” — are brought to the Capitol annually and forced to fight to the death in a horrific reality TV show called the Hunger Games. Although the novel never pinpoints the Capitol’s precise location, it has set the Internet buzzing with fan speculation — from detailed maps of Panem to message board discussions — that today’s Denver area is the future haunt of nasty President Snow and his corrupt, hedonistic minions.
Of course, this isn’t the image that Visit Denver usually strives to promote.
But now there are about 25 million copies of the three “Hunger Games” books in print in the United States, and the new movie starring Jennifer Lawrence could be 2012’s biggest blockbuster. Surely it’s never been more vital to discover whether the Colorado capital holds the template for our dystopian future.
Is Denver the Capitol in “The Hunger Games”?
Armed with only a well-thumbed copy of the novel and 16-year-old heroine Katniss Everdeen’s never-say-die attitude, I searched for clues during a mid-March visit to the Mile-High City.
My downtown hotel, the towering, glass-laden Hyatt Regency Denver, could be the future Training Center for Hunger Games tributes, those chosen as arena fighters in the dreaded “reaping.” A front-door sign read: “Activities within this Hyatt Hotel are subject to surveillance and video recording.” Clearly I’d come to the right place.
Exploring my 37th-floor room, I recalled Katniss’s words: “My quarters are larger than our entire house back home. They are plush... but also have so many automatic gadgets that I’m sure I won’t have time to press all the buttons.” The luxurious 1,308-square-foot Bristlecone Suite boasted three flat-screen TVs (one embedded in the master bathroom mirror) and a computer with a monstrous monitor, plus a stainless steel refrigerator and microwave in the marble-countered kitchenette.
After a Katniss-style cleansing in the multi-head shower, I dined at the nearby Celtic Tavern. Seated beneath battered hurling sticks, I wolfed down Irish potato bread topped with goat cheese as a nod to Prim, the beloved goat-tending little sister whom Katniss volunteers to replace in the Games. Next came a hearty lamb stew. “Unfortunately, we don’t have dried plums or wild rice,” confessed my tattooed waitress when I asked to customize the stew to exactly match Katniss’s favorite Capitol dish.
The Capitol’s flamboyant citizens decorate their bodies freely with tattoos, so to finish my day with a flourish, I marched off to Bound by Design. Resembling a well-lit hair salon, this 22-year-old business on East Colfax Avenue was named 2010’s “Best Tattoo and Piercing Studio” by Westword, Denver’s alternative weekly.
“How much would it cost to get the gold mockingjay pin from ‘The Hunger Games’ inked on my shoulder?” I asked tattoo artist Lauren Violet. “About $150,” she said. “And a full back tattoo of Jennifer Lawrence’s Entertainment Weekly cover?” After learning that this could top $5,000 for 50 hours of work, I decided that I’d have to think about it.
The next morning, I scoured the hip LoDo, or Lower Downtown Historic District, for Capitol-worthy fashion statements and found something quintessentially |
beatmaker:During yesterday's live broadcast of The Five, political commentator, USA Today columnist and Fox News co-host Bob Beckel suggested San Francisco's nudists and nude activists prefer their au naturale lifestyle due to childhood sexual abuse.
During the program, host Dana Perino got the discussion fired up, saying: "What happened to these people as children that they don't want to wear any clothes?" One panelist, Andrea Totaros, suggested that those protesting the nudity ban by stripping down were "desperate for attention" — which may be true, but it's not as desperate for attention as Beckel's comment, which made even the acidic Fox News hosts balk.
Beckel explained: "Most of them were gang banged, probably." He then shrugged off the comment with a laugh saying, "I don't know, they could have had sexual assault on them." He followed his comments by claiming he "didn't use any crude language." Referring to his use of the term "gang bang" he said, "there's nothing wrong with that," before making a weak apology for the folks at the FCC.
Here's the clip, which happened live a few hours before the Board of Supervisors voted yesterday:
At the moment, the clip has yet to show up on The Five's website or in transcripts from yesterday's program.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors later voted 6-5 to pass legislation that will make it illegal for anyone over the age of five to expose their genitals, perineum, or anal region on any public street, sidewalk, parklet, plaza, or while riding public transit in the city. The nudity ban requires a second vote to officially pass and there is a federal lawsuit in the works claiming the ban infringes on nudists' right to free speech.
Previously:
Photos Of Protesters Getting Naked After Nudity Ban Passes [NSFW]
How Many Activists Will Expose Themselves Before San Francisco Strips Nudists' Rights?
Lady Activist Strips Naked During Committee Meeting, Calls Wiener 'Fascist' [NSFW]
All Nudity Ban Coverage on SFistThe Department of Labor (DOL) recently updated Fact Sheet #28F: Qualifying Reasons for Leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. For purposes of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the term “spouse” includes a same-sex spouse if the marriage is recognized under the laws of the state in which the employee resides. This guidance is based on the current definition of “spouse” in the FMLA regulations, but it is inconsistent with the DOL and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) position with respect to employee benefit plans, where the “state of celebration” controls the marital status. This inconsistency may potentially cause administrative and employee relations challenges for employers with employees in more than one state or whose same-sex married employees move to a new state.
Background
Since 1996, Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has barred same-sex marriages from being recognized for all federal purposes, including the right to take FMLA leave to care for a same-sex spouse with a serious health condition. On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Section 3 of DOMA in United States v. Windsor, holding that same-sex marriages valid under state law are recognized for federal purposes. Refer to our previous advisory for a description of Windsor and its impact on employee benefit plans.
State of residence v. state of celebration
Following the Windsor decision, it was unclear whether the DOL and the IRS would recognize same-sex marriages based on the state in which the couple was married (the “state of celebration”) or based on the state in which the couple resides (the “state of residence”).
Employee benefit plans
As reported in our recent advisory, the IRS stated in Revenue Ruling 2013-17 that legally married same-sex couples will be treated as married for purposes of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code based on the “state of celebration,” regardless of where the couple resides. The DOL followed this position in DOL Technical Release 2013-04, confirming that for employee benefit plan purposes, same-sex marriages will be recognized based on the “state of celebration.”
FMLA
The DOL’s updated fact sheet points out, however, that for FMLA purposes the “state of residence” controls the marital status because the current FMLA regulations (29 CFR Section 825.102) provide that “Spouse means a husband or wife as defined or recognized under State law for purposes of marriage in the State where the employee resides, including common law marriage in States where it is recognized.” The result is that the definition of spouse for FMLA purposes is inconsistent with the treatment of same-sex spouses for purposes of employee benefit plans.
A new factor in the FMLA eligibility determination
As clarified by the DOL’s updated Fact Sheet, under the current FMLA regulations, an employee is not entitled to FMLA leave to care for a same-sex spouse with a serious health condition unless that employee resides in a state that recognizes same-sex marriage. Although some employers may be inclined to offer FMLA leave to all employees regardless of where they reside, this approach can have unintended consequences to the employer.1 As a result, unless and until the DOL revises its regulation to follow the “state of celebration rule,” employers should consider the same-sex marriage laws of the state where an employee resides when making a determination regarding eligibility for FMLA leave.
Determining whether an individual is a “spouse” based on the marriage laws of the state where the employee resides requires that employers become familiar with multiple state laws (its own state, neighboring states, and all states where its employees reside):
For example, an employer located in Oregon (a state that does not recognize same-sex marriage), should be aware that an employee who resides in California or Washington is entitled to take FMLA leave to care for a same-sex spouse’s serious health condition even though the state where the employer is located does not recognize same-sex marriage.
If an employee moves from Washington to Idaho while taking FMLA leave to care for a same-sex spouse, the employee would no longer be eligible for FMLA to care for the seriously ill spouse under the current FMLA regulations.
Although DOL Fact Sheet #28F does not expressly address whether a marriage “recognized under state law” is limited to states that have legalized same-sex marriage,2 or if an employer is required to offer FMLA rights to an employee who resides in a state that “recognizes” a same-sex marriage validly formed in another state, the plain language of the regulation suggests that employees who reside in states that “recognize” same-sex marriage, whether lawfully entered into in that state or another state, are eligible for FMLA leave to care for a spouse. For example, although Illinois marriage law does not allow same-sex marriage, it explicitly recognizes the validity of same-sex marriages legally entered into in other jurisdictions. If an employee entered into a legal same-sex marriage in Iowa and moves to Illinois, the employee should be entitled to FMLA leave to care for a same-sex spouse with a serious medical condition.
Non-FMLA leave
If an employer determines that an employee is not eligible for FMLA leave to care for a same-sex spouse or partner due to the laws of the state where the employee resides, the employer may still offer that employee a non-FMLA leave of absence to care for a same-sex spouse or partner. To avoid employee relations issues or to support employees in same-sex marriages, this is likely the approach most employers will take.
However, when offering non-FMLA leave, it will be important to not count such time off (whether paid or unpaid) against an otherwise FMLA-eligible employee’s FMLA entitlement. And, if the employee is classified as exempt from overtime, and taking an unpaid non-FMLA leave of absence, it will be important to remember those circumstances when partial-day deductions from an exempt employee’s salary are prohibited under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
DOL Technical Release 2013-04 and other statements made by DOL representatives indicate that the DOL may revise its FMLA regulations in the future to extend FMLA rights to all same-sex spouses regardless of residence. If the DOL revises the FMLA regulations, employers may offer FMLA to employees legally married to same-sex spouses regardless of where the employee resides. However, in the interim, employers will need to consider where an employee resides for all FMLA requests made with respect to same-sex spouses.
If you have specific questions about the FMLA or the FLSA, please contact your Davis Wright Tremaine employment lawyer before determining whether an employee is entitled to FMLA leave. If you want more information on the repeal of DOMA and its impact on your employee benefit programs, please contact your usual Davis Wright Tremaine benefits lawyer.
FOOTNOTES
1If an employee is not entitled to FMLA leave under the FMLA, the employee is still entitled to his or her full FMLA for other qualified absences. Additionally, the employer could potentially lose its overtime exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) if the leave is not FMLA leave.
2 As of Oct. 1, 2013, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Washington D.C. all have legalized same-sex marriage.New beer-friendly state laws have sparked a brewery boom in Minnesota that has catapulted the state into one of the nation’s fastest-growing craft brew markets.
The suds are flowing. Lagers, ales, pilsners, stouts. Heady, hoppy, handcrafted beer, rolling out of one-man operations in basements, brewpubs, microbreweries and mega breweries around the state — many of which didn’t exist just a few years ago.
“Every couple of weeks I get a phone call or e-mail from a brewer or future brewer saying, ‘Hey, I have an idea for a brewery and keep an eye on us because we’ll be opening somewhere soon,” said Clint Roberts, president of the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, which keeps tabs on the state’s craft breweries.
It started in 2011, when the Legislature passed the so-called Surly bill, which allowed local brewers like Brooklyn Center-based Surly Brewing to open taprooms where customers could come in, sit down and sample their product.
Between 2011 and 2012, the American Brewers Association charted a staggering 81 percent jump in the number of breweries in Minnesota — the second-fastest increase of any state in the nation.
“There are little breweries and brewpubs popping up everywhere,” said Jason Alvey, owner of the Four Firkins in St. Louis Park, a store dedicated exclusively to the sale of craft beer.
Chad Hilgenberg and Josh Bischoff, brewers at Indeed Brewing Company, Minneapolis.
When Alvey first opened the Four Firkins, five years ago, plenty of people were skeptical about the idea of a beer store with no Bud or Miller or even Corona.
“People told me I was crazy, it would never work,” Alvey said. “But we were starting to see this explosion of enthusiasm for craft beer, so we took a risk and here we are today. We can hardly keep up.”
There are now 62 licensed malt beverage manufacturers in Minnesota. That includes six large breweries — Summit, Surly, August Schell, Cold Spring, Tallgrass and 21st Amendment — and 19 brewpubs, where bars brew small batches on site.
But the part of the beer market that’s really taking off is the microbreweries. Minnesota had nine in 2010. Today there are 37.
When Indeed Brewing Co. opened its doors in northeast Minneapolis last year, co-founder Thomas Whisenand watched the taproom fill with neighbors, beer nerds and area liquor store owners, curious to see whether the new brewery’s product was worth stocking. They liked what they tasted. In less than a year, Indeed mushroomed from a single employee to 20.
Like many microbrewers, Whisenand got his start home-brewing in his basement. In a corner of the production floor, past the towering tanks capable of brewing thousands of barrels of beer, sit the tiny tanks he used when beer was his hobby, not his livelihood. He still uses them, only now to taste-test new recipes.
“Beer is great, especially with a brewery like this. We get to do such inventive stuff,” said Whisenand, pouring a glass of the brewery’s signature Daytripper pale ale, a light, hoppy, happy brew. Other Whisenand creations include Stir Crazy Winter Ale, with chocolate and raisin notes, and Hot Box Imperial Smoked Porter, redolent of smoked jalapeño and Fresno peppers.
“Not that we have that much time to drink. We’re too busy working,” Whisenand said, poking his head into the walk-in cooler, stacked high with 700 cases of Daytripper that rolled off the brewery’s tiny canning line on Sunday.
The passage of the Surly bill helped shape Indeed. Instead of opening anywhere that real estate was cheap and storage space was ample, Indeed’s three co-founders realized they could create not just a brewery, but an appealing taproom destination. In the end, they settled in northeast Minneapolis’ arts district.
Best of times
Minnesota wasn’t always so beer friendly. It is the state that sent Andrew Volstead to the U.S. House of Representatives a century ago, where he helped make Prohibition the law of the land. It’s a state where it’s still illegal to sell liquor on Sundays and where grocery stores are barred from carrying hard liquor at all.
But beer-booming Minnesota is also a place where Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Honour held an online contest to help pick his official summer campaign beer (Grain Belt Nordeast won).
Another gubernatorial hopeful, former Republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers, made an apology tour to Chippewa Falls this month, his penance for having described Wisconsin’s beloved Leinenkugel’s as “bath water” compared with “good Minnesota beer.” Apology accepted, Zellers launched his own gubernatorial campaign days later.
For Minnesota beer lovers, these are the best of times. There are new regional flavors, quirky new neighborhood watering holes, and Surly is planning a $20 million destination brewery and taproom in southeast Minneapolis.
There are so many beers being invented, you can find a brew that pairs well with almost anything. Just ask Pete Rifakes, who is about to open a new brewpub-meets-bowling-alley in south Minneapolis. He’s brewing up a new beer — Superstrike — for the occasion.
“I love to bowl and I think bowling and drinking beer goes hand in hand,” said Rifakes, who opened his first brewpub, Town Hall Brewery, in 1997, long before the state’s beer boom. His new venture, Town Hall Lanes, will be his third brewpub when it opens in mid-July.
Tom Whisenand, director of operations and co-founder at Indeed Brewing Company, Minneapolis, helped clean a tank during the graining out process where spent malt is removed.
Even with all this supply, Roberts estimates that 90 percent of Minnesotans still aren’t drinking local beer. The Craft Brewers hope to set that right at this year’s State Fair, where they’ll host an exhibit offering tastes of more than 30 Minnesota beers. Last year’s exhibit, which offered 21 types of beer, was so popular that fair visitors were coming at 9 a.m. to ask which beer paired best with their morning scrambled eggs (Roberts suggests darker beers with breakfast).
Some worry that Minnesota could get too much of a good thing and that the number of breweries eventually will exceed the number of people thirsting for craft beer.
People say “‘Oh, there’s so many breweries, there’s so many breweries,’ but all the breweries are different,” Whisenand said. “Some want to grow like us, and distribute to the whole metro and possibly the whole state, and some want to sell just in their neighborhood or their bar … The one thing we all have in common is that almost all these breweries are owned by dudes like me and [co-founders Nathan Berndt and Rachel Anderson]. They’re people. They’re people who live there, who aren’t Anheuser-Busch.”
Roberts argues that the state has not even begun to tap the public’s appetite for locally made beer. Wisconsin easily supports more than 80 breweries. Bend, Ore. — population 76,000 — has 20 breweries at last count, which is more than Minnesota used to have statewide.
“Quality is going to reign supreme,” Roberts said. “Being adventurous and inventive with beer is going to be important. Really, the big winner in all of this is going to be the consumer.”It seems that Iker Casillas could be facing his last couple of months in Real Madrid. According to Onda Cero, Real Madrid want to part ways with the captain although Casillas himself would be keen on staying in the Spanish capital until the very end of his contract.
NOTICIA #AlPrimerToque: El Madrid quiere llegar a un acuerdo con Iker Casillas para facilitar su salida del club el próximo verano — Al Primer Toque (@AlPrimerToque) April 27, 2015
According to that report, Real Madrid would try to find some kind of agreement with Casillas in order to afford his departure from the club. And there's more. If Casillas does leave, De Gea is the chosen one to replace him (something Managing Madrid has reported multiple times over the last few months).
NOTICIA #AlPrimerToque: Iker ha manifestado que se quiere quedar pero el club cree que es la mejor solución. Si sale, el elegido es DE GEA — Al Primer Toque (@AlPrimerToque) April 27, 2015
It will not be easy for Real Madrid, Manchester United, De Gea and Casillas to keep this as a secret, because this will be the year when Casillas leaves the club.TAWANG, India (Reuters) - It has all the appearance of an arms race on the roof of the world.
A bulldozer clears a landslide from India's Tezpur-Tawang highway, which runs to the Chinese border, in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh May 31, 2012. REUTERS/Frank Jack Daniel
Asia’s two great powers are facing off here in the eastern Himalayan mountains. China has vastly improved roads and is building or extending airports on its side of the border in Tibet. It has placed nuclear-capable intermediate missiles in the area and deployed around 300,000 troops across the Tibetan plateau, according to a 2010 Pentagon report.
India is in the midst of a 10-year plan to scale up its side. In the state of Arunachal Pradesh, new infantry patrols started on the frontier in May, as part of a surge to add some 60,000 men to the 120,000 already in the region. It has stationed two Sukhoi 30 fighter squadrons and will deploy the Brahmos cruise missile.
“If they can increase their military strength there, then we can increase our military strength in our own land,” Defence Minister A.K. Anthony told parliament recently.
Reuters journalists on a rare journey through the state discovered, however, that India is lagging well behind China in building infrastructure in the area.
The main military supply route through sparsely populated Arunachal is largely dirt track. Along the roadside, work gangs of local women chip boulders into gravel with hammers to repair the road, many with babies strapped to their backs. Together with a few creaky bulldozers, this is the extent of the army’s effort to carve a modern highway from the liquid hillside, one that would carry troops and weaponry to the disputed ceasefire line in any conflict with China.
India and China fought a brief frontier war here in 1962, and Chinese maps still show all of Arunachal Pradesh within China’s borders. The continuing standoff will test whether these two Asian titans - each with more than a billion people, blossoming trade ties and ambitions as global powers - can rise peacefully together. With the United States courting India in its “pivot” to Asia, the stakes are all the higher.
FIGHT AN INSURGENCY
“With the kind of developments that are taking place in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and infrastructure that is going up, it gives a certain capability to China,” India’s army chief, Gen. V.K. Singh, told Reuters the day before he left office on May 31. “And you say at some point, if the issue does not get settled, there could be some problem.”
Indian analysts and policymakers went further in their “Non-Alignment 2.0” report released this year. It argues India cannot “entirely dismiss the possibility of a major military offensive in Arunachal Pradesh,” and suggests New Delhi should prepare to fight an insurgency war if attacked.
“We feel very clearly that we need to develop the border infrastructure, engage with our border communities, do that entire development and leave our options open on how to respond to any border incursion, in case tensions ratchet up,” Rajiv Kumar, one of the report’s authors, said in an interview.
Indian media frequently run warnings of alleged Chinese plots, and both militaries drill near the border. In March, while China’s foreign minister was visiting Delhi, the Indian air force and army held an exercise dubbed “Destruction” in Arunachal’s mountains. Three weeks later, China said its J-10 fighters dropped laser-guided bombs on the Tibetan plateau in high-altitude ground-attack training.
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Some policymakers play down the Arunachal face-off. Nuclear weapons on both sides would deter all-out war, and the forbidding terrain makes even conventional warfare difficult. A defense hotline and frequent meetings between top Chinese and Indian officials, including regular gatherings at the border, help ease the pressure. Bilateral trade, which soared to $74 billion in 2011 from a few billion dollars a decade ago, is also knitting ties.
From China’s perspective, the border dispute with India doesn’t rank with Beijing’s other border or military concerns, such as Taiwan. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin struck an optimistic tone.
“China and India are in consensus on the border issue, will work together to protect peace and calm in the border region, and also believe that by jointly working toward the same goal, negotiations on the border will yield results,” Liu said.
Hu Shisheng, a Sino-India expert at the government-backed China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the border dispute casts an oversized shadow in the Indian media - where the China threat is perceived to be strong. But any voices within the Chinese military that advocate seizing the region are weak, he said.
“China’s military could take the territory by force, but maintaining the gains in the long term would be exceptionally difficult,” Hu said, noting the tough terrain.
Yet with both nations undertaking massive naval modernizations and brushing up against each other’s interests across South Asia and in the South China Sea, the festering dispute risks being the catalyst for a violent flare-up, some security analysts say.
STRING OF PEARLS
For thousands of years, Chinese and Indian empires were kept apart by the Himalayas. After years of fast economic growth, the rivals now have the resources to consolidate and patrol their most distant regions.
India is starting to feel fenced in by Chinese agreements with its neighbors that are not strictly military but could be leveraged in a conflict.
Indians sometimes refer to these as a “string of pearls,” which includes China’s force deployments in Tibet, access to a Myanmar naval base, and Chinese construction of a deepwater port in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, and another in Gwadar, Pakistan.
Some in the Chinese government worry that India is becoming part of a U.S. strategy to contain China. The United States has sold $8 billion in weapons to India, which is spending about $100 billion over 10 years to modernize its military.
The two nations are unlikely to go to war, but have no choice but to add to their military strength on the border as they gain clout, a senior Indian official with direct experience of Sino-Indian relations told Reuters.
“It is the currency of power,” he said. In the border negotiations, “we are ready to compromise, but up to a point.”
MUDDY COIL
The road to Tawang, a center of Tibetan Buddhism by the border, is one of India’s most strategic military supply routes. Growling convoys of army trucks bring troops, food and fuel through three Himalayan passes on the 320-kilometer (199-mile) muddy coil to camps dotted along the disputed border.
On a road trip in late May and early June, Reuters found much of the 14,000-foot-high road to be a treacherous rutted trail, often blocked by landslides or snow, despite years of promises to widen and resurface it.
At its start in the insurgent-hit tropical plains of Assam state, the Tawang road is guarded by soldiers armed with Israeli rifles and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers who sweep for roadside bombs. Near the end - a tough two-day drive - is the 300-year-old white-walled Tawang monastery.
In the higher reaches, the army convoys struggle along rock-walled valleys to bases near the McMahon Line, the border agreed to by India and Tibet in a 1914 treaty and now the de facto frontier with China. It is the only way in. Supplies are taken to even remoter army posts by 50-mule caravans on three-day treks.
Along the tortuous road, soldiers can be seen shooting at targets on a firing range. Rows of ammunition sheds behind barbed wire dot the landscape on a chilly plateau shared with yaks.
New fuel depots and small bases are springing up. In addition to deploying extra troops, missiles and fighter jets in Arunachal, India plans to buy heavy-lift choppers to carry light artillery to the mountains.
BUILDING AIRPORTS
China rules restive Tibet with an iron hand, and tightly restricts visits by foreign media, making independent assessments of the military presence in the region hard. But all signs indicate much more sophisticated infrastructure on the Chinese side of the border.
During the last government-organized visit to Tibet, in 2010, a Reuters journalist saw half a dozen Su-27 fighters, some of the most advanced and lethal aircraft China owns, operating from Lhasa’s Gonggar airport. China has been building or extending airports across vast and remote Tibet, all of which have a dual military-civilian use.
Meanwhile, residents on the Indian side of the border report the Chinese have built smooth, hard-topped roads stretching to Tibet’s capital of Lhasa. Chinese border posts, like India’s today, were once only reachable by horse or mule. Now they are connected by asphalt.
Beyond the frontier, the Chinese improvements include laying asphalt on a historic highway across the region of Aksai Chin, which is claimed by India. The construction of the Xinjiang-Tibet national highway 50 years ago shocked India and contributed to the 1962 war.
China’s rails are improving, too: Beijing opened a train line from Tibet to the region in 2006, and an extension is planned into a prefecture bordering Arunachal.
In a 2010 cable released by Wikileaks, a U.S. diplomat concluded that infrastructure development in Lhoka prefecture, which according to China includes Tawang, was in part to prepare a “rear base” should a border clash arise.
For years, India deliberately neglected infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh, partly so it could act as a natural buffer against any Chinese invasion. That policy was dropped when the extent of development on China’s side became clear.
PRAGMATIC APPROACH
In 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his first trip to Arunachal and promised $4 billion to build a 1,700-kilometer (1,055-mile) highway joining the valleys of the state as well as a train line connecting to New Delhi. These would also make troop movements easier.
Around the same time, former army chief Gen. J.J. Singh was appointed governor of the state and is ramping up infrastructure, power and telecom projects.
“Never before in the history of this region has such a massive development program been conducted here,” he said, sipping tea at his residence.
Singh, who spent much of his army career in Arunachal, said India and China both realize “there is enough place and space for both of us to develop. A very mature and pragmatic approach is being taken by both.”
But despite 15 rounds of high-level talks, the border issue looks as knotty as ever. Indian media often whip up anger at Chinese border incursions, played down by both governments as a natural result of differing perceptions of where the border lies. India’s defense minister told parliament 500 incursions have been reported in the last two years.
Unable to match China’s transport network, India’s focus is now on maintaining more troops close to the border.
“India struggles to build up infrastructure,” said Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has written extensively on the India-China relationship. “They have been trying to do this for the past six or seven years now, and it is progressing far more slowly than they would like. What they have done in the interim is build up the troop strength.”
COURTING THE LAMAS
One of main irritants in India-China relations, and a key part of China’s claim to Arunachal, is Tibetan Buddhism. Beijing claims a centuries-old sovereignty over Arunachal and the rest of the Himalayan region.
India hosts the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan government-in-exile. When the Dalai Lama fled Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959, his first stop was the Buddhist monastery in the Arunachal town of Tawang near the border. Three years later, China occupied the fortress-like hilltop monastery in the 1962 war before withdrawing to the current lines.
In the 17th century, Tawang district was the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama. Deified as his latest incarnation, the current Dalai Lama visited the monastery in 2009 and has hinted his next reincarnation will be born in India. Some say in Tawang.
Tibetan Buddhists see the Dalai Lama as a living god; China sees him as a separatist threat. Many in the Indian security community worry that instability in Tibet after his death could endanger India.
So, New Delhi is wooing the locals. The intermingling of the Indian army and the Tawang monks is striking. War memorials on the road are built in the style of Tibetan Buddhist stupas, with prayer wheels and flags. Soldiers frequently visit the temple, and advise the lamas about troop movements and developments on the border.
Lobsang Thapke, a senior lama at the monastery, says India’s troop buildup has made the monks feel safe, but that India was far from matching China’s road-building prowess.
“From our side, we have to go through a lot of difficulty,” he said in a carpeted room above the main hall, where child monks chanted morning prayers. “They (India) have not black-topped. Gravelling has not been done.”
ANGER AND ANXIETY
The Indian footprint here isn’t always welcome. India’s new wealth is seen in the multi-storey hotels mushrooming between traditional wood-and-stone houses in town, and new Fords and Hyundais on the hilly streets.
But anger is rising about a lack of jobs and perceptions that government corruption is rampant. Student movements have organized strikes in the state capital.
Slideshow (10 Images)
Hotel worker Dorjee Leto says educated young people like himself feel forgotten by India. There is almost no mobile phone coverage, power cuts that last days, and just that long muddy road to the outside world.
Anxiety over China, however, outweighs the irritation with India, says Leto, who like most in Tawang is a follower of Tibetan Buddhism.
“It’s a fear, because already China has annexed Tibet. We feel part of India, we are used to India,” he said.Fallout: Equestria - Empty Quiver Pg. 62
❮❮ Newer Download | Full View Older ❯❯ Submission © 2016 the-furry-railfan Main Gallery
1629 submissions
Fallout: Equestria - Empty Quiver Pg. 62 - by the-furry-railfan Submission information:
Posted:
Category: All
Theme: My Little Pony / Brony
Species: Unspecified / Any
Gender: Any
Favorites: 9
Comments: 1
Views: 513
Image Specifications:
Resolution: 1280x633
Keywords:
Fallout Equestria Empty Quiver fanfic pegasus Night Strike Crash Dive unicorn Scouring Charge Sweet Water earth pony Static Crimson Wagon Decisive alicorn Aerith tommy gun grenade rifle mini tank half track power armor steel ranger enclave snow
Blinking a few times in disbelief, I slipped Thumper back onto my back, Scouring's squadmates trotting out from behind the mini-tank's wagon. The one who'd tackled Scouring initially moved to grab a pretty sizable rocket launcher from the ground, attaching it to his armor, as the brown-coated earth pony ranger trotted over and managed a quick salute before extending an armored hoof towards me. "Knight-Sergeant Crimson Wagon, of the Mountain Springs steel rangers. These two idiots with me are Knight Sweet Water and Knight Decisive Strike, guessing you're the group we've been hearing about, Vanhoover Five, right?" Shaking his hoof with a whir of servos, I answered with a nod, Static looking over the three-pronged energy-weapon-thing that was attached to the side of his armor.
"Ah, yup, that's us, heh. I'm Night Strike, this is Static Charge, Aerith, and Crash Dive. Vanhoover Five, in the flesh..." Nodding towards everyone, the ranger with the missile launcher looked up from where he was, looking towards me in minor confusion. What's up with... 'Knight' Strike. Oh boy, that's probably gonna get confusing before too long. Crimson Wagon gave a nod, a blue-coat power armored unicorn with a combat helmet and glasses on - ehm, must be Sweet Water, I guess - trotting over beside him.
"Hey, uh, so, if you guys ah cool with it, could you give us a lift, maybe? We kinda wanna get outta this place fast, yanno, really book it to somewhere that... well, isn't here, eheh." He wore a weak smile, looking out towards the fairgrounds as myself and Aerith looked at him in confusion, Static eventually noticing the annoyed look Crimson Wagon was giving him for examining his weapon and moving back up alongside me. Sweet Water gave a quick glance back at Decisive Strike, before leaning in closer. "And, yanno, if you don't have space of all three of us, just me and Crimson are fine, we can leave Strike and nopony'd bat an eye. Just get me outta here..."
"Aw, Sweets, you're breakin' my heart over here!" I took a small step backwards as Decisive Strike came over, tapping against Sweet Water's combat helmet a few times and knocking the unicorn's glasses out of place. He settled back onto his hooves, the elbow of his armored foreleg clanking against the side of the unicorn's power armor. "Don't mind him, he's just jumpy on account'a what we got set up in this here park. See, we found this great boxcar-thing on the tracks around here, and as it turns out what it's got inside was a little more fun than just some shipment of dried fruit. Can't wait to see how big one o' those warheads is gonna go up..."
"Can ya at least do us the favor of waiting until we're out of the freakin' blast zone, Strike? I didn't sign up to B Company to be Balefire-broiled!" Sweet Water looked over at Strike with an exasperated look in his eyes, adjusting his glasses on his muzzle. Crimson, for his part, just let off a sigh and gave his head a shake, while my own eyes opened wide. A balefire warhead, in that theme park, in relatively close proximity to that Celestia-forsaken animatronic manticore? Hearth's Warming has come early... Crimson stepped forwards, clearing his throat and getting the attention of both Sweet Water and Decisive Strike.
"Sweet Water, if I'm remembering things right I was the only one who actually signed up for B Company. You're here because you let that pre-war virus get onto our databanks." The unicorn wore a small grimace, dropping his head, Decisive Strike letting off a chuckle. Crimson turned to face us, releasing a cloudy chuff into the air. "Much as I hate to admit it, we do need some help getting out of here. Strike found an old rail garrison missile car, some sort of mobile MRBM silo or something, and we're trying to do somethin' good for a change and get rid of the damned thing. Problem is, with Scouring having all our C4 to take care of that pizza place down in the south, best we could come up with to properly destroy it was to rig one of the warheads themselves to go off via detonator."
"...and we don't have any way of getting the hell outta dodge fast, all the Vertibucks we got are grounded and the nearest place we can just rest for the night that isn't here is around an hour or two away on hoof. I don't trust Strike to wait for much longer before pulling the trigger..." Wearing a wide grin in my muzzle, I looked over to Satic, the earth pony sharing an uneasy look of his own - oh, c'mon, you can't blame me for this one! That's 'Knight' Strike's fault... Static let off a sigh, trotting over to the mini-tank.
"Alright, hop in the back trailer, I'll get the engine started. Just tell me where we need to go." The earth pony hefted himself up into the driver's seat as I hovered over to land on the back behind Boomer, Sweet Water trotting over to give Static directions. Aerith scooched over to allow Strike and Crimson to climb on the back wagon as well, Scouring following them and the suspension creaking under their weight. C'mon, you carried fifteen tons of thermobaric bombs to the lighthouse, you can handle a few tons of power armor ya stupid wagon. Sweet Water trotted around to the back, stopping to take aim with |
the room. The New York Times reports that Garner left her seat after the taping, yelling that she had been used to bring attention to the event and denied her promised opportunity to address the president:
“I was railroaded!” Ms. Garner shouted, noting that the event fell two years after her father’s death. “That’s what I have to do? A Black person has to yell to be heard?” Later, Ms. Garner took to Twitter to complain that tough questions had been banned. She condemned the event as a “farce” that was “nothing short of full exploitation of Black pain and grief.” “They shut out ALL real and hard questions,” Ms. Garner added, calling the exchange “a sham.”
Garner was later granted a private audience with the president, but she told BuzzFeed that she felt like she had to be “belligerent just to be heard.”
From Garner: “I’m tired and I’m exhausted. I’ve exhausted every avenue trying to pursue justice for my dad. I’ve spoken to a rep from the DOJ. I’ve spoken on panels—whoever you can think of I’ve spoken with them. I’m tired of having this conversation. I’m tired. And I think the only way do this is to shut shit down. That’s not what I wanted to do or intend to do, but it’s a shame that I have to be loud and act ‘ghetto’ to get my point across. But I will be not be used and I will not be silent.”
That statement resonated with social activist Feminista Jones, and she reacted via the following stream of tweets, ultimately encouraging Black women to post about times they lifted their own voices.
Erica Garner said she had to be belligerent to be heard.
I have a thread somewhere about Black girls/women and the “loud” stereotype — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
When I read that from her, it resonated for me.
When I hear #LoudBlackGirls, I think of how many of us are routinely silenced by violence — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
I think about how we silence ourselves to avoid the “Angry Black Woman” stereotype when we really just need to be heard #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
I think of how BW are spoken over by non-Black ppl AND by men, all of the time and how, over time, the rage builds up #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
Every unwanted sexual advance or negative portrayal in media. We silence ourselves until we can do nothing but scream #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
The stress of adhering to expectations of silence is killing us. Have you seen our health stats? It isn’t all abt food. #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
I heartily encourage Black girls and women to be as loud and vocal and “ratchet” and “ghetto” and whatever else they say #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
And Erica’s frustration spoke to me. I’ve been there. I’ve been silenced. Ignored. Pushed aside as though I didn’t matter #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
So I’m here for it. I’m here for Black women shouting whatever is on their minds. I’m here for high volume convos #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
Zora said if you’re silent about your pain they’ll hurt you and say you enjoyed it. That was for us #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
I’m interested in hearing from Black women about when (if) they found their individual voice& how they use it.
Share with #LoudBlackGirls — Feminista Jones (@FeministaJones) July 15, 2016
And so they did, as Black women around the world began posting about the life-affirming times they used their voices to speak the truth. Follow the #LoudBlackGirls hashtag (and be careful not to feed the trolls).
Watch the full town hall below.The Toyota Prius is a car even Stevie Wonder could identify at 50 yards. Its distinctive jellybean shape all but screams, "I care about the environment!," which is one reason there are a million of them on the road. There's an old rule about not messing with success or fixing what ain't broke, and Toyota has taken it to heart with the next-gen Prius we'll see next year at the Detroit auto show.
Spy shots of the 2010 Prius have surfaced over at Next Auto, and they show a car that's a little longer, a little wider and a little more aggressive at the front end. Passengers get more room to stretch their legs and owners get more room for all the groceries from Whole Foods. The 2010 Prius gets fancier headlights and a little more bling inside and out but its profile looks about the same, and for good reason – with a drag coefficient of 0.26, there isn't much Toyota could do to make it any sleeker. There are rumors a Prius wagon and even a convertible, which has been done before and doesn't look half bad, are in the works, but so far they're just rumors.
Speculation aside, the biggest changes to the Prius are under the skin.
Toyota plans to give the super-efficient Prius a little more oomph. Car & Driver says the next-gen Prius will get a 1.6-liter gasoline engine, a slight bump from the 1.5 currently under the hood. That'll make the car a little more powerful but it also will get a few more mpg than the 48 city/45 highway the current model offers.
But *Motor Trend *reports that Toyota's giving the car a 1.8-liter engine producing 100 horsepower. Added with the output of the electric motor, total power rises from 110 hp to 150 between now and 2010, according to MT, but the 2010 will retain the same fuel economy as the current model.
There's some debate about the batteries, with some bloggers and motojournos saying the car will get lithium-ion batteries but others saying Toyota will stick with its tried-and-true nickel metal hydride units. That seems more likely, given Toyota and Matsushita are spending $192 million building another NiMH battery factory. If the Prius gets lithium-ion, look for it to happen after Toyota's put a few hundred thousand miles on the forthcoming Prius plug-in hybrids that will use lithium batteries.
One thing's for sure – the next-gen Prius will be as American as apple pie. It'll be built at a plant Toyota's building in Mississippi to help meet surging demand for a car so hot they're not just holding their value, they're appreciating.
See all the spy shots over at Next Auto.Email Share +1 64 Shares
HARRISONBURG, Va. — One of the three lead plaintiff couples in a lawsuit challenging Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban on Monday told the Washington Blade they are “cautiously optimistic” on the eve of oral arguments in their case that will take place before a federal appeals court in Richmond.
“Cautiously optimistic I think is the best way to put it,” said Victoria Kidd of Winchester as she and her partner of 10 years, Christy Berghoff, and their 18-month-old daughter Lydia stood in front of the federal courthouse in Harrisonburg with a handful of same-sex marriage supporters from the group People of Faith for Equality in Virginia. “It’s wonderful to be able to stand up for our family.”
People of Faith for Equality in Virginia held similar gatherings in Winchester, Christiansburg and Richmond.
“Marriage should be entered into freely, deliberately, certainly seriously; but we should have the right to do that,” said Rev. Carolyn Mobley, interim pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond during an event at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church near the state Capitol. “I cannot think of anything that would help me pursue my own happiness more than the opportunity to marry the person I love.”
Mobley and more than two dozen others marched from the church to the state Capitol and then to the nearby federal courthouse where a three-judge panel with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case.
“I’m excited about what’s going on,” Henry Branch of Richmond told the Blade as he and his partner of more than two years, Les Quintana, stood outside the courthouse holding signs in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples. “I never thought this would be happening at this time.”
Timothy Bostic and Tony London of Norfolk last July filed a lawsuit challenging Virginia’s constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Carol Schall and Mary Townley of Chesterfield joined their case two months later alongside former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson and David Boies, who successfully argued against California’s Proposition 8 before the U.S. Supreme Court had also agreed to represent the two couples.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Virginia last August filed a lawsuit on behalf of Kidd and Berghoff and Joanne Harris and Jessica Duff of Staunton. A federal judge in Harrisonburg earlier this year classified their case as a class action.
U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen in February found Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. The 4th Circuit a few weeks later ruled the ACLU and Lambda Legal could join the Bostic case.
Same-sex couples in neighboring West Virginia and North Carolina and South Carolina are among those who have filed lawsuits seeking marriage rights since the U.S. Supreme Court last June struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act. A 4th Circuit ruling that upholds Allen’s decision could either strike down the three states’ same-sex marriage bans or allow gay advocates to mount additional legal challenges against them because they fall under the federal appellate court’s jurisdiction.
Equality North Carolina and South Carolina Equality last month filed amicus briefs with the federal appeals court in the Bostic case.
“We believe that the issue happening in the 4th Circuit has a direct impact on a large number of individuals in our state,” said South Carolina Equality Executive Director Ryan Wilson on Monday during a conference call with reporters. “The time is now we believe for the 4th Circuit to rule for marriage equality not only in Virginia, but in all the four states of the 4th Circuit.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, the Liberty Council and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are among the groups that filed amicus briefs with the 4th Circuit on behalf of Prince William County Circuit Court Clerk Michèle McQuigg and Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk George Schaefer, III, who appealed Allen’s ruling. National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown and Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, and others are scheduled to attend a rally outside the federal courthouse before the oral arguments begin.
“We’re not imposing our belief on them,” Bonnie Hockaday of Glen Allen told the Blade on Monday as she stood with other same-sex marriage supporters outside the federal courthouse in Richmond. “We’re not saying they have to get married, just allow [it.]”Bill Cosby’s furious wife Camille is 'livid and humiliated' by the disgraced comedian’s actions, a source has revealed.
Cosby’s wife of more than 50 years was notably absent when the 78-year-old stumbled into a Pennsylvania court to face sexual assault charges on Wednesday.
She had dismissed the initial claims of sexual abuse against Cosby, but as the number of alleged victims continued to grow, Camille was ‘sickened’, a source close to the family told the New York Post.
Scroll down for video
Bill Cosby’s furious wife Camille (pictured together in November last year) will no longer stand by the disgraced comedian’s side after the humiliation she has suffered, a source has revealed
‘My husband doesn’t deserve jail, but he does deserve every bit of the hell he’s going through now even though he is still pretending that this hell doesn’t exist,’ Camille said, according to another person close to the Cosby family.
The 71-year-old was reportedly well aware of her husband’s infidelities but only demanded that he be discreet so as not to embarrass her.
‘But she has been thoroughly humiliated and believe me, her anger isn’t directed at the women. Bill has humiliated her.’
The pair remain married, which the source claimed is because Camille does not wish to testify against her husband – not because she wishes to protect him, but ‘because it’s so humiliating’.
Cosby’s wife of more than 50 years was notably absent when the 78-year-old (pictured) stumbled into a Pennsylvania court to face sexual assault charges on Wednesday
Cosby walked with a cane and stumbled as he was helped into the Montgomery County District Court in Philadelphia for his arraignment this week
However, this week, she learned that she must testify in a civil case against the entertainer filed by seven women who said he defamed them, court documents said.
A federal magistrate judge in Massachusetts rejected arguments by Cosby's wife, who also has been his business manager, that the deposition would represent an ‘undue burden’.
U.S. Magistrate Judge David Hennessy rejected arguments by Camille Cosby that she lacked any first-hand knowledge of the events at issue - and that the court should protect her from ‘unnecessary harassment’ by limiting the scope of the subpoena.
In his 12-page decision, Hennessey said Camille Cosby failed to prove that she and her husband were protected by the state's marital disqualification law.
Lawyers for Bill Cosby plan to appeal Hennessy's ruling, according to the New York Times.
The deposition is scheduled for next Wednesday, a week after Cosby was charged in the only criminal case brought against the actor, who has been accused by more than 50 women of sexually abusing them in incidents dating back decades.
He is free on $1 million bail, and his lawyer has said the entertainer is not guilty and will not consider a plea bargain.
Cosby, who exemplified the model family man in his long-running hit television series ‘The Cosby Show’, was charged with aggravated indecent assault.
Cosby (left) was charged with aggravated indecent assault. The charge stems from accusations by Andrea Constand (right) who says Cosby assaulted her at his home in the Philadelphia in 2004
Camille (pictured with Cosby during a 2014 interview) had initially dismissed claims of sexual abuse, but became'sickened' as the list of alleged victims grew, a source said
If found guilty, Cosby could face up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
The charge stems from accusations by Andrea Constand, 44, a former basketball team manager at Temple University in Philadelphia, Cosby's alma mater.
Constand says the television legend assaulted her at his home in the Philadelphia suburb of Cheltenham in 2004.
She settled a civil case against Cosby for an undisclosed sum in 2006.
The Massachusetts civil lawsuit against Cosby was filed in December 2014 by Tamara Green, later joined by six other women.
They contend that Cosby sexually assaulted or abused them, that each publicly accused Cosby, and he responded by calling the women liars, thus defaming them, court documents said.Police described it as a 'cowardly attack' and are appealing for witnesses
A teenager has been arrested after a taxi driver had an unknown substance sprayed in his eyes, causing serious injuries.
The attack happened in High Wycombe when the driver caught up with three people who left his black Toyota Prius on George Street without paying at around 1am on Sunday.
A 15-year-old boy was later arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
The victim, 43, is in hospital and police are still trying to identify what was sprayed in his eyes.
"This is an unprovoked attack on a working man who was going about his evening shift as a taxi driver," said Detective Chief Inspector Kelly Glister.
"It is cowardly for a group to attack an individual, especially when they use a weapon."
"The offenders are three black males aged between about 16 and 18 years old," added Inspector Glister.
"I understand that this attack will cause great concern in the local community but I want to reassure the public that the Thames Valley Police is conducting a thorough investigation and is determined to find the offenders."
Police are appealing for anyone with information about the attack to contact them on 101, or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.It's safe to say Chris Hayes did not see this one coming.
During a discussion on conservative outrage over the Obamacare deadline extension Wednesday night, Hayes found himself in a full-blown feud with his guest, Americans for Prosperity’s Jennifer Stefano.
Things started out on a good note. Hayes pointed out that despite the Republican attacks on the Obama administration, former president George W. Bush also extended the deadline for a key Medicare benefit back in 2006. Stefano then talked about providing her children with health care and Hayes wondered why that had anything to do with a health care extension. But the conversation quickly took a turn for the worst.
"How dare you, like Harry Reid, try to undercut the voice of a woman simply because she disagrees with you," she said. "How dare you!"
Hayes seemed very confused at first, and pleaded with her to "just be honest" about why she really "wakes up everyday and thinks about how to destroy Obamacare."
"You know nothing about me," she shouted. "You have no idea why I wake up in the morning.... You know nothing about me, you know nothing about my family. You don't know if I was born and raised in a trailer park."
"You have absolutely no idea about me or my life," she continued. "I don't care!"
"What are you talking about?" Hayes asked several times throughout the interview, even rolling his eyes at one point.The Secret Struggle of a Lifetime
Stingers Hockey Forward Philippe Hudon Opens Up on Battle with OCD
Follow @Safs_OnTheGo
Stingers forward Philippe Hudon speaks about his hidden battle with OCD. He was diagnosed with the condition in 2010. Photo Nikolas Litzenberger
Like many Canadians, Philippe Hudon has been playing hockey since the moment he learned to walk. Unlike most children, however, Hudon was very neat and organized.
“His room was always impeccable. I was never complaining [about] that actually,” said his mother, Ann-Julie Lebeuf.
Little did she know that this fascination with cleanliness and the need for order would spiral out into an experience that would change his life. Hudon was only 17-years-old when he realized he had “tics” and “obsessive-compulsive habits.”
“It was a force much stronger than myself,” Hudon said. “I consider myself a very mentally strong person, [but] it was something I couldn’t really bear. There were voices I had to succumb to.”
In December of 2010, the Stingers assistant captain was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, also known as OCD. This disorder is characterized by a desire to relieve distress by performing anxiety-reducing acts to appease subjective stressors. Because the individual feels less anxious after performing the act, the behaviour becomes reinforced and is eventually performed reflexively. OCD encompasses a variety of obsessions and behaviours. For instance, some people have an urge to compulsively wash their hands to reduce their anxiety over germs.
For Hudon, perfectionism was the focal point of his disorder.
“I never thought it could affect me,” he admitted. “I just wanted everything in my day, every gesture, to be done perfectly in my mind. It might not have been perfect for somebody else, but it was perfect for me.”
The year 2010 was full of promise for Hudon prior to his diagnosis. At the time, he was attending prep school in Connecticut. He was a straight-A student and received attention from several universities, including a scholarship offer to Cornell University in New York.
On top of it all, he was eligible for the 2011 National Hockey League draft, where young hockey players are selected by 30 NHL teams and are given the opportunity to fulfill their dreams of becoming professional hockey players. Things seemed to be going well, and, more importantly, according to plan.
“I’ve always been meticulous,” Hudon said. “I’ve always had my plans and things that I wanted to do. There was always a time and a place for things.”
Then, his life took a sudden turn for the worse. The pressure he put on himself to maintain his grades became unbearable. His perfectionist tendencies began to take control of his life.
“To be real honest, all I was doing was showering, cleaning my room, eating and going to class. Three of the things there can be done within an hour and I was using the whole day to do [them].”
Eventually, it came to a point where he couldn’t hide it anymore.
“I’ll always remember that moment when we were heading to a hockey tournament in Boston,” Lebeuf recalled. “On the highway, he said: ‘Mom, I think I have issues because I keep on cleaning my desk over and over again and I’m not well.’”
Hudon was drafted in the fifth round—the 145th pick of the draft—by the Detroit Red Wings the following year, and enrolled in Cornell University to play hockey. He only completed a month at Cornell before returning home to Montreal. Hudon began seeing his psychologist two to three times per week and was taking prescription medication for his OCD.
“School and all the aspects of my life were kind of haunting me again, but not as bad as they once were,” Hudon said. “I was maybe at 80 per cent of my recovery, but I still wasn’t ready and I think I might have rushed it.”
For escape, Hudon turned towards his one true passion: hockey. He joined the Victoriaville Tigres in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Hockey became his safe haven, a home away from home and an oasis from his worries.
“There are these nets around the rink. I would think of those nets as being dream catchers,” Hudon said. “Every time I stepped on the ice, the negative thoughts, the obsessive-compulsions and everything related to it, would somehow stay back. When I was on the ice, I was literally free. I never thought about anything, other than playing hockey.”
It was during this time that he was approached by French sports television channel Réseau des sports for an interview regarding his OCD for the Bell Let’s Talk campaign, which aims to raise awareness of mental health. For the first time, his issue was made public. Soon, he saw the impact of his actions on the lives of others battling mental illness.
“Within the following 48 hours [of the interview], the amount of messages I received on various social platforms were countless, of people saying: ‘You opening up just made my life so much easier. I’m finally going to go see someone to treat this.’”
*
Now at 95 per cent of his recovery, Hudon is still carrying the torch forward. Last Wednesday, Jan. 27, marked the fifth edition of Bell Let’s Talk, and Hudon used the day as another opportunity to open up on his struggles.
“I told him,” said Stingers head coach Marc-André Element, “‘It’s your day. Talk about it.’”
Element and Hudon visited the Canada Cycle and Motor office, a company that specializes in sports equipment, and played hockey with the staff before discussing mental health issues. The two also made plans to talk mental health with a junior hockey team in Longueil.
All the while, Hudon tweeted on different challenges he has faced throughout the course of his illness, including the need to tape the knob of his hockey stick “exactly seven times” before a practice or game, and keeping his desk 99.9 per cent bacteria-free. He has one simple message.
“Talk,” Hudon said. “For the people who aren’t affected, lend an ear. Just lending an ear can help a thousand others in need.”
By commenting on this page you agree to the terms of our Comments Policy.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.When Microsoft showed more of open world blow 'em-up Crackdown 3 during its E3 2017 Xbox media briefing, it did so with a trailer that starred American actor Terry Crews. The only problem was, we didn't get a good look at gameplay, nor did we see any of Crackdown 3's ambitious destruction.
This sparked a number of questions about the destruction in Crackdown 3. Had it been ditched? Is the game still using the fancy dedicated server tech to make blowing up buildings ultra realistic in the open world?
It turns out Microsoft decided to focus on Crackdown 3's campaign at E3, and the dedicated server-powered destruction is limited to multiplayer. There is basic destruction in the campaign, but not the kind that raised eyebrows back in 2015.
Before we dive into the detail, it's worth going over what Microsoft has said about Crackdown 3. Microsoft's official blurb makes competitive multiplayer sound like a separate game that's included with the Crackdown 3 package:
Join with up to 10 agents online to tear the city apart piece by piece in a 100 per cent destructible multiplayer arena, available with your purchase of Crackdown 3.
The game, due out alongside the Xbox One X on 7th November, is developed by three separate UK studios. Sumo Digital, perhaps best known for making Sonic & All-Stars Racing, is in charge of the campaign. Reagent Games, whose creative director Dave Jones co-founded the now defunct Realtime Worlds, maker of the first Crackdown game, and Ruffian Games, who made Crackdown 2, are building the competitive multiplayer portion of the game.
Crackdown 3 hit the headlines when Jones showed off the advanced destruction tech that would power the game. The idea is that dedicated servers make available the compute power needed to fuel realistic destruction of multiple buildings in the open world.
The video below, made by IGN during Gamescom 2015, goes into detail on how the tech works.
Fast forward to E3 2017, and fans had hoped to see more of this tech in the game, or at least get a sense of how it works as part of gameplay. But a proper multiplayer reveal will have to wait until a later event this year.
"The destruction was always planned for the multiplayer side of the game," Gareth Wilson, design director at Sumo Digital, told me at E3 last week.
"We've got this big competitive multiplayer game where you play in a large multiplayer arena, 20-30 minute battles, and the aim of the game is to smash the crap out of their tower, and they have to destroy your tower before the time runs out.
"That's where the destruction works great."
Wilson explained that Sumo decided against putting the dedicated server-based destruction in the campaign, which can be played cooperatively by up to four people, for a couple of reasons. One, so the game could be played offline. And two, because the story is about saving the city of New Providence, not destroying it.
"What I didn't want to do is put it into the campaign because it would have meant the entire game would have required a constant, high-quality internet connection," Wilson said.
"I wanted people to be able to play it when they went away on holiday.
"Also, the destruction didn't work narratively. You're meant to be saving the city. It was a much longer game experience.
"Multiplayer is where the destruction is," Wilson said. "With hindsight, we didn't do a particularly good job of messaging that. It was always that we were going to have two games: a classic campaign with four-player co-op, which is a homage to the original title with similar mechanics and updated graphics and more narrative. And then the cloud stuff was always going to be in the multiplayer."
Despite the E3 no-show, Crackdown 3's destruction is "all going fine", Wilson stressed. "We hadn't shown any of the campaign off, so we wanted to show it at E3."
On Crackdown 3's campaign, Wilson said it's a roughly 16 hour experience (although longer if you hunt down all of the agility orbs), with a city two-and-a-half times bigger than that of the original game ("some of the buildings are nearly a kilometre high, so way higher than the original Agency tower").
Narratively, the campaign is split up into a number of crime bosses you have to take out. These crime bosses control particular parts of the city. One looks after the chemical area. Another is the de-facto police force. The player - or players - are charged with taking out these various kingpins.
Like the original Crackdown, you can take these bosses out in any order. So, you can try take out the toughest crime lord as soon as you start the game, although you probably won't get very far. The point is, everything is open from the start.
When you've done enough damage to a particular crime boss (or annoyed them to the point they're furious with you), they will retaliate. They could rock up in tanks, vehicles with turrets or even drop pods. Each kingpin reacts differently.
This structure means Crackdown 3 does not have any missions. So, if you find yourself in a losing battle, you can run away. But once a kingpin is triggered, they're out in the open world - and they could attack any place, any time.
"Behind the scenes, we've got different modules which are running, but they're always on all of the time," Wilson said. "We don't have different mission areas where you speak to someone and then suddenly all these things happen. They're all in the game.
"So, if you're fighting someone like Sorensen [one of the kingpins] and you're like, whoa, I'm getting my ass kicked and you run away, once she's out, she's out in the world. It's not like the mission goes away and disappears or there's a big blue barrier like in Assassin's Creed and you can't go any farther.
"She's out and about. She might just turn up when you least expect it, somewhere else. So, you could be in the middle of fighting the chemical boss and then a flipping dropship comes over."
Crackdown 3 loads once and then it doesn't load again. The game's streaming system means there are no load times. Related, when you die, the world continues on, waiting for you to respawn.
"The game doesn't give a monkeys if you die," Wilson said. "There is literally no load. You just pick a supply point you've captured, spawn back in again, and the world just carries on.
"We built it as a co-op game from the ground up. There's no pause menu, really. Even in single-player, we imagine it as being a co-op game that just happens to have one person in it. The whole game is constantly moving and playing without you. It's simulation focused."
Back to the destruction. While the server-based destruction is not in the campaign, there is what's described as "local destruction". This works like the destruction seen in other open world games, such as Just Cause, where there are particular objects you can blow up.
"Gang installations you can absolutely take out," Wilson said. "Without giving too much of the game away, by the time you have finished the game, the landscape will have changed."With the amazing rookie seasons put forth by Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine, and Matthew Tkachuk last season, Jesse Puljujarvi was considered a bit of a disappointment as the fourth overall pick by spending most of his 18-year-old season being pretty good in the American Hockey League
Honestly, that perception isn’t very fair. Players progress at different rates and it shouldn’t have been considered a disappointment when he didn’t stick in the NHL or dominate the AHL.
Now 19 years old, it looks like the combination of the Oilers’ lack of depth on the wing and some physical progression has allowed Puljujarvi a huge opportunity to seize a permanent roster spot. And he brings a skillset the Oilers desperately need right now.
Early in the year, the Oilers looked great by all the underlying statistics, but were being undone by bad shooting percentages and horrible goaltending. Only a few pointed out that one of the biggest problems for the Oilers was that they tended to shoot from fairly far out.
That has started to change recently, and one of the reasons has been Puljujarvi’s ability to get shots off from in close. He’s not a great playmaker at this stage, though he has a strong ability to attack off the rush and can get on pucks near the net and create scoring chances for himself and his teammates.
Puljujarvi has also been a strong possession driver. All four of the line groupings he has played more than 20 minutes with have a Corsi over 55 per cent, with his shot rate being a nice boost there.
One of the biggest areas where Puljujarvi improves the Oilers’ ability to score is in capitalizing on rebounds. It may not sound like much, but his 0.6 rebound or second chance shots on net per 20 minutes at even strength leads the entire NHL. Those types of chances are both tough to get and extremely valuable. Rebound chances are converted to goals almost 40 per cent of the time, and since defending teams and their goaltenders recover about 90 per cent of those loose pucks, it’s a rare skill to be able to find those chances consistently.
The Hockey PDOcast Dimitri Filipovic provides entertaining and thoughtful dialogue about the game of hockey with an analytical edge. Not as nerdy as it sounds.
With that said, there’s no evidence yet this is a repeatable skill for Puljujarvi, though it makes sense that a player with his skill set would be that type of producer.
Puljujarvi is also a strong forechecker who recovers more loose pucks than team average in the offensive zone. But where he really shines without the puck is in the neutral zone, where he’s among the team leaders in stripping pucks from opponents, and leads all Oilers forwards in loose puck recoveries.
That strong neutral zone play might be a good indicator that Puljujarvi is a good fit with Connor McDavid, as Puljujarvi can be the guy running around the neutral zone while McDavid conserves some energy and remains ready to quickly counter-attack.
Puljujarvis’ tendency to drive the net and ability to attack off the rush is also a good fit with McDavid and are the same basic skills that allowed Pat Maroon to play the best hockey of his career on McDavid’s wing.
Maroon is a better player than many give him credit for, but Puljujarvi’s ceiling is much higher. Grooming him to play alongside the best player in the game to form a dynamic duo seems like a smart choice to me.One of the things some people in the closet may not realise is that once you’re out, you have to keep coming out. All. The. Time.
Really, this is true of any sexual identity, even the 100% straight and the flamboyantly gay stereotype. And really, in the long term, it’s a good thing if everyone has to do it. It shows that we’re moving past our assumptions, like we are by asking people what pronoun they would like to be referred to by, or whether or not they like chocolate cake (you’d be surprised how often that’s an assumption).
And you know, heteronormativity isn’t just an inconvenience. It hurts. It hurts because the erasure of parts of your sexual identity shows on your friends’ faces; that they don’t recognise parts of you, like that part belongs to an imposter, or worse, a poser. I imagine this experience is not unique to me, and not unique to identifying as bisexual, but I’m just going to speak for the experience I’ve had.
Heteronormativity hurts all the more for the femme, bi woman. Or just that bi person who doesn’t dress towards the gay stereotype for their gender. Why? Because the ability to participate in society, in your family life, in your social life, as a person attracted to the traditionally opposed gender makes you (the real you) feel all the more invisible to those you love, all the more guilt ridden, all the more fake, all the more closeted, all the more sidelined in the event you make yourself explicit.
One of the symptoms of this, which many bi women I know suffer from, is Man-Guilt: the guilt you feel from seeing, dating or sleeping with someone who identifies as a man, because of the conviction of self-imposed erasure you place upon yourself. You feel like you are betraying all the effort you’ve put into coming out. Personally, I don’t suffer heavily from Man-Guilt thanks to the loving long-term relationship I’ve been blessed with, and all the support and security that has come with it. However, this is not a mild symptom; I have comforted some friends through seriously depressing periods of this guilt, which, coupled with the insecurity of externally imposed erasure, can come out pretty debilitating.
Having part of your identity placed as subordinate to it’s other half, in my opinion, is worse than having that whole aspect ignored completely. I would rather be viewed as a puritanical victorian prude woman (read: does not have a sexuality) than as simply straight with that extra bit that we don’t talk about (ssssssh).
So when you’re next faced with a heteronormative challenge, whether it’s coming out to whom feels like the millionth person, again, or having your family ask you when you’re going to bring a nice <insert traditionally opposed gender here> home, spare a thought for those who might have less certainty, less security than you in that same circumstance; I know I’m sparing a thought for you.
AdvertisementsEUCLID — Dorothy Richardson, 75, of Waynoka Road, was charged with cruelty to animals after three neighbors told police that she beat a baby deer to death with a shovel.
The neighbors, including Euclid Councilman Christopher Gruber, said Richardson told them she beat the fawn in the head June 15 because it was sitting in her flower bed, according to Law Director Chris Frey said.
Richardson could not be reached at home this morning to comment on the charge.
The city's cruelty charge is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Frey said today that he plans to add a state |
and climate science deniers refuse to debate on the merits by flooding their opponents with false information leaving them without time to keep up with the lies and, as a result, appearing pedantic and professorial in their responses.
From Rational Wiki:
The Gish Gallop, named after creationist Duane Gish, is the debating technique of drowning the opponent in such a torrent of half-truths, lies, and straw-man arguments that the opponent cannot possibly answer every falsehood in real time. The term was coined by Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education.
It's unclear whether team Obama was aware of the technique or if they expected Romney to act like an actual presidential contender instead.
The "Gish Gallop"... usually characterized as "lists", titled "100 reasons why..." or similar. Thus, the points raised in the gallop are often very short and non-specific. It takes a lot of effort to fully refute everything and it is far easier for the galloper to add another question than it is for the respondent to formulate a suitable answer, which is the point behind the tactic.
An example in the climate science arena, a "Climate Gish Gallop of Epic Proportions," shows how climate change deniers flood the debate with so many points already proven false that the person listening to or reading their presentation simply can't keep up with all the rebuttals.
The lies win.
The Rational Wiki lists the prime current abusers of this technique as:
Dinesh D'Souza
Scott Huse
Mitt Romney
From the Talk Origins Archive, on how to debate a creationist:
On Monday, March 14, 1994, Kutztown University astronomer Carlson Chambliss debated Institute for Creation Research biochemist Duane Gish. Chambliss defended evolution and Gish defended creationism. The debate was a typical example of Gish's ability to control the terms of the debate and make outrageous statements of "fact" seem perfectly reasonable to a sympathetic audience.
Talk Origins has the following points for anyone debating a Gish Galloper:
Point #1: Know your audience
Point #2: Don't be the dull lecturer
Point #3: Be prepared for standard Gish evasions
Point #4: Avoid arrogance, appeal to authority, and similar attitudes and tactics
President Obama was clearly acting on point #4. On the other points, it's difficult to know if his debate prep included Gish Galloping. Since Romney's use of the technique is bound to be exposed by more than just this post, it's also difficult to know if he'll try it at the next debate or if the next moderator will be as badly equipped to deal with it as Jim Lehrer proved to be.
The president will need to prepare for the possibility of a flood of Gish Galloping, as Romney is reading from a script and is not a spontaneous man. President Obama will also have to consider that Romney might not use it again and prepare for the copious other techniques, equally as despicable, that may be brought to bear.
For the good of the American people, I hope Romney will consider foregoing the flood of galloping lies. President Obama is correct. We deserve to be told the truth. I won't count on Romney doing that and neither should the president. He needs to be ready for whatever Romney brings next.
One last note, to the pundits, if you don't know what Romney was up to, learn about it. Don't sing his praises and call him authentic, the real Romney, found his voice. He wasn't and he didn't. Romney was channeling an extreme right- wing creationist who took the illegal debate technique called spreading -- talking fast, not giving your opponent a chance to react -- and modified it to make that fast talking full of one lie after another, as evidenced by Mitt Romney last Wednesday.
To the next debate moderator, if Romney does it again, ask him he's Gish Galloping or spreading. Remind the audience the debate technique is forbidden in schools because it's considered in violation of the spirit of debate, which is supposed to be an exchange of ideas.
In other words, it's cheating and will get the debater thrown off the team. Hopefully, the American people will be smarter than the pundits and moderators and do exactly that to Romney, throw him out for cheating, lying and not acting in the spirit of our democracy, in November.New York Giants Odell Beckham Jr has revealed who he rates as the NFL's No 1 cornerback
Here's Beckham Jr praising Patrick Peterson Here's Beckham Jr praising Patrick Peterson
Odell Beckham Jr has named the Arizona Cardinals’ Patrick Peterson as the NFL’s best cornerback.
The New York Giants star was asked which defensive player gave wide receivers the most trouble when speaking at a Sky Sports' Facebook Live event alongside cricketer Eoin Morgan and rugby player Jonathan Joseph.
Beckham Jr stopped short of naming his rival Josh Norman, with whom he shared an ugly spat during the Carolina Panthers' win against the Giants last season, and instead suggested a player who he hasn't yet faced.
He's going to follow you from your house, to his house, to the side-lines, to the cricket field! Odell Beckham Jr
"I think the best cornerback in the league, I haven't got the experience of playing against - Patrick Peterson," Beckham Jr said.
"By far one of the best in the game, hands down. He's going to follow you from your house, to his house, to the side-lines, to the cricket field!
Patrick Peterson in action against the Green Bay Packers
"I remember in my rookie year, we [played against] him in Week 2 but I was injured. I just could never get back on the field, I was trying to rush back to play him because this is the man. You obviously always want to go against the best, always.
"In my eyes, he's the best corner in the league."
Peterson has spent all five seasons of his NFL career with the Cardinals and has been voted into the Pro Bowl each time. In 2015, while marking the opposition's No 1 receiver in almost every snap, he allowed just two touchdowns.Hornchurch boss hails Ling arrival
Hornchurch manager Jim McFarlane (pic: Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO) Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO c/o 27 Plaiters Way, Braintree, Essex, CM7 3LR - Editorial Use ONLY - FA Premier League and Football League
McFarlane delighted to have new coach on board
Share Email this article to a friend To send a link to this page you must be logged in.
Hornchurch boss Jimmy McFarlane is delighted to have brough former Leyton Orient manager Martin Ling in as a coach at Bridge Avenue.
Ling, who played with McFarlane at the tail end of his career with Purfleet, has spent some time away from the game after his sacking at then League Two side Torquay United.
But the Urchins chief persuaded the former O’s boss to come down and his arrival is a massive coup, according to McFarlane.
“Martin is absolutely fantastic to have around the place,” said McFarlane.
“He’s a top bloke and I class him as a friend having played with him at Purfleet, but his experience is second to none and I couldn’t ask for a better person.”
Ling’s arrival comes hot on the heels of Dave Rainford’s departure, having taken up a coaching role at Tottenham Hotspur’s Academy.
“He had been doing bits and pieces for them already, but he told me it was getting a bit too much. He’ll be greatly missed by us, not just as a coach but also as a player,” added McFarlane.
Meanwhile, winger Junior Dadson has joined Urchins, having been prolific in front of goal for Ryman One North outfit Harlow Town last season.When ruminating over classic encounters at home to Wigan, there really is only one choice if you`re an Arsenal fan. The two clubs have in fact met on less than ten occasions. Wigan fans will point to one of the greatest nights in their club`s history taking place at Highbury, when Jason Roberts last minute extra time goal in the Carling Cup Semi Final 2nd Leg put Wigan through to their first major domestic final. (Not that I`m dismissing their 1999 Auto Windscreens Final win over Millwall you understand). Last season saw a tense, nervy encounter decided by the sheer will of William Gallas, with Gilberto, Flamini and Fabregas all unavailable. The season before, Phil Dowd tried his best to completely destroy an absorbing encounter. Denny Landzaat`s goal of the season contender put Wigan ahead before an Emmerson Boyce own goal and a late Tomas Rosicky (remember him?) header gave Arsenal the points.
However, where home matches against Wigan are concerned, even if we had played them a million times before, there was only ever going to be one worth recounting. A date and match that is sewn into the chest of my redcurrant home shirt. 7th May, 2006, The Final Salute. The match was significant for a plethora of reasons. The most prominent of which for the purposes of history and sentiment, was that this was the final ever competitive match played at Arsenal Stadium. (The ground`s official name, Highbury has never been its official moniker). The club had put on a number of themed days for every home game of the final season at Highbury and even reverted to the 1913 redcurrant kit. But I don`t think the enormity or the reality of leaving the old place dawned on any of us until that day. Sentiment is not usually my bag, but I must confess to arriving at the ground for around 11am just to do one last circuit of the place and get some photos. (Those of you with access to my facebook profile will be able to see them). The old art deco signage of the West Stand, untarnished since the 1950s, the terraced houses surrounding the turnstiles, the iconic façade of the East Stand and the Marble Halls. But my favourite shot would have to be once I had made my way to the top of Avenell Road, adjacent to the Clock End entrance, my place of residence for the final six years at Highbury. The shot was taken some three and a half hours before kick off, at the threshold of Avenell Road as it gives way to Highbury Hill. From the top of the hill was a brilliant sea of redcurrant bodies swarming around. To gain admittance to any of the surrounding areas of the stadium, one had to show their match ticket. I would estimate there were around 10,000 people on that road, all of whom had to be either residents or ticket holders. A short walk to Highbury Hill just on the corner, some fifteen yards away from the Clock End turnstiles, and the Emirates Stadium was visible ahead, our glorious future winking at us from spitting distance.
There were of course other factors to make the day special. The Gunners were limbering up for their first ever European Cup Final in Paris ten days later. Having beaten Sunderland and Manchester City away in the preceding midweek, the Gunners were one point behind Tottenham Hotspur in the quest for fourth place. Spurs had put themselves eight points ahead the previous Sunday with a victory over Bolton Wanderers, leaving Arsenal needing to win their final three games and relying on West Ham to prevent Spurs from winning at Upton Park, or else Tottenham would finish fourth and qualify for a Champions League spot. A further tantalising twist being of course, that if Arsenal were to finish behind Spurs and win the European Cup, they would automatically eject their North London neighbours from the competition. With all of the prospective outcomes multiplied with the emotion of the occasion, the only thing that was certain was that there would be tears before tea time.
Once I had finished my photographical sojourn, I headed for the Arsenal Tavern. I vaguely overheard somebody on their mobile telephone on St. Thomas` Road say “they`re trying to get the match abandoned.” I thought he meant our match. I arrived in the Tavern to see Sky Sports News banners blaring that Tottenham were trying to postpone their match at Upton Park due to half of their squad going down with food poisoning in the night. Our eyes clung anxiously to Jeff Stelling for the final judgement. “The match at Upton Park will go ahead” he growled. A huge cheer went up, by trying so hard to cancel the match; one could sense that Tottenham and Levy had surrendered a massive psychological advantage. Later Tottenham would fraudulently claim that their pre match lasagne was deliberately tainted (cue field day for adobe photoshop experts); tests later proved the bout of sickness in the squad was due to “winter vomiting disease.” This is bought about by poor hygiene standards and can be common in offices. In short, Spurs` players were none too rigorous with the soap post defecation.
The grey skies gave way to sunshine as the match kicked off and our afternoon started perfectly. The club had laid out red and white tee shirts, alternating between blocks to make Highbury a sea of colour. In Block 19 of the Clock End, we had red tee shirts (mine still remains in my Highbury keep safe box to this day, together with every match day programme and my season ticket book from that season). Away to my left, Wigan fans were given blue tee shirts to match their team colours- a touch of class from the Arse. (Though it soon became apparent that most of the away end was populated by Arsenal fans anyway. I would chance there were some rich Wigan fans watching the game in North London pubs that afternoon). The game started exceptionally, Campbell nodded on Henry`s right wing free kick, Pollitt beat it out, but Robert Pires was on hand to tuck the rebound into the back of the net. It would prove to be his last goal for the club. Sixty seconds later, another huge roar went up around Highbury as it became apparent that Karl Fletcher had put West Ham 1-0 ahead at Upton Park. But the cheers proved to be enormously counter productive, causing the team to lose concentration from a Thompson free kick, as Paul Scharner was left unchecked to head home on the front post.
Arsenal lost concentration again a few minutes later, Lehmann drifted away from his near post as David Thompson lined up a free kick thirty five yards from goal. He cunningly steered the ball towards the unguarded post to give Wigan an unlikely lead. Some two minutes after that, Jermain Defoe equalised for Tottenham, it was all going horribly wrong. But Thierry Henry was in no mood to watch this special day give way to sombre reflection. Pires fed him a perfectly weighted through ball, and Henry sauntered through on goal and slotted home the equaliser. The last goal ever registered in front of the Clock End Highbury, where I had sat for every game since 2000. Half time arrived in we were firmly entrenched in fifth place. But details had become clearer to us that most of the Spurs side were battling the effects of food poisoning, optimism remained high as we contemplated the last 45 minutes of action in our beloved home.
In the second half, the Gunners looked to play the game and not the occasion, though the crowd made this increasingly difficult. West Ham were awarded a penalty midway through the second half and a massive cheer again transmitted through Highbury. The players would have thought West Ham had scored; most of the crowd did too. But Teddy Sheringham, arch Arsenal hater and Tottenham icon would turn in one of the weakest penalties of his career, tamely placing the ball straight at the vast, vast frame of Paul Robinson. His integrity will forever be under question. Fortunately, the players` nerves were less frayed than the supporters. Leighton Baines woefully under hit a back pass, Steven Gerrard style, straight into the path of the lurking Henry. The enigmatic Frenchman sauntered past Pollitt and took an age to slide the ball into the empty net. Word from East London was that Spurs were clinging on in the face of an Irons` onslaught. Not the first time West Ham have upset the apple cart for a visiting side on the last day of the season. Alex Ferguson referred to them as “obscene” when they dug out a 1-1 draw with United in May 1995 which denied them the title. Freddie Ljungberg arrived from the bench and immediately latched onto Campbell`s hooked through ball; Johansson hauled him down in the area. Penalty and red card.
Thierry Henry was awarded the chance to hit a hat trick in the ground he had called “his garden” the previous November. The captain and record goalscorer consummately buried the penalty and claimed the hat trick. Henry always had a keen understanding of the significance of the moment to the supporters, from his eighty yard run to the Spurs fans in 2002, to the finger wagging “we`re not finished yet” at the Middlesbrough supporters during Arsenal`s enthralling 5-3 fight back. Henry once again demonstrated his acute understanding of the iconoclasm of his moment when he kneeled to the ground and kissed the turf. Very romantic, very French, very Henry. Symbolism would once again take over, as sentiment slayed logic for the final time. Dennis Bergkamp was being acclaimed by the Highbury crowd for his final ever appearance in an Arsenal shirt, just as he entered the arena for the final time, news filtered through that Yossi Benayoun had put West Ham 2-1 ahead with nine minutes to go. There is a wonderful picture of Henry, again appreciating the nuances of the crowd, holding up his fingers inquisitively to ask the crowd if the score was in fact 2-1. As someone confirms it to him, he breaks out into a broad smile. “It`s all smiles, everything`s going Arsenal`s way” said Brian Marwood in the commentary box. Retrospectively, I would see television pictures of Charlie George and Ian Wright acclaiming West Ham`s goal with all the decorum and neutrality you would expect from those seated in the Director`s Box.
The final whistle sounded and the players huddled in celebration, the party could really begin in earnest now. (Not before a few choruses of “Tottenham shat themselves” and “We`re Forever Blowing Bubbles.”) A parade of ex players circled the pitch (I sat in the Fourth Row at the time, I have a wonderful picture of Ian Wright looking as shy and retiring as you would expect). Roger Daltrey came on to perform a specially written song, which if I’m honest, stink the place out. Thierry Henry took to a plateau to collect his Golden Boot with the crowd chanting “sign him up” in reaction to his ongoing contractual speculation. The countdown and complimentary fireworks wound down the clock on Highbury, some filtered out to nearby pubs and restaurants to acclaim an emotional day. I stayed put for something approaching an hour after the countdown clock had displayed its final digits. I chatted with fellow Clock Enders, perched on the barrier I had called my second home since adolescence. Those of us that did remain behind in the South Stand were given one final treat as the players emerged from the tunnel, showered and changed, to walk past us into the South West corner of the stadium to get to their coach. It gave the thirty or so stragglers the opportunity to personally say goodbye to Dennis Bergkamp. When I finally did leave, I counted forty three other bodies scattered around the stadium, so I was the 44th last person to leave Highbury that day, stewards not included. Lord knows how long the last man stayed standing. As we made our way to Highbury and Islington station, there was one final piece of sentimental gold dust, we walked past Liam Brady on Aberdeen Road as he climbed into his (illegally parked) silver BMW. A casual “alright Liam?” was all we could really muster. The last player I saw inside Highbury was Dennis Bergkamp; the last player I saw outside was Liam Brady. History does not come any more enthralling, symbolic or Technicolor than that.LD.Code: <dict> <key>Comment</key> <string>Intel HD 530 - Port 7 as HDMI</string> <key>Find</key> <data> /wAAAAEAAAAgAAAA </data> <key>Name</key> <string>AppleIntelSKLGraphicsFramebuffer</string> <key>Replace</key> <data> AwYKAAAIAACHAQAA </data> </dict>
OK after testing Intel HD 530 on the ASUS Maximus VIII Hero with success, I tested the Gigabyte Z170X-UD5-TH. It appears as if we'll have to do some work on the Z170X-UD5-TH to make it work.With Gigabyte Z170X-UD5-TH:If I use Inject Intel = No I get black screen on HDMI port, which is the only graphics port besides the Thunderbolt 3 ports. If I Inject Intel = Yes, I can access the desktop, however there is no acceleration.Bottom line- looks like we'll have to come up with some patches in order for some graphics port layouts to function correctly.EDIT: Patching the framebuffer works- for the Gigabyte Z170X-UD5-TH, here is the patch to use in Clover's KextstoPatch section. It will replace the unused Port 0x0 with 0x7.Thanks to ammulder for the patch info!Engaging Gilad Atzmon
Israeli-born Gilad Atzmon, one of Europe’s finest jazz musicians, was in Washington, DC for the first time at the end of a multi-city North American grassroots tour to discuss his recently published and highly controversial book, The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity Politics.
On March 14, Atzmon was interviewed by Prof. Norton Mezvinsky, Connecticut State University Professor of History Emeritus, at Washington’s Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church. The previous day a letter signed by 23 Palestinian activists called for “the disavowal of the racism and anti-Semitism of Gilad Atzmon.”
Watch the video of the Atzmon addressing the charges frequently levied against him. Decide for yourself—should Atzmon continue his frank discussion of Jewish identity or should his voice be silenced?
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, believes that no writer or thinker should be shunned in the United States—or anywhere—and we stand by our decision to host his DC events.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IVThe White House does not see "any parallels" between Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore's controversial beliefs and those of President Donald Trump, said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday.
"I know where the president stands on specific issues, and I don't see any parallels on that front," Sanders told reporters at the daily press briefing.
Moore became the GOP nominee for Senate in Alabama after winning a special election primary Tuesday night. But he's long been known in state politics for his far-right fringe beliefs.
These include, for example, that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress, that same-sex relationships are "an inherent evil," and that the Sandy Hook massacre happened because America "forgot the law of God."
The awkward exchange offered a glimpse into how difficult Moore's candidacy is likely to be for Republicans. Trump is already under pressure from his base voters to actively support Moore's campaign, as are Republicans in Congress.
Trump supported Moore's opponent, Sen. Luther Strange, in Tuesday's primary, but he called Moore to congratulate him after the results were in.
But as reporters unearth new information about Moore's past statements, the former state supreme court justice risks becoming an albatross around the neck of the national Republican Party, which is entering the 2018 campaign cycle without significant legislative achievements.
Democrats who are challenging incumbent Republicans in swing districts next year can hardly wait to tie their opponents to Moore's record of controversies, forcing Republicans to play defense, and focusing the attention of voters on Moore's fringe views.
When Sanders was asked on Thursday whether, in Trump's eyes, there were any beliefs a candidate could hold that would disqualify him from office, the White House press secretary refused to answer.
But Moore's ascension to the Senate could force the White House to confront that very question.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Imogen Foulkes says there is now a feeling of nervousness
France and Germany have voiced concern about Switzerland's vote to bring back strict quotas for immigration from European Union countries.
Final results showed 50.3% voted in favour. The vote invalidates the Swiss-EU agreement on freedom of movement.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the vote would cause "a host of difficulties for Switzerland".
France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said "it will hurt Switzerland to be inward-looking".
The initiative to hold the referendum was spearheaded by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), amid increasing debate across Europe about migration and the impact of free movement of people.
For Brussels there are no easy options. Free movement of people is one of its core principles. It sees it as integral to the single market
Special relationship
Fiercely independent Switzerland is not a member of the EU, but has adopted large sections of EU policy.
The European Commission said it regretted the outcome of the vote and would examine its implications.
Freedom of movement is a key pillar of the EU single market - a market which accounts for more than half of Swiss exports.
The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the vote has shown up traditional divisions, with French-speaking areas in the west against the quotas, German-speaking regions divided, and the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino firmly in favour.
In addition, cities with higher than average numbers of foreigners - Basel, Geneva and Zurich - voted against the quota proposal, while rural areas mostly voted for it.
Switzerland's economy is booming at the moment, and unemployment is low, but many Swiss worry about immigration.
Last year 80,000 new immigrants arrived in Switzerland, and foreigners now make up 23% of the population. It is the continent's second highest foreign population after Luxembourg.
Analysis In Switzerland there is a feeling of nervousness, nearly all the newspapers are expecting a difficult period in Swiss-EU relations. The justice minister will have to try to persuade Brussels that, while Switzerland has decided against free movement of people, it still wants various other EU perks, such as access to Europe's single market. That won't be easy. Sunday's vote on immigration shows again that national unity, let alone consensus, is really rather fragile, and addressing this will also be a tricky task. But under the Swiss system of direct democracy, the people's word is final: even though the majority was tiny, the proposals must now come into force. Swiss nervous after vote to limit EU migrants
In a statement, the European Commission said the Swiss vote "goes against the principle of free movement of persons between the EU and Switzerland.
"The EU will examine the implications of this initiative on EU-Swiss relations as a whole."
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding told the Financial Times that "the single market is not a Swiss cheese - you cannot have a single market with holes in it".
Mr Fabius told French radio it was bad news "both for Europe and the Swiss". Europe "was going to review its relations" with Switzerland, he added.
The German foreign minister said the vote had to be taken seriously: "This proves a little bit that in this globalised world people feel more discomfort towards unlimited free movement of persons."
Renegotiation?
European Parliament President Martin Schulz - a German Socialist - expressed disappointment over the vote. He said the EU would "perhaps [have] to renegotiate the agreement" with Switzerland. But he warned that unpicking freedom of movement from other single market freedoms, for example services, would be difficult.
"It is up to the Switzerland government to decide if they want to suspend the agreements with us or not."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament: "We have to react and... perhaps to renegotiate the agreement with Switzerland"
Switzerland's bilateral agreements with the EU took years of negotiation to achieve. Our Berne correspondent says that abandoning free movement could limit Switzerland's access to the single market.
A Yes vote of more than 50% was needed for the referendum to pass.
'Brussels we have a problem' - Swiss media react Le Temps: " A period of great uncertainty with the European Union is now opening "
A period of great uncertainty with the European Union is now opening Tribune de Geneve; "The return to quotas is a huge slap in the face for Europe"
"The return to quotas is a huge slap in the face for Europe" Le Matin: "A blow for the business community and the authorities"
"A blow for the business community and the authorities" Neue Zuercher Zeitung: "Not everything will change. But a lot will..."
"Not everything will change. But a lot will..." Corriere del Ticino: "The referendum: doom and gloom from the experts"
Since 2007, most of the EU's 500 million residents have been on an equal footing with locals in the Swiss job market - the result of a policy voted into law in a 2000 referendum. But a movement led by the SVP now wants to reverse this deal, saying it was a huge mistake.
Supporters of quotas believe free movement has put pressure on housing, health, education, and transport. They also argue that foreign workers drive salaries down.
The initiative means employers should in future give preference to Swiss passport-holders.
But the Swiss government and business leaders say free movement is key to Switzerland's economic success, allowing employers to choose skilled staff from across Europe.
European politicians' dismay was echoed in some leading newspapers on Monday.
Belgium's Le Soir said "it's the whole scaffolding of Switzerland's bilateral accords with the European Union which is assured of collapse".
And Spain's El Pais said the Swiss had not only questioned their agreement with the EU, but the vote "also reflects the populist and xenophobic agitation sweeping the Old Continent less than three months before the European elections".Once when the wind was soft and scented I heard the south calling, and sailed endlessly and languorously under strange stars.
Once when the gentle rain fell I glided in a barge down a sunless stream under the earth till I reached another world of purple twilight, iridescent arbours, and undying roses.
And once I walked through a golden valley that led to shadowy groves and ruins, and ended in a mighty wall green with antique vines, and pierced by a little gate of bronze.
Many times I walked through that valley, and longer and longer would I pause in the spectral half-light where the giant trees squirmed and twisted grotesquely, and the grey ground stretched damply from trunk to trunk, sometimes disclosing the mould-stained stones of buried temples. And always the goal of my fancies was the mighty vine-grown wall with the little gate of bronze therein.
After a while, as the days of waking became less and less bearable from their greyness and sameness, I would often drift in opiate peace through the valley and the shadowy groves, and wonder how I might seize them for my eternal dwelling-place, so that I need no more crawl back to a dull world stript of interest and new colours. And as I looked upon the little gate in the mighty wall, I felt that beyond it lay a dream-country from which, once it was entered, there would be no return.
So each night in sleep I strove to find the hidden latch of the gate in the ivied antique wall, though it was exceedingly well hidden. And I would tell myself that the realm beyond the wall was not more lasting merely, but more lovely and radiant as well.
Then one night in the dream-city of Zakarion I found a yellowed papyrus filled with the thoughts of dream-sages who dwelt of old in that city, and who were too wise ever to be born in the waking world. Therein were written many things concerning the world of dream, and among them was lore of a golden valley and a sacred grove with temples, and a high wall pierced by a little bronze gate. When I saw this lore, I knew that it touched on the scenes I had haunted, and I therefore read long in the yellowed papyrus.
Some of the dream-sages wrote gorgeously of the wonders beyond the irrepassable gate, but others told of horror and disappointment. I knew not which to believe, yet longed more and more to cross forever into the unknown land; for doubt and secrecy are the lure of lures, and no new horror can be more terrible than the daily torture of the commonplace. So when I learned of the drug which would unlock the gate and drive me through, I resolved to take it when next I awaked.
Last night I swallowed the drug and floated dreamily into the golden valley and the shadowy groves; and when I came this time to the antique wall, I saw that the small gate of bronze was ajar. From beyond came a glow that weirdly lit the giant twisted trees and the tops of the buried temples, and I drifted on songfully, expectant of the glories of the land from whence I should never return.
But as the gate swung wider and the sorcery of drug and dream pushed me through, I knew that all sights and glories were at an end; for in that new realm was neither land nor sea, but only the white void of unpeopled and illimitable space. So, happier than I had ever dared hoped to be, I dissolved again into that native infinity of crystal oblivion from which the daemon Life had called me for one brief and desolate hour.
When the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water that torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victim’s body, I loved the irradiate refuge of sleep. In my dreams I found a little of the beauty I had vainly sought in life, and wandered through old gardens and enchanted woods.Once when the wind was soft and scented I heard the south calling, and sailed endlessly and languorously under strange stars.Once when the gentle rain fell I glided in a barge down a sunless stream under the earth till I reached another world of purple twilight, iridescent arbours, and undying roses.And once I walked through a golden valley that led to shadowy groves and ruins, and ended in a mighty wall green with antique vines, and pierced by a little gate of bronze.Many times I walked through that valley, and longer and longer would I pause in the spectral half-light where the giant trees squirmed and twisted grotesquely, and the grey ground stretched damply from trunk to trunk, sometimes disclosing the mould-stained stones of buried temples. And always the goal of my fancies was the mighty vine-grown wall with the little gate of bronze therein.After a while, as the days of waking became less and less bearable from their greyness and sameness, I would often drift in opiate peace through the valley and the shadowy groves, and wonder how I might seize them for my eternal dwelling-place, so that I need no more crawl back to a dull world stript of interest and new colours. And as I looked upon the little gate in the mighty wall, I felt that beyond it lay a dream-country from which, once it was entered, there would be no return.So each night in sleep I strove to find the hidden latch of the gate in the ivied antique wall, though it was exceedingly well hidden. And I would tell myself that the realm beyond the wall was not more lasting merely, but more lovely and radiant as well.Then one night in the dream-city of Zakarion I found a yellowed papyrus filled with the thoughts of dream-sages who dwelt of old in that city, and who were too wise ever to be born in the waking world. Therein were written many things concerning the world of dream, and among them was lore of a golden valley and a sacred grove with temples, and a high wall pierced by a little bronze gate. When I saw this lore, I knew that it touched on the scenes I had haunted, and I therefore read long in the yellowed papyrus.Some of the dream-sages wrote gorgeously of the wonders beyond the irrepassable gate, but others told of horror and disappointment. I knew not which to believe, yet longed more and more to cross forever into the unknown land; for doubt and secrecy are the lure of lures, and no new horror can be more terrible than the daily torture of the commonplace. So when I learned of the drug which would unlock the gate and drive me through, I resolved to take it when next I awaked.Last night I swallowed the drug and floated dreamily into the golden valley and the shadowy groves; and when I came this time to the antique wall, I saw that the small gate of bronze was ajar. From beyond came a glow that weirdly lit the giant twisted trees and the tops of the buried temples, and I drifted on songfully, expectant of the glories of the land from whence I should never return.But as the gate swung wider and the sorcery of drug and dream pushed me through, I knew that all sights and glories were at an end; for in that new realm was neither land nor sea, but only the white void of unpeopled and illimitable space. So, happier than I had ever dared hoped to be, I dissolved again into that native infinity of crystal oblivion from which the daemon Life had called me for one brief and desolate hour.A day after being rebuked by his own conference, exposing his feeble control of the House, Speaker John A. Boehner tried to explain away the mutiny and pushed back against the thought that his speakership could be on the line. But he also did not provide any guidance on what comes next, instead repeating the talking points that surfaced from his office Thursday night that it is now the responsibility of the Senate and the White House to act.
After House Republicans refused Boehner’s pleas to vote for his “plan B” tax legislation, the Ohio Republican told reporters Friday that although it is not the outcome he wanted, his members’ defiance was not personal. Instead, he said it was borne of leaders’ inability to convince members that the bill does not constitute a tax increase.
“While we may have not been able to get the votes last night to avert 99.81 percent of the tax increases... they weren’t taking that out on me. They were dealing with the perception that somebody might accuse them of raising taxes,” Boehner said. “Listen, I’m proud of our members. They do a great job on behalf of their constituents and, frankly, a great job on behalf of our country.”
The bill would have a |
iling, said nothing has changed in his approach toward Harrison, noting that he has always referred to the player as "Brownie."
"This is Harrison's decision, and I support whatever they decide," Seiling said. "The team has had no reaction. It's still the same person that walks into that dressing room every day. It's still the same person that puts on his skates the same way. There's no difference."NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Soon after being the first-round draft pick of the then-Houston Oilers, circa 1982, Mike Munchak started trying to figure ways to beat the Steelers.
The standout offensive lineman carried that burning desire to beat the Steelers all the way through a 12-year career that eventually garnered inclusion in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It didn’t change while being the franchise’s offensive line coach from 1997-2010, even though the teams eventually landed in different divisions and the Oilers moved here to become the Titans.
It certainly didn’t diminish the last three years while Munchak was Titans head coach. In 2011, the Steelers beat the Titans, but Tennessee returned the favor the following season.
Munchak spent 32 years as player, assistant coach, offensive line coach and head coach trying to beat the Steelers. But following being fired by the Titans after going 7-9 last season and not landing the team in the playoffs for the first time since 2008, Munchak is now doing everything he can to help the Steelers win as their new offensive line coach.
"It is very different," said Munchak, who was hired by Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin on Jan. 23. "(What) went through my mind when I came on the visit (was) all the years of being a player in the division, playing them twice a year. Most of the time you had to go through Pittsburgh to win the division, which we did quite a few times when I was with the Oilers and then, obviously, as a coach, when we were in the same division."
Here’s the difference: The storied Steelers have won the Super Bowl six times in eight appearances; the Oilers/Titans made their only trip to the Super Bowl during the 1999 season with Munchak as offensive line coach — falling to the Rams.
"When you first walk in for the (job) interview," Munchak said, "and you see the six Lombardi trophies sitting there, you realize all they have accomplished as an organization. And so, to be part of that is exciting. It’s going to be different for me, but I’m really looking forward to the challenge coming up."
Part of that challenge is helping the Steelers get back to the playoffs after missing the last two seasons.
"Mike’s offensive line background speaks for itself, both as a Hall of Fame player for the Houston Oilers and as a very successful coach with the Tennessee Titans," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of hiring Munchak to follow Jack Bicknell Jr., who was fired after one season.
After being fired by the Titans, Munchak interviewed for several NFL head coaching vacancies, along with his mater, Penn State. When those opportunities didn’t pan out, he wanted to stay in football, but only if the right opportunity came along.
Video: Steelers getting younger, ready to take AFC North
Then again, taking a break after 32 straight years in the NFL also crossed his mind.
"I talked to some coaches who had been through that, who had been in the league a long time and who had done that and the advantages of that, and I did consider that," Munchak said of possibly taking a year off. " … I knew that I wanted to stay in football because I enjoy it too much not to be a part of it in some way. So, I knew I would have some opportunities in some other areas."
Not that Munchak’s three seasons as Titans head coach (22-27 overall) were a disaster. His first season at the helm in 2011, the team went 9-7 and was eliminated from the playoffs in the final week of the season. Earlier that year, the Titans drafted Jake Locker with the No. 8 overall pick and ordained him as the franchise quarterback of the future.
But after being named the starter in 2012, Locker missed five starts and the Titans went 6-10 to place Munchak on the hot seat with then-owner Bud Adams.
Locker missed another nine starts last year after leading the team to an impressive 3-1 start. In the nine starts Locker missed, the Titans went 3-6 behind backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.
After Adams passed and son-in-law Tommy Smith was named to head the family’s ownership group, the Titans went 7-9 last year to finish second in the AFC South and barely miss the playoffs again. That made for the difficult decision to fire Munchak and cut ties with a popular face of the organization for three-plus decades.
"Yeah, I think we all do to some degree," Munchak said of playing the what-if game. "I know that’s a part of this league. Last year, 12 games came down to one touchdown or a field goal, and we only won half of them. So many things could have happened in those games where if you won one or two of them, it would have been a totally different year.
"You always do that as an athlete and player, because you realize how close you are to things."
Ironically, Munchak used the notion the Titans were so close to making the playoffs in motivating his players. It also was part of stating his case to Smith and general manager Ruston Webster for another season at the helm.
"As a head coach, you do that with your players, because you want them to realize what a fine line it is between winning and losing in this league," Munchak said. "One injury, one dropped ball, one bad decision, whatever it is, can make such a difference in a season. As much as we weren’t happy with last year and the year before, and even my first year when we went 9-7, we could have won 12 games very easily on one little play.
"That part is frustrating, but everyone has to deal with it. At the time it looks good, because you can sell it to the players that we’re not really that far off."
Munchak said getting another shot at NFL head coach would be great if the correct situation arises.
"If I end up coaching offensive line for the next 10 years, great," he said. "But if a good opportunity comes up to be a head coach and it’s a good situation, I would love to do it."
But Munchak also enjoys getting back to working exclusively as offense line coach, where he is considered one of the best in the league.
"I’m back to being just on the offensive side and these 15 guys I am responsible for now," Munchak said of coaching the Steelers’ offensive line that now includes Vanderbilt product Wesley Johnson (Round 5 draft pick).
"There are a lot of positives to that," he added, "because the relationships are a lot different when you’re an assistant coach and you’re spending so much time with just 15 of the same guys every day and finding the way to make them the best they can be and working and just focusing on running game protections and things like that instead of everything else that goes on with the rest of the players’ lives. I enjoyed that phase of it."
When the NFL released team schedules in April, it didn’t take long for Munchak to notice the Steelers will play at the Titans on a Monday nigh (Nov. 17). It will be weird for many fans of the Oilers and/or Titans to see Munchak wearing Steelers garb.
"Nashville has been home to me," Munchak said. "I love the Nashville area and the fan base. I know how excited they get, especially a national game and how great of an atmosphere it is going to be. It will be different, no doubt about it. It’s not until November, but it will be exciting for a lot of reasons."Intel has been shipping its Atom processor for months now, although it has been talking about the CPU for much longer. Earlier this year I went through the architecture and unique design approach behind Intel’s first foray into a new approach to chip design since the original Centrino.
While Atom isn’t setting any performance records, it is amazingly powerful for its size and power consumption. In making Atom, Intel made sure to give it an equally impressive chipset: Poulsbo. The combination of Atom and Poulsbo unfortunately uses too much power and is too big to be used in the most attractive of devices: smart phones, relegating them to MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). MIDs aren’t terribly successful, mostly because they are bulky, plagued by terrible UIs and too expensive for what they are. In a couple of years Atom will surely find its way into smart phones thanks to Intel’s push for integration, but thanks to the Netbook segment Atom hasn’t gone unappreciated.
Largely pioneered by the efforts of ASUS and obsession with the letter E, the Netbook market is almost entirely dominated by Intel’s Atom CPU. In order to keep costs down, Netbook manufacturers have paired Atom with a desktop chipset instead of Poulsbo: the Intel 945G. Since Atom’s FSB can work in GTL+ mode, it is compatible with Pentium 4/Core 2 chipsets.
Atom is honestly fast enough for many tasks, delivering the performance of a mainstream notebook from 4 years ago. The problem is that there are some applications that are commonplace today that can’t run on Atom. HD video playback isn’t possible on Atom + 945G platforms because the CPU isn’t fast enough to decode high bitrate video (much less H.264) and the chipset doesn’t support HD video decode acceleration.
NVIDIA saw an opportunity with Atom. Intel had a very popular CPU, that could be used in many more environments if it could only be paired with a more powerful chipset. Enter the GeForce 9400M.
This is the same GeForce 9400M that’s used in desktops and notebooks, the very same GeForce 9400M that’s in the new MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air...and NVIDIA is pairing it up with Intel’s Atom processor.PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli is planning to expose what he terms as "another outrageous financial scandal" to hit the nation.
"Wait and see," the Pandan lawmaker tweeted, adding that he expected to be arrested again over this issue.
Responding to one user, who asked him if the new revelation concerned a "fund, company, cows, goats or ducks", Rafizi replied: "Ha3 (laughter) you tunggu (wait). But outrageous enough. I think people will be angry."
The PKR leader also joked about how despite being arrested frequently, he has failed to shed weight.
Rafizi said that he would write to renown ulama (religious scholars) around the world, provide them with the background of the scandal and request a fatwa (religious edict).
"It is time to issue a fatwa on corruption," he added.
To another user who asked him to let someone else release the details in order to avoid the heat, Rafizi, who is currently in London, cited two reasons to explain why this is not possible.
"Because (1) media may not cover it; issue of credibility, (2) they will come down hard on newbie (who exposes the scandal," he said.
Contacted later, Rafizi declined to elaborate on the scandal for now.
On a separate matter, the PKR leader also took a jibe at Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang, who is often critical of DAP and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
He said a campaign should be launched to persuade Gerakan to field Tan, whom he described as the party’s "hero No 1", to contest against Lim if a snap polls is called in Penang."THE central problem in moral philosophy is commonly known as the is-ought problem." So runs the opening sentence of the introduction to a recent volume of readings on this issue. [ 1 ] Taken as a statement about the preoccupations of moral philosophers of the present century, we can accept this assertion. The problem of how statements of fact are related to moral judgments has dominated recent moral philosophy. Associated with this problem is another, which has also been given considerable attention - the question of how morality is to be defined. The two issues are linked, since some definitions of morality allow us to move from statements of fact to moral judgments, while others do not. In this article I shall take the two issues together, and try to show that they do not merit the amount of attention they have been given. I shall argue that the differences between the contending parties are terminological, and that there are various possible terminologies, none of which has, on balance, any great advantage over any other terminology. So instead of continuing to regard these issues as central, moral philosophers could, I believe, "agree to disagree" about the "is-ought" problem, and about the definition of morality, provided only that everyone was careful to stipulate how he was using the term "moral" and was aware of the implications and limitations of the definition he was using. Moral philosophers could then move on to consider more important issues.
It has long been a commonplace in the debate about the definition of morality that moral terms are used in many different ways at different times and by different people. The search for a definition, therefore, is not a search for the one true definition which expresses all that anyone has ever meant by the term. On the contrary, the search has been for the best definition, the definition that will express the most important or the most useful of the various meanings that moral terms have in ordinary speech. We are, then, to some extent at liberty to choose our definition from among the various definitions which could be given some justification from ordinary usage. On what basis should we make this choice? Provided a definition is not too much at odds with ordinary usage, so that it is still a definition of morality, and not of some newly invented concept, it seems to be generally agreed that the consequences for practical discourse of a particular definition are crucial. The kind of criticisms that are made of particular definitions bear this out. The emotivists, for example, were criticized for making morality a matter of personal whim, in which reason has no part to play, while they accused their opponents of restricting the possibilities of moral discourse by inserting their own values into the definition of morality. The real basis for choosing or rejecting a definition was, and is: how would that definition affect practical disputes? Will it allow sufficient scope, so that all dissenting opinions can be subject to discussion, without being ruled out from the start? Will it allow a sufficient role to reason, so that agreed principles of conduct can emerge, provided only that men are rational? The proponents of different definitions, some of which allow the move from "is" to "ought," and some of which do not, assume that it does make a difference which definition of morality is accepted. This assumption needs to be examined.
I shall begin by considering two possible views on the meaning of the moral "ought," and its relation to matters of fact. These two positions are at opposite ends of the spectrum of positions which can be taken on this issue.
The first position has often been called "subjectivism" but this is a misleading term and, extravagant as it may seem to invent yet another label, I shall call it "form-and-content neutralism," or, for brevity, just "neutralism," because the chief characteristic of this position is its complete neutrality about both the form and the content of moral principles. According to this position, there are no limits on the kind of principle which can be held as a moral principle. A moral principle can have any content whatsoever - that is, it is not restricted to a certain kind of subject matter, like suffering and happiness, or the satisfaction of wants, needs, or interests. "Clasp your hands three times every hour" might seem to have no connection with anything we value; nevertheless it could, on the neutralist view, be a moral principle. There are also no restrictions on the form a moral principle can take, so long as it is intelligible, not self-contradictory, and so on. By this I mean that to count as a moral principle, a principle does not have to satisfy any of the formal requirements that have sometimes been proposed, such as being able to be willed as a universal law, being acceptable to an impartial observer, being able to be formulated without the use of proper names, personal pronouns, or other singular terms. For example, the principle of pure egoism: "Everyone ought to do what is in my interest" fails the test of universalizability as propounded by R. M. Hare because it contains the singular term "my." According to the neutralist, however, this does not preclude it from being held as a moral principle.
Of course, there must be some way in which even the neutralist distinguishes a man's moral principles from other principles which he may hold. For the neutralist, a man's moral principles are the principles, whatever they may be, which that man takes to be overriding. This is made true by definition. In support of the definition, thy neutralist can refer to usages like "They gave up everything for Art; Art was their morality" or: "His morality was just egoism, for he cared about nothing but himself."
The neutralist view, then, is that whether a principle is a moral principle for a particular person is determined solely by whether that person allows the principle to override any other principles which he may hold. Any principle at all is capable of being a moral principle for a person, if that person should take it as overriding. [2]
The strength of this account of morality is that it provides a very close logical connection between the moral principles a man holds and the way he acts. It is often said that we can tell what a man's moral principles are by observing how he acts. Certainly we feel uneasy in saying of a man who owns three cars that his moral principles dictate that every rich man should give whatever he can to the poor. The neutralist is able to explain why, if man acts on the basis of a coherent set of principles at all, he will act in accordance with his moral principles. If a man recognizes that a certain action is prescribed by his overriding principles, he surely will do that action, if he can. There are, of course, instances in which a man does not do what is in accord with his own overriding principles, but in these cases we look for some explanation, such as succumbing to temptation, kleptomania, addiction, or whatever the case may be. This is the sort of explanation that we look for when a man does not act rationally, and it is clear that behavior that has to be explained in this way does not count against saying that the man who acts against his overriding principles has all the reason that he could possibly have for doing the opposite.
The significance of the sort of tie between moral principles and action which the neutralist account provides can be seen in a situation of the following sort: Jack is trying to persuade Bill to do something which he, Jack, thinks would be a morally good thing to do - say, give money to famine relief. If Jack can convince Bill that giving the money is in accordance with Bill's own moral principles, then, so long as Bill continues to act on his own overriding principles, that is, so long as he continues to make rational decisions about what to do, and carries out these decisions, he will give money to famine relief. There is no step between accepting the view that an action is in accord with his moral principles and the decision to do that action.
On the other hand, the neutralist position has a less welcome consequence, which can also be illustrated by the above example. Whatever facts Jack mentions in his attempt to convince Bill that giving to famine relief is demanded by Bill's own moral principles, Bill can always retort that no moral conclusions follow from these facts. Jack might, for instance, refer to the immense amount of suffering that will be relieved by a substantial donation, and compare this with the relatively trivial difference in pleasure that Bill will get if he uses the money to buy a Mercedes rather than a Morris. Bill could reply that according to his moral principles, suffering matters only when experienced by himself, his family, or friends. Jack would have no effective counter to this reply - he could not argue, for example, that Bill would not be prepared to accept his own moral principles if he were one of the victims of a famine. Bill could reject this argument as simply irrelevant, since there is no reason why a moral principle should conform to such a requirement. This the neutralist must accept. So the only role which reason has to play in the choice of moral principles is that role which it has in all areas of life, associated with correct beliefs about what is the case, what ends are attainable, the best means to them, and so on. When any principle at all can be a moral principle, there can be no special kind of reasoning applicable to moral principles.
At the other end of the meta-ethical spectrum there is the kind of position which R. M. Hare has termed ">descriptivism." It is often called "naturalism," but since the intuitionist account of morality cannot really be called naturalist, but may, for our purposes, be grouped together with naturalist theories, I shall use Hare's term. Descriptivism is the direct opposite of neutralism in that for a principle to be a moral principle, as the descriptivist defines the term, it must satisfy criteria of both form and content. Thus, to give just one example of the many possible forms of descriptivism, it might be said that moral judgments are logically tied to suffering and happiness, impartially assessed. In other words, a judgment is not a moral judgment unless it is somehow connected to suffering and happiness, and a judgment is also not a moral judgment unless it is an impartial judgment, in the sense that it does not arbitrarily place more importance on the suffering and happiness of a particular person or group of persons than on the suffering and happiness of any others.
The strength of the descriptivist view is that once the definition of morality is accepted, watertight reasoning from statements of fact to moral conclusions is possible. This means that (to continue with the example used earlier) from the fact that Bill's money will reduce suffering and increase happiness to a greater extent if given to famine relief than if spent on a Mercedes, Jack can argue that Bin ought, morally, to give the money to famine relief rather than buy the more expensive car. If the descriptivist is right in tying morality to suffering and happiness, impartially assessed, Bill has no way of resisting this argument, for the conclusion follows deductively from the definition of morality and the facts of the case. Of course, most descriptivist views are not as straightforward as the example I have given, and so the argument may be more complicated. Nevertheless, to the extent that the descriptivist gives definite form and content to his definition of morality, he is able to show that reason has a prominent role in moral argument, and that moral arguments are objective.
Unfortunately the significance of this conclusion is reduced by the fact that descriptivism, strong where neutralism is weak, is also weak where neutralism is strong. To show that an action is required by a moral principle does not, if the descriptivist view is accepted, have the consequences it would have if moral principles were necessarily overriding. We are not, on the descriptivist view, free to form our own opinion about what is and what is not a moral principle; but we are free to refuse to concern ourselves about moral principles. Bill has to grant that if morality is tied to suffering and happiness, it follows that he is morally obliged to give to famine relief, but he may say that if that is what morality is about, he is not interested in acting according to moral principles. The descriptivist cannot tie morality to action, as the neutralist did, because he has tied it to form and content. So morality may become irrelevant to the practical problem of what to do.
We have, then, two quite opposed views about the meaning of moral judgments and their relations to statements of fact. These two views differ as much as any of the contending views that have been put forward in the "is-ought" controversy. Yet on the issue of how statements of fact are connected with reasons for acting in general (and not just moral reasons for acting) neutralism and descriptivism do not differ at all. To go from the statement of fact: "Giving money to famine relief will reduce suffering and increase happiness to a greater extent than spending the money on a more expensive car" to the practical conclusion of giving the money away is neither easier nor more difficult if we adopt one position rather than the other. The arguments which we might use are, in fact, substantially the same in either case, although the way we express them may differ. Thus if a person accepts, on the basis of an argument from a descriptivist definition of morality, that morally he ought to give to famine relief, but asks what reason there is for taking any notice of morality, we may answer by appealing to the feelings of sympathy and benevolence which, in common with most of mankind, he probably has to some extent. We may talk of the fulfillment and real happiness that can come through knowing that one has done what one can to make the world a little better, and contrast this with the disappointments and ultimate sense of futility which are likely to come from a self-centered existence devoted to nothing but selfish concerns. We might mention the value of friendship between open people who respect each other, a kind of friendship impossible for the narrowly egoistical man or woman. These are just some of the considerations we might mention, and they may or may not be valid reasons for leading a life which the descriptivist would say was morally good. Whether these are valid reasons is not my concern here; it might depend on the person to whom they are addressed. My point is that the neutralist could use exactly the same reasons in an attempt to persuade the man whose overriding, that is, moral, principles take no account of the happiness or suffering of people other than himself, his family, and friends, to widen his area of concern, and so, perhaps, to adopt principles which would involve giving to famine relief. [3]
I hope it is now clear that the issue that really matters, that is of practical significance, is how statements of fact are connected with reasons for acting, and not how statements of fact are connected with moral judgments. The latter question is encompassed by the former. To hold, as the neutralist does, that action follows from moral judgments but moral judgments do not follow from facts, is to place morality close to the "action" side of the "fact-action" or "reason-action" gap, while to hold, as the descriptivist does, that moral judgments follow from facts but action does not follow from moral judgments, is to place morality on the opposite side. The dispute between the neutralist and the descriptivist, therefore, is a dispute about where, within a limited framework, morality shall be placed. Since nothing of any practical significance hangs on the placing of this term within this framework - the prospects for going from facts to action are the same in either case - the dispute is merely terminological. [4]
I said earlier that neutralism and descriptivism are at opposite ends of the spectrum of positions which can be taken over the "is-ought" issue. If this is true, it would mean that other positions differ from each other, and from the two extreme positions, even less than the two just discussed, so that if the difference between neutralism and descriptivism is of no real importance, the differences between any other positions will be no more significant. Yet it might be thought that a middle position between neutralism and descriptivism could combine the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of the extreme positions - that is, that it could preserve the tie between action and morality as well as the tie between fact and morality. If this could be done, such a position would differ significantly from both neutralism and descriptivism, for it would eliminate the gap between facts and action.
The difficulty which must be faced by any attempt to combine the advantages of neutralism and descriptivism without their disadvantages should be obvious from what has already been said. If we insist that the principles a person acts upon are, by definition, his moral principles, we must recognize that people can act on all sorts of principles without committing any logical error. How can we claim a necessary connection between a person's moral principles and the way he acts, while simultaneously denying that some conceivable principles of action can be moral principles?
Let us consider one way in which it might be thought possible to deny the status "moral principle" to at least some principles of action, while preserving the tie between the way a person acts and what we regard as his moral principles. It might be thought that one can maintain that moral principles are, by definition, prescriptive, so that to assent to a moral principle is to commit oneself to acting upon it when it is appropriate to do so, and at the same time maintain that, while a moral principle can have any content whatsoever, it must satisfy the formal requirement of universalizability. [5] Does this position overcome the difficulty I mentioned?
First, what advantage does such a position have over ordinary neutralism? It will be remembered that the position I have been referring to as neutralism was neutral as to both the form and the content a moral principle could have. The position we are now considering is neutral as to content, but not as to form. This means that there are some principles on which people might act which are not moral principles. This restriction on the form a moral principle can take makes it possible to develop a more effective form of moral argument than was possible with form-and-content neutralism. To illustrate, using the same example as before: Jack can ask Bill how he would feel about other people indulging in luxuries while he starved to death. So long as Bill continues to claim that he acts on moral principles, he cannot deny the relevance of this question, for if he cannot prescribe universally that people who feel inclined to spend their money on luxuries should do so, even when others (including, perhaps, Bill himself) are starving, then he cannot defend his purchase of the Mercedes on moral grounds. This argument is not quite as watertight as the direct argument from a descriptivist definition of "moral," for it is at least logically possible that Bill will reply that, according to his moral principles, suffering, whether his own or anyone else's, is not very important. He might say that the ideal of "standing on one's own two feet," and not being dependent on anyone else, is more important than suffering, or there may be some other ideal for which he would be prepared to suffer, and thinks others should, if necessary, suffer for too. Nevertheless, as a matter of fact, few people are prepared to starve to death for an ideal, and so the universalization argument does provide a means of linking moral conclusions with statements about suffering, happiness, and other matters which may, with some reservations, be termed "factual."
The composite position, then, does allow a more powerful form of moral argument than is possible for the neutralist. Does it avoid the disadvantage of descriptivism? It would seem that it does, for by defining moral principles so that they are necessarily prescriptive, it seems to make it logically Impossible for anyone to say that, while he can see that from the moral point of view he ought to do a particular act, he is not interested in acting according to moral principles. So this position appears to have advantages over both the positions we considered earlier.
Unfortunately, this impression is not sustained on closer examination. To see this, we only have to ask what a defender of the composite position would say about a person whose overriding principle of action is non-universalizable - for instance a person who acts on the principle of pure egoism, mentioned earlier. The only thing that can be said about such a person, consistent with the composite position, is that he does not hold any moral principles at all, for there are no universalizable principles which he holds prescriptively. The restriction on the form a moral principle can take is incompatible with the view that whatever principles of conduct a person espouses are his moral principles. So, on this account of morality, it is possible to "opt out" of acting on moral principles, and thus there is still a gap between action and morality. Certainly, to opt out of morality defined in this way is not quite the same as opting out of morality as defined by a descriptivist. To opt out of morality as defined by a typical descriptivist one would have to deny that one is concerned, say, about suffering and happiness, impartially assessed. To opt out of universal prescriptive morality, one would have to deny that one is concerned to act on judgments which one is prepared to universalize. Still, it is possible to do this, and there are no doubt many people whose overriding principles are selfish ones, which they would not be prepared to universalize. If we were to try to persuade these people to act only on judgments which they are prepared to universalize, we should have to use arguments the same as or similar to those already mentioned, which the descriptivist could use in attempting to persuade people to act on moral principles as he defines them, and which the neutralist could use to get an egoist to take the interests of others into account.
Does the middle position have any advantage over descriptivism, then? It may be - depending, I think, on just what account is given of the notion of universalizability - that there are some people who are prepared to act on universalizable judgments, but not on judgments which are tied to suffering and happiness, or whatever other content the descriptivist gives to his definition of morality. For these people, on the middle position, but not on the descriptivist position, there still is a logical tie between action and morality. But is this really a gain? It is doubtful if it is. For it is precisely these people - people who are prepared to universalize their judgments but do not concern themselves with the suffering or happiness of others - who will hold ideals which allow them to remain unmoved by the "how would you like it if you were in that position?" argument. To see this requires only a little reflection. The person who, because he holds the ideal of "standing on one's own two feet" is able to resist the universalization argument and buy his Mercedes while others starve, is just the sort of person who would not be prepared to act on moral principles, if "moral" were defined in terms of suffering and happiness, but would be prepared to act on moral principles, defined so that they must be universalizable but can have any content. A person who does not hold ideals which he considers more important than suffering and happiness, and is prepared to act only on universalizable principles, could be moved by the universalization argument, but would also, presumably, be prepared to act on moral principles defined as a descriptivist might define them, in terms of suffering and happiness.
So the middle position does not seem to have any advantage over the other two positions. The only advantage it seemed to have over descriptivism was that there are some people for whom it can show a logical tie between action and morality, while descriptivism cannot, but it turns out to be just these people for whom the middle position cannot provide a tie between reason, or fact, and morality. Nor does the middle position have any real advantage over neutralism, for, as we have seen, to get an egoist to act according to moral, that is, universalizable, principles, an advocate of the middle position would have to use the same arguments that a neutralist can use to get an egoist to take into account considerations other than his own interests.
I have not, of course, considered every possible account of the meaning of moral concepts, nor every way of either overcoming or preserving the "is-ought" gap. Nevertheless, I think that the three positions I have examined are illustrative of the kinds of account that can be offered and have been offered in recent years. I have tried to show, by examining these positions, that there are limits to what any account of morality can do. No definition of morality can bridge the gap between facts and action. Nor does any one definition of morality have any important overall advantages as against the other plausible definitions that have been suggested. It follows that the disputes over the definition of morality and over the "is-ought" problem are disputes over words which raise no really significant issues.
In conclusion, I should perhaps add that I am not denying that lack of clarity about the meaning of words is an important source of error, both in philosophy and in practical argument. Confusion is likely to occur unless both parties to a discussion are sure about what the use of a word implies. It is not difficult to see how, if one did not make the way in which one was using the term "moral" clear, errors could happen. It might be thought that one could argue that moral principles must be concerned with suffering and happiness, impartially considered, and then maintain that if a person is to act on a coherent set of principles at all, he must act on moral principles, since moral principles are necessarily overriding. This would be a particularly obvious slide from the descriptivist to the neutralist definition of morality, but such moves can be better disguised. It is therefore necessary, before embarking on a discussion of morality, to make quite clear in what sense one is using terms like "moral judgment," and what follows and what does not follow from such a use of the term. This is an essential preliminary; but it is only a preliminary. My complaint is that what should be regarded as something to be got out of the way in the introduction to a work of moral philosophy has become the subject-matter of almost the whole of moral philosophy in the English-speaking world.
* * *
NOTES
1 The Is-Ought Question, ed. by W. D. Hudson (New York, 1969).
2 I have described a possible position, and it is not necessarily the precise position of any particular moral philosopher. The fullest recent statement of a position which is neutralist in all important respects is to be found in D. H. Monro's Empricism and Ethics (New York, 1967).
3 D. H. Monro does in fact use reasons of this sort in showing that his neutralist account of morality leaves a place for argument. (Op. cit., pp. 231-233.)
4 This point is not entirely new. The existence of the gap between reason and action was the basis of Hume's arguments that moral judgments are not derived from reason. For Hume thought that moral judgments must be connected with action, while reason alone cannot lead to action. Had someone suggested that "moral judgment" be defined in a way not necessarily connected with action, Hume would no doubt have been prepared to grant that, so defined, moral judgments could be derived from reason |
]
The Devil in Miss Jones [ edit ]
The 1973 film The Devil in Miss Jones was ranked number seven in the Variety list of the top ten highest-grossing pictures of 1973, despite lacking the wide release and professional marketing of Hollywood and having been virtually banned across the country for half the year (see Miller v. California, below).[36] Some critics have described the film as, along with Deep Throat, one of the "two best erotic motion pictures ever made".[37] William Friedkin called The Devil in Miss Jones a "great film", partly because it was one of the few adult erotic films with a proper storyline.[38] Roger Ebert referred to The Devil in Miss Jones as the "best" of the genre he had seen and gave it three-stars (of four).[10] Ebert also suggested the film's box office receipts were inflated as a way of laundering the profits from illegal activities, although such a method would have required organised crime to be paying taxes on their illegally obtained income.[39][40]
The Devil in Miss Jones was one of the first films to be inducted into the XRCO Hall of Fame.[41] The sound-recording, cinematography, and story-line of The Devil in Miss Jones were of a considerably higher quality than any previous porn film. The lead, Georgina Spelvin, who had been in the original Broadway run of The Pajama Game, combined vigorous sex with an acting performance some thought as convincing as anything to be seen in a good mainstream production. She had been hired as a caterer, but Gerard Damiano, the film director, was impressed with her reading of Miss Jones's dialogue, while auditioning an actor for the non-sex role of 'Abaca'. According to Variety's review, "With The Devil in Miss Jones, the hard-core porno feature approaches an art form, one that critics may have a tough time ignoring in the future". The review also described the plot as comparable to Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit,[42] and went on to describe the opening scene as, "a sequence so effective it would stand out in any legit theatrical feature."[42] It finished by stating, "Booking a film of this technical quality into a standard sex house is tantamount to throwing it on the trash heap of most current hard-core fare." [32][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]
An influential five-page article in The New York Times Magazine in 1973 described the phenomenon of porn being publicly discussed by celebrities, and taken seriously by critics, a development referred to, by Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times, as "porno chic".[7][11][49] Some expressed the opinion that pornographic films would continue to extend their access to US theaters, and the mainstream film industry would gravitate toward the influence of porn.[12][13]
Supreme Court's 1973 Miller v. California [ edit ]
Supreme Court's 1973 Miller v. California decision redefined obscenity from "utterly without socially redeeming value" to lacks "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value". Crucially, it made 'contemporary community standards' the criterion, holding that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment; the ruling gave leeway to local judges to seize and destroy prints of films adjudged to violate local community standards. The Miller decision stymied porn distribution.[32] The Devil in Miss Jones, as well as Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, was prosecuted successfully during the latter half of 1973; the Supreme Court's Miller decision closed much of America to the exhibition of adult erotic films, and often led to it being banned outright. Porn films would never again feature so prominently in the mainstream movie business,[50] until the emergence of the internet in the 1990s.[51]
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision to have put mass box office returns beyond the reach of pornographic films, the leaps in the films' quality that had occurred between 1972 and 1973 were not sustained. With their relatively modest financial means, a predicted move of organized crime into Hollywood failed to materialize.[13] Pornographic films continued to be a highly profitable business, and thrived throughout the rest of the 1970s, leading to the concept of porn "stars" gaining currency. Ostracism of porn performers meant they almost invariably used pseudonyms. Being outed as having appeared in porn usually put an end to an actor's hope of a mainstream career.[52] An indication of the returns still possible was that a 1976 release, Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Comedy, favorably reviewed by film critic Roger Ebert in 1976,[53] reportedly grossed over $90 million globally.[32][54] Some historians assess The Opening of Misty Beethoven, based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (and its derivative, My Fair Lady), and directed by Radley Metzger, as attaining a mainstream level in storyline and sets.[55] Author Toni Bentley called the film the "crown jewel" of the Golden Age.[56][57]
In general, after 1973, adult erotic films emulated mainstream filmmaking storylines and conventions, merely to frame the depictions of sexual activity to prepare an 'artistic merit' defense against possible obscenity charges. The adult film industry remained stuck at the level of 'one day wonders', finished by participants hired for only a single day. The ponderous technology of the time meant filming a simple scene would often take hours due to the need for the camera to be laboriously set up for each shot.[58] Repeated sustained performances might be required on cue at any time over the course of a day, which was an issue for men without the recourse to modern Viagra-type drugs.[52][58] Production was concentrated in New York City where organized crime was widely believed to have control over all aspects of the business, and to prevent entry of competitors. Although their budgets were usually very low, a subcultural level of appreciation exists for films of this era, which were produced by a core group of around thirty performers, some of whom had other jobs. Several were actors who could handle dialogue when required. However, some participants scoffed at the idea that what they did, qualified as "acting".[7][32][52] By the early 1980s, the rise of home video had led to the end of the era when people went to movie theaters to see sex shot on 35mm film with production values, ultimately culminating with the rise of the internet in the 1990s and beyond.[52]
Feminist criticism [ edit ]
The 'Golden Age' was a period of interactions between pornography and the contemporaneous second wave of feminism. Radical and cultural feminists, along with religious and conservative groups, attacked pornography,[59][60] while other feminists were pro-pornography, such as Camille Paglia, who defined what came to be known as sex-positive feminism in her work, Sexual Personae. Paglia and other sex-positive or pro-pornography feminists accepted porn as part of the sexual revolution with its libertarian sexual themes, such as exploring bisexuality and swinging, free from government interference. The endorsement of female critics was essential for the credibility of the brief era of "porno chic".[61][62][63][64]
Golden Age stars [ edit ]
Major pornographic film actors of the first part of the 'Golden Age', the "porno chic" era, included:
Second-wave stars [ edit ]
At the time of the maturation of the second wave, movies increasingly were being shot on video for home release.
As their popularity rose, so did their control of their careers. John Holmes became the first recurring porn character in the "Johnny Wadd" film series directed by Bob Chinn. Lisa De Leeuw was one of the first to sign an exclusive contract with a major adult production company, Vivid Video, and Marilyn Chambers worked in mainstream movies, being one of the first of a rare number of crossover porn actors.
Producers [ edit ]
Major producers during the first wave of the 'Golden Age', the "Porno Chic" era, include:
With the rise of video, the dominant pornographic film studios of the Second Wave period were VCA Pictures[65] and Caballero Home Video.[66]
Films of the period [ edit ]
Some of the best-known adult erotic films of the period include:
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The kicker outer,
Like But Not
Mobcrush was my first ever opportunity to stream. It felt great to actually try something like this out. I first downloaded Twitch to try to “go live”. But really it’s just your camera. I looked online for a solution to start streaming and I saw a website that said get Mobcrush!
When I downloaded Mobcrush they gave me good Instructions on how to set it up on your phone. So I did everything right and linked my device with Twitch and started my first Stream with Fortnite Battle Royale. Soon after I started it, it had a error message with the word null at the end of it. So your I have to restart your stream. Even looking at Twitch its very laggy and the audio doesn’t even work for people watching. I sent in two tickets and I hope soon that they can help me start a good stream.
Developer Response,
Hello The Kicker outer. Thanks for the review and feedback! We're glad you heard about us when it comes to mobile video game streaming!
We apologize for the inconveniences in your live streams. We'll have our engineering teams look into this for you. Fortnite is still in the process of optimization and can take up necessary phone resources to live stream. That said, Mobcrush is also in the process of replacing our streaming servers for a more stable streaming experience. We see your tickets in the system, and if it helps feel free to join our community discord for more help! https://discord.gg/6xPdDmC
Thanks again for using Mobcrush!We often feature homes here on Curbed SF—gorgeous, unfathomable homes—that are located in Eureka Valley. Or the Castro. Or both. And we often receive reader queries wondering why realtors and sellers use "Eureka Valley" in lieu of the more colloquial "Castro," the unofficial mecca of the LGBTQ community. To find out more and to see if potential buyers, with varying shades of sexuality, are possibly turned off by the charged "Castro" name, we asked three local realtors to give us tell us what’s up.
First, some background. The borders of Eureka Valley, according to the Castro/Eureka Valley Neighbors Association and a 2007 San Francisco Planning Department study, goes like this:
Sanchez Street on the east
22nd Street on the south
Twin Peaks on the west
Duboce Avenue on the north
Before the late 1960s/early 1970s, the neighborhood was considered a working-class Irish neighborhood. After a mixture of factory job loss and a migration of LGBT people looking for a safer home and a community to call their own, the neighborhood was transformed into the queer capitol it is today—aka, the Castro.
So why do some people still insist on calling it Eureka Valley? According to several SF-based realtor hotshots we spoke with, there are a few reasons. And the number one reason why the industry uses Eureka Valley over Castro is marketing cache. "Eureka Valley has a sexier appeal than Castro and it sounds more suburban and slightly more mature," says Vanguard Properties realtor Marco Carvajal.
A photo posted by Kevin (@xk3v1n) on Mar 27, 2016 at 6:55pm PDT
However, he goes on to say that, in addition to cache, "Eureka Valley, according to our real estate maps, is an all encompassing district name that features the Castro as an enclave, but by ‘enclave,’ I do not mean a portion of the neighborhood where the inhabitants are culturally or ethnically different."
When asked if more straight people are now moving into the typically queer neighborhood, Carvajal says that, yes, "more straight couples have been moving to the neighborhood over the past few years, but [to call it] it a mass gay exit or straight property gold rush would be a wild exaggeration."
A photo posted by @sf_daily_photo on Mar 22, 2016 at 8:26am PDT
Danielle Lazier, real estate agent with Keller Williams San Francisco, tells Curbed SF that, while it is tempting to unearth an underlying bias in realtors’ use of Eureka Valley over the Castro, it’s done for a perfectly good reason.
"Our local San Francisco MLS breaks down the city into districts by numbers (1-10) and subdistricts by neighborhood name," says Lazier. "Currently, the area commonly known as the Castro falls into the ‘Eureka Valley’ subdistrict of District 5. "
When asked why, in 2016, some still use Eureka Valley over Castro, since the latter is far more recognized than the former, she muses, "The Board of Realtors has not always been the most diverse; however, it's equally plausible that the Castro was not yet in common usage as the neighborhood's name when the map was drawn."
(Speaking of maps, Google Maps uses The Castro over Eureka Valley.)
A photo posted by Michael (@the415guy) on Mar 7, 2016 at 10:07pm PST
Realtor Kevin Ho, of Kevin Ho & Jonathan McNarry Real Estate, corroborates what Carvajal and Lazier said, explaining to Curbed SF, "Eureka Valley encompasses the broader real estate subdistrict of District 5...the city has many more micro-neighborhoods than the realtor maps dare depict and this is just one more example of that."
When asked to get more granular, Ho tells us the distinction between Castro and Eureka Valley with the following specifics: "Eureka Valley refers to the hillier, tree-lined streets with stunning big single-family homes and views that are further away from the nightlife of the Castro" while the Castro "tends to focus on the lower parts of the area focused around Market, Castro and 18th Streets with a little bit of 19th Street thrown in."
He goes on to reveal that the LGBT community is also referred to as an "affinity group" within the jargon-laced tongue of real estate lexicon.
A photo posted by Raymond Braun (@raymondbraun) on Jun 20, 2016 at 6:51pm PDT
"Apart from the elevation difference, the bigger difference is that Castro tends to draw more members of what realtors may euphemistically call an ‘affinity group,’ which is really code for LGBT people (with an emphasis on the G in that acronym)," explains Ho. "These folks will often make the Castro a destination for its nightlife when they’re younger and then as an area where they want to live as they get older. You like to live around people who are like you, right?"
Indeed.
Whether Castro or Eureka Valley, we beg you to check out the neighborhood(s) this coming Pride weekend.Baby birds suffering as parents cannot hear chicks’ crying for hunger in noisy environments
Urban din is masking communication between bird parents and chicks causing city living birds to suffer, scientists at the University of Sheffield have revealed.
Researchers from the University believe noise and industrial racket could make house sparrow parents less attentive, likely because they were unable to hear their chicks hunger cries.
The experts showed that the noise was linked with lower chick survival, and the problem is thought to be so severe it might impact on the populations of house sparrows in the UK’s town and cities.
Other studies showed numbers of breeding sparrows in the UK were found to have declined by between 60 per cent and even 99 per cent. The mechanism revealed by this study by researchers from the University of Sheffield is likely one important cause for this decline.
Dr Julia Schroeder, of the University’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said: “It can have implications for all bird species that experience urban noise. Our study shows the first evidence for noise affecting breeding success in birds by interrupting communication between parents and offspring in a wild population.
“We have found a potential cause for the decline of sparrows in cities. The failed communication between parents and offspring could contribute to the dwindling numbers of sparrows in cities.”
The experts studied house sparrows living on Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel which the scientists describe as a natural laboratory.
Julia added: “We are lucky to have a brilliant study population of house sparrows on Lundy Island. Because it's an island, and because sparrows don't like to fly away from it across the sea, we can precisely track the survival of each bird.
“Lundy is not connected to the electrical power grid and they produce electricity on the island. The power generators make a lot of noise. In the barn next to where they are situated, we also have 27 sparrow nest boxes. We compared the sparrows breeding in there with those breeding in nest boxes in other, quiet barns and in a small woodland on Lundy.
“Chicks that were reared in the noisy barn were lighter when they fledged. Their mothers did not feed them as often as in quiet places and they survived less well. Chicks were fed less often in noisy environments than they were in quieter areas. When the noise was turned off the broods in the nosier areas were fed more often.
“We believe that the noise from the generators on Lundy is comparable to the one made by cars in cities, and therefore, that noise impairing parent-offspring communication could be a reason for why sparrows decline in cities.”
To combat the problems the house sparrows are facing, the scientists say nest boxes should be put up as far away from noise as possible but only an overall reduction of urban noise could see a boom in bird numbers.
Additional information The University of Sheffield With nearly 25,000 students from 125 countries, the University of Sheffield is one of the UK’s leading and largest universities. A member of the Russell Group, it has a reputation for world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. The University of Sheffield has been named University of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards for its exceptional performance in research, teaching, access and business performance. In addition, the University has won four Queen’s Anniversary Prizes (1998, 2000, 2002, and 2007). These prestigious awards recognise outstanding contributions by universities and colleges to the United Kingdom’s intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield also boasts five Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and many of its alumni have gone on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence around the world. The University’s research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls Royce, Unilever, Boots, AstraZeneca, GSK, ICI, Slazenger, and many more household names, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. The University has well-established partnerships with a number of universities and major corporations, both in the UK and abroad. Its partnership with Leeds and York Universities in the White Rose Consortium has a combined research power greater than that of either Oxford or Cambridge. The University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences Department of Animal and Plant SciencesComing to a comic store near you very soon courtesy of DC Comics, a new plastic carrier bag featuring Ivan Reis’ Justice League on one side, and an ad for the TBS show King Of The Nerds on the other. The bags will arrive mid-December, the show, a competition reality show hosted by Robert Carradine and Curtis Armstrong, begins in mid-January.
Funded by the TV show advertising budget, these are being delivered to stores for free, so expect to see plenty. The only thing is – are you prepared to carry your comics home with a bag that seems to go out of its way to make fun of you.
From one self-hating geek, absolutely!
About Rich Johnston Chief writer and founder of Bleeding Cool. Father of two. Comic book clairvoyant. Political cartoonist.
(Last Updated )
Related Posts
None foundTwo people became critically ill after drinking herbal tea that was purchased a San Francisco Chinatown store, san Francisco public health officials said. Cheryl Hurd reports. (Published Friday, March 10, 2017)
Two people are critically ill after drinking tea bought from the same Chinatown herbalist in San Francisco.
The tea leaves bought at Sun Wing Wo Trading Company, at 1105 Grant Avenue, contained the plant-based toxin Aconite, the Department of Public Health said Friday.
A man in his 50s last month and a woman in her 30s this month became sick soon after drinking the tea, and both remain hospitalized, health officials said.
“Both patients developed symptoms about an hour after consuming the tea,” said Dr. Tomas Aragon, health officer for the city and county of San Francisco.
Each person grew weak then had life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms that required resuscitation and intensive care.
"The tea leaves were provided in a plastic bag," which was not labeled, according to Aragon.
Aconite, also known as monkshood, helmet flower and wolfsbane, is used in Asian herbal medicines. But it must be processed properly to be safe.
"This Aconite poisoning which can come from Chinese herbal teas if not processed correctly it can affect the heart. It can give them neuological symptoms like tingling it can also give you nausea and vomiting," Aragon said.
Health officials are working to find the original source of the tea leaves, and they are warning others to stop consuming it. For now, all the tea's ingredients have been removed from the store's shelves.
"Anyone who has purchased tea from this location should not consume it and should throw it away immediately," Aragon said. "Aconite poisoning attacks the heart and can be lethal."
There is no indication that the people were poisoned intentionally, according to officials.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Southern CaliforniaLCR Honda boss Lucio Cecchinello is expected to find out within the next few days whether his Monaco-based MotoGP squad has the budget to expand to a two-rider effort in 2015.
Cecchinello has had long ambitions to run a two-rider premier class project with Honda, having always entered with a one-rider effort ever since joining MotoGP back in 2006 with Casey Stoner.
The Italian is now in the final stages of advanced talks with London-based CWM World, which describes itself as a ‘leader in international product development priding itself on its ability to bring high quality products and services to market with unrivalled drive and passion. We cover a wide range of demographic tailoring to support institutions, corporations and individuals. CWM has 13 subsidiaries servicing specific needs across medical, investment and online trading just to name a few.
Together with CWM World’s vision and market position we build cutting-edge solutions and manage key assets worldwide.’
CWM World recently backed German Stefan Bradl during last month’s Dutch TT at Assen and will also be the naming rights backer of LCR in the forthcoming Brno and Phillip Island races too.
And Cecchinello is now hoping to secure a major sponsorship deal for 2015 to help him secure a two-bike deal with HRC.
Cecchinello told MCN during last weekend’s Sachsenring round in Germany that he continues to be locked in discussion with CWM World management and hoped to have an answer on their potential increased involvement imminently.
Cecchinello told MCN: “We are under discussion with our title sponsor of the Assen GP to make a big project for next year. At the moment the project is still under discussion. If CWM World come on board we will have a two-rider team and if not we will continue with just one.”
With all factories in MotoGP limited to running just four official bikes, if Cecchinello could finance a second machine, it would be a production Honda RCV1000R.
Moto3 sensation Jack Miller has been linked with that ride, while Cecchinello could also be looking for a rider to jump on his RC213V factory machine, with Honda not keen on him renewing Stefan Bradl’s deal.
He added: “Every manufacturer can only have four Factory spec machines and this means that we will have one Factory spec and one in Open configuration. The new Honda Open bike will be based on a Factory bike but with Magneti Marelli software. So it will have pneumatic valves and I believe it will be very competitive and very interesting to have a softer tyre on this bike. We haven’t yet discussed with riders because at this moment we didn’t sign any contract. Once that is done we can immediately start to think about available riders in the market.”
Cecchinello is confident that he could land an RCV1000R machine for 2015, even though HRC recently revealed to MCN that it won’t supply more than four.
Aspar has confirmed it will definitely continue to run two, while Fausto Gresini is also keeping the one RCV1000R that he currently campaigns with British rider Scott Redding.
The Czech-based Cardion AB squad is also believed to want to continue.
So could Cecchinello definitely get an RCV1000R if CWM World commits to a bigger involvement next season?
He added: “This is still under discussion with HRC but I think that if the sponsor will sign then Honda will seriously consider our extra request. I think what will be important is to give the information to Honda very soon because this will be the key point to make an extra Open machine.”The power is back on at the region's children's hospital, after an outage that lasted almost six hours, but postponements continue.
A power outage at about 10:30 a.m. postponed all elective surgery and non-urgent cases at the IWK for the day.
The hospital stayed on backup power, allowing it to carry out emergency operations.
A backup generator was trucked to the IWK Health Sciences Centre. It arrived just as the power came back on.
The generator came from Burnside as a precaution. It was escorted by police.
"We are slowly bringing the system up, and testing as it comes back online," according to an IWK news release.
"With this slow ramp up process, it will be a while until we can say our systems are completely stable. As a precaution, the IWK will be cancelling most surgeries for tomorrow, July 5."
Nova Scotia Power crews traced the problem to a substation connected to the IWK and the Victoria General Hospital.
The Victoria General Hospital also reported a brief outage Wednesday morning.The first Hunger Games movie released back in 2012 and I remember not being that impressed. The movie as a whole was not really the kind of movie I was interested in and I was convinced that it was just another teen franchise trying to get young viewers engaged into seeing mediocre films,another twilight if you will. What I didn’t know about the franchise is that it was based on the best selling book series nor did I know what kind of an actress Jennifer Lawrence would become. As it were later on that year Silver Linings Playbook came out and the world was suddenly aware of Jennifer Lawrence in a very real way.
The Hunger Games
This is where it all began, four years ago we are introduced to a world ravished by tyranny begging for change, begging for a hero to step up and fight. Our story follows a young girl named Katniss a resident of District 12 doing everything she can to survive. When reaping day is upon them the unthinkable happens her little sister Prim is chosen to participate in the 74th Annual Hunger Games. Katniss is left with no choice but to volunteer as tribute for her district in order to save her young sister’s life. Doing everything she can to stay alive she creates a romance for the audience with her co tribute Peeta Mellark in order to keep the world rooting for them and helping them stay alive. As the movie progresses Lawrence has some real chances to come to life as an actress and does her part to carry the story along.
2.5/5-Not Impressed
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The games are over but the fight is just beginning for Peeta and Katniss as the go around to each district on their victory tour. Finding it harder and harder to stay silenced to the atrocities taking place in Panem. It becomes very apparent that the games are never truly over as it seems Katniss’ defiant actions have left both President Snow and the districts with the impression that she stands for something bigger altogether. Eager to avoid a war Katniss and Peeta do everything they can to appease Snow while trying to keep their conscience clean. The challenges are just beginning as Peeta and Katniss find themselves picked to participate in the 75th Hunger games also known as the Quarter Quell.
4/5
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
After the shocking events of the Quarter Quell Katniss finds herself in District 13, long assumed to be gone, and Peeta is missing. She finds that she has become a symbol of hope the mockingjay that the rebellion has needed to unite the districts against the capitol. Katniss struggles to find her voice as the Mockingjay and her place in the uprising. She comes to the decision that she must do both on her own terms. When she travels to, the now destroyed, District 12 she witnesses the suffering her home has endured. This gives her the will to fight and leaves filming propaganda films behind. One thing needs to be said that this was one of her first roles after winning her oscar and in my opinion it shows. She tends to overreact and over perform some of the more trivial scenes.
3/5
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
The epic conclusion to the four part series does not disappoint, full of action and surprising twists and turns Katniss finds herself smack dab in the middle of deception and war. Making her way to the capitol to kill Snow she and her squad find danger at every turn and struggle to make it out alive. This finale includes some edge of your seat level action and keeps you guessing just how this war will end. Maybe the best performances are delivered from everyone of the returning cast members and some memorable performances from some new ones.
4/5
Audio
The overall audio from disc to disc maintains good quality and stays consistent from one movie to the next as I watched them sequentially. The only real issue I noticed was when going from Mockingjay Part 1 to Part 2 the volume needs changed dramatically I had to turn it way up to accommodate the audio in the final movie and then back down when the action started up. This was a bit annoying however I imagine if you didn’t watch them sequentially over a two day span like I did, you would not really notice this much.
Audio 4/5
Picture Quality
The transfer of these films to Blu-ray is amazing. These movies do very well in high definition and each movie has some different characteristics that do nicely to be highlighted in this format. Even the first movie, which is my least favorite, does look beautiful on Blu-ray. The colors pop off the screen, the resolution and picture clarity looks near perfect, and there are no issues with this transfer at all. Bravo to Liosngate for this release.
Picture Quality 5/5
Packaging
I have to admit I have been waiting for this set to release for some time now. Not because I am a huge fan, however When the movies first starting releasing I made the decision to forgo buying any of the individual movies and instead buying the inevitable box set that would release some day in all its glory. When I make a decision like that it does take some will power. So the real question is was it worth it. The short answer is is yes. The overall quality of the box set is great. The outer shell is made of very durable cardboard and unlike most box sets this one should endure heavy usage. This set was well worth the wait. The set comes in a nice sturdy box and the the insert slides out from the bottom to reveal some very nice artwork featured on both sides. The set includes all four films, and six discs. Every film comes with special features and the first and last film come with a second disc for the special features.
Packaging 4.5/5
Overall
These movies have such a wonderful and rich story to them. The acting only gets better with each one and as the story progresses we see ourselves in the different characters. The enormous universe and underlying sub plots are well written and create an atmosphere where most of the time we do not see where the story is going. The boxset is beautiful and pays a wonderful “tribute” to the story as a whole. I highly recommend this edition it comes with a boatload of features and will stay in good condition for some time to come. You can purchase this edition HERE.
Overall 4/5 – Would RecommendWe all know that KU has now put together 11 straight first-place finishes in their conference. The Jayhawks have tied Gonzaga's 11-season conference run (2001-2011) and sit only two behind record holder UCLA (1967-1979). It's been well-documented that the only year Bill Self did not finish in at least a tie for first place at KU was in his first year in Lawrence, the 2003-04 season. A friend of mine brought up an interesting stat the other day that made me look at "The Streak" and KU Basketball in general a little bit differently.
Pop Quiz: Only six teams have received a Top-4 seed in each of the past three NCAA Tournaments (2014, 2013, 2012). Name them.
One of those teams, hopefully obviously, is Kansas. In fact, the Jayhawks have the longest (active) such streak of any team in the country at 14 years running (about to be 15 years).
Let that sink in for a second. Kansas has earned a Top-4 seed for the last 14 years in a row.
Now I have no idea where KU's current streak ranks in terms of history, but I'm guessing if it's not tops, it's pretty high on the list. Bill Self has never been seeded lower than 4 while at Kansas (I mean, what?), and the current seeding streak began with the three final years of the Roy Williams era at KU.
Also consider this - Kansas currently holds the longest active streak of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances regardless of seed with 25 in a row (1990-2014). Of course, that number is about to become 26. North Carolina holds the record with 27 (1975-2001), something KU can tie next year and break in 2017. This streak also began in the Roy Williams era, as the first 14 tournament berths of this streak are credited to him. Bill Self "continued the tradition" (see what I did there?) and has 11 of his own (about to be 12).
Kansas is on a run that, should it continue very much longer, will become unprecedented.
Now, recall the article posted yesterday discussing Big 12 teams and their success relative to seed over the past 12 years. Doesn't having a high seed every year make Kansas more prone to "upsets" than any other team over the past 14 years? Because Kansas has literally had a high seed for the past 14 years. Not only that, during the entire streak of consecutive tournament appearances (25 since 1990), KU has only been seeded lower than 4 twice - 1999 (6) and 2000 (8). That makes 23 out of 25 seasons that Kansas has been a Top-4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
I'm floored.
KU has three amazing, current, active streaks going:
- 11 straight Big 12 regular season titles
- 14 straight Top-4 seeds in the NCAA Tournament (15 after this week)
- 25 straight NCAA Tournament appearances (26 after this week)
When I think about these three amazing streaks, all three active and concurrent, I'm nothing but amazed.
For the answer to your pop quiz, scroll just a bit farther.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Pop Quiz answers: Kansas, Duke, Syracuse, Louisville, Michigan State, Michigan.
The next longest active streak of Top-4 seeds is Duke with 7. Syracuse's current streak of 6 will end this year.Anger and protests over police tactics and shootings have sparked a re-evaluation of the role, and structure, of policing in America. The national discussion continues, with new developments deepening it seemingly every week.
Reports continue to be released in an attempt to get an exact number of how many people have been shot and killed by police in recent years.
It’s a problem they don’t have in Manchester, England, where the number of deaths in the last 40 years is two. Sir Peter Fahy, the chief constable of the Greater Manchester Police, believes that the the number is the result of a radically different approach toward guns and mental health than we have in the United States.
“The whole way that we train officers is that the absolute last resort is to use your firearm," he says. "When you get into a situation, you assess the situation, you give yourself other options. And it starts from a position, always, that the best weapon is their mouth.”
The vast majority have to use their mouths, or at least not firearms, because only 209 of the 6,700 officers in Manchester’s force are armed. Fahy doesn’t believe that Manchester is particularly safe or small; it’s a busy English city with a population of 2.7 million people, dangerous situations and encounters happen every day.
Underlying these low numbers is a different perspective on the role of police and the types of situations in which police belong.
“If you end up using your police force for mental health services, then the trouble is that police officers end up having to deal with people who often have disorders or are troubled in certain ways,” Fahy adds. “So we worked very strongly with our health service to make sure that it is health workers who respond to mental health crises, not police officers.”
Strong mental health support, Fahy believes, is crucially missing in the United States, something that he notices when he’s just walking around.
“I am struck when I go to the US by the number of people on the sidewalk who clearly are suffering from mental health issues," he says. "And the trouble is that the police force are the outreach service that are dealing with them. Then they end up in situations where the person’s demeanor ends up getting them shot."
But it’s not simply a better way to deal with mental health that has resulted in Manchester’s success. Rather, underlying their entire system is an emphasis on community building. The force even introduced a new type of officer about 10 years ago, a 'police community support officer.' These police have no power, but rather simply go to communities to build relationship, which Fahy believes is at the very foundation of what policing should be.
“Often you find that the people you're |
" may be a ploy for imposing martial law on Texas.
"This military practice has some concerned that the U.S. Army is preparing for modern-day martial law. Certainly I can understand these concerns," Gohmert said in a statement on the exercises. "When leaders within the current administration believe that major threats to the country include those who support the Constitution, are military veterans or even 'cling to guns or religion,' patriotic Americans have reason to be concerned."
Gohmert, who has served in the Army and has participated in military exercises, explained that he understands why a training exercise in civilian territory would be a routine occurrence and useful for the military. But he claims that a map depicting the operation's parameters that labels Texas "hostile" territory has stoked his deeper fears that the president could be using the operation as cover for something more sinister.
According to the Washington Post, which confirmed the map's legitimacy with Army sources, the map was likely made for local authorities, and the depiction of a domestic region as hostile territory is a regular feature of training exercises which — by definition — are simulating combat with an enemy.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon found itself in the unusual position of having to deny any military plot to take over Texas. "Jade Helm is a long-planned and -coordinated exercise," Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told CNN. "We are not taking over anything."
Fuel to the fire: Conspiracy theories about the Obama administration's secret desire to destroy America are a dime a dozen on right-wing websites and online forums, but what's been striking about the Jade Helm flare-up has been how major Republican politicians from the state, including the governor, have treated them as worthy of serious consideration.
Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbott first lent legitimacy to the theory of a military takeover by instructing the Texas State Guard to monitor the operation. "It is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed upon," Abbott said when announcing his action, according to NPR.
Presidential candidates have weighed in too. Instead of dismissing the hubbub as a fringe conspiracy theory, they've added fuel to the fire. Bloomberg reports that presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he isn't surprised by the reaction to Jade Helm.
"I understand a lot of the concerns raised by a lot of citizens about Jade Helm," Cruz told Bloomberg at a convention in South Carolina. "It's a question I'm getting a lot, and I think part of the reason is we have seen, for six years, a federal government disrespecting the liberty of the citizens."
Cruz said he believes that it is just a military exercise, but that he needed to reach out to the Department of Defense to be sure of it.
"My office has reached out to the Pentagon to inquire about this exercise," he told Bloomberg. "We are assured it is a military training exercise. I have no reason to doubt those assurances, but I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty, because when the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration, the natural consequence is that many citizens don't trust what it is saying."
Cruz's remarks are not an endorsement of the martial law conspiracy theory, but his extraordinary sympathy for its proponents and his claim that he needed to confirm it with the government amounts to a form of encouragement. Rather than reflexively dismissing the idea as ludicrous, he says that while the facts of this situation suggest the imposition of military rule in Texas isn't imminent, the possibility of it is not an unreasonable fear.
Somehow, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has emerged as the voice of reason on the debate.
"You know, I think our military is quite trustworthy," Perry said, according to the Washington Post. "Civilian leadership – you can always question that, but not the men and women in uniform."
Perry's fellow Texan Republicans should take a cue from him — surely they know that fueling paranoia is bad for the entire country in the long run.The urge to believe in something is part of human nature. No one can live a long life without having a belief in something. At least, I am not aware of anyone who has managed. Many people choose religion as their core belief, because it comes with a handy predefined set of rules and some kind of historic “credibility”. Others believe in materialistic things and the pleasure resulting from these, in political/philosophical ideologies, in space travel, singularity, immortality, animal rights, a better world, equality, freedom, democracy and so on. While most people combine multiple beliefs (often with one umbrella belief that dominates and influences all other sub-beliefs), everyone has chosen or being introduced to at least something to believe in at each moment of his/her existence.
Unfortunately, in the democratic and developed countries, I currently notice a crisis of beliefs. People struggle with finding something to believe in. There is a widespread disappointment in many of the modern “mainstream” beliefs. The era of constant economic growth has ended or at least taken a long pause. World peace looks as distant as it always has. The trust in the governing organizations and the democracy itself is eroding in many countries. The disruptive consequences of the digital revolution, of globalization, of climate change and the current migration wave cause a lot of people to worry about their personal well-being and standard of living. With the possible exception of climate change, these concerns often are either irrational/exaggerated or at least destructive and not very pragmatic. But they are persistent and hard to erase from people’s minds.
Many of the beliefs linked to mainstream ideologies have taken a lot of damage, thereby causing at least some people to turn to beliefs featuring intolerance, discrimination, extremism and fundamentalism. I see the rise of right-wing populism, nationalism and religious fundamentalism that can be witnessed in Europe as well as the U.S. as a direct consequence. If people do not see any benefit anymore in believing in mainstream ideologies that promise constant improvements for everyone, the seemingly logical response for some is to adopt a belief that exclusively promises constant improvements to their specific group (ethnical, cultural, religious etc), often through discrimination, exclusion and denunciation of other groups.
Assuming that having something to believe in is indeed part of human nature (I am not aware of facts indicating the opposite), the populist, racist, fascist, fundamentalist and reactionary beliefs that currently are on the rise can only be pushed back if a persuasive alternative belief is being provided.
Here is see the biggest failure of today’s political leaders in the Western world, and their biggest task: They need to give citizens something new to believe in. The old mainstream beliefs of the last century have lost a lot of their clout. That’s why new, inclusive, unifying and convincing beliefs are required (The thing about effective beliefs is that while they always come with uncertainty about their validity and realizability, they are good enough to actually being adopted by people).
As long as political and civil leaders do not create and present new kinds of beliefs that convincingly give the outlook of prosperity, common well-being and a better life for everyone, racist, fascist, fundamentalist and populist beliefs will remain and likely spread even more.
That by the way is one of the main reasons why I want to see experiments with and implementations of an unconditional basic income. While it is unclear if it actually can work, it is a fresh, new kind of idea which in the best scenario would actually mean a huge step forward for humanity. It is a belief good enough to pursue, for now. Especially considering the alternatives.Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. Photo: AP
Taking advantage of a law that allows him to assign any case to any member of the state bar, Missouri’s chief public defender, Michael Barrett, appointed Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (a fiscally conservative Democrat finishing his second term) as the defense attorney of a poor client this week, citing the governor’s refusal to provide his office with the resources it needs.
“As of yet, I have not utilized this provision because it is my sincere belief that is wrong to reassign an obligation placed on the state by the 6th and 14th Amendments to private attorneys who have in no way contributed to the current crisis,” reads the letter Barrett sent Nixon dated Tuesday. “However, given the extraordinary circumstances that compel me to entertain any and all avenues for relief, it strikes me that I should begin with the one attorney in the state who not only created the problem, but is in a unique position to address it.”
Last month, the Missouri State Public Defender—allegedly the second worst-funded public defender’s office in the country—sued the governor after he withheld $3.5 million in caseload relief funding while reportedly leaving other executive agencies largely untouched.
“This action comes even after the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice found that poor black people are being deprived of their rights in Missouri due in large part to the lack of public defenders,” wrote Barrett. “As Director of the Public Defender System, I can only hire attorneys when I have the funding to do so.”
“Therefore,” Barrett concluded, “I hereby appoint you, Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Bar No. 29603, to enter your appearance as counsel of record in the attached case. Very truly yours, Michael Barrett.”
[h/t Christopher J. Hale]Figure 5: The tracks made in 1969 by astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean, the third and fourth humans to walk on the moon, can be seen in this LRO image of the Apollo 12 site. The location of the descent stage for Apollo 12's lunar module, Intrepid, also can be seen.
Conrad and Bean performed two moon walks on this flat lava plain in the Oceanus Procellarum region of the moon. In the first walk, they collected samples and chose the location for the lunar monitoring equipment known as the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). The ALSEP sent scientific data about the moon's interior and surface environment back to Earth for more than seven years.
One of the details visible in this image is a bright L-shape that marks the locations of cables running from ALSEP's central station to two of its instruments. These instruments are probably (left) the Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment, or SIDE, which studied positively charged particles near the moon's surface, and (right) the Lunar Surface Magnetometer, or LSM, which looked for variations in the moon's magnetic field over time; these two instruments had the longest cables running from the central station. Though the cables are much too small to be seen directly, they show up because the material they are made from reflects light very well.
In the second moon walk, Conrad and Bean set out from the descent stage and looped around Head crater, visiting Bench crater and Sharp crater, then headed east and north to the landing site of Surveyor 3. There, the astronauts collected some hardware from the unmanned Surveyor spacecraft, which had landed two years earlier.
The two astronauts covered this entire area on foot, carrying all of their tools and equipment and more than 32 kilograms (roughly 60 pounds) of lunar samples.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/ASU
› Larger image
› Larger image (unlabeled)Kanu Sarda By
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has made it mandatory that affidavits should be filed by both parties in a divorce case at the time of filing of a petition stating their clear sources of income. The move comes after rise in frivolous maintenance pleas.
According to an order passed by Justice J R Midha, if affidavits are found to be exaggerated, then the party concerned (husband or wife) can be sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment. “The woman seems to be trying to abuse the benevolent provisions of law. This section is designed to help the needy and not the greedy. It is not meant for settling personal scores, but it is experienced that it is often being misused,” the order reads. The High Court has issued directions to all the six trial courts of Delhi.
Affidavit Should State...
■ Sources of income
■ Details of movable and immovable properties
■ Number of cars
■ Rent income (if any)
■ Number of insurance policies
■ Kids’ education
■ No. of credit cards, bank a/c
■ Loans taken (if any)
The guidelines of the High Court to trial courts state that both petitioner and respondent in every case filed under section 125 of CrPC will have to disclose their movable and immovable properties, their source of income, their bank accounts, credit cards they hold, investments and their monthly expenses in an affidavit.
All the information stated in the affidavit shall be accompanied with relevant proofs of the same and any discrepancies found would attract penal provisions. This step will also put an end to rounds of litigations involved in deciding maintenance.
“It’s a welcome step as women can no longer exaggerate their estranged husband’s income and husbands too can’t show themselves as the poorest of the lot,” said advocate Sandeep Kumar.
The affidavit shall also include details about the lifestyle the couple used to maintain along with the expense on marriage, honeymoon, and gifts in marriage, number of cars, insurance premium, and number of mobile phones, loans and in case of kids, their school education.[!] Note: The following will contain minor spoilers for Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout 4. Consider yourself warned.
Last August I wrote an article exploring the masterful worldbuilding within George Miller’s post-apocalyptic thriller, Mad Max: Fury Road. [You can read it here.] It was easily my favorite film of 2015. There was a lot to love, both subtlety and nuance was scattered throughout the movie despite the fact that it was a two-hour action-packed car chase through a wasteland.
Well, this last fall the post-apocalyptic gods smiled on us twofold with the release of Fallout 4, Bethesda’s latest post-apocalyptic role-playing game. I’ve long been a fan of the series ever since I played the first Fallout on my PC as a kid. So I was excited. Heck, I even went out and bought a PS4 specifically to check it out. Now, before I start nitpicking, I need to preface that Fallout 4 is not a bad game. It’s a game I have been enjoying. It’s a game I would recommend. But, I think just like films, music, books, and art we can cast a critical eye at specific elements of a video game while still enjoying the game as a whole.
I was initially going to entitle this piece Fallout 4 and the Failures of Worldbuilding, but I retracted a bit. Mainly because that is both overly dramatic and clickbait garbage. Also, because in a lot of ways and in many places Fallout 4 has great worldbuilding, it’s just inconsistent. As a result, Fallout 4 continually pulls me out of the moment. Despite wanting you to engage with the world on a personal level, it doesn’t allow us to suspend our disbelief long enough to lose ourselves in its world. This makes it feel manufactured—it’s a post-apocalyptic Disneyland that is trying to be something more. A lot of that is because it falls short in one of the most important and fundamental principles of worldbuilding: it tells you one thing and then shows you something else.
First, some backstory: Fallout 4 takes place in an alternate reality two-hundred years after a thermonuclear war nearly wipes out humanity, your character—a survivor who awakened from a state of suspended animation in an underground vault—is thrust into an unforgiving and often violent world in the search for a kidnapped child. Now, missing child aside, remember that established time frame: two-hundred years. It’s important.
The discrepancy between that origin story and the world I was playing in first hit me ten minutes into the game. Up until then, I assumed maybe forty to fifty years had passed. The world certainly seemed like it was emerging from disaster, but when your Mr. Handy unit, Codsworth, introduced the timespan a lot of the following worldbuilding began to fall apart.
“A bit over 210 actually, sir. Give or take a little for the Earth’s rotation and some minor dings to the ole’ chronometer.”
When the player first emerges from the Vault, you come across the remnants of people who didn’t survive. Piles of skeletons lay outside the gate to the Vault, skeletons still wearing the clothes they died in, which didn’t make much sense. Here they are exposed to the elements, and a corpse’s dress is still recognizable as a dress? This is seen in other things as well. Many structures still stand despite little or no maintenance. Some still have power. Often these sorts of niggling details are explained away using Ragnarok-Proofing, the concept that objects in the world (buildings, robots, heck, even clothes) are just made better. So metal doesn’t rust in the same way, clothing doesn’t wear regularly, and power sources last much longer, etc. And, some of that exists, the nuclear cells powering the Commonwealth’s robots are a good example, and if that was all I’d accept it and move on. But that isn’t all, it cascades from there.
Two-hundred years is a long time. Two-hundred years ago my home city, Seattle, didn’t exist. My state, Washington, hadn’t even been conceived. Most of America lived on the East Coast and had no idea that in fifty years they were going to be in the midst of the Civil War. Yet, in Fallout 4’s world that two-hundred years doesn’t seem to have changed much of anything. If fact, it barely looks like any time has passed. Most of the world remains a burnt husk. Nothing “new” feels permanent. Most settlements are hastily constructed shantytowns, cobbled together from the remnants. What civilization does exist, happens to be a loose collection of scraped-together tribes with little or no regard for one another. Compare this to Mad Max: Fury Road, in the first ten minutes of the movie we saw societies, hierarchies, and civilization, we saw cities, small and large, and even trade routes.
We’ve been told it’s two-hundred years after a terrible event but we’re not shown that, or what we’re shown doesn’t line up to support that. Not in any conceivable fashion. These sort of inconsistencies with the details continue to appear throughout the game. We read terminal entries about daily struggles of survival, only to be shown the corpses of those who entered the logs were sitting on an arsenal. For whatever reason the citizens of Goodneighbor have the means to make custom and complex neon signs, but asking them to clean up two-hundred years worth of rubble around their residences is below their pay grade. We meet a girl with a strangely thick Irish accent, and together we stumbled across the remains of people who apparently died together during the middle of their twelve-step meeting despite being in a protected shelter. We read concerns over a raider’s kidnapped sister and an antagonistic raider band, but we never get to explore that narrative. Instead, we get to fight the raiders. The results of this action? Slightly different terminal entries and a [Cleared] tag. These sort of scenes happens frequently, and as I kept playing, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was such unrealized potential. Minor discrepancies are noticeable, and because of this, the world of Fallout 4 often falls flat, it lacks the heart and soul that would make it feel alive.
It’s a disappointment because there are times where the world is rich. There are plenty of engaging characters (Valentine), and some fascinating locations (Salem, Covenant), and some interesting factions (The Railroad). Many times there are places where the game does shine. But those pieces are few and far between, and often they don’t seem to connect. Fallout 4 feels like it’s more concerned about being a first-person shooter than it is about fulfilling its pedigree of being a deep and multifaceted role-playing game. It’s more interested in creating small vignettes than a fully realized world. It wants you to strive for that next perk instead of that moment in its stories where you feel an emotional tug. It’s an amusement park ride that, while fun, still feels just like a ride.”
“…out-of-place accents, odd and contradictory vignettes, and bizarre behaviors all detract from the plausible post-apocalyptic world world Fallout 4 is wanting to create.”
These moments introduce questions in the world’s consistency. After all, consistent worlds are largely more believable worlds. In some cases, Fallout 4 is an improvement on its predecessor, Fallout 3. [See the Shandification of Fallout video.] It answers some of those big questions (What do they eat?) that were never answered in previous games. But strange out-of-place accents, odd and contradictory vignettes, and bizarre behaviors all detract from the plausible post-apocalyptic world Fallout 4 is wanting to create. They’re not asking open-ended questions that leave us wondering. Instead, they’re introducing concepts that pull us out of the moment.
Both Fallout and Mad Max are near and dear to me, and both have been influences in my own post-apocalyptic worldbuilding. Like both, my world of the Territories also takes place generations after an epic disaster. In fact, similar to Fallout 4, it has been so long since the apocalypse that the return of the Great Old Ones has faded into historical myth.
Within The Bell Forging Cycle civilizations have come and gone. Societies, religions, and nations have risen, expanded, and sometimes fallen. The scars of the disaster are there, and they’re clear and apparent to the people that inhabit the planet, but as Roland Deschain often says in The Dark Tower series, “the world has moved on.” Change has occurred, consistent change. There are certainly nods to post-apocalyptic tropes, in some places technology’s growth has been stymied, and people still use and seek out technology from the past. That’s part of the fun. Exploring the ideas inherent in survival after a catastrophe is one of the reasons why we read post-apocalyptic fiction. But, life hasn’t frozen. People have found other ways to solve their problems; nothing has remained static. Regression can only exist for so long; life is tenacious and robust, and when it comes to post-apocalyptic worlds (or any world for that matter), that’s a good thing for creators to remember.A real (sharp) katana is called a shinken ( 真 剣, lit., real sword ). In contrast to shinken, iaitō have no cutting edge and are designed for iai/battō practice and are usually unsuited for sword-to-sword contact. These should not be confused with other fake swords, which are primarily made for decorative reasons and generally unsafe for martial arts practice.
Japanese girl practicing iaido. The iaitō shown in this photograph was custom made according to the weight and size of the student. The blade is made of aluminum alloy, and for the student's safety, lacks a sharp edge
Most iaitō are made of an aluminium-zinc alloy which is cheaper and lighter than steel. This use of alloy and a blunt edge also avoids the Japanese legal restrictions on the manufacture of swords made of ferrous metals. As such, Japanese-made iaitō are intended as practice weapons and are not suited for any type of contact. The best alloy blades are rather faithful reproductions of real swords with authentic weight and shape along with similarly high-quality finish and fittings.[2] Iaitō may even have a mock hamon (刃文, lit., blade pattern, the temper line of a tempered steel blade). The average weight for a real uchigatana (打刀) is typically 1,200 g without the scabbard while a typical alloy iaitō is roughly 820 g. Some steel iaitō are also constructed and can weigh around 900–950 g for a 74 cm blade.[citation needed]
Some imitation Japanese swords are made in countries other than Japan. They may even be made of folded steel, much like a real katana, but with a blunt edge. Such weapons would face the same use and ownership restrictions in Japan as genuine swords, and would not be called iaitō in Japan.
First iaitō were made after the Second World War, to permit people without means to own a real sword, to have a tool for their practice of modern budo. Iaito are produced by specialized workshops not in direct relations with shinken sword smiths.[3]
Some dōjō in Japan recommend that only alloy blades be used for practicing iaidō until the practitioner’s skill is consistent enough to safely use a sharp-edged sword,[citation needed] Some iaidō schools may require a practitioner to start with a shinken right away,[citation needed] while other schools prohibit the use of a shinken altogether.[citation needed]
The matching of iaitō length, weight, and balance to the practitioner’s build and strength is of utmost importance to safely and correctly perform the iaidō forms (kata). Due to the repetition involved in the practicing of iaidō, iaitō are often constructed with the balance point of the blade being set farther from the blade’s point (kissaki) and closer to the guard (tsuba) than other blades.[citation needed]Jessica Williams (Comedy Central)
Jessica Williams kicked a hornet’s nest on her way out the door at “The Daily Show” by scolding Bernie Sanders supporters who are thinking of voting for Donald Trump.
“Bernie-or-bust” voters don’t always like to admit it, but polls have shown that nearly one-fourth of them would back Trump — the radioactive but presumptive Republican nominee — over Hillary Clinton.
Williams, the departing correspondent, gathered six Sanders loyalists together on her last appearance on “The Daily Show,” which has struggled to find its footing since the departure of Jon Stewart nearly a year ago.
Three male voters — black, Hispanic and white — told Williams they would “probably be looking at Trump,” whose campaign has been characterized by racist rhetoric and proposals, as Williams looked on in bewilderment.
“Why?” she said.
“He has diarrhea of the mouth, but a lot of things that he says are things that a lot of people may think,” said the Hispanic voter.
“You mean, like racist things?” Williams said.
“Racist things, I would say, yeah,” the voter admitted.
“He is a bigot and a racist,” one woman admitted, but started to qualify her statement with a “however.”
“You don’t have to continue with ‘however,'” Williams told her. “Where you gonna go with that?”
“I’m about to go there,” the woman said. “Hillary has been a scam artist all her life, and I hope the FBI comes and indicts her.”
Williams said she started to suspect these Sanders supporters didn’t actually like Trump, but perhaps had other motivations.
“Hillary will bring us to war within 90 days of her inauguration,” the same woman said.
A second woman weighed in, saying Clinton was “just a stack of garbage.”
“She’s a stack of garbage?” Williams said.
“She’s more like a leprechaun to me,” said the black man on the panel.
“What has a leprechaun ever done to you?” Williams said.
“They disgust me,” the man said.
Williams wondered how these voters could go from a “left-wing progressive” like Sanders to Trump — “a man who worships money only slightly less than he worships himself.”
She asked the voters to identify one thing that Trump and Sanders had in common.
“Bernie and Donald do not have a super PAC,” said the woman who called Trump a bigot and racist.
Williams pointed out that Trump actually had several super PACs.
“Bernie and Trump both don’t have hair,” the Hispanic man said.
“Wow, okay,” Williams said. “Anything else?”
“They’re both old,” he added. “They both want to be president.”
Williams wondered how these voters couldn’t see the similarities between Sanders and Clinton, who both ran as Democrats.
“Their views are totally opposite,” the black man said.
Williams asked the man to compare Sanders’ views to Trump’s, and he responded with, “okay.”
“Okay, what?” Williams said. “Are they totally opposite?”
The man never answered, but he squinted his eyes in thought and appeared to begin an affirmative nod, but couldn’t commit to the gesture — which Williams compared to a robot short-circuiting.
“These are real people who are going to vote,” Williams said.
The panelists correctly identified quotes attributed to Sanders and Trump, although one woman was tricked into guessing Trump instead of Adolf Hitler, and Williams told them that’s because the candidates were so different.
“It’s not going to Trump, it’s going away from Hillary Clinton,” said the woman who compared the presumptive Democratic nominee to garbage.
She asked the panel if they would prefer to have a “100 percent turd, instead of a maybe-secret turd” — and every voter quickly agreed.
“What if that maybe-dookie turns out to be just okay, and a little less progressive than Bernie Sanders?” Williams asked.
“Then I guess we’ll have to chew on that,” said a white man on the panel.
Watch the entire segment posted online by Comedy Central:Throughout my NEC campaign I have had the great privilege of speaking at Momentum meetings across England. From Southampton to Liverpool I have been so inspired by the inclusive and democratic local groups that have sprung up in such a short space of time. I met countless young people who were enthused by the Jeremy’s Leadership campaign and tried to get involved in their local Party only to be confronted by bureaucracy and, in some unfortunate cases, outright hostility. It is interesting how Momentum groups are serving as a bridge between the new and enthusiastic membership, and the party’s out-of-date structures. For many members it is their Momentum group that tells them when, where and how to get involved with their CLP or Branch, not to mention being the friendly faces to welcome them when they arrive.
But it’s not only young and new members who are attracted to Momentum. I’ve met so many members who have either returned to the Labour Party after many years, or who, after maintaining their membership despite disagreements with consecutive leaderships, have had their confidence in the party immeasurably lifted. These are people who have devoted their lives to the labour movement and the struggle for social justice, and it is through Momentum that they are finding their way back to the heart of their local parties, where they belong.
I am convinced that Momentum has the potential to transform our party into the democratic, inclusive and grassroots movement that we need to take on the Tories. But more than that, I believe that Momentum, as a crucial component of the Labour Party, has the potential to transform our politics and our society. Momentum can open democratic participation in the political system. This means going beyond the bare bones elections and accountability – which are of course vital in a democratic society – and moving towards participative models that empower communities to make decisions for ourselves.
Our party and our political system were forged in a different era. Today we live in a world where technology allows us to communicate at an unprecedented speed, allowing networks to outperform hierarchies in gathering knowledge and making effective decisions. But our political system has not caught up. Momentum is beginning to change that in the party and it can be the model for change in society. I welcome the Labour leadership’s initial movements towards participatory budgeting – giving local communities the power to decide spending priorities – but think we can go much further. Our political system is broken and millions of people feel alienated. The Labour Party can and should take responsibility for finding a way out of this democratic crisis.
And the word ‘crisis’ brings me back to the state of the party I cherish. We cannot preach democracy and leadership if we do not practise it ourselves. This chaos must end. Labour MPs have a right to express their opinions and they hold the privileged position in the Labour Party in their ability to call for a leadership election. If they have serious concerns with the direction that Jeremy is taking the Party then they should use this process to put forward a competing vision for the country. But they do not have the right to hold our party to ransom, they do not have the right to abandon the country when it is in desperate need of leadership, and they do not have the right to use bullying as a tactic to get their own way. I urge them put an end to this turmoil, call a leadership election if they wish, and in the meantime work with the Labour leadership to help steer the future of our country in these turbulent times.
Follow Rhea on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rheawolfsonAh, Dec 24, Christmas Eve. The time to spend with parents, siblings, drunken aunts and that one crazy uncle that’s always telling you about chemtrails after four or five eggnogs. Or, the time for romantic dinner dates, proposals and convenience store chicken, if you’re in Japan.
The holiday has long been the bane of Tokyo singles, who are forced to watch thousands of happy couples marching all over town Christmas Eve, hand-in-hand, checking out the Christmas “illumination” shows that have become so popular over the years. That it’s one of the few times public displays of affection are relatively accepted in polite Japanese society just makes it all the more difficult for lonely guys and gals to bear.
But, this year, one Tokyo restaurant has a plan to give all those Forever Alones out there a safe haven to dine in peace on Christmas Eve and, who knows, maybe even find a potential partner.
The spaghetti diner PiaPia, on the outskirts of Tokyo in Hachioji, posted the hand-drawn sign at left in one of its windows recently.
It reads: “As it would cause severe emotional trauma to our staff members, we will be denying entry to all couples on December 24 with no exceptions!”
Okay, so it seems the real purpose for the policy is to save staff members – who may or may not be single – from being forced to watch couples make kissy faces at each other while they slave over a hot stove, but it’s sure to create the perfect environment for singles to enjoy a plate of spaghetti in relative peace. Who eats spaghetti on Christmas Eve we may never know, but it’s the thought that counts, we guess.
The Japanese netizens seem positively smitten with the idea, posting comments such as:
“I wish all restaurants would bar couples on Christmas Eve.”
“I’m considering getting a job here now!”
“What even is this?! This is hilarious!”
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Say “I Love You” this Christmas with these Romantic Potato Chips -- Beautiful Japanese Christmas Confectioneries if You’re Tired of Regular Christmas Cake -- “But we’re speaking Japanese!”: Humorous video confronts lingering stereotypes in Japan
© RocketNews24Saudi Arabia and Israel appear to be ascribing to the ancient proverb that says “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” The two countries have held five secret meetings since the beginning of 2014 to address their regional foe, Iran, it was revealed on Thursday at a Council of Foreign Relations event in Washington.
"Our standing today on this stage does not mean we have resolved all the differences that our countries have shared over the years," said Dore Gold, who will soon become Israel’s next foreign ministry director general, according to Bloomberg. "But our hope is we will be able to address them fully in the years ahead."
Anwar Majed Eshki, a retired Saudi general who was once the adviser to Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former Saudi ambassador to the United States, and Gold disclosed the secret diplomacy, which is aimed at discussing how to address Iran’s growing influence in the region.
Saudi Arabia refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a country and Israel rejects Saudi Arabia’s offer for peace in return for a Palestinian state, which would include a part of Jerusalem. But the two countries feel immense pressure to work together as Iran’s influence grows in Iraq and Yemen.
Eshki outlined a seven-point plan for the Middle East, including support for regime change in Iran, an multinational Arab military force and the formation of an independent state for the Kurds that would be carved out of Iraq, Iran and Turkey.
Gold’s speech at Thursday’s event warned of Iran’s expansionist ambitions but stopped short of calling for the fall of the Tehran government.
The talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel come as Iran and world powers led by the U.S. are trying to come to an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. A deal is expected to be hammered out by a June 30 deadline set by an agreement earlier this year. Talks could still break down or run past the deadline because Iran isn’t ready to grant access to all uranium enrichment sites in return for a lifting of sanctions. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly expressed skepticism that the U.S. and other Western powers involved in the talks can be trusted.
Saudi Arabia and Israel would be most affected if Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons, and it’s been an open secret that Israel and Saudi Arabia share a common interest in ensuring containment of Iran’s power.
“A few years ago, it was mainly Israel that rang the alarm about Iranian expansionism in the Middle East,” writes Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, who attended the event and spoke with Eshki about the secret meetings. “It is significant that now Israel is joined in this campaign by Saudi Arabia, a country that has wished for its destruction since 1948.”
Diplomatic talks with Israel is a controversial topic in Saudi Arabia, whose population generally holds deep disdain for Israel over its policy on the West Bank's illegal settlements and the deplorable conditions Arabs live under in Gaza.Invention Name – Sandpaper Glove
Hours Worked/Date – 9-9:45am, January 24, 2011; 5-5:32 pm, January 24, 2011
Witnessed – The science class, my father
Notes –
I came up with the idea to do a Sandpaper glove. I decided to make two types of gloves: a gardening glove with pockets and velcro to hold sandpaper (#1), and a glove, made fully out of sandpaper (#2). My idea for the sandpaper gloves are, to have sandpaper on the most used parts of the hand, like the palm and tips of the fingers. My main goal for the sandpaper glove #1 is, to be able to have the option to replace the sandpaper pieces without having to buy a whole new glove. So this week, I started making some sketches.
I also checked Google Patent Search to check if anyone had made exactly what I am planning to make, but no one had. There were a few people who had thought of sanding gloves, but none of the designs were similar to mine. One was a glove that came with a piece of sandpaper that you could hold:
There was also another glove that was a piece of metal with sandpaper glued on to it:
And finally, there was a glove that was similar to mine, yet it was a mitten and there was no way to replace the sandpaper on the glove.
Drawings/Photos –Today, the women of Gizmodo and io9 are joining our colleagues across Fusion Media Group to participate in the official “A Day Without a Woman” strike. We believe that our labor and presence is valuable, important, and necessary; we also know that it |
and vegetables – to emerge and shine in this traditional dish.
8. Thalassery biryani
The Thalassery biryani, one of India’s most loved biryanis, is both sweet and savoury. The main ingredients are soft chicken wings, mild Malabar spices and a type of rice known as kaima. Lots of sauteed cashew nuts, sultana raisins and fennel seeds are used generously in preparing this biryani. The rice is cooked separately from the gravy and mixed only at the time of serving.
9. Kampuri Biryani
The Kampuri biryani originated from the town of Kampur in Assam. In this simple yet delicious dish, the chicken is first cooked with peas, carrots, beans, potatoes, and yellow bell peppers. This concoction is then mildly spiced with cardamom and nutmeg before being mixed with the rice. This little-known biryani, which fuses the fresh flavours of local vegetables into meat, is an ode to the Assamese flair for creating distinctive dishes.
10. Tahari biryani
Tahari biryani is cooked without meat. Typically, rice is cooked along with different kind of vegetables in a handi with potatoes and carrots being the most used vegetables in this dish. Legend has it that this biryani was created in Mysore when Tipu Sultan hired vegetarian Hindus as his bookkeepers. Thus, a vegetarian version of a cult dish was born. Tahari is also a popular street food in Kashmir.
11. Beary Biryani
A cousin of the spicier Mangalore biryani, the Beary Biryani belongs to the Muslim community of the Dakshin Kannada region in Karnataka. The predominant flavour is of the rice, which is kept in a mixture of ghee and spices overnight. This process allows all the potent flavours to seep into the rice. The light dish is also highly versatile and uses all kinds of locally available meat and seafood.
12. Sindhi Biryani
Unlike any other biryani, the Sindhi Biryani is loaded with finely slit green chillies, fragrant spices, and roasted nuts.A distinctive characteristic is the addition of aloo bukhara (plums) in the spices, which gives the biryani a beautiful aroma; lots of khatta (sour yoghurt) in the layering gives a tangy note to the spice mix.
13. Bhatkali Biryani
The Bhatkali biryani is an integral part of the Navayath cuisine and a speciality of Bhatkal, a coastal town in Karnataka, where it is a must-have at wedding feasts. The meat is cooked in an onion and green chilli based masala and layered with fragrant rice. The Bhatkali biryani has a unique spicy and heady flavour that sets it apart from the other biryanis of coastal Karnataka.
14. Bombay Biryani
Just like the city it was created in, the Bombay biryani is a melting pot of flavours – spicy, hearty and zesty. Bombay biryani, whether it’s made with chicken, mutton or vegetables, always has fried spiced potatoes too. It also has a slight sweetness to it, which comes from dried plums and kewra water. It may not be as famous as the other varieties, but this biryani still finds a place in the hearts of all who taste it.
15. Doodh Ki Biryani
An absolutely unique Hyderabadi speciality, Doodh ki Biryani is known for its light flavours. The blending of creamy milk with roasted nuts and aromatic spices results in a dish that is subtle, refined, and delicately flavoured. Definitely a gem among the regal biryanis of the Hyderabadi Nizams!
A complete meal in itself, biryani has enough varieties to please one and all. This is also a dish that suits all occasions – whether it is a lazy Sunday lunch, a boisterous college get-together or a formal dinner with the in-laws. Eaten with love and gusto by the rich as well as poor, biryani is indeed a marvel of India’s culinary heritage.
Also Read : Food Secrets: On The Trail Of Kumaon’s Culinary Wonders
Like this story? Have something to share? Email: contact@thebetterindia.com, or join us on Facebook and Twitter (@thebetterindia). To get positive news on WhatsApp, just send ‘Start’ to 090 2900 3600 via WhatsApp.As we enter the doldrums here is summer, we’re going to be doing a lot of different things to try and entertain you. One will be sharing some of my favorite things from program-version of The Indian. This is my editorial from April 19th on Pat Foley’s 30th Anniversary.
It’s Pat Foley Night here at the UC. 30 years behind the mic doing the Hawks. If you’re like me, that just makes you feel fucking old.
If you’ve been a reader of this bathroom periodical for any length of time, you know I’ve never been shy from taking my shots at Foley and his recent work. He’s too buddy-buddy with Edzo. He misses players’ names all the time. He tells stories for far too long that actually block up the action. He has vendettas against players, just like Olczyk, for reasons we can’t understand.
I know a lot of you agree with some if not all of these points. But you also probably have the conflicting emotions when you do, just like I do.
Maybe it’s the standard we hold Foley to. Because there’s no question he’s still a Chicago sports icon. And he should be. Maybe all great sports announcers fade with time. Harry Caray was un-listenable at the end. Pat Summerall couldn’t talk. Ernie Harwell could be a tough listen at the end at times, in the brief chances I got to hear him. Except for Vin Scully obviously, who I’m more and more convinced just isn’t from this planet (sidenote: if the Kings and Ducks are going to play at Dodger Stadium next year, can Scully call it? Nothing should take place ever at Dodger Stadium without Scully calling it. Heaven has to be Scully narrating your daily routine).
But let’s take a step back from our complaints about what Foley is now and look at what he is. He’s living out pretty much every Hawks fans’ dream. He grew up here. He was as avid a Hawks fan as you or I were when we were kids. He huddled over the radio listening to Lloyd Petit, probably in his room when he should have been doing homework like we should have been. And he got to become the Hawks broadcaster. He got to occupy the seat he dreamed of getting. How many of us would have loved to do that? He got to do that at 26. Where were you when you were 26? I was fucking up all over the place in LA.
Go and watch the video on the Hawks site of Foley’s great calls. Then think about your favorite Hawks memories from the 80s and 90s. Are they the same if you try and remove Foley’s call from them? No, of course they aren’t.
Do the chills still run down your spine when watching Roenick’s OT winner in ‘94 against the Leafs without Foley yelling, “HAWKS WIN! HAWKS WIN!”? It’s just not the same moment without it. Does it stick in your memory if he doesn’t illustrate just how bonkers the Stadium was going one last time? “THE OLD GRANDLADY OF WEST MADISON!” It’s almost as important as the goal.
What are your other memories that weren’t on the video? I have a couple. Game 1 against the Avalanche in ‘96. Our cable went out that night, and we only had the radio simulcast to go on. But I still remember standing in the kitchen when Roenick buried a power play goal and got that “HAWKS WIN! HAWKS WIN!” I didn’t need anything else.
The other is Brent Sutter’s winning goal in Game 4 against the Wings in 1992 in the dying minutes to complete that sweep. Foley’s voice when Sutter scored was the perfect complement to the sheer tumult and anarchy the Stadium crowd was at that moment. You almost didn’t need to be there if you had that radio call. Even though it was silent in our apartment then, to me it was rocking just as much as 1800 W. Madison was.
And that’s the thing about Foley. In many of the same ways that Vin Scully is synonymous with Dodger Stadium, no announcer fit in better with his home arena than Foley did with the Old Stadium.
That dump on Madison; it was danger. It was anarchy. It was metal. It was all those things and so many more.
And Foley’s voice…it’s the Stadium too. It’s the voice of someone who closed down his share of bars, could pierce through all the cigarette smoke that filled that building without choking, it had an edge. There was a hint of menace, to go along with the joy and excitement and tension that hockey is. That was the Stadium. That was Foley. There were times where you thought Foley would have had no problem taking off his headset and picking a fight with someone in the upper deck, kicking his ass eight ways to Sunday, and then resuming his call like nothing had ever happened. Foley’s call always had a twinge that it could all go wrong at any minute and you’d never recover. Just like that building did. Don’t believe me? Look up the YouTube clip of Foley calling the St. Patrick’s Day Massacre, when Dave Manson called Scott Stevens out to center ice and ended his world. The crowd, Foley, everything felt like it was going to cause a hole in the Earth. And we ate it up.
When Foley’s frustration became papable as the Hawks self-inflicted descent into hell became unstoppable, wasn’t that our frustration too? He was just a fan like we were, and sick of all he was seeing.
And Foley will still have that place in my memories and heart. I may make fun of him now at times, but I’ll never lose sight of what he’s meant to Hawks fans. How could I?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.) blasted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday, criticizing his past lobbying efforts to exclude Exxon Mobil from a rule that would require it to disclose payments to foreign governments.
"[A] handful of powerful oil and gas companies have been after this requirement from the start — and Exxon is at the top of that list," Warren said on the Senate floor, as she spoke in opposition of the GOP effort to repeal Securities and Exchange Commission's extraction rule.
"In fact, Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon at the time, personally lobbied against the requirement in 2010. His reason? The foreign payments rule would undermine Exxon's ability to do business in Russia," she said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Tillerson's business connections with Russia have been a challenging obstacle for the former Exxon chief executive during his contentious confirmation fight in the Senate. He was confirmed Thursday.Multiple high-ranking Democrats have questioned Tillerson's integrity, and expressed doubt about his abilities to genuinely represent the interests of the United States on the world stage in light of his business record. He received three confirmation votes from Democrats: Sens.(Va.),(N.D.) and(W.Va.)."Listen to that again: If Exxon has to tell the world about the millions of dollars it hands over to the Russian government, Exxon won't be able to do as much business in Russia," Warren continued."So now the Republican Congress wants to rush in to help out poor Exxon so they can keep the secret money flowing to Russian officials," she charged.In her speech, the lawmaker also slammed Republicans for their legislative effort, accusing the GOP of caring more about corporations than their own constituents."This Exxon giveaway shows just how bankrupt the Republican agenda is. They don't have any ideas for helping working families. It's just one corporate giveaway after another — making their big business donors happy and keeping the campaign contributions flowing for the next election," she argued.Europe's most wanted man Anis Amri travelled unhindered through at least three countries before being gunned down in northern Italy.
Blundering German police today said they believed the Tunisian asylum seeker was still in or around Berlin just before he was shot dead almost 1,000 miles away in Milan.
Officers have been raiding addresses across Germany in the hunt for Amri, but after arresting the wrong man the ISIS terrorist was able to flee the country.
This morning, before his death was announced, a senior police source told tabloid Bild: ‘We believe he is either in Berlin or in North Rhine-Westphalia’.
It heaps further embarrassment on Chancellor Angela Merkel, who yesterday said she believed they would arrest him'soon'.
French authorities are also refusing to comment on how the Berlin attack suspect apparently crossed into France and left again in the face of an international manhunt.
Route out of Germany: Amri had travelled out of Germany and all the way to Chambery railway station in the French Alps. It is not yet known how he got there. He then took a train to Turin, and then on to Milan where he was killed by police at 3am
Shoot-out: Amri was shot dead in the street after a dramatic gunfight near a train station in Milan
Evidence: Pictures from the scene appear to show a weapon lying on the road near a backpack
Manhunt: German authorities offered a 100,000 euro (£84,000) reward for information leading to his capture - but for 12 hours his face was blurred because of their privacy rules
Nigel Farage said the ease with which Amri moved around Europe proved the Schengen Area was a 'risk to public safety'
By the time the European arrest warrant was issued 30 hours after the terror attack, Amri had plenty of time to leave the country.
He travelled out of Germany and all the way to Chambery railway station in the French Alps.
Nigel Farage: Berlin’s Christmas market attack proof EU free movement is a ‘risk to the public’ Nigel Farage, pictured in New York last week, has said the free movement zone in the EU must be scrapped after the Berlin market attacker fled across borders to France and Italy By Tim Sculthorpe Nigel Farage has said the free movement zone in the EU must be scrapped after the Berlin market attacker fled across borders to France and Italy. The ex Ukip leader said the ecape route of Anis Amri proved the Schengen zone was a 'risk to public safety'. Mr Farage has linked free movement and terrorism before. In the wake of the Paris attacks and ahead of the EU referendum, he said: 'The warnings were pretty clear. 'Isis said they would use the migrant tide to flood the EU with half a million jihadists. 'I would suggest 5000 is too many; 500 is too many… it only took eight to cause that destruction in Paris the other night. 'This dream of the free movement of people, this dream for others of the Schengen area: It hasn't just meant the free movement of people, it has meant the free movement of Kalashnikov rifles. 'It has meant the free movement of terrorists, and it has meant the free movement of jihadists.'
He then took a three-hour direct train to Turin, and then on to Milan's Central Station where he arrived at 1am, and then on to the suburban Sesto San Giovanni station where he was killed by police at 3am.
It is not yet confirmed how he got to France from Germany but if it was by train the quickest route would be from Berlin to Frankfurt, then on to Lyon.
One report said he may have gone to Paris before heading towards the Alps and Italy over the past five days.
Police will be searching for any abandoned cars in case he left Germany by road before switching to the railways.
Nigel Farage has said the free movement zone in the EU must be scrapped after the Berlin market attacker fled across borders so easily.
Today Amri, 24, had just stepped off a train from France when he was stopped by a routine police patrol in the suburb of Sesto San Giovanni in Milan.
The Tunisian asylum seeker screamed 'Allahu Akbar' and pulled a pistol from his bag and shot policeman Christian Movio in the shoulder.
A firefight ensued with Amri cowering behind a car as he tried to flee, but Luca Scatà, a trainee police officer who had only been in the job a few months, gave chase before shooting him dead in the street.
Amri, 24, has strong links to Italy because it was the first European country he claimed asylum in.
In 2011 he dodged prison in his native Tunisia after fleeing following a violent robbery. He was jailed for five years in absentia.
He arrived in Italy in 2011, arriving on the small island of Lampedusa amongst thousands of people fleeing the Arab Spring uprisings.
He pretended to be a child migrant - even though he was 19 - but then rioted inside his detention centre, which was set on fire. He was then jailed for four years, serving it in two prisons on Sicily.
After his release Italy failed to deport him twice because Tunisia refused to take him back and he fled Italy via the Alps for Germany, meaning he probably went via Milan.
He looks to have followed a near identical route back - yet German police appear to have completely misjudged the distance Amri was able to travel after the attack on Monday night.
The Berlin attack suspect has been shot dead after a gunfight with police in Milan, Italian police have said
Luca Scata (pictured) has been named as the hero police officer who gunned Amri down this morning
German authorities took a day to find Amri's wallet in the truck and only confirmed his fingerprints were inside yesterday
And the security services in German have already been heavily criticised for the way they have handed the investigation.
German Green politician fought to protect Amri's privacy A German politician blocked police from posting an appeal for help in the search for the suspect in the Berlin Christmas attack on social media. Till Steffen, 43, head of the judicial authority of the city of Hamburg, reportedly believes that showing pictures of Islamist terror suspects incites racial hatred. The Green politician's stance meant that police in Hamburg could only post information about the search for suspect Anis Amri, 24, on their website - and even then without a photograph. It meant that Hamburg police were only able to post text about the fact that police had images of the suspect without actually posting the images themselves. The restriction was lifted by Hamburg's Social Democratic-Green coalition local government after 12 hours following media pressure.
First police arrested the wrong man in the aftermath of the attack - a Pakistani asylum seeker who accidentally jumped a red light near Breitscheidplatz.
Innocent man Naveed Baluch, 23, was flown across the country to Karlsruhe to be questioned, but was released 18 hours later after he was found to have no blood on his clothes and no injuries.
In that time Amri was allegedly caught on a security camera as he stood outside a mosque he was believed to have frequented in Berlin's Moabit neighbourhood.
The next blunder came when German police took a day to find his wallet under the lorry's front seat and they only managed to confirm his fingerprints were on the wheel yesterday.
Amri's privacy was then placed above the public's need to identify him the number one suspect.
German media reports only ran his first name and second initial, and in all pictures his eyes were blacked out.
Only after a 100,000 euro bounty was put on his head was his full identity revealed around 12 hours later. This was almost two days after the attack.
The country's security was placed under fresh scrutiny following revelations covert surveillance had been ditched against the 24-year-old after more than six months due to police finding nothing to substantiate an initial tip-off.
Yesterday it was revealed that wire taps grabbed two months ago showed Amri had told a hate preacher that he was willing to blow himself up - and had also inquired about buying automatic weapons from a police informant.
But German officers still did not believe they had enough evidence to arrest him, according to Spiegel.
First picture: Naved B, a Pakistani asylum seeker, was arrested after the attack - he had nothing to do with it but it took police 18 hours to work it out
Police were raiding addresses all over Germany, pictured in Dortmund, when Amri had already left the country
Path to Germany: Amri fled Tunisia to avoid jail but was imprisoned in Italy for rioting in an immigration centre. He still managed to get to Germany after his release. He has been repeatedly arrested and watched by vanished two weeks ago
A near-total ban on CCTV in public spaces also meant that German police and security services had no live footage of the Christmas market massacre or the killer driver fleeing the scene.
WHAT IS SCHENGEN? The Schengen Area is a zone covering 26 European states that have officially abolished passport checks at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a single country for international travel purposes with a common visa policy. The policy is named after the Schengen Agreement struck in 1985. States in the Schengen Area have eliminated border controls with the other Schengen members and strengthened border controls with non-Schengen countries. Britain has an opt out from the Schengen zone meaning there are passport checks at airports, ferry ports and the Channel Tunnel
Draconian German privacy rules mean filming in public places is largely prohibited - and this year politicians blocked attempts to install cameras on Berlin's main squares.
It is a backlash against tyrannical control of the population by the Nazis and then state-sponsored surveillance by the Stasi in Cold War East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell.
One German journalist told the Mail: ‘Then, the state knew everything about you. As a result, the public now fears it knowing anything about you.’
Police say it has gone too far and means that the driver of the truck who fled on foot from Breitscheidplatz square cannot be followed on camera.
Bodo Pfalzgraf of the German police union said after the attack: 'We need better and more intelligent surveillance in public places, and Monday’s tragedy has shown precisely why.Oxford University debating society invited three hate speakers to discuss gay parenting, while dropping far-right politician, Nick Griffin, who they claimed was invited ‘by mistake’
World-famous debating society, The Oxford Union, has invited three gay hate camapigners to promote their views on gay parenting.
The debate at Oxford University in southern England, one of the world’s most famous educational establishments, will take place on Thursday (17 January) with well-known homophobes Scott Lively, Winston McKenzie and Peter D Williams invited to take part.
Nick Griffin, far right leader of the British National Party (BNP), had to be ‘un-invited’ from the debate after The Oxford Union claimed a member acting ‘without authorization’ asked him to speak, reported The Oxford Times weekly.
The three other invited speakers are to debate a motion ‘This House Would be Glad to Have Gay Parents’, however, they are infamous in their anti-gay stance.
The invitations by The Oxford Union have been sharply criticized by gay rights campaigners.
Scott Lively, founder the Abiding Truth Ministries, classified as a hate group is known of one of the most outspoken anti-gay personalities.
Lively authored ‘The Pink Swastika’, a book blaming the holocaust on gays, and is an ardent supporter of Uganda’s planned death penalty for gays (Kill the Gays Bill) and on record as saying homosexuality is a ‘global threat’.
Lively is also facing a civil action for inciting hatred by Ugandan LGBT activists.
Winston McKenzie, is the UK Independence Party culture spokesperson, and is on record as saying that gay adoption is like throwing kids to ‘dogs’.
Peter D Williams, spokesperson for Catholic Voices is an opponent of gay marriage which he dubbed as a ‘socially harmful’ to children. He has stated that if passed as law it may lead to polygamy.
According to the daily Oxford Times, the famous debating society had to withdraw Griffin’s invitation to the debate on Thursday, claiming it was sent without ‘clearance’ to the BNP leader.
But BNP press officer Simon Darby said: ‘I think they’ve been bullied and intimidated out of it by the National Union of Students, which is very sad.’
LGBT rights campaigners slammed Oxford Union choice of speakers, in particular signalling out Lively.
Ruth Hunt, director of public affairs at Stonewall, a UK gay rights charity told GSN: ‘By rescinding the invitation to Griffin, The Oxford Union has conceded that some people should not be given a platform.
‘It is therefore perplexing that some of the finest minds in the country do not apply the same standards to someone who advocates the criminalization of gay people.’
Peter Tatchell, a UK human and LGBT rights advocate, told GSN: ‘It’s appalling that the Oxford Union is giving a platform to Scott Lively, who has fuelled such outrageous homophobic hatred.
‘His inflammatory rhetoric and lobbying has contributed to the homophobic witch-hunt in Uganda, including demands that gay people be executed.
‘He bears some responsibility for the “Kill the Gays” bill, which threatens the lives and freedoms of LGBT Ugandans and their straight allies.
‘The Oxford Union would never invite a speaker who had said similar things about black, Jewish or Muslim people. Why the double standards?’
Speakers for the motion include Richard Fairbrass – gay rights activist and lead vocalist for ‘Right Said Fred’, Benjamin Cohen – founder of the Out4Marriage Campaign group, and Phyll Opoku-Gyimah – co-founder of Black Pride UK.Six colleagues and close friends who corroborate former PEOPLE writer Natasha Stoynoff’s account of being attacked by Donald Trump in 2005 are now coming forward. Among them is a friend who was with Stoynoff when she ran into Melania Trump later in N.Y.C.
The wife of the Republican nominee denies meeting Stoynoff after the attack, but Stoynoff’s friend Liza Herz remembers being there during the chance meeting.
Get push notifications with news, features and more.
“They chatted in a friendly way,” Herz, who met Stoynoff in college, says. “And what struck me most was that Melania was carrying a child and wearing heels.”
Stoynoff’s story, which made national news when it broke last week and is reprinted in this week’s issue of PEOPLE, describes a run-in with Trump when she was covering him and pregnant wife Melania on assignment for PEOPLE in December 2005.
“We walked into that room alone, and Trump shut the door behind us. I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat,” she writes.
Trump vigorously denies the story and later attacked Stoynoff on the campaign trail, saying, “She lies! Look at her, I don’t think so.”
Stoynoff describes meeting Melania later year: “I actually bumped into Melania on Fifth Avenue, in front of Trump Tower as she walked into the building, carrying baby Barron. ‘Natasha, why don’t we see you anymore?’ she asked, giving me a hug.”
Natasha Stoyoff (second from left) with Donald Trump and Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago with the PEOPLE photo crew in December 2005 // Troy Word Troy Word
Natasha Stoynoff for PEOPLE // Melanie Acevedo Melanie Acevedo
In a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper on Monday, Melania denied the encounter ever took place.
“The story that came out in PEOPLE magazine, the writer she said my husband took her to the room and started kissing her, she wrote in the same story about me that she saw me on Fifth Avenue, and I said to her ‘Natasha, how come we don’t see you anymore?’ I was never friends with her, I would not recognize her,” she told CNN.
PEOPLE Editor in Chief Jess Cagle says in a statement about Stoynoff’s piece, “In this week’s issue of PEOPLE (which hits newsstands in New York on Wednesday), we feature a story that includes named sources who can corroborate Natasha Stoynoff’s account – including one woman (a friend of Natasha’s) who was actually with her when she bumped into Melania Trump on Fifth Ave., as outlined in her story.”
Watch the full episode of People Features: Why I Spoke Up About Trump, available now on the new People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). Go to PEOPLE.com/PEN, or download the PEN app on Apple TV, Roku Players, Amazon Fire TV, Xumo, Chromecast, iOS and Android devices.
Five other witnesses also back up Stoynoff’s account of her encounter with Trump:
Marina Grasic, who has known Stoynoff for more than 25 years, says she got a call from her friend the day after the attack. Stoynoff detailed everything about the attack, from Trump pushing her against a wall to the business mogul showing up at her massage appointment the following day, she says.
According to Grasic, her longtime friend was embarrassed and even thought of Trump’s then-pregnant wife when deciding not to come forward about the encounter.
“Natasha was also struggling about not hurting pregnant Melania if the story came out,” Grasic says. “Beyond just the attack, she was horrified by the vulgar circumstances under which she was attacked and propositioned to have an affair. She was there in a professional capacity, writing an article about their happy marriage, and after the incident Trump acted like nothing happened.
“She was particularly concerned that if he was capable of such behavior, what else was he capable of? Certainly character assassination by a powerful man was of great concern to her, which seems warranted in light of what Trump is saying about her this week. She ultimately decided to stay quiet but be taken off the Trump beat.”
Stoynoff’s former journalism professor, Paul McLaughlin, says that the writer called him in tears looking for advice the very night of the harrowing encounter. However, he cautioned her to remain quiet in fear of how Trump may retaliate.
Gregory Pace/FilmMagic Gregory Pace/FilmMagic
“She wasn’t sure what she should do,” McLaughlin recalls. “I advised her not to say anything, because I believed Trump would deny it and try to destroy her.”
“It was tough decision but in a he said/she said we believed she would lose,” the professor said in a tweet regarding the incident. “He seemed rather nasty at the time.”
PEOPLE East Coast Editor Liz McNeil was one colleague Stoynoff confided in about the incident. McNeil remembers the day she returned from the assignment in Florida to cover Trump and his wife’s first anniversary.
“She was very upset and told me how he shoved her against a wall,” says McNeil.
She adds, “The thing I remember most was how scared she was. I felt I had to protect her.”
Deputy East Coast News Editor Mary Green returned to PEOPLE’s New York-based staff in December 2005 after a three-year hiatus excited to reconnect with Stoynoff. However, Stoynoff was haunted by her recent experience, and she opened up to Green about the encounter.
“In an early conversation we had in her office, she told me about what happened with Donald Trump,” Green said. “She was shaky, sitting at her desk, relaying that, ‘He took me to this other room, and when we stepped inside, he pushed me against a wall and stuck his tongue down my throat. Melania was upstairs and could have walked in at any time.’
“She talked about her shock, and wondered why it had happened, if she had done anything wrong. I assured her she hadn’t. She was also angry that he had forced himself on her, that she was glad someone had interrupted him, because he was surprisingly strong.”
Another coworker who knew about the attack was Liza Hamm, who was friends with McNeil and others in a “tight-knit group” that Stoynoff opened up to.
“Natasha has always been a vivacious person who wants to believe in the best of people, and this experience definitely messed with that outlook,” Hamm says. “But she is also a consummate professional. She told me that she asked to be taken off the Trump beat, but she tried her best to move past the experience and continue to do her job well.”
Stoynoff says she knew she was opening herself up for criticism when she decided to share her story, but she’s staying strong.
“I am doing okay,” she says in the new issue of PEOPLE.
In the past week, multiple women have come out with similar claims of sexual assault against the 70-year-old Republican presidential candidate.
Stoynoff admits there’s a chance Trump simply pushed her own incident from his mind.
“It’s possible he just doesn’t remember it,” Stoynoff says. “It was over 10 years ago and I assume I am one of many, many women.”Expressive 3 Preview
2017-12-14 | By: Matthew Weier O'Phinney
Last week, the PSR-15 working group voted to start its review phase. PSR-15 seeks to standardize server-side request handlers and middleware, and both Stratigility and Expressive have been implementing draft specifications since their version 2 releases. Entering the review phase is an important moment: it means that the working group feels the specification is stable and ready for adoption. If, after the review period is over, no major changes are required, the specification can be presented to the PHP-FIG core committed for a final acceptance vote, at which point it will be frozen and ready for mass adoption.
Our plan is to have Stratigility and Expressive follow the new specification in its final form. To that end, we have been executing on a plan to prepare all our projects that work with PSR-15 to adopt the latest round of changes.
That work is ready today!
What has changed in PSR-15?
The latest round of changes to the specification prior to entering the review period were as follows:
The namespace of the draft specification was changed from Interop\Http\ServerMiddleware to Interop\Http\Server. These will therefor become Psr\Http\Server once the specification is accepted.
The DelegateInterface was renamed to RequestHandlerInterface, and the method it defines renamed to handle().
The MiddlewareInterface's second argument to process() was updated to typehint against RequestHandlerInterface.
The package shipping the interface was split into two, http-interop/http-server-handler and http-interop/http-server-middleware ; these will become psr/http-server-handler and psr/http-server-middleware, respectively, once the package is accepted. The http-server-middleware packages depend on the http-server-handler packages.
These changes, of course, are not backwards compatible, and our attempts to write a polyfill library were ultimately unsuccessful. As a result, we decided to bump the major version of all libraries currently depending on the draft specification.
What we have done
Our approach in updating the various packages was as follows:
We created a new release branch named after the next major release. For instance, if a library is currently issuing v2 releases, we created a release-3.0.0 branch.
branch. We updated the branch aliases defined in the composer.json for the package as follows, on all branches: The master branch points to the current minor release. As an example, for a package with a current stable 2.3.1 version, the branch alias became "dev-master": "2.3.x-dev". If a development branch already exists, we updated similarly to the master branch. For the above example, the branch alias would read "dev-develop": "2.4.x-dev". The new release branch is then mapped to the upcoming major version: `"dev-release-3.0.0": "3.0.x-dev".
for the package as follows, on all branches: On the release branches, we updated dependencies as follows: PHP dependencies became simply ^7.1 (per our decision posted in June). References to http-interop/http-middleware packages were changed to "http-interop/http-server-middleware": "^1.0.1". References to packages that have corresponding release branches were updated to have their constraints point to the appropriate development release branch. As an example, "zendframework/zend-expressive-router": "^3.0.0-dev".
These changes ensure users can install the new development versions of packages by feeding an appropriate development constraint.
You'll note that we bumped the minimum supported PHP version in these packages as well. Because we were doing that, we also decided to make use of PHP 7.1 features. In particular:
Scalar and return type hints.
Nullable and void types.
Null coalesce.
strict_types where it simplifies validation of scalars (which turns out to be almost everywhere).
For packages that define interfaces, this meant that we also needed corresponding major version bumps in packages that implement those interfaces. This affected the router and template implementations in particular.
If you want a complete list of what was updated, you can visit the burndown list in the forums.
How YOU can test
This is all very nice and technical, but how can YOU test out the new versions?
Install the development version of the Expressive skeleton!
$ composer create-project "zendframework/zend-expressive-skeleton:3.0.x-dev" expressive-3.0-dev
This will create the skeleton project, with your selected functionality, in a directory named expressive-3.0-dev. From there, you can start developing!
When you do, be aware of the following:
Middleware must now implement Interop\Http\Server\MiddlewareInterface : namespace YourModule; use Interop\Http\Server\MiddlewareInterface; use Interop\Http\Server\RequestHandlerInterface; use Psr\Http\Message\ResponseInterface; use Psr\Http\Message\RequestHandlerInterface; class YourMiddleware implements MiddlewareInterface { public function process( ServerRequestInterface $request, RequestHandlerInterface $handler ) : ResponseInterface { } } Note: vendor/bin/expressive middleware:create will create these correctly for you with its 1.0.0-dev release!
If you want to delegate handling to the next middleware, you will now use the $handler, and call its handle() method: $response = $handler->handle($request);
If you want to use one of the optional Expressive packages, such as zend-expressive-session, you will need to require it using a development constraint. For instance: $ composer require zendframework/zend-expressive-session:^1.0.0-dev Note the use of the semantic pin ( ^ ), as well as the -dev suffix; both are necessary for composer to identify the development release.
Regarding the last point, the following is a list of all packages with development release branches, along with the corresponding version you should use when requiring them while testing:
Package Version zend |
Potion, common This frothy pale ale goes down smooth, then sits in your gut like a rock. When you drink a mug of Fortifying Stout, make a Constitution save. On a 15 or better, you gain the benefits of the Stout without any negative effects. If the result is lower than 15, you become Poisoned for 1 minute but still gain the Stout's benefits. If it is lower than 10, you still become Poisoned but are Incapacitated for 1 round as you spend your turn vomiting as your stomach rejects the drink. If you manage to down the Fortifying Stout, its heady mix of magic and chemicals deadens any pain you receive. When you finish drinking the Stout, and at the start of each of your turns for the next minute, you gain 5 temporary hit points. Booze Hound's Barrel Wondrous item, uncommon This plain-looking barrel smells strongly of alcohol and weighs close to 150 pounds. It sloshes when shaken. On close inspection, its hoops are revealed to be scrawled with minute engravings of the lyrics to a multitude of traditional Dwarven tavern songs. A spigot can be affixed to the bottom of the barrel. By default, the barrel will dispense an endless amount of cheap, watery beer. Anyone can change the liquid dispensed by opening the top and pouring in at least a pint of their chosen liquid. The barrel will endlessly supply that exact liquid so long as it contains alcohol. If the barrel is set alight, it begins to burn with a coruscating multicolored flame that causes 1d6 Fire damage to any creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of it. If the barrel is not extinguished before a minute passes, the flame briefly flickers out before the barrel glows red for a split second and explodes into splinters. All creatures within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 6d6 Fire damage, taking half as much on a success. If the barrel explodes, its magical properties cannot be restored. using Mending or some other repairing effect on its remains will only produce mundane wood. 10
Sadistic Fetish Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement) This unfortunately-named totem hangs from a black chain necklace. It resonates with the sounds of living things in pain. While attuned to this Fetish, you deal an extra 1 Necrotic damage whenever you hit with a melee attack. Whenever a creature you can see within 40 feet takes damage, you can use your reaction to draw power from their anguish. The Fetish deals 1d4 Necrotic damage to that creature and gains a charge. You cannot draw power from a creature more than once in a single day, and the Fetish loses any unspent charges at dawn. As an action, you can expend any number of charges and increase the Fetish's damage bonus for 1 minute, to a maximum of +5. The costs are listed on the table below, and are cumulative. Bonus Cost +2 1 charge +3 2 charges +4 4 charges +5 8 charges Holy Ribbon Weapon (whip), rare (requires attunement) This weapon is indistinguishable from a normal silk sash. When wielded in anger, however, it hisses and sparks as it whips through the air, cracking stone and gouging scars in softer targets. You have a +1 bonus to hit and damage rolls with this weapon. Instead of the normal damage for a whip, the Holy Ribbon deals 1d6 plus your Dexterity or Strength modifier in Radiant damage. Monks are proficient with this weapon, and it counts as a Monk Weapon for them. When you strike a creature with the Holy Ribbon, you may force it to succeed a DC 12 Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 15 feet away. If this movement is blocked by a solid surface such as a wall, the creature stops and is stunned until the end of their next round. Crown of Inspiration Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement) This golden helm is worn on the head, though it does not actually rest on the wearer's brow. The Crown floats just above the user's temples, and does not weigh an ounce. While wearing the Crown, you use your reaction to store a charge whenever you deal damage, to a maximum of 10 charges. These charges last until dusk or until spent. As an action, you can expend any number of charges from the Crown and bathe another creature you can see within 100 feet in golden light. Choose one of the following effects: Invigorate. The creature gains a bonus to its next damage roll equal to the number of charges expended. Inspire. The creature gains a bonus to its next ability check or saving throw equal to half the number of charges expended. Revitalize. The creature regains a number of hit points equal to half the number of charges expended. Blood Hound Bomb Wondrous item, rare This explosive is painted bright red with a fanged, grinning face on its nose. You can use an action to wave an object (a coin, a tuft of hair, a weapon, etc) in front of the bomb's face and speak the command phrase: "Sic 'em, boy." This causes the aperture at the bomb's base to erupt with a gout of flame and launch the device into the air. The Bomb knows the location of the creature who was most often in contact with the proffered object during the past 7 days, and will fly straight towards that creature if it is on the same plane of existence, only stopping when it reaches the creature, hits a solid object, or when it runs out of fuel after two miles of travel. If the target is on a different plane of existence, the Bomb gets confused and simply explodes. When the Bomb crashes or reaches its target, it detonates, producing a cacophonous explosion. All creatures within 50 feet of the Bomb must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 10d12 Fire damage, taking half as much on a success. 11
Butcher's Brand Weapon (morningstar), very rare (requires attunement) This wicked implement glows red with a searing internal heat. It is shaped like a meat-hook and can quickly char unprotected flesh. You have a +2 bonus to all hit and damage rolls with this weapon. In addition, you may use an action to attempt to brand a target with the Butcher's sigil. Make a single melee weapon attack with the Brand -- on a hit, the target's flesh is branded for 1 minute. Whenever you hit a branded target with a melee attack, you regain a number of hit points equal to your Proficiency bonus. After successfully branding a creature, you cannot do so again until the next dawn. If you are attuned to both the Butcher's Cleaver and Butcher's Brand and are wielding them in each hand, the Brand gains two extra uses, which are also regained at dawn. When you successfully brand a creature, you may immediately make a single attack with the Cleaver as part of the same action. Shining Shield Armor (shield), uncommon (requires attunement) This tower shield is done up in ebony and ivory, polished to a mirror sheen. You have a +1 bonus to your AC while wielding this shield. As an action, you may present the shield and cause a blinding glare to flash from its surface, forcing all creatures in a 30-foot cone that can see the shield to succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or be Blinded for 1 minute. Any creature blinded by the Shield may make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw at the end of its turn. On a success, it is no longer Blinded. This ability cannot be used in total darkness, and is blocked by magical darkness. You cannot use this ability again until the next dawn. Butcher's Cleaver Weapon (battleaxe), rare (requires attunement) This hideous over-sized chopper constantly reeks of blood and fresh meat. When it strikes a living creature's vitals, the blade produces a grim spray of blood and viscera. You have a +2 bonus to all hit and damage rolls with this weapon. Whenever you score a critical hit with the Cleaver, its damage die becomes a d12 for that hit. If you are attuned to both the Butcher's Cleaver and Butcher's Brand and are wielding them in each hand, the Cleaver scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. In addition, if you score a critical hit with the Cleaver against a creature that is not affected by the Brand's ability, the Brand regains an expended use of that ability. Fishing Hook Weapon (sickle), very rare (requires attunement) This barbed blade is curved into the shape of a fisherman's prong and secured at the handle to a 60-foot length of chain. The Hook is a sickle with the thrown (range 20/60) property. You have a +2 bonus to all hit and damage rolls with this weapon. In addition, whenever you make a ranged attack with the Hook as part of the Attack action, you may pull on the Hook's chain in the same action, sending it flying back to your grasp. You can only reel in the Hook once during a single Attack action. If you hit a target with a ranged attack using the Hook, you may make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) check. If you succeed, you pull the target up to 30 feet in a straight line towards you. This returns the Hook to your grip as well. 12
Mecha-Brachtron Harness Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement) Two bulky metal arms emerge from this backpack, controlled by twin sticks that hang by your side, leaving your hands free when not in use. One arm ends in a serrated motorized sawblade, the other in a large grabbing claw. When making actions with the Harness, you count as having a Strength score of 18. As an action, you may make a single melee weapon attack with the sawblade arm. This attack has a bonus to hit of 4 + half your Proficiency bonus (or your full Proficiency bonus if you are proficient in Tinker's Tools), and deals 1d10+4 Slashing damage on a hit. The saw can noisily cut through stone at a rate of 5 feet per minute, through wood at a rate of 20 feet per minute, and through hempen rope instantly. The claw arm has an extending piston that allows it to reach out up to ten feet away from you. You may use your action to make an attack with this arm, with the same bonus to hit as the sawblade, dealing 1d6+4 Bludgeoning damage on a hit. The claw arm has advantage on Strength checks made to make and maintain a grapple. Myriad Bolt Weapon (arrow, bolt, or dart), rarity varies This piece of ammunition has an odd head with tiny pointed barbs jutting out from the blade. You have a bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this ammunition (Uncommon: +0, Rare: +1, Very Rare: +2, Legendary: +3). When you make an attack using the Myriad Bolt, it magically splits into five identical bolts, allowing you to make up to four additional attacks, each targeting a different creature in a 25-foot-wide line between you and the original target. Bolts that are not used to make an attack simply fall to the ground and become mundane pieces of ammunition. Bolts that miss or strike creatures they target become nonmagical after coming to rest. Spells Feral Empowerment 2nd-level transmutation (Bard, Cleric, Druid, Ranger) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: Touch
Touch Components: S, V, M (a preserved animal paw)
S, V, M (a preserved animal paw) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You touch a creature and infuse its form with preturnatural focus and agility. A creature under this spell's effect can be recognized by their eyes, which glow a dim green and temporarily gain slitted feline pupils. The target creature increases its Proficiency bonus by 1. In addition, the first time it deals damage on its turn, it regains 1d4 hit points. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the creature's Proficiency bonus is increased by 1 and its healing increases by 1d4 for every two slot levels above 2nd. Cast Fist 2nd-level evocation (Bard, Paladin, Ranger, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: Touch
Touch Components: S, M (an arm with a fist at the end)
S, M (an arm with a fist at the end) Duration: Instantaneous Hauling back with all your might, you throw a mighty haymaker at an enemy and attempt to send them flying with one punch. Make a melee spell attack against the target creature. On a hit, the creature takes damage from your unarmed strike, as well as 3d8 Thunder damage as a blast of concussive power propels them backwards. The creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be propelled up to 30 feet away from you. If the creature impacts a solid object before coming to a stop, it is Stunned until the beginning of its next turn. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, its damage increases by 1d8 and the distance the creature is thrown increases by 5 feet for every slot level above 2nd. 13
Sand Blast 3rd-level evocation (Sorceror, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: Self
Self Components: S, V, M (a handful of hourglass sand)
S, V, M (a handful of hourglass sand) Duration: Instantaneous You form a swirling, glimmering orb of sand that hovers at your fingertips. When you cast this spell, designate a direction. At the end of your turn, the orb launches itself up to 150 feet in that direction and impacts the first creature it hits, dealing 6d12 Bludgeoning damage. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, its damage increases by 1d12 for each slot level above 3rd. Asmodeus's Globe of Annihilation 7th-level evocation (Sorceror, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 2500 feet
2500 feet Components: S, V, M (a tiny glass phial of antimatter)
S, V, M (a tiny glass phial of antimatter) Duration: Instantaneous You hold your hands to the skies, chanting a foul invocation of destruction. A firey sphere forms above your head, quickly swelling to 10 feet in diameter. As your chant ends, you hurl the globe high into the sky. The globe remains in transit until the end of your next turn, whereupon it crashes onto the target point and detonates in a thunderous explosion. Creatures directly impacted by the Globe must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 16d8 Force damage, taking half as much on a successful save. Creatures within 40 feet of the globe when it explodes must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 8d8 Force damage, taking half as much on a successful save. Creatures reduced to 0 hit points by this spell are incinerated, reduced to ash on the breeze by raw annihilative power. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 8th level or higher, its damage for a direct hit increases by 2d8, its indirect damage increases by 1d8, and its range increases by 2500 feet for each slot level above 7th. Living Bomb 4th-level evocation (Sorceror, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 45 feet
45 feet Components: S, V, M (a pinch of saltpeter mixed with blood)
S, V, M (a pinch of saltpeter mixed with blood) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You perform an insidious gesture, causing the target creature's skin to coruscate with spectral flames and smoke. As an action on any of your subsequent turns, you may cause that creature to erupt with a concussive blast of flame. It must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 6d6 Fire damage, taking half as much on a success. When the target creature explodes, all creatures within 5 feet of it must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d6 Fire damage. Creatures other than the initial target that take damage from the explosion are afflicted by a lesser version of the spell. As a bonus action, you may force all creatures affected by Living Bomb to succeed on a Constitution saving throw or briefly combust, taking 4d6 Fire damage. This ends the spell. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage of its initial explosion and subsequent explosions increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 4th. Spectral Scythe 2nd-level necromancy (Cleric, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 40 feet
40 feet Components: S, V, M (a scythe-shaped bone charm)
S, V, M (a scythe-shaped bone charm) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You cause a ghostly green scythe to manifest in an unoccupied space in range. As a bonus action, you may cause it to come spinning toward you. It vanishes after meeting your hand and ends the spell. Any creature the Scythe passes through must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 4d8 Necrotic damage. A creature that takes damage from Spectral Scythe is Poisoned and cannot restore hit points by any means until the start of your next turn. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 2nd. 14
Blighted Quiver 3rd-level transmutation (Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: Touch
Touch Components: S, V, M (the ashes of a cremated elf)
S, V, M (the ashes of a cremated elf) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour You touch a quiver containing arrows or bolts. When a target is hit by a ranged weapon attack using a piece of ammunition drawn from the quiver, the target takes an extra 1d6 Necrotic damage. In addition, a creature that takes damage from this spell has a -1 penalty to all damage rolls it makes for the next minute. The spell’s magic ends on the piece of ammunition when it hits or misses, and the spell ends when twelve pieces of ammunition have been drawn from the quiver. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the number of pieces of ammunition you can affect with this spell increases by two for each slot level above 3rd. Solo 7th-level enchantment (Bard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 20 feet
20 feet Components: S, V, M (a guitar pick fashioned from jade)
S, V, M (a guitar pick fashioned from jade) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute After a brief moment to psyche yourself up, you let loose with a blast of heart-pounding music from whatever instrument you happen to be carrying (or an air guitar, if that's your thing. Don't worry, it's magic). Creatures in range must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be Stunned for the spell's duration, becoming totally enthralled by your performance and doing nothing on their turns besides dancing and cheering you on. When the spell ends, affected creatures may not even realize something was amiss and may regarding you amiably unless they took damage in the meantime. Spawn Aberrants 3rd-level conjuration (Wizard, Warlock) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: S, V, M (the scale of a dead Aberrant)
S, V, M (the scale of a dead Aberrant) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour You broadcast a psionic signal to the Far Reaches, calling forth a number of Aberrant warrior-strain creatures to your aid. You may summon 8 Acid Bursters, 4 Hunter-Killers, or 2 Glaive Shrikes (statistics in Appendix A below). The creatures burrow up from the ground (or simply manifest in an explosion of sludge if there is no suitable ground) near the target location, and act at your initiative for the spell's duration. They are slaved to your mental command until the spell ends. When the spell ends, you may cast it again to maintain control over any Aberrants you have summoned. Otherwise, the Aberrants simply keel over and die due to a fatal lack of psychic stimulus. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using certain higher-level Spell Slots, you choose one of the summoning options above, and more Aberrants appear - twice as many with a 5th-level slot, three times as many with a 7th-level slot, and four times as many with a 9th-level slot. Spawn Brontolith 8th-level conjuration (Wizard, Warlock) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 80 feet
80 feet Components: S, V, M (a phial of Aberrant ichor)
S, V, M (a phial of Aberrant ichor) Duration: Concentration, up to 4 hours You send a mental probe into the Far Reaches and entice an Aberrant Brontolith to this plane with promises of fresh destruction. The monster punches a hole into this reality through stubborn force of will, and will obey you so long as there are buildings to topple and fresh prey to slaughter. Spawn Brontolith functions identically to Spawn Aberrants above, summoning a single Brontolith (see Appendix A). However, when the spell ends, the massive beast does not die. It may treat you favorably if you directed it to especially violent ends. More likely, it will simply attempt to eat you. 15
Melt Face 3rd-level evocation (Bard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: Self
Self Components: S, V, M (a fragment of a destroyed guitar)
S, V, M (a fragment of a destroyed guitar) Duration: Instantaneous You play a deafening note on your instrument of choice (or air guitar as, again, this is magic we're dealing with) and let out a bone-shattering scream, saturating the air with intense sonic energy. All creatures in a 15-foot cone or 10-foot radius (your choice) must succeed on a Constition saving throw or take 6d6 Thunder damage and be Deafened for 1 minute. Creatures who fail the save by 5 or more also take 3d8 Fire damage as their face begins to liquefy from the sheer power being directed at it. This spell has no effect on creatures with no face. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, its Thunder damage increases by 1d6 and its Fire damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd. The Artist Formerly Known As 8th-level enchantment (Bard) Casting Time: 1 day
1 day Range: Self
Self Components: S, V, Mgp (a medallion of a unique design, made from gold and inlaid with gemstones worth at least 3,500 GP)
S, V, Mgp (a medallion of a unique design, made from gold and inlaid with gemstones worth at least 3,500 GP) Duration: Until dispelled You fashion a new identity for yourself, dreaming up an entire lifetime of events belonging to a stranger who happens to look exactly like you. So long as this spell affects you, you can switch between your real identity and your fabricated identity via a 1-minute ritual. While you are taking on your fabricated identity, you automatically pass as your fabricated identity as people insist you are a different person. Reality itself regards you as someone else -- Geases on your original identity lose their effect on you, and you count as a different person for the effects of specifically-worded spells such as Wish. Only creatures to whom you reveal the spell's effects are capable of realizing who you are. Maelstrom Weapon 2nd-level evocation (Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: Touch
Touch Components: S, V
S, V Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour You touch a nonmagical weapon, causing the air around it to whip and swirl, propelling its attacks with greater speed. Until the spell ends, when that weapon is used during an Attack action, the wielder can make a single extra attack using that weapon as part of the same action. Kael's Magnum Opus 6th-level evocation (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 60 feet
60 feet Components: S, V, M (a singed hair from your own head)
S, V, M (a singed hair from your own head) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You utter an invocation of destruction in ancient Elvish, causing a sphere of searing red-orange plasma to form before you. With a thrust of your hand, you propel it forward to menace its intended target. When you cast this spell, you target a single creature you can see. The sphere moves up to 30 feet on each of your turns. It can move however you wish, but must end the turn closer to its target than it started. The sphere is five feet in diameter and white-hot to the touch. Creatures whose space it passes through take Fire damage from the immense heat, equal to your Proficiency bonus plus your spellcasting ability modifier. The spell ends when you willingly end the spell, when the sphere touches a solid surface, or when the sphere enters the space of its intended target. When the spell ends, all creatures within 15 feet of the sphere are blanketed in a thunderous explosion of plasma. Those creatures must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 8d10 Fire damage, taking half as much on a success. If the spell's intended target was struck by the sphere, it cannot make the saving throw when the sphere explodes. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, the damage of its explosion increases by 1d10 for each level above 6th. 16
Healing Beam 2nd-level evocation (Bard, Cleric, Ranger) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: S, M (an emerald shard shaped like a cross)
S, M (an emerald shard shaped like a cross) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute A ray of jade-green light shines from your outstretched hand, bathing a creature in range in revitalizing energy. The creature immediately regains a number of hit points equal to 1d6 plus your spellcasting ability modifier. On each of your subsequent turns, you can use a bonus action to heal the currently targeted creature again, and change the creature targeted by the spell before or after doing so, if you desire. The spell ends if you end your turn out of range of your current target or if you or your current target ends your turn in total cover from the other. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, its healing increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st. Mors Memori 7th-level necromancy (Cleric, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: S, V, M (the skull of a member of your race)
S, V, M (the skull of a member of your race) Duration: Instantaneous You conjure an image of the Reaper, hovering silently above the target creature. The image swoops down and slashes at the creature with its scythe before dissolving into a wispy black fog. The creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw when struck or take 6d10+30 Necrotic damage, taking half as much on a success. If the creature dies from this damage, you permanently gain an extra hit die. Fog of Acheron 3rd-level necromancy (Cleric, Sorceror, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 50 feet
50 feet Components: S, V, M (a droplet of brackish water)
S, V, M (a droplet of brackish water) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute A cloud of pale, icy fog appears in the shape of a cylinder 20 feet in diameter and 10 feet high, centered on a point on the ground in range. Vision into, inside, and out of the fog counts as lightly obscured. Creatures that end their turn within the fog must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take Necrotic damage equal to their largest hit die plus your your spellcasting ability modifier (e.g., if you had a spellcasting ability modifier of +3 and damaged a creature with a d12 hit die with this spell, that creature would take 1d12+3 Necrotic damage). At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, its diameter increases by 10 feet and its height increases by 5 feet for each slot level above 3rd. Its damage increases by one hit die for every two slot levels above 3rd. Become 6th-level transmutation (Druid, Sorceror, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: Self
Self Components: S, V
S, V Duration: 1 hour You touch a humanoid creature and suffuse your form with polymorphic magic, becoming a flawless copy of that creature. You replace your Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores, skill, weapon, and armor proficiencies, class features, and all of your gear with that of the target. You gain access to any unique actions it possesses. You are indistinguishable from the creature in voice and mannerism; however, you do not gain any of the creature's memories, cannot cast spells while transformed, and cannot replicate any magic items the creature was using (copies you make are mundane simulacra with no magical properties). At any time, you may revert to your true form as a bonus action, ending the spell. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 7th level or higher, its duration doubles for each slot level above 6th. At 9th level, the spell becomes permanent, lasting until dispelled. 17
Horror 1st-level Illusion (Bard, Sorceror, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: S, V, M (a pinch of powdered bile)
S, V, M (a pinch of powdered bile) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You point your finger at a spot on the ground in range. A purple cloud bursts into existence at that spot and a hulking pantasmal figure erupts forth, bellowing a hideous roar that forces all creatures within 5 feet to flee in terror, becoming Frightened of the figure for the spell's duration. While frightened by this spell, a creature must take the Dash action and move away from the figure by the safest available route on each of its turns, unless there is nowhere to move. If the creature ends its turn in a location where it doesn't have line of sight to the figure, it can make another Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, they are no longer frightened and can no longer see the illusion. Wave of Light 2nd-level Evocation (Cleric, Paladin) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 80 feet
80 feet Components: V, S, M (holy water mixed with gunpowder)
V, S, M (holy water mixed with gunpowder) Duration: Instantaneous Your hands glow a bright white as you thrust them forward, summoning a pulse of golden energy that washes over everything it passes through. This spell affects all creatures in a line 80 feet long and 5 feet wide. For each creature, you decide to either restore a number of hit points equal to 2d6 + your spellcasting modifier, or force the creature to succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take that much Radiant damage. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, its damage and healing increases by 2d6 for each slot level above 2nd. Insight Divination Cantrip (Bard, Ranger, Sorceror, Warlock, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: S, M (a glass eye)
S, M (a glass eye) Duration: Instantaneous You close your eyes and focus your senses for a brief moment. When they open, you become aware of the location of all creatures within range, as well as their size and a vague impression of their shape and some surface details. This spell allows you to discern ethereal and invisible creatures, but only for a brief moment. Nothing prevents such creatures from moving after the spell is cast. Unkillable 6th-level Abjuration (Cleric, Wizard) Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 15 feet
15 feet Components: S, V, M (a vial of troll's blood)
S, V, M (a vial of troll's blood) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute You project your hands toward a creature in range. That creature's skin glows a ruddy red as sustaining magic suffuses its form. For the spell's duration, the targeted creature cannot drop below 1 hit point, and it is immune to any effect that would kill it instantaneously. Concentrating on this spell requires great effort from you, and prevents you from moving. The spell ends if you use your action on subsequent turns to do anything else. The spell also ends if the target is ever outside the spell's range or if it has total cover from you. 18
Appendix A: Aberrant Summons Acid Burster Small aberration, unaligned Armor Class 12 (natural armor)
12 (natural armor) Hit Points 8(2d8 - 1)
8(2d8 - 1) Speed 15 ft., burrow 5ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 14 (+2) 8 (-1) 2 (-4) 4 (-3) 2 (-4) Condition Immunities blinded
blinded Senses tremorsense 60 ft (blind beyond this radius)
tremorsense 60 ft (blind beyond this radius) Languages --
-- Challenge 1/8 (25 XP) Lurker Strain. The Acid Burster's Aberrant biology renders it undetectable while underground. Centrifugal Hooks. When an Acid Burster takes the Dash action, it curls into a ball and begins rolling, adding 5 to its base speed until it takes an action other than Dash. While rolling, it may use its Burst as a bonus action. Death Throes. The Acid Burster automatically uses its Burst when reduced to 0 hit points. Actions Gnaw. Melee weapon attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) Piercing damage. Burst. The Acid Burster emerges if it was undergound and kills itself by exploding in a geyser of bright green bile. All creatures in a 5-foot radius must make a DC 16 Dexterity save or take 9 (2d8) Acid damage, taking half as much on a successful save. This deals double damage to structures and objects. Hunter-Killer Medium aberration, unaligned Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
13 (natural armor) Hit Points 18 (4d8)
18 (4d8) Speed 25 ft., burrow 5ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 2 (-4) 8 (-1) 2 (-4) Condition Immunities None
None Senses passive Perception 11, tremorsense 60 ft
passive Perception 11, tremorsense 60 ft Languages --
-- Challenge 1/4 (50 XP) Swarm Tactics. The Hunter-Killer has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one other Hunter-Killer targeted that creature with its Serrated Spines since its last turn. Actions Multiattack. The Hunter-Killer makes two attacks with its Serrated Spines. Serrated Spines. Ranged weapon attack: +6 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) Piercing damage. Vestigial Claws. Melee weapon attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 1) Slashing damage. 19The BJP on Wednesday said Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi was “desperate” and fearing defeat in Gujarat he had violated the Model Code of Conduct to give interviews on the eve of the last phase of voting.
Advertising
Union Minister Piyush Goyal predicted a massive victory for the BJP with more than 150 seats at a press conference in the BJP headquarters and wondered whether the Congress would be decimated so badly that it would not be able to claim the Leader of Opposition post. He said the “undercurrent” about which Rahul has spoken would work against the Congress.
The last phase of voting in Gujarat is on Thursday and the result will be out on December 18.
Goyal objected to Rahul’s interviews that were aired by Gujarati media on Wednesday. “The Congress is so |
level of neighborhood opposition seen in other parts of L.A. High-rises are going onto surface parking lots. Rundown buildings are being torn down and replaced with mixed-use developments that house coffee shops and pet care stores on the ground level.
The result has been thousands more luxury apartments than there are renters. Of the 21,000-plus market-rate rentals tallied in a recent report by the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, more than 2,000 are empty under the current vacancy rate.
CoStar senior market analyst Steve Basham said that in the last several years, landlords have been ramping up concessions to lure tenants. Of course, the savings are relative when the average rent for a one-bedroom runs around $2,500. Basham said the high rents are why apartments aren't filling up faster.
"The stuff that’s being built right now is really targeting the very top of the renter’s pool," Basham said. "The majority of the renters in L.A. are not going to be able to afford that."
Basham said vacancies could keep growing next year, while rents could slow — and even drop —as more than 4,000 new apartments come online.
But he said construction as falls off in 2019, supply will catch up with demand among affluent urbanites. He predicted that more of the people who work downtown will decide they want to live near their jobs. And, he said, downtown's proximity to sporting venues for the 2028 Olympics that L.A. is hosting will only generate more interest in the area.
The number of new units coming on the market in downtown L.A. is expected to peak in 2018. CoStar
All the market-rate apartments sitting unoccupied in the interim, however, irritate housing advocates such as Thelmy Perez, given California's shortage of affordably-priced homes.
Perez and her group, Los Angeles Community Action Network, spent part of Thursday protesting plans for a residential high-rise on 7th and Maple before the City Planning Commission. Eleven percent of the project's 452 units would be set aside as below-market rate; the rest would be luxury.
"We're continuing to see double-digit increases in homelessness," Perez said. "This is not the kind of project we need downtown, especially considering the vacancy rate is so high."
But developers and real estate agents are bullish on downtown's high-end residential market, and believe the double-digit vacancy rate is temporary.
Realtor Alexis Alegre specializes in downtown Los Angeles listings. Alexis Alegre
Realtor Alexis Alegre of Smart LA Realty said that downtown is in the middle of a renaissance that will continue to draw new residents who want to walk to work, restaurants and shops.
She said in the last year, she and her partner completed 150 new leases in more than 50 buildings. Many of their clients sought help after finding the huge selection of apartments downtown overwhelming.
"It's doctors, accountants, musical artists, producers, people who work for L.A. County — it's just very eclectic," Alegre said. "I think what brings people together is the love of an urban lifestyle."The oversized plate glass doors whooshed open as Doug and the other employees pressed inside. Outside, beyond the doors, somewhere out in the pale yellow field opposite the building was a rich, putrid stink that attacked the nose and stomachs of anyone outside the Ronto Corporation. Inside the ten-story building, each floor reeked of antiseptic and what smelled like old lemons. Compared to outside, Doug found it refreshing.
The casual voices all came together as everyone complained to each other of the smell. Eventually making his way past the group, into the long tube like hallways, the voices all digressed into other complaints and plans.
“This one time, my toilet broke, the smell was like burning tires stuffed with used baby diapers.”
“I just want to go away this weekend with Joe. Maybe up North to that bed and breakfast with the pool you told me about.”
“Dude threw it for like 40 yards and killed my flex player.”
The crowds grew from the hallway into the lunchroom blocking his entrance. Inside the cafeteria he found an empty Formica green table he spilled his backpack onto. Typically early, he liked to spend his mornings taking notes for his blog on the bits of overheard gossip and stories.
Doug sat at the circular wooden table and began typing. His blog had been getting a good number of people reading it, so he was more accustomed to updating it every morning before work. He knew people enjoyed reading it throughout their workday. It was a source of comfort, as he worked such a mindless job.
“Hey, did you hear, some are saying the smell outside is cancerous.” Mike said. Doug darted his head up from his laptop, looking to Mike whose face was always such a sad comedy of errors. The comically sallow, wide eyes reminiscent of Droopy Dog’s, the sloped nose that ended in the red tinged bulb of skin. Truth is it was all just stains of alcoholism.
“Oh please, it is about as cancerous as anything else around this building, come on.” Doug said. Mike stood too near for comfort, but most did as he typed up his blog. People always came over in failed tries to steal a glance of what he was writing. The lie was he was working on a novel. People jokingly called him Hemingway after a month of it.
“Yeah, but that stink is horrible. There is no way in hell that is safe for us.” Mike said. He reminded Doug of a dog begging for scraps of meat. Why is it the less you care, the more everyone wants you to care? Doug thought.
After a few more minutes gossip, Doug went back to ignoring Mike until he wandered away at last. No one knew what the stink was and he didn’t really care. It was a smell. There were others things about the corporate life he would rather hook into. The tanker deal being brokered upstairs was for some would-soon-be-rotting ships, but no one would dare to confirm his suspicion. He had tried to pull together as much proof as he could and posted some half-assed reports on it, but eventually gave up as no one was going to talk on the subject and lose their job. Instead, he filled his blog day in and day out with the mindless antics of corporate bossery and gossip on his co-workers.
The blog had started as something to pass the slow hours of data entry. Working for Ronto Doug had never intended to stay longer than a year, much less stay in for the past five years. Instead of typing the inane legal jargon needed on several thousand documents, he pecked away at his blog, posting about how his boss had thought Hawaii was land-locked or had lost several binders of contracts and blamed it on his team. They were all docked a day’s pay after being sent home in a petty, yet exceptional display of cowardice by Flanders his boss.
“Doug, Flanders needs you,” Stephen said. Doug watched the tall, skinny man walk away. He wanted to trade places with him instead of going to Flanders office. Swimming in garbage would be better than having to sit in Flanders office, Doug thought.
Doug packed his laptop and walked into the main office floor. The summons was not the worst of it. Anyone that headed down the hall towards Flanders, the air seemed to collapse around them. He had heard a few people complain that going to Flanders was like walking while being choked. There was now a feeling of too many eyes watching him. A few people waved their hands in the air as he passed. They were the only ones too old and burnt out to care if someone was in trouble or not. The others pooled together in a long montage of pained, angry faces.
Flanders’ office was significantly white. White chairs, white IKEA style bookcases, even a white art deco desk with silver steel legs. Everything smelled liked it was freshly polished two minutes ago. Like a team of cleaners he kept in a secret compartment came out every hour to re-clean the office, then scamper back to their hidden hole.
Flanders waved Doug in and to the seat in front of him while whispering to the stoic, quiet man next to Flanders. The quiet man wore a black suit, black tie, and slicked-back black hair that outlined his head in a widow’s peak at the front.
Doug sat on the other side of Flanders’ desk. The chairs were smaller than they looked, the off-white cloth portion stuffed with flat, uncomfortable padding. He wondered if they made these types of awkward chairs specifically for corporate management. It seemed possible these were simply devices left over from the auto-da-fé.
“Doug,” said Flanders, “this is one of our chief corporate officers. He asked to be here today to discuss your career here at Ronto.”
Doug looked to the man, then back to Flanders, a bit confused of who to focus on. He finally decided to focus on Flanders. The quiet man had the presence of an overly large spider, his arms tucked quietly together on his lap, serene as any hunter before his prey.
“You have always struck me as a straight kinda guy,” Flanders said, “so I want to do the same with you. We found you have been running a blog detailing aspects and even specifics of Ronto’s business dealings.”
The quiet man adjusted in his seat and brought out a silver cigarette case. It was polished and etched with a monogram Doug could not read. Was that a C.S.M.? He couldn’t be sure because the sun was reflecting off it from the window.
It was a few minutes of staring at the cigarette case before he realized what was being said. He had been found out. His blog had been read by Flanders and some of the other higher-ups in the corporation. His feet felt tingly as his stomach pushed acid up into his esophagus. Everything in his body wanted to bolt.
“But what I think we can do is offer you a way of” – here, Flanders interlocked his fingers together to form a bridge – “bringing everything back together. Make amends with a corporation that is here to help you succeed. We aren’t in the business of hurting anyone or taking advantage of our clients.”
The quiet man puffed on his black cylinder with a blue light that blazed as he smoked. It was an electronic cigarette, artificial, yet that did not stop the quiet man from handling it as if it were the real thing. Doug looked back to Flanders, and his stomach ached, roared, then ached again. His brain went down a checklist: being evicted, losing his car, becoming homeless in an alleyway somewhere, sleeping on piss-stained blankets.
“Here is – and I am sure you will agree – what is a very fair offer. We have a need for someone to go out and dispose of whatever is causing the smell in the field next to us.”
Silence. No one made a sound except for the sad wheezing of the quiet man on his fake cigarette. Doug thought he looked more human as he smoked.
Flanders continued. “Basically, the city has been out and tested the ground. They say it is completely non-toxic, non-carcinogenic. It appears to be something buried in the earth.”
“Non-cancerous? Really?” Doug said. The interruption furrowed Flanders eyebrows while his mouth kept the same granite smile. A jaw and nose so geometric it had to be unreal. The quiet man wheezed again.
“Of course, it is non-cancerous. The city came and checked it out. Clean bill of health. So all we would need you to do is go out there and dispose of what is in the ground over there.”
“But what is it?” asked Doug. “What is it that smells so foul and is not harmful? What am I digging up?” Doug twisted in his seat to get comfortable, but instead leaned too far forward in his seat, giving the appearance that he was ready to run at any second.
“We are not sure. From what the city could tell us, the ground was overly ripe and fertile and it could be some type of vegetables grew in wrong, too fast, and are festering under the soil.”
Flanders’ explanation didn’t ease Doug’s safety concerns. Then again, what is the concern of safety compared to living under a dumpster and using a sack of garbage for a pillow?
Doug wanted Flanders to reveal more details, at least how deep he would have to dig. Flanders looked over to the quiet man slowly puffing his artificial cigarette. The quiet man finally removed it from his mouth, tamped it on his polished cigarette case, placed it back in its sleeve, snapped it shut, and stood up. Without a word, he walked towards the back door. Then, as if he had never been there, he left. Doug felt the air rush back into the room.
Flanders cleared his throat to stop Doug from staring back at the door. Perhaps waiting for the door itself to make an explanation for the exit. As Doug turned back to Flanders, the two men adjusted in their seats, both obviously a little relieved that the quiet man had left.
Flanders explained the rest of the details and offered an escort out to the field. He said he would have a detail of two men who would be overseeing his work. He would even get a shovel which was probably Flanders’ way of offering some exotic-styled olive branch.
Doug left the office, his shoulders slumped forward. He walked along the same choking corridor, feeling each step was a statement on him and who he would never be. He was a man always under someone’s thumb. This was not the life he chose, but the life he was granted like a parolee going back to prison.
It wasn’t till he reached the lobby that Doug realized he would have to be in the stench all day. He thought about how he would have to write this up for his blog. But he knew they were probably monitoring his site for updates now. Anything posted would surely send up a red flag.
Breathing deep, Doug locked the breath in his chest and walked outside. He quickly inhaled. He couldn’t escape it now. It was not just a smell. It was as if the putrid stink had become the world around him.
Doug saw his escorts ahead. The bigger of the two resembled about the fourth or fifth version of man on the evolutionary chart. The smaller one had more rat-like features and a squirrelly mustache that grew in spurts around his tiny mouth full of smoke-stained teeth. The rat was leaning on the shovel. Both of the guards wore white surgical masks.
“Any chance I can get a mask?” Doug asked. The rat threw the shovel towards him instead.
“Just get the fuck over there so we can all go inside,” Rat said.
Doug read his name tag: Day. ’Why give a disgusting thug a name,’ Doug wondered. He felt that instead of a name, people like these guards should just be labeled. The bigger one he wanted to call mouth-breather, but not to his face. Sweat started to crowd his face as he thought about how mouth-breather would retaliate from the name.
“Time to work, and if you take more than a day or two I swear to God we will kick your ass.” The mouth-breather said. His lungs gusting hot air probably smelled as bad as outside did right now.
The trio walked up the embankment out onto the field. Doug’s body began to sweat, the noon sun choking the men. The shovel was heavy under the heat. Doug cradled it under his arm and walked into the field. The yellow wheat sat sallow as he trampled through it.
He unbuttoned his top collar and pulled his undershirt up to cover his nose. It barely blocked any of the smell, but still he left it up.
His stomach actually felt a little calm as he stopped near the middle of the field. The smell seemed strongest here, but he couldn’t be sure.
After a while, he felt more accustomed to the stench.
Doug shoveled the soil into a pile off to his right. He could see the two guards off at the end of the field. The two men were resting on green folding chairs. He resented them, but knew it was his own fault for being careless. His guilt soon set his stomach grumbling. Despite the noxious odors of the field, his hunger beat stronger. He had eaten his usual breakfast of bananas and oatmeal, which kept him full most the day. But each time he crashed the shovel into soil, his stomach stung with hunger.
By the time he had gotten two feet into the ground and was ready to run off to eat, he found the first fruit. It was a moldy green thing and oozed something blue and orange. He pushed at it with the shovel. The rusty liquid erupted from small black holes. It took a few seconds, but the smell whacked him in the nose, causing a violent hunger.
As if his brain had been shut off, Doug reached for the fruit and brought it close. It was spherical and shiny except for where the goop was smearing across it, dripping off onto his hand.
Staring at the ooze jolted his body awake. His thoughts became clear enough that they disappeared from his mind. Doug licked at the runoff leaking down his hand. His eyes went wide and his body shook. He looked possessed, or like an animal mauling its prey, as he devoured the grotesque, rotten fruit. The feeling of fuzz from the skin tickled his throat as it rushed down to his stomach.
Sucking the remains from his fingers, Doug froze stiff and then fell like a tower into the hole.
He wasn’t in the hole, though. He woke to find himself in a field with thousands of Polaroid pictures propped up on their corners, stuck up from the soil.
The field was laid out the same as before. Five wide aisles ran up and down the length of the field, bordered by rows of soil. Desperate to gain his bearings, Doug walked up an aisle. He could feel blood on his lip, and his nose stung. The sky was an electric purple color that looked hypnotic against the black and yellow trees and shrubs.
The Polaroids in the soil each flapped singularly from an impossible wind. A wind that made each picture flap in a different direction.
Doug moved to another aisle looking for someone, anyone. Hell, even the Ronto building would be a welcome eyesore, he thought. But even that was gone wherever here was.
Finding his way down the aisle, looking down to the pictures in the ground as he walked, it took a few minutes until he noticed it didn’t smell here. While the field layout was the same, aside from the colors, he did not feel lost. It was as comfortable as the old brown recliner in his living room.
Finally, he came to a group of pictures all rattling, each in a different direction than the next.
Whereas before he felt a deep and odd hunger, he now felt a pressing curiosity. Reaching down, he yanked up a picture. The ground sighed like an old man as he lifted it.
It was a picture of Michael, his co-worker. He was hiding a bottle in the toilet at work. Impossibly, the picture shifted as it cycled through flashing images of Michael hiding bottles in different places. Finally, the picture stopped on a shot of Michael in a car, his Lexus slamming into a small girl on a wider, country road.
Without a sign, a wind picked up and started blowing, it wailed against him until it was almost a tornado. Doug was knocked to the ground as clumps of soil flew around him. The yellow trees shook like epileptics. The world looked ready to sink. Before he could move, he went black again.
Waking up, Doug could see the world was back. He could feel the dirt under him. Catching his bearings, he looked up to see the two security guards rifling through his wallet. He moaned low to warn them of his waking.
“Any chance I could get that back?” Doug said. The rat had about ten dollars in his hand, while the thug held his driver’s license and a credit card.
“Sure, ain’t shit here.” They threw it all at Doug who still lay in the hole. The wallet slapped his chest, and the cards fell around him. He grabbed his bills, credit cards, and license before escaping the hole. His head hurt, but that could have been the fall.
“I’m going home,” Doug said as he left the field. “Don’t feel well.” The two guards shouted at him, but he didn’t listen.
As he walked to his car, Doug tried to remember what he had seen, but it was mostly gone by that point. Left somewhere near the front of his brain was a small, buzzing memory of Michael, booze, and a dead little girl.Nestled in a tight basin, Coquina Lake is a true gem of a day hike in the Lost Horse country of the Bitterroot Mountains. I have fallen in love with the Lost Horse country, which I have not hiked until this summer (next hike will be the Spruce Lake). From the Bear Creek Pass trailhead, the trail meanders through and around a boulder-strewn slope until you arrive at the junction with the path to Fish Lake (another great hike). A slight uphill leads to Upper Bear Lake, a shallow depression surrounded by grass (seems perfect for moose sighting, no moose this time). At this point, there is no “official” trail, BUT the way to Coquina Lake is quite evident, and in fact, it is the best section of trail (in terms of footing) during the entire hike. After crossing a ridge, the descent of the lake is largely on huge granite slabs.
This year’s wildfires have largely filled the Big Sky with choking levels of smoke, and on this day this pattern held true. Surrounding the lake are several granite peaks that all crash into the placid water of Coquina Lake. Sitting on a slab of granite, paddle-tailed darners coursed back and forth along the shoreline, and their wings were the sound. Just a peaceful, even if I was being type-A (or was it hungry for a Rustic Hut pizza). Even the horse flies give us a break. I have endured more of those bitey little bastards this year than I care to.
Total distance: 6.79 mi
Max elevation: 7041 ft
Total climbing: 2566 ft
Total Time: 03:41:36Screenshot courtesy of The Colbert Report
This question originally appeared on Quora.
Answer by Jennifer 8. Lee, Colbert, Today show, Early Show, CNN, etc.:
Advertisement
Don't try to be funny.
That was the piece of advice that was repeatedly given to me in 2008 when my friends first heard I was booked on The Colbert Report to talk about my book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, on Chinese food in America. I had never watched a full episode of The Colbert Report because not only do I not have cable, but I also don't own a television (which makes me a bit of an oddity, but very productive).
A friend who writes for The Daily Show, Rachel Axler, advised over instant messaging that with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, "The only way to come off looking bad is to try and out-funny them." Colbert is a tougher interviewer, so "just be calm and roll with the weirdness," she said. Or as my friend Dana explained: "Colbert comes from an improv tradition, and the first rule in improv is never deny. In other words, treat the outrageous things that he says at face value and segue into your points—don't brush them off. And keep talking. He needs the author to keep talking in order to riff."
Appearing on The Colbert Report as an author can be a double-edged sword, because although it's high-profile, you are also a punching bag in his bombastic red-blooded American act. A Random House editor said he preferred putting authors on The Daily Show because Jon Stewart, like most interviewers, has a style that is essentially "so tell me about your book." Whereas with Colbert it's a tête-à-tête where he's trying to be funny while the author is trying to get her point across. Sometimes those goals converge; sometimes they don't. So in advance, my friends brainstormed on which of my points he might jump on. My friend Alexis (a huge Colbert fan) sent me an email predicting how Colbert might respond to my argument that Chinese food is more American than apple pie, given how much we eat apple pie versus Chinese food, and how I should recover from that:
Colbert: "I eat apple pie every morning—with a jack and coke—and a bald eagle egg omlette."
Jenny: "Well, there are exceptions—and you are clearly an exceptional American—for most would say Chinese food."
Advertisement
Other things he might do:
Introduce the idea that the Chinese are taking over the world, starting with the restaurants. ("If that happens, I'm hedged. I speak Chinese, what about you?" or "That might happen. I suggest that your kids learn to speak Chinese. My mom's a tutor.")
Bring up any comment about the fact that fortune cookies were copied from the Japanese by the Chinese. ("We don't feel so bad about it. They've been copying us for centuries.")
were copied from the Japanese by the Chinese. ("We don't feel so bad about it. They've been copying us for centuries.") Of course, ask about the middle number as initial. ("The Chinese love the number eight. The Beijing Olympics are starting at 8 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2008. They really wanted this Olympics.")
Colbert greets his guests before the show, where he briefly explains his character to people who have not seen it. (In person, he is nothing like on television: very thoughtful with an almost professorial air.) Guest interviews last about six minutes, which under the lights and in front of a live audience seems simultaneously like an eternity and an instant. Something I wasn't expecting was that Colbert would shift the interview to Mandarin Chinese. (So what did I say? "I started working on this book several years ago, and now I'm talking about it on your television show." It was what popped into mind.) Something we did anticipate correctly was the apple pie line.
And then it was over. At the moment the lights went out, I slumped in exhaustion down in my chair. Colbert reached over the table, calmly smiled and said, "Don't worry. You did great."
Advertisement
Here's is the video. I have never watched it in its entirety. It's like reliving trauma.I’ve seen a few variations of the Scottish Saltire in recent years, and I’ve also found many feel it difficult to tell if a person is flying the saltire as a show of pride in their nation, or to demonstrate their desire for independence. In Catalonia, they have a solution for this, you see in Catalonia, the flag is La Senyera, a gold and red striped flag. However a variation of that flag has been used throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century named La Senyera Estelada, quite literally translating from Catalan to mean “The Starred Flag” and is often just shorted to “L’Estelada”, or “The Starred”. It was originally based on the flags used by Puerto Rico and Cuba who gained independence from Spain in 1898 and 1902.
It’s worth noting that Catalonia does not intend to use L’Estelada when they do gain independence but, in fact, use the true flag of Catalonia, the simple Senyera with no triangle and no star. In this way, the Catalan flag that we all see so often by our kin in struggle for independence really is a protest flag. I felt that we could use a similar flag, and so I’ve put together the following, “La Saltire Estelada”.
The Saltire Estelada depicts the Scottish Saltire Flag with a gold star centred within its left triangle. The colours of the flag are navy-blue (#003399) and gold (#FFCC00) using the official colours of the EU flag and, of course, white (#FFFFFF) for the saltire. The star represents our wish for independence, its colour our wish to be a member of the European Union. It also acknowledges our friendship and shared, peaceful struggle with Catalonian independence campaigners.
I am licensing this as Creative Commons Zero (CC0) meaning it is public domain, everyone is free to use this as they wish without attributing me.
Downloads:
Illustrator file
SVG file
PNG fileBefore a torn rotator cuff sidelined him for the year, Kobe Bryant made NBA history last season. And while that’s nothing new for one of the greatest players ever to wear a basketball jersey, this was not necessarily the sort of history an athlete would want to make. In a game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Bryant missed a shot for the 13,418th time in his long and storied professional career. Miss No. 13,418 for the Black Mamba broke John Havlicek’s NBA record of 13,417, meaning the Lakers legend has now missed more shots than any player in NBA history.
Since it’s understood that you have to take shots to make shots (just like any good home run hitter strikes out an awful lot — right, Adam Dunn?), Bryant leads an impressive list of players that have missed more attempts than any of their counterparts through the years in the Association. So, in honor of Kobe’s record and career, here are the 10 players that have missed the most shots in NBA history.
10. Dirk Nowitzki
The greatest German NBA player of all time (sorry Detlef) is also the greatest Dallas Maverick of all time, and The 7 footer with the golden voice and deadly array of post moves is the only player in league history to notch 25,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, 1,000 blocks and 1,000 three-pointers. Along the way, there have been some misses. 10,916 so far, to be exact.
9. Allen Iverson
Iverson took 19,906 NBA shots and missed 11,439 of them, giving ‘The Answer” a career field goal percentage of 42.5, lowest on this list. Iverson still averaged 26.7 points per game, but think how good he could have been if he liked to practice?
8. Elgin Baylor
Elgin Baylor attempted 20,171 shots as an NBA player, and all 20,171 of them came inside the three-point line. Baylor made 43.1% of his attempts, missing a total of 11,478 shots over 14 years as a Los Angeles Laker. He averaged 27.4 points per game and scored 23,149 points in all.
7. Dominique Wilkins
Dominique Wilkins missed 11,626 shots out of 21,589 attempts, knocking down better than 46% of his field goals over a 16-year career. The “Human Highlight Film” averaged 24.8 points per game and finished his days as a player with 26,668 career points scored (12th in league history).
6. Michael Jordan
Jordan played 15 NBA seasons and attempted 24,537 shots, misfiring on 12,345. The Bulls legend made nearly half of his career shot attempts (49.7%) en route to six league championships and 32,292 career points (which equals more than 30 points per game).
5. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
No player in NBA history scored more points than Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), so it’s only fair that he show up in the top five of the “most missed shots” list as well. Kareem missed 12,470 of his 28,307 career shot attempts, finishing with a field goal percentage of 55.9% and a scoring average of 24.6 ppg.
4. Karl Malone
The NBA’s second-leading scorer ever also owns the fourth-highest total of career misses, as the Mailman was unable to deliver on 12,682 of his 26,210 shot attempts. The longtime Jazz standout averaged 25 points a game over his 19 seasons, managing to hit at a clip of 51.6% from the field.
3. Elvin Hayes
Elvin Hayes ranks third on the all-time miss list, as he misfired on 13,296 of his 24,272 shots. Hayes, who tallied 21 points a night, would have had a slightly higher field goal percentage than his 45.2% mark if he’d never shot a three-pointer: He didn’t attempt one until the final five years of his career and finished just 5-34 behind the arc.
2. John Havlicek
The aforementioned Havlicek, who played all 16 of his NBA seasons with the Boston Celtics, missed 13,417 of his 23,930 shots. Havlicek’s field goal percentage was 43.9%, which equaled out to a career average of 20.8 points per game.
1. Kobe Bryant
By the end of his last NBA game to date, Bryant had increased his record total to 13,766 misses on 25,087 attempts. He’s averaged 25.4 points per game over his 19 years in the NBA, shooting 45.3% from the floor and making a third of his career three-pointers.
Honorable mentions
Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen are the next active four players on the Pro Basketball Talk’s “shots missed” list, so, good news, Dirk and company! The top 10 could still change down the road.
All statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com.Intro
Last month, Nvidia released its third Pascal video card, the GTX 1060 Founders Edition (FE) video card which beat AMD’s new card, the Polaris RX 480 reference version. We overclocked the Founders Edition and we even pitted it against the overclocked RX 480 and the GTX 980 in a third follow up evaluation. Last Friday, BTR received a $259 EVGA GTX 1060 Superclocked (SC) Gaming edition from EVGA which is factory overclocked by EVGA right out of the box, and we have put it through its paces with what is probably the largest PC game benchmark suite in the English language, 25 games.
We compare the SC’s performance – at EVGA’s factory overclock and further overclocked by us – with the reference clocked and overclocked GTX 1060 Founders Edition, and also versus the reference RX 480. Since all three cards retail for over $239, they make for a natural comparison, and we will use 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 to help determine the overall value/performance winner.
We will not recap Nvidia’s Pascal architecture here as with our GTX 1060 Founders Edition launch article, but will instead focus on the performance of the new EVGA GTX 1060 SC. This evaluation is focused on each card’s performance, primarily comparing the EVGA GTX 1060 SC against the Founders Edition of the GTX 1060, and we will try to answer the question, which card should you buy? We will then place this evaluation into our larger context of 10 video card configurations including the RX 470 and the RX 480 which we call “The Big Picture” to see if you should consider an upgrade or not.
The EVGA GTX 1060 SC Gaming Edition
The EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 featuring EVGA ACX 2.0 cooling arrived with a retail price of $259, or $40 less than the Founders Edition of the GTX 1060 which is priced at $299.
This EVGA GTX 1060 SC is clocked the higher of the two currently available air-cooled GTX 1060 EVGA cards which feature ACX 2.0 cooling technology which was first introduced for their GTX 980. With optimized Swept fan blades, double ball bearings and an extreme low power motor, EVGA ACX 2.0 delivers more air flow with less power, unlocking additional power for the GPU, and the fan will even shut down when the card is not under load.
Features of EVGA’s GeForce GTX 1060 SC Gaming Edition:
You can find out much more here. As a recap, here are the specifications and the details for the EVGA GTX 1060 SC Gaming edition:
Here are the specifications for the reference Founders Edition of the GTX 1060:
The EVGA GTX 1060 SC’s card’s base clock is 1607MHz, up 101MHz over the reference Founders Edition base clock, and the EVGA boost clock is 1835MHz, 127MHz higher than Nvidia’s guaranteed minimum reference boost of 1708MHz. We will show the boost and base clocks that we actually got compared with our sample of the Founders Edition, and we will also compare both cards clocked as far as we could stably push them including adding extra voltage and/or adjusting the fan profiles.
Notice that the GDDR5 memory is not further overclocked by EVGA. We found we gained some impressive performance by overclocking the memory clocks.
From what we can see, the specifications of the EVGA GTX 1060 SC Gaming Editon are impressive, and it clocked significantly higher than the reference Founders Edition version, and with a quieter cooler. You are also covered by EVGA’s 3-year warranty with a further warranty extension available upon registration within 90 days of purchase.
Our EVGA GTX 1060 SC Gaming Edition ACX 2.0 came directly from EVGA to BTR as a sample, last Friday. EVGA wants to make it very clear that what they sent us is the same as what you can buy from any etailer. EVGA sent out this press release after the release of their GTX 1080 FTW:
EVGA was one of the first graphics card companies to offer overclocked graphics cards, and since day one EVGA always delivered the exact same products to reviewers as well as customers. EVGA does not “fake” reviews or send out products with “tweaked” clockspeeds to reviewers. With EVGA Superclocked, FTW and Classified graphics cards, what you see is what you get. Learn more at http://www.evga.com/articles/01022/evga-wysiwyg/
Our Big Picture Testbed of Competing Cards
Our testing platform is Windows 10 Home 64-bit, using an Intel Core i7-6700K at 4.00GHz which turbos to 4.4GHz for all cores as set in the ASRock Z7170 motherboard’s BIOS, and 16GB of G.SKILL DDR4 at 3000MHz. The settings and hardware are identical except for the drivers being tested.
Our testbed of competing cards tests 25 games and 2 synth |
during flights and while the cranes are at each stopover location along the route to Florida. Visit: http://www.ustream.tv/migratingcranes to watch the video stream or http://operationmigration.org/InTheField for daily website postings.
This is the 13th group of birds to take part in a project led by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, an international coalition of public and private groups that is reintroducing this highly imperilled species in eastern North America, part of its historic range.
WCEP partner Operation Migration is using two ultralight aircraft to lead the juvenile cranes through Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia to reach the birds’ wintering habitat at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge along Florida's Gulf Coast.
Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 600 birds in existence, about 445 of those in the wild. Aside from the WCEP birds, the only other migratory population of whooping cranes nests at Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta, Canada and winters at Aransas NWR on the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migratory flock of approximately 20 birds lives year-round in the central Florida Kissimmee region, and an additional 33 non-migratory cranes live in southern Louisiana.
WCEP asks anyone who encounters a whooping crane in the wild to please give them the respect and distance they need. Do not attempt to feed them, or approach birds on foot within 200 yards; remain in your vehicle. Do not approach in a vehicle any closer than 100 yards. Also, please remain concealed and do not speak loudly enough that the birds can hear you. Finally, please do not trespass on private property in an attempt to view or photograph whooping cranes.
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership founding members are the International Crane Foundation, Operation Migration, Inc., Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and National Wildlife Health Center, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, and the International Whooping Crane Recovery Team.
Many other flyway states, provinces, private individuals and conservation groups have joined forces with and support WCEP by donating resources, funding and personnel. More than 60 percent of the project’s budget comes from private sources in the form of grants, public donations and corporate sponsors.
To report whooping crane sightings, visit the WCEP whooping crane observation webpage at: http://www.fws.gov/midwest/whoopingcrane/sightings/sightingform.cfmBlastoff of the X-37B spaceplane on United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with the OTV-4 AFSPC-5 satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 11:05 a.m. EDT, May 20, 2015 from Space Launch Complex-41. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Story updated with additional details and photos[/caption]
The X-37B, a reusable Air Force space plane launched today, May 20, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on its fourth mission steeped in mystery as to its true goals for the U.S. military and was accompanied by ten tiny cubesat experiments for NASA and the NRO, including a solar sailing demonstration test for The Planetary Society.
The military space plan successfully blasted off for low Earth orbit atop a 20 story United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket on the clandestine Air Force Space Command 5 (AFSPC-5) satellite mission for the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office at 11:05 a.m. EDT (1505 GMT) today, May 20, from Space Launch Complex-41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
The weather cooperated for a spectacular liftoff from the Florida space coast, which was webcast live by ULA until five minutes after launch when it went into a communications blackout shortly after announcing the successful ignition of the Centaur upper stage.
The exact launch time was classified until it was released by the Department of Defense this morning. Early this morning the four hour launch window was narrowed down to two small windows of opportunity.
Among the experiments for the flight are 10 CubeSats housed in the Aft Bulkhead Carrier (ABC) located below the Centaur upper stage. Together they are part of the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO’s) Ultra Lightweight Technology and Research Auxiliary Satellite (ULTRASat). The 10 CubeSats in ULTRASat are managed by the NRO and NASA. They are contained in eight P-Pods from which they will be deployed in the coming days.
Also aboard the X-37B is a NASA materials science experiment called METIS and an advanced Hall thruster experiment. The Hall thruster is a type of electric propulsion device that produces thrust by ionizing and accelerating a noble gas, usually xenon.
Following primary spacecraft separation the Centaur will change altitude and inclination in order to release the CubeSat spacecraft.
They are sponsored by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and NASA and were developed by the U.S. Naval Academy, the Aerospace Corporation, the Air Force Research Laboratory, California Polytechnic State University, and The Planetary Society.
LightSail marks the first controlled, Earth orbit solar sail flight according to the non-profit Planetary Society. Photons from the sun should push on the solar sails.
“The purpose of this LightSail demonstration test is to verify telemetry, return photos return and to test the deployment of the solar sails,” said Bill Nye, the Science Guy), and President of The Planetary Society, during the X-37B launch webcast.
“LightSail is comprised of three CubeSats that measure about 30 cm by 10 cm.”
“It’s smaller than a shoebox, everybody! And the sail that will come out of it is super shiny mylar. We’re very hopeful that the thing will deploy properly, the sunlight will hit it and we’ll get a push.”
The Boeing-built X-37B is an unmanned reusable mini shuttle, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) and is flying on the OTV-4 mission. It launches vertically like a satellite but lands horizontally like an airplane and functions as a reliable and reusable space test platform for the U.S. Air Force.
“ULA is honored to launch this unique spacecraft for the U.S Air Force. Congratulations to the Air Force and all of our mission partners on today’s successful launch! The seamless integration between the Air Force, Boeing, and the entire mission team culminated in today’s successful launch of the AFSPC-5 mission” said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs.
The two stage Atlas V stands 206 feet tall and weighs 757,000 pounds.
The X-37B was carried to orbit by the Atlas V in its 501 configuration which includes a 5.4-meter-diameter payload fairing and no solid rocket motors. The Atlas first stage booster for this mission was powered by the RD AMROSS RD-180 engine generating some 850,000 pounds of thrust and fired for approximately the first four and a half minutes of flight. The Centaur upper stage was powered by the Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10C-1 engine.
The X-37B space plane was to separate from the Centaur about 19 minutes after liftoff. The Centaur continued firing separately with the CubeSat deployment, including the Planetary Society’s LightSail test demoonstration, into a different orbit later.
Overall this was ULA’s sixth launch of the 501 configuration the 54th mission to launch on an Atlas V rocket. This was also ULA’s fifth launch in 2015 and the 96th successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.
The OTV is somewhat like a miniature version of NASA’s space shuttles.
Boeing has built two OTV vehicles. But it is not known which of the two vehicles was launched today.
Altogether the two X-37B vehicles have spent a cumulative total of 1367 days in space during the first three OTV missions and successfully checked out the vehicles reusable flight, reentry and landing technologies.
The 11,000 pound (4990 kg) state-of -the art reusable OTV space plane was built by Boeing and is about a quarter the size of a NASA space shuttle. It was originally developed by NASA but was transferred to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2004.
All three OTV missions to date have launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida and landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Future missions could potentially land at the shuttle landing facility at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The first OTV mission launched on April 22, 2010, and concluded on Dec. 3, 2010, after 224 days in orbit.
The following flights were progressively longer in duration. The second OTV mission began March 5, 2011, and concluded on June 16, 2012, after 468 days on orbit. The third OTV mission launched on Dec. 11, 2012 and landed on Oct. 17, 2014 after 674 days in orbit.
The vehicle measures 29 ft 3 in (8.9 m) in length with a wingspan of 14 ft 11 in (4.5 m). The payload bay measures 7 ft × 4 ft (2.1 m × 1.2 m). The space plane is powered by Gallium Arsenide Solar Cells with Lithium-Ion batteries.
Among the primary mission goals of the first three flights were check outs of the vehicles capabilities and reentry systems and testing the ability to send experiments to space and return them safely. OTV-4 will shift somewhat more to conducting research.
“We are excited about our fourth X-37B mission,” Randy Walden, director of the USAF’s Rapid Capabilities Office, said in a statement. “With the demonstrated success of the first three missions, we’re able to shift our focus from initial checkouts of the vehicle to testing of experimental payloads.”
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.
Ken KremerNEWPORT, Ky. -- Dick’s Last Resort at Newport on the Levee has closed permanently -- and unexpectedly -- after two years in business, according to Newport on the Levee general manager Harold Dull.
"We were totally surprised," Dull said of the closure.
The store at Newport was profitable, Dull said, but its sudden shuttering came down from the top. In a phone conversation, Dull said that Jeff Ash, brand president of the Nashville-based restaurant chain, told him that four Dick's locations had closed in the last month as a consequence of corporate financial trouble: One in San Diego, one in Orlando, one in Columbus and one in Newport.
The Newport restaurant, which sported sarcastic servers and a menu of southern comfort food, opened March 11, 2014 and closed Oct. 30, 2016.
Newport on the Levee management will now begin considering other tenants for the 8,500 square-foot space at Third and Saratoga streets.
"We talked to our brokers today about that, and obviously it’s another opportunity for us to explore," Dull said.Oops, he did it again.
President Donald Trump was so excited by the good news in Friday's jobs report that he jumped the gun to tweet about it, violating a federal rule that requires an hour between when a report is released, and when federal officials can comment on the numbers.
The 209,000 jobs added by employers in July and the drop in unemployment to 4.3% was just too much for the tweeter-in-chief to resist bragging about on Twitter.
"Excellent Jobs Numbers just released - and I have only just begun. Many job stifling regulations continue to fall. Movement back to USA!" he tweeted at 8:45 a.m., 15 minutes after the report.
Excellent Jobs Numbers just released - and I have only just begun. Many job stifling regulations continue to fall. Movement back to USA! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 4, 2017
This is the second time that the Trump White House has jumped the gun to comment on the report. The last time he did it was after the February report, which was the first reading during Trump's presidency. At the time, both former press secretary Sean Spicer and then chief of staff Reince Priebus broke the rule with their own tweets, while Trump retweeted the Drudge Report about the jobs data. Both Spicer and Priebus recently left the Trump administration.
Related: Milestone for Trump: 1 million new jobs in six months
A federal rule that dates back to 1985 states that "except for members of the staff of the agency issuing the principal economic indicator... employees of the Executive Branch shall not comment publicly on the data until at least one hour after the official release time."
The rule was put into effect in order to "preserve the distinction between the policy-neutral release of data by statistical agencies and their interpretation by policy officials" according to the official notice of the rule at that time.
Related: How Trump compares with Obama so far on jobs
The violation was noted in a Friday morning tweet by Jason Furman, who served as the chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors. He added that "We sometimes rearranged Obama schedule to wait until 9:30 am."
Most minor transgression, but this is not allowed by Statistical Directive #3. We sometimes rearranged Obama schedule to wait until 9:30am. https://t.co/HnQzpFWrxQ — Jason Furman (@jasonfurman) August 4, 2017
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Friday on Trump's apparent violation of the rule. Back in March, Spicer apologized for violating the little-known rule.
"I apologize if we were a little excited, and we were so glad to see so many fellow Americans back to work," he said at that time, but he also said he believed there was little consequence to violating the rule, which was partly put in place to stem market fluctuations.
"I don't think that's exactly a market disruption," Spicer said about the tweets at that time.
-- CNNMoney's Donna Borak contributed to this report.Sputnik's former White House Correspondent, Andrew Feinberg, said an FBI agent and national security lawyer at the Justice Department questioned him for more than two hours on September 1 about the news agency's "internal structure, editorial processes and funding." Feinberg also said he turned over a thumb drive containing thousands of Sputnik emails and documents that he had downloaded prior to being fired in May.
"They wanted to know where did my orders come from and if I ever got any direction from Moscow," Feinberg told Yahoo News. "They were interested in examples of how I was steered towards covering certain issues."
Relation to Mueller's probe: The investigation is the latest in a string of efforts aimed at determining the extent of Russian government interference in the 2016 presidential election, though it's unclear whether the FBI's probe is related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. A spokesman for Muller emailed Yahoo news, "We are not confirming whether specific matters are or are not part of our ongoing investigation."
Sputnik's editor-in-chief, Mindia Gavasheli, told Yahoo News: "Any assertion that we are not a news organization is simply false... I think it tells about the atmosphere of hysteria that we are witnessing now."This is getting fun. In response to Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s outburst, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie let him have it:
Notice how Christie relishes a fight in his comments on Paul. (“If we disagree
on certain issues, we disagree. You know, his response seems that he has
something personal against me, but that’s okay. He can just get in line on that
front.”) And consider also that the former United States attorney usually has facts to back up his claims. He is right on the math when it comes to Paul’s claim that New Jersey is somehow a greedy state, according to this chart. Yes, New Jersey taxpayers get 61 cents back for every dollar sent to Washington while Kentucky gets $1.51.
Christie didn’t go there, but the other response to Paul (who accuses the former federal prosecutor of being “flippant” about the Bill of Rights) is that Paul is so ignorant about the Fourth Amendment the FBI had to explain to him what “a reasonable expectation of privacy” is.
The problem with Paul’s shtick is that it — and he — collapse upon contact with a knowledgeable opponent. As for Christie, I do wonder what he’d say about Paul’s praise for the traitor Edward Snowden.Related Headlines 2 Fremont police officers shot; manhunt underway
- The suspect who died after a standoff with Fremont Police has been identified as Gerald Villabrille Jr. of San Jose. Two other suspects were arrested in connection with this case.
Authorities say Villabrille, 44, goes by the name of Marcus. Police say he does have a criminal history, but did not elaborate.
Villabrille was barricaded inside a home in Fremont for hours after allegedly shooting and injuring two officers on Wednesday afternoon. He later died, police said Thursday morning.
Villabrille's cause of death has not been released, but the home on Roberts Avenue near Washington Boulevard caught fire early Thursday morning after authorities used tear gas inside the home to try to get the suspect to come out, Fremont police and Alameda County sheriff's officials said.
Fremont Police Chief Lucero said at one point Villabrille called 911 from inside the home and made contact with the department.
Officers tried to negotiate with the suspect but police said those talks were “unproductive.” At one point Villabrille told officers he had another victim inside the residence with him. Chief Lucero says field personnel concluded that he was lying about having someone else in the home with him.
"He was lying about having another person in the residence. As part of trying to bolster his account he fired a shot inside the residence," said Lucero.
Police, believing his claims to be false, pumped more gas into the residence. Officers tried to remove the suspect from the home but were unable to do so. The officers at the scene determined he was dead and found a gun they believe was used in the attacks. A dog inside the home was killed during the blaze.
It’s believed the tear gas sparked the fire. Police say they have reason to believe Villabrille was injured in the gun battle with police Wednesday. The official cause of his death has not been released.
Police say Villabrille was not connected to the home, and the homeowners were contacted.
The incident began at 1:33 p.m. Wednesday with a traffic stop on Fremont Boulevard near Washington Boulevard.
After the suspect vehicle pulled over, the driver backed into a patrol car and there was an exchange of gunfire, Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said. The first officer was injured in the exchange.
The driver pulled forward again and one or more suspects ran from the traffic stop. A man and woman who were in the vehicle with Villabrille were later arrested. Police started searching the area and found a suspect about 10 minutes later in the 1300 block of Roberts Avenue. Gunfire was exchanged again and a detective was injured.
Both officers were taken to a hospital and one was out of surgery Wednesday night but remained in critical condition, while the detective is in stable condition, Bosques said. Their names are not being released. Police say one of the officers is a rookie with one year of experience, while the other is a 10 year veteran.Binayak Sen has been charged with sedition. Sedition carries a punishment of life imprisonment. Section 124A of IPC defines “sedition” as
124A. Sedition – Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the government established by law in India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine.
Explanation 1 – The expression “disaffection” includes disloyalty and all feelings of enmity.
Explanation 2 – Comments expressing disapprobation of the measures of the government with a view to obtain their alterations by lawful means, without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, do not constitute an offence under this section.
Explanation 3 – Comments expressing disapprobation of the administrative or other action of the government without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, do not constitute an offence under this section.
Therefore, sedition is defined as an act which causes contempt or hatred or disaffection against the “government” and not against the “country” or the “constitution”.
Most of us who regularly use RTI, expose corruption and criticize governments could be easily prosecuted under the above section. Everyday, opposition parties incite hatred against the government in power. Therefore, all opposition leaders could be held guilty of “sedition”. If strictly implemented, this section could muzzle dissent and democracy.
Interestingly, such grave offences, which have the potential of destabilizing Indian economy, are not treated as “sedition”. For instance, A Raja caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crores to India. This is almost 30% of annual Gross Tax Receipts of Government of India. Therefore, he almost threatened the economic sovereignty of India. Interestingly, that is not sedition. That is “corruption”, which invites the same punishment as would be awarded to a food inspector who takes Rs 1000 bribe to make a ration card.
IPC was written in 1861 by the British. Their aim was to economically plunder India. Anyone who resisted in those efforts was a traitor and his activities were declared as “sedition”. Unfortunately, after independence, we continued with the same system. Under our present legal system, economic plundering of Indian revenues and Indian resources is a petty offence called “corruption”. But anyone who resists that or has “disaffection” towards such practices is guilty of “sedition”.
Section 120B of IPC is another section under which Binayak Sen has been convicted. Section 120B talks of criminal conspiracy. If anyone conspires in a crime, he is liable for the same punishment as is the person committing the original crime.
Nira Radia tapes show how many journalists, many businessmen and many politicians conspired to threaten economic stability of India; how they threatened the constitution of India by putting the cabinet berths of Indian government on sale? But the British laws under which we work do not treat this as sedition.
In the least, all these people are guilty of criminal conspiracy under section 120B read with Prevention of Corruption Act.
Dr Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, fully knew that Raja was looting the nation. It was the constitutional duty of Dr Singh to stop that. Rather he turned a blind eye. Subsequently, the Prime Minister even tried to protect Raja’s misdeeds in various ways. He sat on the request of Dr Subramaniam Swamy for more than eleven months seeking permission to prosecute Raja. Then, the CBI directly working under the Prime Minister did not do any investigation in that case for almost a year after registering FIR despite strong displeasure expressed by Supreme Court on several occasions. CBI got into action only when the Court decided to monitor CBI’s investigations. Isn’t this sedition? However, the British laws under which independent India functions, do not treat such serious charges as sedition.
In the least, Dr Singh is guilty of criminal conspiracy under section 120B read with Prevention of Corruption Act.
Unfortunately, the role of none of the above players would even be honestly investigated because CBI, which is the agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting them, works directly under the command of the accused. Even if they were tried and convicted, they would be guilty of “corruption”, which carries a punishment of six months to a maximum of seven years.
Media has been replete with stories on how Dr Raman Singh, Mr Naveen Patnaik and Mr Yeddyurappa have been selling the minerals of this country at throwaway prices. They are giving licenses for mining, not because these minerals are needed for India, but for exporting most of these minerals. The state gets a royalty of Rs 27 per ton of iron ore mined, cost of mining is roughly Rs 300 per ton and the mining company sells it in international market at Rs 6000 per ton. The economics of the mining of almost all minerals is as absurd. Not just that, mining companies, with full knowledge of government agencies, mine much more illegally than they are permitted. Illegal mining is so rampant that it is feared that some of the mines would be empty within the next few years.
Royalty rates are fixed by central government. Licenses and permissions are given together by both central and state governments. Aren’t all these honorable Chief Ministers, who are openly plundering the national resources, in collusion with various ministries of Central Government, guilty of sedition? The party antagonism vanishes when it comes to plundering the nation. Complete bonhomie is seen between BJP in states and congress at the centre. They are doing precisely what their British predecessors did. Loot this country and take the wealth out of the country. Since we work under the same British laws, their loot is not a serious crime but anyone who dares to “hate” their activities or resist them and incite “contempt” or “disaffection” against such open loot of the country is a crime.
Our laws do not even recognize these crimes, which have the potential to destabilize India, as serious enough to be termed “sedition”.
Sedition, under the present law, is to cause “disaffection” against such corrupt and unjust governments. How can one call himself an Indian and still have “affection” for such practices? We fought against British not because of the color of their skin but also because of the exploitative character of their government. Unfortunately, the character of the present governments has become far more exploitative.
One may have strong “disaffection” for government of India, its policies and its systems. But one may love India. One may love Indians. But under section 124A of IPC, one would be guilty of sedition.
Join India against corruption at www.facebook.com/indiacorWhen you launch such a command:
$ python setup.py register sdist upload
There’s no way to give to Distutils your PyPI password in the prompt, so you distribution is uploaded to the server. You have to store your password in the.pypirc file:
[distutils] index-servers = pypi [pypi] username: <username> password: <password>
The password is stored in clear text, so it can be used by Distutils to authenticate. This is rather unsecure, since anyone who has a read access to your home can get your password.
I have detected this problem this summer while listing the possible enhancements in Distutils. Nathan Van Gheem sent me a mail a month ago to ask for that same feature in collective.dist; which is a port of the latest Distutils features into Python 2.4 so Zope can use them. So before having it into collective.dist, the first step was to introduce it into Python itself.
The idea is to be able to remove from.pypirc the password so it’s asked at the prompt. Nothing fancy here : the Distribution object that is created before you launch any command is the place where you can share a context between commands.
So when you launch:
$ python setup.py register sdist upload
Here’s what is happening:
register looks into.pypirc, if no password is found, it asks it to the user using getpass register use it then store it in the Distribution instance upload look into the Distribution instance to see if the password was stored, and use it
This is now available in Python 2.7 and 3.1, and heavily tested.
I’d like to go further and to think about a ssh-agent like system, so there’s no need to enter the pasword everytime you work with PyPI in the same session.
Does anyone knows what would be the way to do it properly? I think a ssh-agent like mechanism in Python’s getpass would be a great feature itself.
AdvertisementsAs most listeners know The Brilliant is related to a few other public projects, namely Little Black Cart (LBC) a publisher and distributor of anarchist books and material. Recently LBC has been called out and generally indicted by a host of individuals and projects for publishing texts by and about with the Mexican group ITS (individual tending to the wild), in particular the eco-extremist journal Atassa. This indictment reached a fever pitch when a few motivated individuals approached the LBC table at the Seattle Anarchist Bookfair to castigate them for the publishing and punctuated this by tearing a book apart. Around the same time an article was released saying that this publishing meant that LBC was not an anarchist project. Here is the LBC response.
This week something like a reportback of the kerfuffle happened. Alongside a great conversation on anarchistnews.org there have been several, fairly specific, threats made against LBC, its people, and promises made about next weeks Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair. While camping (and practicing what I believe will be the shape of future anarchist events) a group of us got together to discuss recent events, strategize next weekends events (which will include the 2017 BASTARD conference), and discuss the current way in which anarchist disagreements are performed. Enjoy the conversation.
Thanks a ton to the participants and especially to Linn O’Mable who turned this episode around in a heartbeat.
(1274)Director: Noah Baumbach; Starring: Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Grace Van Patten, Elizabeth Marvel, Emma Thompson, Candice Bergman, Rebecca Miller. 15 cert, 112 mins
Imagine digging around in the garden shed for the first time in years and finding a Picasso propped up against the wallpaper steamer. Watching Adam Sandler in The Meyerowitz Stories is a little like that.
The star of Pixels and Grown Ups – and, to be fair, also Punch-Drunk Love and Funny People – has been bad in so many awful films that when he’s terrific in a great one, it feels like both a revelation and a windfall: you can’t quite wrap your head around the fact all that talent has just been lying there all along, gathering cobwebs and dust.
Noah Baumbach’s new film, which arrives on Netflix today after a jaunt around the film festivals, gives Sandler his best role in an absolute age, but it’s merely one of many pleasures in this comedy about three generations of a semi-bohemian New York Jewish family wriggling through a knot of crises.
Like Baumbach’s earlier work, it’s all sharp angles and prickly surfaces, but there’s real warmth and bittersweetness here too, along with a family tree that recalls Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums: one imperfect patriarch and three diversely damaged adult kids, one of whom is played by Ben Stiller.Five years ago, early in the summer of 2011, Itzik Arlov—an Israeli from the ultra-orthodox city Bnai Brak—used his Facebook page to complain about the rising price of cottage cheese in the country. His post went viral. It ignited a protest movement, with middle-income citizens demanding “social justice” from the government. Led by students and young professionals, Israelis took the protest to the streets.
For decades, Israel’s middle class—which carried a significantly larger burden than other sectors in terms of labor force participation, military service, and tax contributions—was silent about its economic struggles. That time ended that summer. During that summer, hundreds of working-class citizens who struggled to afford housing pitched tents along the streets of Tel Aviv and lived in them for weeks, even months. That September, about half a million Israelis (over 6 percent of the country’s total population) marched in the streets to make their voices heard, demanding solutions to reduce the cost of living, and of housing in particular.
These protests defined Israeli politics in the years to come. Ever since, most political parties in Israel shifted their electoral platforms from peace (or lack of it) to economics. Since 2011, the rising stars of Israeli politics have been either former leaders of the social movement or those who have been able to transform the predominant discontent into votes in national elections.
Five years later, what has changed?
Over the past five years, there have been a number of hopeful developments. By 2015, the real wage—a measure of purchasing power—of Israelis was about 6 percent larger than in 2011 (see Figure 1, left panel). The growth in real wages has been large compared to the average growth in real wages among OECD countries, which grew only by about 2 percent since 2011. In fact, as compared to its OECD peers, Israel is among the top performers in terms real wage growth since 2011 (see Figure 1, right panel).
Figure 1 – Real wage index (average) in Israel and OECD
Real wages have grown because nominal wages have risen faster than prices. As Israel’s unemployment rate has declined over the past few years to a historic low, average nominal wages have increased. The government has also recently increased the minimum wage by about 10 percent, and it is expected to increase it by another 15 percent by the end of 2017. As the blue line in Figure 2 shows, inflation slowed down after 2012 and prices even dropped since 2014.
Figure 2 – Israel’s Consumer Price Index
Is this decline in prices a result of policy? Perhaps. Bank Israel, the nation’s central bank, has played an important role in managing inflation successfully. In addition, price levels might have responded to numerous actions by both the executive and the Knesset aimed at increasing competition in the telecommunications sector and lowering barriers to imports in other industries. Yet, global conditions and measurement peculiarities also play a very important role in driving these changes.
First, as Figure 2 suggests, the global fall in oil prices partly explains the slowdown and decline in prices in Israel (since the price index excluding energy costs, the red line, becomes larger than the overall index, the blue line, after 2014). This phenomenon can explain the sharp increase in Israelis’ real wages over the same period shown in Figure 1. Therefore, if oil prices increase again, real wages would probably drop, reversing recent trends.
Second, only housing rent costs—and not ownership prices—are used to compute Israel’s Consumer Price Index, and with it real wages figures. While costs for housing services have increased by about 13 percent since 2011 (according to data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics), housing ownership prices in Israel have increased, on average, by almost 30 percent.
High prices across all sectors of the Israeli economy are a systematic problem that relates to lack of competition and often excessive bureaucracy.
Thus, the increase in real wages and slowdown in the rise of prices in the past several years might have been overestimated and are not a sign that deep reforms are no longer needed. High prices across all sectors of the Israeli economy are a systematic problem that relates to lack of competition and often excessive bureaucracy. In the housing sector, for example, it takes about 13 years, on average, for new construction to be completed, contributing to the problem of under-supply. But there is no way around it. Housing costs will only drop if supply is expanded. Past and current attempts by government and opposition parties alike to reduce prices by cutting real estate value-added taxes or to create public housing are ineffective because they would increase demand, not supply. More generally, beyond housing, policies that aim to control prices are ineffective and have failed miserably in the past.
Looking forward
There is no doubt that Israel has a strong economy, and it has remained strong in spite of its reliance on volatile export markets and its particular security situation. Yet, beyond the cost of living, the country faces other challenges that could keep the economy from thriving at its full potential. Labor force participation is highly uneven across different demographic groups, for instance. While these groups’ participation in the workforce has sharply increased in the past few years (i.e. Arab women and ultra-orthodox men), the middle class still carries the bulk of the tax-paying burden.
Moreover, while innovation—fueled by the largest investment in R&D as share of gross domestic product in the world—has been a key engine of the Israeli economy in the past few years, some fear its benefits are not always enjoyed by those outside the startup scene. Israeli high-tech firms, which are typically highly funded by the government (and thus, taxpayers), are often acquired in early stages by larger foreign companies, generating fortunes for a few and almost no jobs at home. Thus, while innovation should definitely remain a priority in the national agenda, it is important to acknowledge that not all Israelis have been equally benefiting from the economic success of the “startup revolution.”
Last but not least, the occupation of West Bank and Gaza represent an important additional burden on taxpayers, who pay not only for large military expenses, but also subsidize the provision of public goods, housing, and other services to a minority of Israelis living beyond the green line.
Thus, while the data suggests some progress, there is still a lot of room for structural improvement before working-class Israelis can feel better off. Cost of living in Israel still remains among the highest in the OECD, productivity levels have declined as compared to its peers, and income inequality remains particularly high among OECD countries. That is why, after five years, in spite of some progress, most of the protesters that lived in tents in the summer of 2011 would still say that what they demanded hasn’t yet been achieved. They might well be right.NEW YORK -- Stocks gained momentum on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 48 points, reversing losses from last week's decline.
Experts hailed both moves as a "remarkable, textbook example of pure statistical chance," chalking up Monday's gains to a couple random marginal buyers being slightly more motivated than a few random marginal sellers.
"Imagine you pick 1 million random people from around the world every day," said Toby McDade, chief investment officer of Momentum Fee Capital Management. "Some days, 51% would be in a good mood, 49% in a bad mood. The next day maybe it's the opposite. Other days, random chance could mean 8% of people are really pissed off for no real reason. This is basically what the market is on a day-to-day basis," he said.
Asked what his clients thought of this view, Mr. McDade laughed. "Oh my God, you think I could |
austerity, a poll for newspaper Bild am Sonntag showed on Sunday.
Sixty-two percent favoured Greece staying in the 19-country currency union, the survey of 504 people conducted on Thursday by polling group Emnid showed. Just 26 percent wanted Greece out of the euro.
The new government in Athens made clear from its first day in power last week that it would not back down on its election pledge to abandon the austerity policies imposed on Greece in a bailout programme agreed by the last government.
New Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras nevertheless rang European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Friday night to assure him that Athens was seeking an accord, a government official said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a Saturday newspaper interview that she wanted Greece to remain in the euro zone, but she ruled out a debt writedown for Athens.
The Emnid poll for Bild am Sonntag showed 68 percent of those surveyed also opposed a debt writedown for Athens.
(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Hugh Lawson)The Big Bang
10-43 seconds
The universe begins with a cataclysm that generates space and time, as well as all the matter and energy the universe will ever hold. For an incomprehensibly small fraction of a second, the universe is an infinitely dense, hot fireball. The prevailing theory describes a peculiar form of energy that can suddenly push out the fabric of space. At 10-35 to 10-33 seconds a runaway process called "Inflation" causes a vast expansion of space filled with this energy. The inflationary period is stopped only when this energy is transformed into matter and energy as we know it.
The Universe Takes Shape
10-6 seconds
After inflation, one millionth of a second after the Big Bang, the universe continues to expand but not nearly so quickly. As it expands, it becomes less dense and cools. The most basic forces in nature become distinct: first gravity, then the strong force, which holds nuclei of atoms together, followed by the weak and electromagnetic forces. By the first second, the universe is made up of fundamental particles and energy: quarks, electrons, photons, neutrinos and less familiar types. These particles smash together to form protons and neutrons.
Formation of Basic Elements
3 seconds
Protons and neutrons come together to form the nuclei of simple elements: hydrogen, helium and lithium. It will take another 300,000 years for electrons to be captured into orbits around these nuclei to form stable atoms.
The Radiation Era
10,000 years
The first major era in the history of the universe is one in which most of the energy is in the form of radiation -- different wavelengths of light, X rays, radio waves and ultraviolet rays. This energy is the remnant of the primordial fireball, and as the universe expands, the waves of radiation are stretched and diluted until today, they make up the faint glow of microwaves which bathe the entire universe.
Beginning the Era of Matter Domination
300,000 years
At this moment, the energy in matter and the energy in radiation are equal. But as the relentless expansion continues, the waves of light are stretched to lower and lower energy, while the matter travels onward largely unaffected. At about this time, neutral atoms are formed as electrons link up with hydrogen and helium nuclei. The microwave background radiation hails from this moment, and thus gives us a direct picture of how matter was distributed at this early time.
Birth of Stars and Galaxies
300 million years
Gravity amplifies slight irregularities in the density of the primordial gas. Even as the universe continues to expand rapidly, pockets of gas become more and more dense. Stars ignite within these pockets, and groups of stars become the earliest galaxies. This point is still perhaps 12 to 15 billion years before the present.
===============================================================
Birth of the Sun
5 Billion Years Before the Present (BP)
The sun forms within a cloud of gas in a spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. A vast disk of gas and debris that swirls around this new star gives birth to planets, moons, and asteroids. Earth is the third planet out.
Earliest Life
3.8 Billion Years BP
The Earth has cooled and an atmosphere develops. Microscopic living cells, neither plants nor animals, begin to evolve and flourish in earth's many volcanic environments.
Primitive Animals Appear
700 Million Years BP
These are mostly flatworms, jelly fish and algae. By 570 million years before the present, large numbers of creatures with hard shells suddenly appear.
The First Mammals Appear
200 Million Years BP
The first mammals evolved from a class of reptiles that evolved mammalian traits, such as a segmented jaw and a series of bones that make up the inner ear.
Dinosaurs Become Extinct
65 Million Years BP
An asteroid or comet slams into the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. This world-wide cataclysm brings to an end the long age of the dinosaurs, and allows mammals to diversify and expand their ranges.
Homo Sapiens Evolve
600,000 Years BP
Our earliest ancestors evolve in Africa from a line of creatures that descended from apes.
Supernova 1987A Explodes
170,000 Years BP
A star explodes in a dwarf galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud that lies just beyond the Milky Way. The star, known in modern times as Sanduleak 69-202, is a blue supergiant 25 times more massive than the Sun. Such explosions distribute all the common elements such as Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Calcium and Iron into interstellar space where they enrich clouds of Hydrogen and Helium that are about to form new stars. They also create the heavier elements (such as gold, silver, lead, and uranium) and distribute these as well. Their remnants generate the cosmic rays which lead to mutation and evolution in living cells. These supernovae, then, are key to the evolution of the Universe and to life itself.
===============================================================
Crab Supernova Appears
1054 A.D.
A new star in the constellation Taurus outshines Venus. Chinese, Japanese, and Native American observers record the appearance of a supernova. It is not, however, recorded in Europe, most likely as a consequence of lack of study of nature during the Dark Ages. The remnants of this explosion are visible today as the Crab Nebula. Within the nebula, astronomers have found a pulsar, the ultra-dense remains of a star that blew up.
Galileo Builds the First Telescope
1609 A.D.
Five years after the appearance of the great supernova of 1604, Galileo builds his first telescope. He sees the moons of Jupiter, Saturn's rings, the phases of Venus, and the stars in the Milky Way. He publishes the news the following year in "The Starry Messinger."
Isaac Newton Describes Gravity
1665 A.D.
At the age of 23, young Isaac Newton realizes that gravitational force accounts for falling bodies on earth as well as the motion of the moon and the planets in orbit. This is a revolutionary step in the history of thought, as it extends the influence of earthly behavior to the realm of the heavens. One set of laws, discovered and tested on our planet, will be seen to govern the entire universe.
Albert Einstein Publishes Theory of Relativity
1905 A.D.
The first of his many seminal contributions to twentieth century science, relativity recognizes the speed of light as the absolute speed limit in the universe and, as such, unites the previously separate concepts of space and time into a unified spacetime. Eleven years later, his General Theory of Relativity replaces Newton's model of gravity with one in which the gravitational force is interpreted as the response of bodies to distortions in spacetime which matter itself creates. Predictions of black holes and an expanding Universe are immediate consequences of this revolutionary theory which remains unchallenged today as our description of the cosmos.
Edwin Hubble Discovers that the Universe is Expanding
1929 A.D.
Edwin Hubble discovers that the universe is expanding. The astronomer Edwin Hubble uses the new 100-inch telescope on Mt. Wilson in Southern California to discover that the farther away a galaxy is, the more its light is shifted to the red. And the redder a galaxy's light, the faster it is moving away from us. By describing this "Doppler shift," Hubble proves that the universe is not static, but is expanding in all directions. He also discovers that galaxies are much further away than anyone had thought.
Discovery of Quasars
1960 A.D.
Allan Sandage and Thomas Matthews find sources of intense radio energy, calling them Quasi Stellar Radio Sources. Four years later, Maarten Schmidt would discover that these sources lie at the edge of the visible universe. In recent years, astronomers have realized that they are gigantic black holes at the centers of young galaxies into which matter is heated to high temperatures and glows brightly as it rushes in.
Discovery of Microwave Background Radiation
1964 A.D.
Scientists at the Bell Telephone Laboratories discovered microwave radiation that bathes the earth from all directions in space. This radiation is the afterglow of the Big Bang.
Discovery of Pulsars
1967 A.D.
A graduate student, Jocelyn Bell, and her professor, Anthony Hewish, discover intense pulsating sources of radio energy, known as pulsars. Pulsars were the first known examples of neutron stars, extremely dense objects that form in the wake of some supernovae. The crab pulsar is the remnant of the bright supernova recorded by Native Americans and cultures around the world in the year 1054 A.D.
Light from Supernova 1987A Reaches Earth
1987 A.D.
The light from this supernova reaches earth, 170,000 years after is parent star exploded. Underground sensors in the United States and Japan first detect a wave of subatomic particles known as neutrinos from the explosion. Astronomers rush to telescopes in the southern hemisphere to study the progress of the explosion and perfect models describing the violent deaths of large stars.
Hubble Space Telescope Launched
1990 A.D.
The twelve-ton telescope, equipped with a 94-inch mirror, is sent into orbit by astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Within two months, a flaw in its mirror is discovered, placing in jeopardy the largest investment ever in astronomy.
Big Bang Confirmed
1990 A.D.
Astronomers use the new Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE) to take a detailed spectrum of the microwave background radiation. These studies showed that the radiation is in nearly perfect agreement with the Big Bang theory. Two years later, scientists used the same instrument to discover minute variations in the background radiation: the earliest known evidence of structure in the universe.
Hubble Space Telescope Repaired
1993 A.D.
Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor succeed in correcting Hubble's flawed optics, ushering in a spectacular new age of astronomy from space. Hubble's greatest legacy so far: detailed images of galaxies near the limits of the visible universe.
===============================================================
The Stellar Era Ends
100 Trillion Years in the Future
Astronomers assume that the universe will gradually wither away, provided it keeps on expanding and does not recollapse under the pull of its own gravity. During the Stelliferous Era, from 10,000 years to 100 trillion years after the Big Bang, most of the energy generated by the universe is in the form of stars burning hydrogen and other elements in their cores.
The Degenerate Era
100 Trillion to 1037 Years in the Future
This era extends to Ten Trillion Trillion Trillion years after the Big Bang. Most of the mass that we can currently see in the universe is locked up in degenerate stars, those that have blown up and collapsed into black holes and neutron stars, or have withered into white dwarfs. Energy in this era is generated through proton decay and particle annihilation.
The Black Hole Era
1038 to 10100 Years in the Future
This era extends to Ten Thousand Trillion Trillion Trillion Trillion Trillion Trillion Trillion Trillion years after the Big Bang. After the epoch of proton decay, the only stellar-like objects remaining are black holes of widely disparate masses, which are actively evaporating during this era.
The Dark Era
Times Later than 10100 Years in the Future
At this late time, protons have decayed and black holes have evaporated.Only the waste products from these processes remain: mostly photons of colossal wavelength, neutrinos, electrons, and positrons. For all intents and purposes, the universe as we know it has dissipated.TEHRAN (Basirat)- The International Federation of Journalists says that 93 journalists and media staff were killed in targeted attacks, by bombs or by crossfire in 2016 while a further 29 died in two plane crashes.
The International Federation of Journalists says that 93 journalists and media staff were killed in targeted attacks, by bombs or by crossfire in 2016 while a further 29 died in two plane crashes.
ap.org reports:
The IFJ said in its annual report released Friday that the number was down from 112 in 2015. Iraq still had the largest number of media killings with 15, ahead of Afghanistan with 13 and Mexico with 11.
Despite the slight decrease in deadly violence against journalists, IFJ President Philippe Leruth said that the statistics "give little room for comfort nor ground for hope to see the end of the current media safety crisis."
In the two plane crashes, 20 Brazilian journalists died in Colombia and Ten Russian and Iranian media staff died as they headed to Syria.A smaller footprint, but a bigger downtown profile.
The London Free Press will continue its 162-year history in downtown London after parent company Postmedia Network Inc. announced the sale of the newspaper’s building Tuesday to a division of Farhi Holdings Corp., owned by Shmuel Farhi.
The Free Press will move to 210 Dundas St., in the heart of the downtown, in the former Pathways Skill Development building.
“It follows our corporate strategy to divest ourselves of real estate. It does not make sense to own these buildings built for another time and another purpose,” said Phyllise Gelfand, Postmedia’s vice-president of communications.
Money from the sale will go to pay corporate debt, she added. “It is not our core strategy to own real estate.”
The Free Press, like most newspapers, has seen changes in its business and the large brick building at 369 York St., which has been its home for more than 50 years, was built for the heyday of the newspaper era.
The Dundas Street site is being renovated for the newspaper’s operations, but it’s not yet known when the move will take place, Gelfand said.
Farhi owns the Dundas Street building.
The fact The Free Press remains in the city’s core is “great news” for London, said Gerald Gallacher, board chairperson of Downtown London.
“It will be a great spot and, hopefully, something great will go in there (at 369 York St.),” said Gallacher.
“There is a lot of potential for that site.”
The Free Press will remain in its York Street building, leasing it until it moves to Dundas Street.
Postmedia declined comment on the selling price for the building and land. Documents filed with the land registry office did not reveal the total.
“The Free Press is significant to the city and now it has not moved far from where it opened,” said London historian Dan Brock.
“It will have a more significant profile now” than on the edge of the core on York Street, he said. “You are just around the corner from where you were 52 years ago.”
Farhi is expected to announce his plans for 369 York St. in coming weeks, said Gelfand.
Farhi declined comment Wednesday.
According to a listing by realty firm Gleed Commercial, 210 Dundas leases for $14.73 a square foot ($158.56 a square metre) with 3,635 sq. m available.
NDebono@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/NormatLFPress
The London Free Press’s homes through its history
1849: Canadian Free Press begins publishing weekly
1852: Josiah Blackburn buys the newspaper.
1853: Located on the east side of Talbot Street, north of Dundas Street.
1855: Begins publishing The London Free Press daily and Daily Western Advertiser.
1855: Located on the north side of North Street (now Carling) between Talbot and Richmond streets.
1868: Moves to 430 Richmond St., near Carling.
1931: Moves to 442 Richmond St.
July 1965: Moves to 369 York St.
Quote
“According to Harry Gorman, who started at The Free Press in 1853, ‘At the time The Free Press office was in a small, one-storey brick building on Talbot Street, immediately in the rear of what was then the R. & D. Macfie’s dry goods store, now Somerville’s grocery, I believe.’ ”
— W.A. & C.L. Goodspeed, History of the County of Middlesex, Canada.
210 Dundas St. (MIKE HENSEN, The London Free Press)In the most connected culture in the history of humanity, outrage is everywhere.
Slate.com even officially dubbed 2014: “The Year of Outrage.” They even made a handy interactive calendar. You can click on any day of 2014, and find out what everyone was fuming about on that given day.
Everybody’s ticked. People like extreme rhetoric, and we apparently love 140-character exhibitions of our own righteous anger.
But in the Bible, believers are told that yes, we’ll get angry, but we’re to rid ourselves of it as quickly as possible, not to spin it as “righteous.”
So how is it possible to be on social media, wading through a sea of insults and, you know, just general wrongness, without getting worked up into a self-righteous lather?
Here are five things I keep in mind to help me deal with it:
1. Adjust Expectations to Fit the Real World
I hear this all the time. In fact, I’ve heard myself say it:
“I can’t believe someone would do that.” Really? I “can’t believe” it?
People say this about people they’ve known for decades. “I can’t believe my mom said that!”
Really? How long has she been saying stuff like that? Oh, 20 years? Maybe it’s time to start believing she said that. It’s like getting in traffic in rush hour and being stunned and amazed, once again, that there are a lot of cars on the road.
We’re continually shocked and outraged by selfishness and violence and lying. And yet in recorded history, humans have always been this way. Always. Maybe we should quit being shocked, and adjust our expectations to fit reality.
People are broken. This doesn’t mean we excuse insensitive comments, but it does mean we can stop being so surprised by them.
2. Remember Your Own Status as a Sinner
I’m not more morally righteous than that person who just posted that stupid or insulting thing.
Jesus detonates self-righteousness. If I find someone to be a narrow-minded, selfish sinner, I have to stop and acknowledge that I am, too. I can’t get around this.
It’s not a secret, either. As a follower of Jesus, my immorality has already been exposed, publicly, in front of the world. It happened 2,000 years ago, on a hill. It was a violent, bloody scene.
I can’t relate to people as if that didn’t happen.
3. Quit Thinking You Know Others’ Motivations
In what is surely one of the most ignored passages of the New Testament, Paul writes that we not only don’t know the hearts of others, we don’t even know our own motives.
So if I allege that someone has an opposing view on, say, a complex religious freedom law, simply because he’s a bigot, or because he just wants to be fashionable, I’m speaking about that which I do not know. I need to admit I simply don’t know anyone’s experiences, or what they’ve been through, or the hidden things that drive them.
To pretend otherwise is to confuse myself with God.
What’s more: Remember the Golden Rule? I want people to presume the best of my motives, not the worst. Ergo, I need to do the same for others.
4. Remember that You Don’t Have to Control People
That’s a good thing, too, because none of us can really control anyone else.
I don’t have to correct the world. God loves the world, make no mistake, and you know what’s still stunning, after thousands of years of human existence? He still allows people to be wrong.
He lets them walk away. I don’t fully understand this, but it’s a helpful reminder when I’m tempted to correct everyone on Twitter.
And, oh yes—here’s another reason I should give up trying to control others: I haven’t even really figured out how to control me.
5. Above All: Don’t Confuse the Lie with the Person
Living a life of forgiveness is excruciating.
And yet, there’s the Son of God on the cross, unjustly mocked and tortured and in horrific pain, and He’s telling His Father to forgive the people who are killing Him, for they “don’t know what they do.”
Remember: People think what they are doing is justified.
Those online jerks? They usually genuinely think they’re, say, “taking a stand for truth” or “defending against hate,” to use popular examples. I’ll bet they could pass a lie detector test.
This doesn’t minimize the nature of evil at all. In fact, it underscores it, and the role of the Enemy as an author of very convincing lies.
It also underscores that we’re not struggling against the flesh-and-blood who tweet or post on Facebook.
And if this is true, our very refusal to identify the person with the lie is, perhaps, a blow at the Enemy, himself.Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has won in the two US towns that traditionally open US election voting.
In Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, he won 15 votes to his Republican rival John McCain's six, becoming the first Democrat to win there since 1968.
In Hart's Location he won 17 votes, while Mr McCain won 10, and Ron Paul two, showing 100% voter turnout.
Results from the rest of the US are expected from 2300 GMT as citizens elect their 44th president.
Hart's Location began the practice of voting early in 1948 so that railroad employees could vote before going to work.
Dixville Notch's first voter cast his ballot just after midnight
The nation's first 18-year-old to cast his vote, Arron Dindorf of Hart's Location, said: "It's one of the few times the town gets together all at once.
"It's neat to see how into it people are, and they want to keep the tradition alive."
Obama supporter Tanner Nelson Tillotson became Dixville Notch's first voter when his name was drawn from a bowl.
Of his chosen candidate's win, he said: "I'm not going to say I wasn't surprised."
Dixville Notch began its tradition of midnight voting soon after Hart's Location, but with increasing media attention the practice was stopped in 1964. It resumed for the 1996 election.What’s the worst development in economic policy of the Obama years?
Those are all good answers, but if you look at the data from Economic Freedom of the World, a major reason for the decline in America’s score is that the rule of law has eroded.
In other words, the United States is becoming a place where clear and neutral rules are being replaced by arbitrary and capricious government power. And this is not a trivial matter. Issues related to the rule of law account for 20 percent of a nation’s grade – the same level of importance as fiscal policy.
In another worrisome development, the United States only ranked #19 as of 2014 in a global ranking of how well nations maintain the rule of law.
There are several reasons why America’s ranking is going down. To cite just a few: The arbitrary rewrites of Obamacare. The Operation Chokepoint fiasco. IRS regulations that overturn existing law.
And it appears the Obama Administration wants to go out with a bang.
The Wall Street Journal opines on a new regulatory scheme from the Treasury Department to boost the death tax burden by arbitrarily inflating the value of certain assets.
…before President Obama leaves office, his Treasury Department is rushing to implement a de facto increase in the federal estate tax. Since Congress does not agree that the Internal Revenue Service should suck more cash out of family firms, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is up to his usual tricks, trashing established interpretations of tax law to bypass the legislative branch. Not even Mr. Lew has the gall to claim he can raise the federal death-tax rate of 40% without congressional approval. So the game here is to contrive ways to expose more of the value—or imagined value—of an estate to IRS revenue collectors. Last month Mr. Lew’s Treasury announced a proposed rule to close what it calls an estate and gift tax “loophole.” Until now, the IRS permitted realistic values for portions of closely held corporations and partnerships. …consider a minority stake with limited rights in a family business. While the business as a whole may have considerable value, how much would an investor be willing to pay for a small, illiquid piece of a private business that she can’t control? The typical answer is not much. On the other hand, the investor might pay handsomely for a controlling interest. The IRS has long recognized this reality and has allowed the discounting of interests in closely held businesses to more closely reflect what they could fetch on the open market, rather than simply assigning a percentage of a firm’s overall estimated value.
In other words, Obama’s Treasury Department wants to force heirs to pay tax on what they think an asset is worth rather than what it would fetch on the open market.
This regulatory scheme – if ultimately successful – will make a bad tax even worse.
And it also will be bad for the economy.
…what seems like a reasonable interpretation to some looks like a wasted revenue opportunity to the Obama Treasury. …As always, Mr. Lew and Treasury are happy to seize more wealth from the private economy. …But voters may ask how much economic destruction is acceptable in the name of such fairness. …the tax clearly encourages people to consume now rather than invest in the future. This means lower GDP over time and fewer opportunities for the poor, some of whom might want to work for family businesses. The Tax Foundation reckons that the economy would be 0.8% larger over a decade without the estate tax.
Here’s another example.
The Obama Administration has been shaking down banks for money because of supposed misdeeds leading up the government-caused financial crisis.
The various fines may of may not be legitimate, but what’s really troubling is that a big chunk of the money is then being steered to left-wing groups. Many of which are seeking to impact the political process.
Andy Koenig of Freedom Partners has a column in the Wall Street Journal with some of the unseemly details.
The administration’s multiyear campaign against the banking industry has quietly steered money to organizations and politicians who are working to ensure liberal policy and political victories at every level of government. The conduit for this funding is the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, a coalition of federal and state regulators and prosecutors created in 2012 to “identify, investigate, and prosecute instances of wrongdoing” in the residential mortgage-backed securities market. In conjunction with the Justice Department, the RMBS Working Group has reached multibillion-dollar settlements with essentially every major bank in America. …Combined, the banks must divert well over $11 billion into “consumer relief,” which is supposed to benefit homeowners harmed during the Great Recession. …a substantial portion is allocated to private, nonprofit organizations drawn from a federally approved list. Some groups on the list—Catholic Charities, for instance—are relatively nonpolitical. Others—La Raza, the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and more—are anything but. This is a handout to the administration’s allies. Many of these groups engage in voter registration, community organizing and lobbying on liberal policy priorities at every level of government. They also provide grants to other liberal groups not eligible for payouts under the settlements. …The settlements also give banks a financial incentive to fund these groups. Most of the deals give double credit or more against the settlement amount for every dollar in “donations.”
Needless to say, diverting money to political allies sounds like the kind of chicanery you’d find in a banana republic, not an advanced western society.
But it gets worse.
Here’s another Wall Street Journal editorial on an additional bit of regulatory/tax overreach by the Treasury Department. It deals with the Obama Administration trying to stop “inversions” by unilaterally changing the rules in ways that will hamper sensible business practices for all multinational companies.
The Treasury Secretary…wants to prevent “earnings stripping,” in which companies allegedly make loans from their overseas businesses to their U.S. subsidiaries to minimize taxes. The feds succeeded in destroying the proposed merger of Pfizer and Allergan. But we warned in April that the Treasury plan would be “ugly for everybody,” imposing new costs and paperwork burdens on companies that never had any intention of moving overseas or stripping earnings. And sure enough, from small S corps all the way to Exxon, the afflicted have been explaining how the new rules will make it more expensive and difficult to do even routine business functions like cash management. …the banks hate this rule too. By limiting their ability to move money across borders to meet customer demand and respond to market stress, it could force them to violate other regulations, or worse. A July letter from Citigroup, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase to Treasury officials warned the rules could make “financial services groups more fragile in times of financial stress, thereby creating risk to the financial stability of the United States.” …If Mr. Lew were reasonable, he’d drop this misguided assault on American business and work with lawmakers to craft a corporate tax reform that ensures U.S. companies never want to leave the U.S.
A report in the New York Times highlighted some of the legal issues involved in this issue.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block new rules issued by the Obama administration that prevent American corporations from merging with foreign-based companies and moving their headquarters abroad to save on taxes. The business group, along with the Texas Association of Business, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Austin, Tex., saying the administration was overstepping its authority in issuing the rules. …“If the defendants’ rule is permitted to stand, it is not just mergers that will suffer — it is the rule of law, and the certainty and stability required for effective commerce, markets and economic growth, that are truly threatened by the defendants’ unauthorized and unlawful action,” the plaintiffs said in their filing. …“Although it might seem esoteric, this action is a clear case of federal executive branch officers and agencies bypassing Congress and short-circuiting legislative debate over a hotly contested issue,” the lawsuit says.
Ugh. At least Hillary Clinton is proposing to change the law in pursuit of bad policy on inversions. Obama just waves his magic wand.
Let’s wrap up by refocusing on why the rule of law is a fundamental building block of a free society. Back in 2014, I shared a very good video from Learn Liberty about the importance of the rule of law.
That video is a compelling explanation of why it is good to have clear rules, along with limits on the arbitrary power of government officials.
Indeed, it’s probably no exaggeration to assert that rule of law is the greatest contribution of western civilization.
Here’s a movie clip (courtesy of FEE) that makes this point.
Based on the Obama Administration’s unilateral and capricious actions, maybe a new movie should be made about the rise and decline of western civilization.
P.S. On the topic of Obama and movies, here’s some humor to offset today’s dismal topic.Yes, we hate plastics! Not only is this evil material bad for our environment, over and over again the news reports the negative effects of plastic chemicals on our children’s health. From BPA to phthalates, plastics are to blame for a slew of health problems.
Now, a long term study of girls living in Harlem has linked exposure to the chemicals in plastics to childhood obesity.
Yes, plastics make kids fat, well at least there is a correlation.
Researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center discovered that when phthalates are absorbed into the body and act as endocrine disruptors, obesity levels rise in mice. The East Harlem study is the first one to link endocrine disruptors ro human obesity. Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai, explains:
The heaviest girls have the highest levels of phthalates metabolites in their urine. It goes up as the children get heavier, but it’s most evident in the heaviest kids. When we say children, I’m talking about kindergarten children, we are talking about little kids. This is a problem that begins early in life.
“Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem” has been studying over last 10 years children’s health factors, including pesticides, diet, and proximity to bodegas. 40% of children living in Harlem are overweight or obese, and the study found the levels of phthalates measured in children are significantly higher than the average levels reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for children across the entire United States.
Image: cliff1066 on Flickr under a Creative Commons LicenseYears after the disaster, some claim that Fukushima radiation is still going to cause widespread death.
by Brian Dunning
Filed under Environment, General Science, Health
Skeptoid Podcast #397
January 14, 2014
Podcast transcript | Download | Subscribe
Also available in Russian
Listen:
http://skeptoid.com/audio/skeptoid-4397.mp3
Three Mile Island
Photo: United States Department of Energy Three Mile IslandPhoto: United States Department of Energy
In March of 2011, an undersea earthquake sent tsunamis thundering across Japan, killing nearly 20,000 people and creating the most expensive natural disaster in history. Among the casualities was the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which was almost completely submerged by the tsunamis; an unprecedented event. Power was lost (obviously), cooling systems stopped, and the net result was a complete meltdown of three of the plant's reactor cores. It was a perfect storm of worst case scenarios. And now, even years afterward, some are calling it a worldwide radiation disaster, worse than even Chernobyl, that will produce a staggering death count for decades or even centuries. Today we're going to evaluate these assertions and see if we can separate fact from fiction.
With the shocking end-of-the-world-scenario headlines — such as "Your Days of Eating Pacific Ocean Fish Are Over" and "28 Signs That The West Coast Is Being Absolutely Fried With Nuclear Radiation From Fukushima" — either Fukushima was the worst environmental disaster ever, or some of the worst misinformation ever is being trumpeted. To find out which, we'll put it into context with the two other best known nuclear disasters: the 1986 explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine, and the 1979 partial meltdown of a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.
The most important technical point to understand about various reactor kinds is the moderator. The moderator is a substance that slows down the fast neutrons being shed by the radioactive uranium fuel, converts the kinetic energy into thermal energy, and turns them into slow, thermal neutrons. A thermal neutron is much more likely to strike another uranium nucleus. This allows a chain reaction, in which the fuel produces enough heat to power a conventional steam generator. Most nuclear reactors use water as the moderator. Put uranium fuel rods into water, in the proper configuration, and you'll get a chain reaction.
Chernobyl, however, was a very different type of machine. It was what we call an atomic pile, the devices first designed during World War II to produce plutonium for atomic weapons. The atomic pile is literally a pile of graphite blocks, half a meter long and a quarter meter square, with a hole bored through the long axis. These graphite blocks were used as the moderator.
The problem with building a reactor out of graphite blocks is that graphite burns. Contain burning graphite within a concrete structure, and it explodes. This is exactly what happened at Chernobyl, and it's exactly why nobody would ever build a graphite-moderated reactor today; the whole reactor core was literally a bomb waiting to go off.
Three Mile Island and Fukushima were both water moderated reactors. This was one of the most significant safety improvements of the early 1950s. Fukushima's basic design is one of the earliest, called a BWR (boiling water reactor). The moderating water, which is also the cooling water, is directly boiled and drives a steam generator. The reason the Fukushima accident happened is that all sources of power were destroyed by the tsunami, including backups, backups, and their backups; and without the pumps to keep the system circulating, the cooling water boiled completely away, and the fuel melted. For months, firehoses sprayed water into the open reactors to prevent open flames from pumping radioactive smoke into the atmosphere. This contaminated water was barely containable; it leaked into the ocean, and was stored in anything that could be used as a tank.
Three Mile Island's design was a step newer, called a PWR (pressurized water reactor), and is of the same basic type as most existing plants. The main incremental safety feature here is that the core is kept pressurized to prevent the water from being able to boil; and as water's temperature goes up, its ability to moderate neutrons goes down. Thus the system is self-regulating: If the core gets too hot, it stops working efficiently, so it cools back down.
But like any system, this one was prone to breakdowns and human error. A broken valve allowed coolant water out of the core, and a confusingly designed instrument panel fooled operators into thinking the opposite was happening, who then let more out. By the time they figured it out, enough damage had been done that radioactive water had been able to mix with the separate water that runs through the steam generators. That radioactive steam was then released through the plant's filtration system, which removed nearly all the dangerous contaminants.
Fortunately, at Three Mile Island, only a tiny amount of radiation was released. It was an expensive cleanup and repair, but it was effectively contained; none of the containment structures were breached. There were no injuries, nobody within 16 kilometers received more than a chest x-ray's worth of radiation, and epidemiological studies predicted zero eventual deaths.
At the opposite end of the spectrum was Chernobyl. Since the plant openly exploded |
the same as athletic Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson — and his feet never will be faster than they are now. His arm is a cannon.
Sure, he’ll make rookie mistakes. But veterans make veteran mistakes. That’s what the NFL is all about — taking advantage of the other team’s mistakes.
So if Trubisky gets beaten up early, is that not better than getting beaten up late?
Everyone is terrified of starting rookie quarterbacks, as though it’s on par with tossing a bunny rabbit into a python exhibit. Yeah, sometimes the rookie gets squashed.
But I randomly will bring up Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton and Dak Prescott, all rookies who had great first NFL seasons. I could bring up others, but you get the point.
If Trubisky is the real deal, what are we waiting for?
The NFL isn’t like Major League Baseball, where it’s fashionable to basically shut down your team for several years, twiddle your thumbs, wheel and deal and tell your fans to hold on because one of these days your team will be — ta-da — rebuilt!
NFL teams can go from the bottom to the top in one year. It happens all the time. Examples: The Colts went from 3-13 in 1998 to 13-3 in 1999. The Rams went from 4-12 in 1998 to 13-3 in 1999 and won the Super Bowl.
Want something more recent? The Colts went from 2-14 in 2011 to 11-5 in 2012. The Chiefs went from 2-14 in 2012 to 11-5 in 2013. And so on.
I’ve heard the Aaron Rodgers cautionary tale a million times: Let your future Hall of Fame quarterback sit for years behind your future Hall of Fame starter (Brett Favre) and have the kid learn the nuances of the game from the master. Right. And Mike Glennon is a Hall of Famer?
No, if the worried people had their way, Trubisky would sit this season and stay healthy. And he’d get antsy and frustrated and, I’m thinking, freak out when a media creature got him to admit he hates gathering butt splinters and is homicidal with pent-up ‘‘Put me in, Coach’’ frustration.
For those who loathe quarterback controversies, there you have it.
Bears coach John Fox is on the plank of a pirate ship with the clock ticking and the ocean beckoning. He can’t preside over another terrible season, such as the 3-13 atrocity in 2016, and expect to stay afloat.
He likely is the one who assured Glennon that he could say, ‘‘This is my year,’’ over and over with confidence. But Fox is also the one who might sink if he sticks with Glennon when everyone knows Trubisky is a better player. (Sanchez is a simply a nice guy with a clipboard.)
You hate to go back on your word, but the NFL is a cruel, semi-moral business. Players often refer to themselves as hunks of meat or chess pieces moved about randomly. Fox can play Trubisky and see where the chips fall. What’s to lose?
If Trubisky gets hurt, that wouldn’t be good. But who doesn’t get hurt in the NFL? It’s a hurt business. Is it better to see him get injured a year from now, three years from now, 10 years from now?
Let this preseason roll along and then do the right thing.
Play the kid.
Just do it.
Follow me on Twitter @ricktelander.
Email: rtelander@suntimes.com
RELATED STORIES
Boiling point: Bears guard Kyle Long has his reasons to be frustrated
Bears break training camp at Olivet Nazarene after laying foundationNEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), the largest U.S. retail bank, may set aside a record $6.5 billion in the first quarter to cover possible future loan losses, including in its mortgage and home equity portfolios, according to a banking analyst.
A taxi speeds past a Bank of America branch in New York's Times Square January 11, 2008. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Richard Bove of Punk Ziegel & Co also slashed his earnings forecasts for the bank through 2010, though he still expects a first-quarter profit.
He said actual losses in the portfolios should be “somewhat less” than the amount he expects set aside, suggesting the bank would be conservative in its forecast of future credit trends.
“I do not foresee the economy plunging to a level that will substantiate this reserve build,” wrote Bove, who has a “buy” rating on the bank, in a report dated March 24. “It is my impression that the management has made a decision to try to take, upfront, the potential losses that it believes may be nascent.”
Bove cut his profit per share forecast to $2.98 from $3.81 for 2008, to $3.96 from $4.30 for 2009, and to $4.78 from $4.93 for 2010. He sees first-quarter profit of 37 cents per share.
Bank of America was not immediately available for comment.
In January, Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said he expected full-year profit would top $4 per share. He predicted credit costs would rise by more than 20 percent, largely in consumer portfolios, but that such an increase would be manageable.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank set aside $3.31 billion for credit losses in the fourth quarter, and $8.39 billion for all of 2007, up 67 percent from a year earlier.
Bank of America agreed in January to buy Countrywide Financial Corp CFC.N, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, in a transaction now valued at about $4.4 billion.
The all-stock transaction values Countrywide at $7.63 per share, which is 32 percent above Countrywide’s Thursday closing price of $5.78. The gap reflects some investors’ expectations that Bank of America might at least try to renegotiate the merger terms because the housing market has weakened.
Bank of America shares closed Thursday at $41.86 on the New York Stock Exchange. They rose 17 percent last week, a strong week for bank stocks, and are up a little more than 1 percent this year.Chancellor says he will respond to Lords defeat with new measures in his autumn statement and declines to rule out lowering surplus target
George Osborne has formally committed himself to “lessening” the impact of his proposed cuts to tax credits on families after peers voted to delay the cuts until the government compensates low earners.
The chancellor said he was determined to press ahead with the changes to tax credits but added that he would respond to the vote in the Lords by outlining in his autumn statement next month measures to soften the impact of the cuts.
The remarks by Osborne in the Commons came as Downing Street prepared to set out the terms of a review which is designed to uphold the convention that the upper house cannot challenge financial matters decided by MPs.
Labour and Liberal Democrat peers said they had not challenged the constitutional convention that the Commons has absolute supremacy on financial matters because the tax credit cuts had not been formally designated as a financial measure. The cuts were instead introduced through a statutory instrument. The review is also designed to ensure that the Lords cannot reject statutory instrument.
The Commons Speaker, John Bercow, suggested that peers had acted within the rules, telling MPs: “Nothing disorderly has occurred. There has been no procedural impropriety.”
The tough stance adopted by Downing Street on the future of the House of Lords contrasted with the chancellor’s emollient tone as he made clear he would address the concerns raised by peers. The successful motion tabled in the upper house by the former Labour social security minister Lady Hollis refused to approve the tax credit cuts until the government delivered a “scheme for full transitional protection for a minimum of three years for all low-income families and individuals currently receiving tax credits before 6 April 2016”.
Osborne told MPs: “We will continue to reform tax credits and save the money needed so that Britain lives within its means while at the same time lessening the impact on families during the transition. I will set out the plans in the autumn statement. We remain as determined as ever to build a low-tax, low-welfare, high-wage economy that Britain needs and the British people want to see.”
The chancellor did not say how he would soften the impact of the cuts. But he declined to rule out lowering his surplus target. Osborne announced in his budget in July that he planned to deliver an overall surplus of £10bn by 2019-20. In the last parliament he adapted his deficit reduction plans when the economy stalled.
The possibility that Osborne could adopt a flexible approach surfaced when John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, asked him whether he would adopt a “less excessive surplus target”.
McDonnell said: “The chancellor has a choice before him. He can push on with the tax giveaways to multinational corporations. He can press on with tax cuts to the wealthiest few in inheritance tax that he announced in his summer budgets. Or he can reverse those tax breaks for the few and instead go for a less excessive surplus target in 2019-20 and be in a position to avoid penalising the 3 million working families with these tax credit cuts, and stick to his self-imposed charter. Is he prepared to listen to reason on this matter? Is he willing, or is anyone on that side prepared to step up and show some leadership on this issue?”
Osborne did not rule out lowering his surplus target and instead incorrectly suggested that McDonnell was calling on him to abandon his target altogether. The chancellor said: “I would say this to him. He in a way reveals what he believes, which of course I completely respect, which is he says, ‘Abandon your surplus rule, run a deficit forever.’ I profoundly disagree with that central judgment. I think if you borrow forever, if you are not prepared to make difficult decisions on welfare, you are going to condemn this country to decline. And that means that as a result people are going to become unemployed and living standards are going to fall. That is not the Britain I want to see.”
Downing Street is expected to set out more details on the rapid review of the Lords later on Tuesday aimed at making the second chamber “respect” the will of the Commons on financial matters.
“To have measures go through that were voted on by elected MPs, and have been stopped, clearly the prime minister wants to look at how to address that,” David Cameron’s official spokeswoman said.
She could not confirm that letters setting out how much people would lose in tax credits would still go out before Christmas or if any changes would happen in April.
Asked whether Cameron still had full confidence in his chancellor, she
said he “absolutely” did and stressed that the two had worked very
closely throughout on the plans for tax credits.
The exchanges came after the leader of the Commons, Chris Grayling, responded angrily to the government’s defeat in the Lords, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday: “I think this is all about Labour and Liberal Democrat peers in the Lords who are unhappy that they lost the election – the Lib Dems have eight MPs and 100 peers – deciding they want to wreck the government’s programme.”
He added there would have to be a change in the relationship between the two houses.The Associated Press
EDGELEY, N.D. -- A retiree in a tiny community in North Dakota has paid tribute to Prince in perhaps the most unique way a farmer can.
Gene Hanson is a retired farmer in Edgeley who always liked the song "Purple Rain." On Friday, he hopped on his tractor and plowed on a football field-size version of the late musician's symbol into his corn field.
The 75-year-old says he found an image of the symbol on the Internet. He put it on his tractor's dash and followed the pattern. When done, he got on his airplane to check it out. He couldn't believe that it had turned out so well.
The tribute is only temporary. Hanson says the field was seeded Monday.
Prince died April 21 in suburban Minneapolis at age 57.The first F-35 to arrive at the 33rd Fighter Wing was on display during the aircraft’s rollout ceremony August 26 at Eglin Air Force Base. Samuel King Jr./US Air Force
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon and its top weapons supplier agreed on the lowest set of prices for the F-35, the US's most expensive weapons system, since the program began in 2001.
On Friday, the F-35 Joint Program Office released the finalized price for the most recent production contract for America's fifth-generation stealth fighter. The 10th Low Rate Initial Production, or LRIP-10, contract for 90 F-35 jets came in $728 million less than LRIP-9.
In a statement from the defense giant, Lockheed Martin acknowledged President Donald Trump's recent role in the F-35 program.
"President Trump's personal involvement in the F-35 program accelerated the negotiations and sharpened our focus on driving down the price," the statement said. "The agreement was reached in a matter of weeks and represents significant savings over previous contracts."
On Monday, Trump announced that the latest contract with Lockheed Martin for the F-35 would be reduced by $600 million.
And though it would appear that Trump, after publicly criticizing the crown jewel in the defense giant's portfolio, is the reason for the savings, the price reduction was in the works.
In a December 19 briefing, Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, said the price in LRIP-10 would be reduced "significantly."
"I fully anticipate that when we do settle LRIP-10 you'll see all three variants — the A, the B, and the C — come down in price significantly," Bogdan said. By "significantly," Bogdan said he meant "somewhere on the order of 6 to 7 percent per airplane, per variant."
An aviation boatswain's mate maneuvers BF-04, front, the Marine Corps' variant of the F-35B, after a vertical landing aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp. US Navy
The finalized price for LRIP-9, which took 14 months of negotiations between the Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin, for 57 F-35 jets was valued at $6.1 billion.
The unit price for an F-35A — including aircraft, engine, and fee — is $102.1 million. If you take the 6 to 7 percent reduction into account, the savings on LRIP-10 are ballpark to the price point laid out by the Joint Program Office in December.
Most notably in LRIP-10, the total price for an F-35A is below $100 million for the first time.
The LRIP-10 contract includes 55 jets for the US and 35 for seven international partners and foreign military sales clients.
The following is a breakdown of the unit price per variant in 2017 dollars, including aircraft, engine, and fee.
Here are the price tags for the latest batch of F-35s:
• F-35A model aircraft: $94.6 million a jet
• F-35B model aircraft: $122.8 million a jet
• F-35C model aircraft: $121.8 million a jet
Deliveries for these 90 aircraft will begin in early 2018.As avian influenza was confirmed as the cause of death of nearly 17,000 ducks in the state’s major paddy-growing Kuttanad region in Central Kerala, the government ordered for massive culling of the birds and other poultry in affected areas.
Advertising
According to animal husbandry department, the avian influenza was confirmed following lab tests at the National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal. However, the department is yet to get reports about the sub-type of the virus to ascertain whether it would affect humans.
Kuttanad, spread over three districts, has a duck population of 6 lakhs. Deaths have been reported from two villages in the recent weeks. As per the decision, all poultry in one square kilometer from the affected villages would be culled immediately. Besides, the sale of duck has been banned in Kuttanad and Ambalapuzha taluks in Alappuzha.
Kerala Agriculture Minister K P Mohanan said preventive steps would be soon initiated to contain the disease. Veterinary kits would be distributed in affected areas and farmers would be enlightened about the threat, he said.
According to World Health Organisation, most avian influenza viruses do not affect humans. However, some are zoonotic, meaning that they can infect humans. The most well known example is the avian influenza subtype H5N1 viruses currently circulating in poultry in parts of Asia and northeast Africa, which have caused disease and deaths since 1997.
Advertising
Other avian influenza subtypes, including H7N7 and H9N2, have also infected people. Some of these infections have been very severe and some have resulted in deaths, but many infections have been mild or even subclinical in humans.The White House does not dispute the existence of a “religious freedom” executive order that was leaked and published by The Nation last night, but tells ABC News that it has no plans to sign it at this time:
White House officials told ABC News that the draft appears to be among the hundreds of executive orders that are circulating –- drafted by either the Trump transition team, the White House policy team or even by outside groups –- and that not all reflect administration thinking or likely policy. One official did not say who drafted this potential order, but did not dispute its authenticity.
“We do not have plans to sign anything at this time but will let you know when we have any updates,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokesperson.
The White house reiterated that message to BuzzFeed’s Dominic Holden:
Just In: The White House tells me this morning it has no current plans to issue an executive order on religious freedom. pic.twitter.com/m0HYAUZLID — Dominic Holden (@dominicholden) February 2, 2017
Trump is speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast at this hour (watch LIVE HERE). The executive order was rumored to coincide with his appearance at the breakfast and some suggested he would sign it afterward.Rich in wildlife, Southeast Asia includes at least six of the world’s 25 “biodiversity hotspots” – the areas of the world that contain an exceptional concentration of species, and are exceptionally endangered. The region contains 20% of the planet’s vertebrate and plant species and the world’s third-largest tropical forest.
In addition to this existing biodiversity, the region has an extraordinary rate of species discovery, with more than 2,216 new species described between 1997 and 2014 alone.
Global comparisons are difficult but it seems the Mekong region has a higher rate of species discovery than other parts of the tropics, with hundreds of new species described annually.
Habitat loss
Southeast Asia’s biodiversity is under serious threat; some parts of the region are projected to lose up to 98% of their remaining forests in the next nine years. It’s also thought to be the world’s most threatened region for mammals.
Sadly, the region’s fragile biodiversity is frequently forgotten by the global media. It also suffers lower publishing rates than other tropical regions for ecology and biodiversity research. It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that Southeast Asia has some of the highest rates of deforestation on the planet, having lost 14.5% of forests in the last 15 years.
Some areas, such as Philippines, have lost up to 89% of their original forest cover. This loss is rendered especially stark using recent advances in satellite imagery, such as Google Earth timelapse, which shows that many regions have been transformed from pristine forest to agriculture within the last decade or two.
Forest loss is one of the major drivers of species loss in the region, and pulp-paper, rubber and oil palm production are the main drivers of forest clearance. Southeast Asia exports 86% of the world’s palm oil and 87% of the world’s natural rubber. The areas where these grow are projected to expand by over 4.3 to 8.5 million hectares to meet demand by 2024.
Most new plantations come directly from rainforest clearance, and companies investing in Southeast Asia are ranked as the least sustainable globally. The recently created Forest & Finance initiative has reported that investment in “high deforestation risk” sectors in Southeast Asia was more than US$38.76 billion between 2010 and 2015.
Beawiharta/Reuters
Avoiding these products is practically impossible. At 61.1 million tonnes, palm oil was the most consumed oil globally in 2015, and this figure is rising. Certification aiming to prevent further deforestation and guarantee the sustainability of certified palm oil has also proven difficult, and failed to halt deforestation.
The two initiatives for certification of sustainable palm-oil production and natural rubber – the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and “green rubber initiatives” – have failed to fulfil their commitments to protect natural habitats.
New plantations have continued to drive destruction of natural rainforests, and the species dependant upon these ecosystems for survival. In some cases, the initiatives have ended up using “perverse incentives” which actually encourage deforestation. These include subsidies that facilitate forest clearance by funding conversion of forest to crops, or free provision of rubber seeds to replace natural forests.
Dams, wetlands and mining
Deforestation is not the only driver of habitat loss in the region; Southeast Asia also has more dams planned than any other part of the planet. Though often looked at as “green power”, dams lead to a loss of biodiversity and undermine rural economies through the loss of livelihoods.
There are currently 78 dams planned for the Mekong Delta. If built, they are projected to reduce the number of migratory fish by 20% to 70% in the Mekong, in addition to flooding essential habitats and causing regional droughts. The Mekong has the highest freshwater diversity in the world, and the potential extinction of so many species represents a global catastrophe.
Fisheries on the Mekong are also projected to feed more than 65 million people. Declines in fish stocks will have direct implications for incomes and diets across the region.
The drainage of Asia’s wetlands presents a further set of dangers, particularly due to their importance to more than 50 million migratory wading birds that depend on them for migration and breeding.
Around 80% of Southeast Asian wetlands are threatened by conversion to agricultural land or development by drainage. Up to 45% of intertidal wetlands have already been lost. This has so far caused population reductions of up to 79% in some wading species.
Mining is another often overlooked issue that poses a significant threat to biodiversity, especially to karsts (limestone outcrops and caves), which cover around 800,000km² of Southeast Asia. Each of these ecosystems are known to harbour more than ten species not found anywhere else on the planet.
But most of these sites have never been surveyed, and up to 90% of cave species in China are estimated to be scientifically undescribed. Similar rates of unclassification are likely to exist for the rest of the region.
These karst ecosystems are under serious threat. Cement comes directly from karst ecosystems, and between 2011 and 2013 alone, China used more cement (6.6 gigatonnes) than the US has in recorded history. China’s approximate annual usage of 1.5 tonnes per capita amounts to over 60% of the global cement demand annually.
Sean Yong/Reuters
As karsts are under-represented in protected areas – and given the majority of karst-dwelling species are limited to a single site – there is no way of knowing how many species go extinct annually as a consequence.
Hunting and trade
Another threat to the region’s biodiversity is the illegal wildlife trade. Worth approximately US$20 billion annually, it’s the fourth-biggest illegal trade in the world.
In Southeast Asia, hunting represents the greatest threat to the future survival of many species, with few native mammals of over 2kg surviving outside protected areas. Hunting represents a threat to all species, with high-value species sought and traded by criminal cartels and smaller species traded for medicine, food or sport.
Trade in wildlife in Asia can be grouped into three main types: for medicinal purposes, for status (either in wildlife restaurants or as ornaments) or for the pet, zoo and aquarium trades (principally birds, reptiles and amphibians).
Traditional medicine in Vietnam and China represents a threat to a huge array of species, but most notably the pangolin, which is the most trafficked animal on the planet. Sadly, the use of endangered species in medicine shows little sign of abating.
Kham/Reuters
Whereas celebrities have campaigned for species that are targeted for status and ornamentation, such as elephant ivory, many other animals and plants have failed to get the attention needed to prevent over-exploitation. And a number are now facing extinction.
The pet and zoo trade in wildlife, especially for reptiles, amphibians and birds, have recently received attention, as many species formerly thought to be captive-bred are now known to be wild-caught. They have suffered serious population declines as a result of exploitation for trade.
The unique biodiversity of Southeast Asia is under threat because of some of the world’s highest rates of habitat loss, as well as direct over-exploitation of species. Even when forests remain intact, they are being steadily emptied of their biodiversity through hunting.
Though dedicated researchers and conservationists are working to prevent these issues, Southeast Asia will see the extinction of many endemic species in the coming decades. The question of how many will remain depends on the success of conservation and sustainability interventions.THEY compete in crowded stadiums and on hazardous terrain, using hands and eyes, tools and experience, and sometimes their elbows, too.
We are not talking about athletes but rather the photographers who get up close and click away.
“Sports photographers are artists,” said Gail Buckland, the guest curator of a new show, “Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present,” at the Brooklyn Museum.
Ms. Buckland — a Brooklyn native, not a fan — says that sports photographers have traditionally been regarded as hard-working craftsmen who snap the winning goal or disastrous error, then do it all over again the next day. But, she argues, sports photographers have been producing art all these years. The best ones knew exactly what they were doing.
For example, one of the strongest photos in the exhibition depicts a football player gripping the ball, his trunk bent forward, biceps and tattoos bulging, helmet flying off, as he fights for inches with the opposing linebacker. In conversation, Ms. Buckland compared the ball carrier to a Picasso Minotaur, for brute power and intent.Donald Trump. AP Donald Trump took aim at Google on Friday afternoon after a viral video claimed to show the web giant's autocomplete search function manipulated results to favor Hillary Clinton.
"If this is true, it is a disgrace that Google would do that," Trump wrote in a statement sent to Business Insider by his campaign. "Very, very dishonest."
"They should let it float and allow people [to] see how crooked she really is," he continued.
The video, created by SourceFed, showed multiple autocomplete search results for "Hillary Clinton" that it claimed proved that Google "has been actively altering search recommendations in favor of Hillary Clinton's campaign."
The video had been viewed more than 14 million times on Facebook since Thursday.
In a statement on Friday, Google emphatically rejected that its autocomplete function was biased toward any candidate. Rather, each site simply uses a different algorithm from the others.
A Google representative wrote in a statement:
Google Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause. Claims to the contrary simply misunderstand how Autocomplete works. Our Autocomplete algorithm will not show a predicted query that is offensive or disparaging when displayed in conjunction with a person's name. More generally, our autocomplete predictions are produced based on a number of factors including the popularity of search terms.
In one example from the video, SourceFed showed the autocomplete results for "Hillary Clinton cri" that included "Hillary Clinton crime reform," "Hillary Clinton crisis," and "Hillary Clinton crime bill 1994."
The results did not include anything about "crimes," "criminal," or "criminal investigation," which SourceFed showed were, by comparison, among the first results to appear on Yahoo's and Bing's autocomplete search functions.
A similar result happened when "Hillary Clinton ind" was typed into the Google search bar. Results including "Indiana," "India," "independent voters," and "Indiana campaign" all appeared. But "indictment" did not. On Yahoo and Bing, on the other hand, "indictment" was included on all of the top results for "Hillary Clinton ind."
SourceFed also found, however, that results for "Donald Trump rac" and "Bernie Sanders soc" revealed autocomplete results that contained "racist" — with additional wording or context — and "socialist," matching the results on Yahoo and Bing.
Google's autocomplete function automatically filters a small set of terms the company deems offensive or inappropriate. One of those words is "crime," which is filtered when associated with anybody's name. Vox conducted an experiment on that involving Bernie Madoff, the infamous financier who defrauded many of his clients. For the search "Bernie Madoff cri," the first response is "cricket."
Business Insider attempted SourceFed's experiment and found very similar results. But Business Insider also found similar results for other politicians, such as President George W. Bush. Searching "George w bush co" on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, respectively, revealed the following:
Google. Screenshot/Google
Yahoo. Screenshot/Yahoo
Bing. Screenshot/Bing
The results among the three were also different when searching "donald trump mus." Results for that search did not include "Muslims" on Google, while they did on Yahoo and Bing.
Here are the results for "donald trump mus":
Google. Screenshot/Google
Bing. Screenshot/Bing.
Yahoo. Screenshot/Yahoo
Clinton's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also on Friday, longtime Google search guru Matt Cutts responded to the video on Twitter, calling the claims "simply false." He also gave examples of autocomplete results for Clinton that showed negative results.
Read his tweets below:
Watch the SourceFed video below:Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is receiving a wealth of applause from his fellow countrymen for his strong-arm tactics in dealing with Ukraine over the natural-gas contract disagreement between the two countries.
The ongoing row between Moscow and Kiev has left many European countries without heat during one of the coldest winters in recent years.
“The more they criticize Putin abroad and the more they fight with Russia, the greater his political weight grows,” said Mikhail Delyagin, an economic adviser to former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and director of the Institute for Globalization Studies in Moscow, quoted in The Moscow Times.
Putin’s recent visit to Germany, where he received the Saxony’s Order of Gratitude medal in Dresden, has come under fire by some who believe that he isn’t deserving of acclaim after being directly responsible for turning off the heat to many people in Europe.
Werner Schulz, a former Dresden Green activist, described the move as “cynical and scandalous” in Der Spiegel magazine.
The Prime Minister, a former spy, served in Dresden as a KGB officer between 1985 and 1990.
The Russians have shown that they approve of his tough tactics. Putin’s approval rating was 83 percent in October and reached almost 90 percent in September after Russia trounced Georgia in a five-day war condemned by the EU and the United States.
The gas crisis broke out when Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine’s domestic market on New Year’s day after the two ex-Soviet neighbors failed to settle a dispute about Kiev’s debts to Moscow and gas prices for 2009.
Russia later cut off all gas supplies to Europe which run through the Ukrainian pipeline after accusing Kiev of siphoning off the gas for themselves.
Roughly 80 percent of Russian gas exports to the EU pass through Ukraine.
Those involved in the deadlock are hoping for Germany, one of Moscow’s biggest gas partners, to take a tougher stance with the Russians.
The German Chancellor implored Putin to bring an end to the crisis, saying that it would be better for all the parties involved. “I believe there is a danger that Russia will lose a chunk of its credibility if there is a long interruption of gas deliveries,” Angela Merkel of Germany said."I want to join you. I want to join you. I want to join you. I want to join you." those words kept repeating inside Weiss' head like a broken record. Weiss couldn't believe what she said, it was like her mind went blank and she couldn't control herself around Ruby's long veiny throbbing penis, with every pulse oozed out more thick seman as it ran down from the tip covering Weiss' hand and onto the floor making a puddle. Weiss' body felt hotter the longer she starred at the young futa girl and the puddle and cum that grew larger every second, she couldn't handle it anymore she started to softly rub up and down using the cum as a lube, all while Ruby is dazed and softly repeating "she wants to join me."
"Ruby" Weiss desperately called. "hey dunce! you done in lala land?" Ruby continued to repeat herself. Weiss gave out a big sigh, "well looks like there's only one option to snap you out of it."
She aimed herself at the slowly hardening penis, still oozing cum, Weiss brought her head to the tip and starred at it. Her mouth was getting watery, waiting to taste cum for the first time, she licked her lips and slowly opened her mouth and dropped her tongue and gave a long soft lick to the underside of Ruby's penis, starting from the balls to the tip getting as much cum as she can. She backed away for a second to really taste cum.
"Oh my gosh! this is so gross I need to spit this out." Weiss thought to herself. "It is so wrong to do this-but it feels so good to do it"
Weiss reluctantly swallow Ruby's cum, already giving a sour face, she opened her eyes to the shocking realization that it wasn't that bad, in fact it was good, too good to stop now.
Weiss surprised herself by liking cum and now she needs more. The new cumslut Weiss scrapped some cum from the puddle underneath Ruby and covered her penis making it a glossy white rod, Weiss couldn't wait any longer she quickly shoved Ruby's cock into her mouth, not realizing the length and thickness of it before it reached to the back of her throat and almost unhinged her jaw, but that didn't stop her. The salty warm cum only made Weiss want more, she moved her hand to Ruby's soft wrinkly balls massaging them thoroughly and forcing herself to take all of the 8in cock into her mouth. Weiss started to jerk her head and gag, her eyes started to overflow with tears, cum and salvia spilling out her mouth running down her face and neck.
Ruby finally snapped out of it with the feeling of a warm wet tight squeeze on her cock with a little pinch that can only nce described as teeth.
"Whaaaats happening?" Ruby twirling her head starting to fully come to get senses, then she looks down. "WEISS!!! WHAT ARE DOING?!?!"
Ruby saw Weiss' mouth almost being ripped open, her eyes rolled back in pleasure, her makeup running down her face with tears, cum and slavia glossing her cheeks chin and neck. Ruby couldn't believe it and was stunned for a couple seconds, then in a quick second the little perv inside herself came out and Ruby grew a nasty grin. She wrapped her legs around Weiss' back and neck, trapping her between her thighs.
"If you want to join, you're gonna get to do it the way I like it" Ruby said with an evil mercilessly look.
She bent her knees closed pulling Weiss closer, shoving her massive cock deeper into her throat. Weiss arched her back as a reaction to swallowing Ruby's cock whole. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she let out a nasty wet gagging sound with spit and precum shooting out mixing with her tears on her face. Ruby looked at Weiss being face fucked and let out a deep sexual grunt as she grabbed her own breast and squeezed.
"OH OH OH I'M ALMOST THERE!!!" Ruby shouted in a high pitch squeaky voice, clearly displaying how young she really is.
Weiss couldn't breathe anymore and was starting to fade to black. "Oh no I'm gonna faint and this horny hooligan will have her way with my perfect body" Weiss thought to herself. She tried to push herself out of Ruby's leg lock, but she wouldn't bugde. "If she won't open up then there's only one option left." Weiss thought to herself. She left go of Ruby's leg and quickly jammed two fingers into Ruby's tight virgin ass.
Ruby's eyes almost jumped out of her head, her whole body jolted up in the air, her legs freed the helpless Weiss, her head fell back behind her shoulders, her tongue flying out her mouth, she let out a reliving pleasure filled noise that started off in her normal high pitch cute voice then ended in a deep grude-like "yeah".
"OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG...yeah mama likes that." Said Ruby with all her built up cum shooting out completely drenching Weiss.
As soon as Ruby's leg grip released Weiss pulled away in an instant, she coughed and tried to regain her breath but was rudely interrupted by something small and warm touching her cheek, before she could investigate more of it hit her forehead, then her chin, next her lips, her hair, her eye and eyelid, her neck, her collar bone, her dress, Weiss was getting cummed on by Ruby. Weiss couldn't yell at Ruby, shewas to busy touching herself to being covered in cum.
"aaaaahhhh Weiss you're really good at that, but how did you know I like butt stuff." said Ruby while she was laid on her back looking up and out of breath.
"I didn't know you we're into that stuff, i just had to push you back so I could breathe." said Weiss while she was slowly rubbing her womanhood over her soaked panties starring at Ruby's pulsating penis.
"Hey Ruby?" asked Weiss sounding so innocent and small.
"Just give me a second snowflake." said Ruby in such a relaxed tone still catching her breathe.
"Excuse me! snowflake?" Weiss stopped playing with herself and started giving attitude.
Ruby heard Weiss' new tone and shot up. "uuuuuh yes...snowflake I thought it would be a cute nickname since we just uhh...you know.." Ruby starting to sound |
&& // Tue 01 Aug 2017 00:00:00 UTC (nMedianTimePast <= 1510704000) && // Wed 15 Nov 2017 00:00:00 UTC (!IsWitnessLockedIn(pindex->pprev, chainparams.GetConsensus()) && // Segwit is not locked in!IsWitnessEnabled(pindex->pprev, chainparams.GetConsensus())) ) // and is not active. { bool fVersionBits = (pindex->nVersion & VERSIONBITS_TOP_MASK) == VERSIONBITS_TOP_BITS; bool fSegbit = (pindex->nVersion & VersionBitsMask(chainparams.GetConsensus(), Consensus::DEPLOYMENT_SEGWIT))!= 0; if (!(fVersionBits && fSegbit)) { return state.DoS(0, error("ConnectBlock(): relayed block must signal for segwit, please upgrade"), REJECT_INVALID, "bad-no-segwit"); } } </pre> https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/compare/0.14...jameshilliard:splitprotection-v0.14.1 ==Backwards Compatibility== This deployment is compatible with the existing "segwit" bit 1 deployment scheduled between midnight November 15th, 2016 and midnight November 15th, 2017. This deployment is also compatible with the existing BIP148 deployment. This BIP is compatible with BIP91 only if BIP91 activates before it and before BIP148. Miners will need to upgrade their nodes to support splitprotection otherwise they may build on top of an invalid block. While this bip is active users should either upgrade to splitprotection or wait for additional confirmations when accepting payments. ==Rationale== Historically we have used IsSuperMajority() to activate soft forks such as BIP66 which has a mandatory signalling requirement for miners once activated, this ensures that miners are aware of new rules being enforced. This technique can be leveraged to lower the signalling threshold of a soft fork while it is in the process of being deployed in a backwards compatible way. We also use a BIP8 style timeout to ensure that this BIP is compatible with BIP148 and that BIP148 compatible mandatory signalling activates regardless of miner signalling levels. By orphaning non-signalling blocks during the BIP9 bit 1 "segwit" deployment, this BIP can cause the existing "segwit" deployment to activate without needing to release a new deployment. As we approach BIP148 activation it may be desirable for a majority of miners to have a method that will ensure that there is no chain split. ==References== *[https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2017-March/013714.html Mailing list discussion] *[https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/v0.6.0/src/main.cpp#L1281-L1283 P2SH flag day activation] *[[bip-0009.mediawiki|BIP9 Version bits with timeout and delay]] *[[bip-0016.mediawiki|BIP16 Pay to Script Hash]] *[[bip-0091.mediawiki|BIP91 Reduced threshold Segwit MASF]] *[[bip-0141.mediawiki|BIP141 Segregated Witness (Consensus layer)]] *[[bip-0143.mediawiki|BIP143 Transaction Signature Verification for Version 0 Witness Program]] *[[bip-0147.mediawiki|BIP147 Dealing with dummy stack element malleability]] *[[bip-0148.mediawiki|BIP148 Mandatory activation of segwit deployment]] *[[bip-0149.mediawiki|BIP149 Segregated Witness (second deployment)]] *[https://bitcoincore.org/en/2016/01/26/segwit-benefits/ Segwit benefits] ==Copyright== This document is dual licensed as BSD 3-clause, and Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.Greet Barrier Reef spill: Owners of Shen Neng One tell court remediation 'not necessary'
Posted
The owner of Chinese coal carrier Shen Neng One that ran aground in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 2010 has told a court remediation is not necessary.
The Commonwealth is suing Shenzhen Energy Transport for $120 million to fix environmental damage to Douglas Shoal off the central Queensland coast.
The trial in the Federal Court in Brisbane heard the 2010 grounding damaged a 40-hectare area and left behind hundreds of kilograms of paint flakes containing the anti-fouling agent tributyltin (TBT), which is lethal to marine life.
In his opening statement, the barrister acting for Shenzhen Energy Transport, Julian Sexton, disputed remediation was necessary, saying the area had been healing naturally.
"Our preferred ecological response to what's there is to do nothing," he said.
"There's been six-and-a-half years of natural remediation."
Mr Sexton also cited the high cost, saying the remediation proposed by the Commonwealth that involved effectively vacuuming up contaminated sediment from the seabed, loading it onto a boat and bringing it ashore, would do more ecological damage.
"The remedy proposed by the Commonwealth involves killing everything that's living in the sediment areas over the area of 52 hectares or greater," he said.
Mr Sexton said tests on marine life in the affected area revealed they had higher "eco-toxicity levels", but there was not a "qualitative" difference when considering their "health, vigour and diversity".
"The amount of TBT... that can be ingested by living organisms is not such that remediation is required," he said.
"Our fundamental point is that the health, diversity and numbers of biota at the worst-impacted site is such that your honour will comfortably conclude that whatever the science says about possibility is not happening at the Douglas Shoal."
Mr Sexton said even if the company were to pay damages, its experts had calculated the figure to be $60 to $70 million, rather than the $120 million the Commonwealth was seeking.
The trial is expected to run until the end of the month.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, federal-government, great-barrier-reef, oceans-and-reefs, environment, sea-transport, industry, water-pollution, oil-and-gas, brisbane-4000, qld, rockhampton-4700SCARLETT Moffatt has defended her decision to shower her sister Ava-Grace with RuPaul's Drag Race gifts for her 11th birthday.
The TV star, 26, shared a picture on Instagram of her younger sibling smiling in front of a haul of the show's merchandise.
Scarlett Moffatt 4 Scarlett Moffatt has defended her decision to shower her sister Ava-Grace with RuPaul's Drag Race gifts for her 11th birthday
She wrote: "When you surprise your little sister on her 11th birthday with everything drag queen related 😂 including a life size @rupaulofficial!! #birthday #love #sister"
Her choice of gifts drew a mixed response from her followers with some calling the haul "odd" while others praised the former Gogglebox star for being open-minded and accepting.
One follower wrote: "Sorry but why would you expose these kinda ideas to children so young"
Scarlett Moffatt 4 Scarlett and Ava-Grace share a close bond
While another said: "I ❤️u Scarlett but this is a bit odd for an 11 year old?"
As a third queried: "So confused why you would do this for an 11year old?"
MOST READ IN TV & SHOWBIZ Exclusive MAKE A LIVING I feared Love Island sex would ruin career says new 9 to 5 star Amber Davies Moving on Megan Barton Hanson reveals celeb Rangers fan is sending her intimate messages knooky time Sam Faiers has sex 'all over the house' with boyfriend Paul to 'avoid the kids' Exclusive SHAYK'S ANGER Bradley Cooper's lover Irina Shayk in feud with Lady Gaga after steamy duet 'SO PRETTY' Ex-Rangers WAG Nicola Mimnagh compared to Kylie Jenner by stunned fans BRINGING REXY BACK Bebe Rexha's dad begs her to'stop posting porn pics' that make him sick
RuPaul's Drag Race is a successful American reality show which sees 13 drag queens battle it out each series to be crowned America's next drag superstar.
Rather than ignore the criticism, Scarlett added to the comment thread, defending her choice.
Getty Images 4 RuPaul's Frag Race is a successful American reality show which sees 13 drag queens battle it out each series to be crowned America's next drag superstar
"me and my parents watch an ep and fast forward any parts that aren't child friendly!," she explained.
"Why is this odd - I tell my little sister to be a fruit loop in a bowl full of cheerios! Why be like everyone else when you have family that support you and love you for you no matter what you like or dislike"
Following her intervention, Scarlett's followers came out in drove's to slap down those who disliked the presents, with many claiming she didn't need to defend herself to anyone.
Rex Features 4 Rather than ignore the criticism, Scarlett added to the comment thread, defending her choice
One said: "My 11 year old and 9 year old daughters love Rupaul! We all sit and watch if together...👍🏻"
Another wrote: "Omg my children and myself are obsessed with Rupauls dragrace @scarlett_moffatt we love it, it also teaches them that it's ok it not fit into the so called mould of life. Go girl don't listen to any negativity on here ❤ coming your way xx"
A third posted: "Why don't people get their heads out their arses and leave the poor girl alone! Worry about your own petty lives 🙈"
Got a story? email digishowbiz@the-sun.co.uk or call us direct on 02077824220A motion stating that property developers must ensure there is not an “over-concentration” of student housing within a 1km area when submitting proposals for the development of additional student accommodation was passed by Dublin City Council at a council meeting on Monday.
The proposal was a step up from the existing regulation which stated that there must not be an over-concentration within a 250m radius. It was, and continues to be, the responsibility of the developer to provide evidence, including a map, that there would not be an over-concentration within the specified area, which will now be 1km.
The vote on the motion, which was based on a request by the Central Area Committee, was originally to take place at the council meeting on September 4 but was moved to September 18 as the councillors wanted more time to consider the motion.
Prior to the vote, a Dublin City Council Spokesperson told Trinity News that “it is considered that the proposed variation will provide enhanced information during the planning application process” and that the change will ensure that student housing is developed in “suitable areas”.
Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Kevin Keane assisted the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) in emailing and ringing city councillors to ask that they reject the motion, citing the possibility of “negative consequences to the delivery of purpose built student accommodation” as the reason for their concern.
“With an ever-increasing number of beds needed for students, it is important that further limitations to developments are not imposed”, Keane stated in his email sent to councillors and seen by Trinity News.
The alteration to the existing regulations could now make it more difficult for developers to get approval to build new purpose built student housing, something Keane noted in his email. He argued that, as existing private and college owned student accommodation “could already be interpreted as over-concentration” in the city, “effectively, no additional bed spaces will be provided in close proximity to campuses”.
Keane argued that students can be a “great addition” to local communities, citing the expansion of Trinity Hall as an example of this. The expansion of the accommodation complex was initially protested by locals but Keane argued that the 1,000 students that live there are well integrated into the Rathgar community and the “increase in capacity is now a very welcome addition to the area”.The Wonder Woman film has proven to be the best of the DCEU (by a mile or two), but before Gal Gadot’s solo debut, fans were complaining about everything from her chest size to her armpits. Now Gadot is firing back — in song!
The actress, along with co-star Chris Pine, took part in an interview with Zoomin.TV to talk about some of the hate she received along the way before the film’s opening. As you may or may not be aware, Gadot was the focus of a very heated debate among fans about the size of her breasts, and whether or not they were appropriate for 1.) an Amazon, 2.) how they generally perceived Wonder Woman to look. Well, Gadot heard their complaints, and she even wrote a song about it. It’s a shame she has to deal with this goofiness at all, but at least she seems to be taking it all in stride.
Along with Gadot’s little ditty, she and Pine also spar over the armpit hair “controversy,” where some fans argued Wonder Woman should have hair under her arms. Well, according to Pine, he actually started that one just for kicks and giggles. As Gadot rightfully notes, he obviously had way too much time on his hands.
These two had great chemistry on-screen, and it’s clear they play off one another and get along really well off-screen. Here’s hoping DC can find a way to get these two back together again. Which may seem impossible, but hey, this is comics we’re talking about, right?
Check out the song and interview below and let us know what you think:
Video of w1ziZIC6uwA
(Via Heroic Hollywood)Luxion has uploaded a reel detailing some of the features that are yet to come for KeyShot 7.
No release date accompanies the video, though Luxion says that purchases of KeyShot 6 on Black Friday/Cyber Monday will receive a free upgrade to version 7.
Some of the features illustrated in the video are real-time interactive design reviews; real-time and render output viewing for a VR headset; import, playback and output of deforming mesh sequences; the ability to save project component combinations such as model sets, environments and lighting; adjustable in-scene tessellation quality, animatable device screens and interfaces, easier to use mapping tool and mapping types; an integrated HDRI editor for embedded adjustments of pins, and interactive Sun & Sky; preset and user-defined interface arrangements for the workspace and much more.
Watch the new features below:d3_crescentia Profile Blog Joined May 2009 United States 4037 Posts #1
At any rate, enjoy - feedback and constructive criticism would be much appreciated. Footnotes denoted by stars (*).
Hello everyone, this is my 2000th milestone post. Rather than do a list of shoutouts or a dance video or something silly like that, I wanted to focus on helping to contribute to general game knowledge in SC2 for the playerbase. There are certain ideas in this post that aren't fully developed and will demand a revisit, and to be honest I wish there were more mathematical/scientific rigor involved, but it's been a long time since I last posted and I'd like to be able to get back to doing so ASAP.At any rate, enjoy - feedback and constructive criticism would be much appreciated. Footnotes denoted by stars (*). Introduction
Every Zerg player should be familiar with the maxim, "build drones when safe, build army when not safe." It's likely that this piece of advice has helped a significant number of lower level players take their play to the next level, but rarely does anyone ask "how many drones do I NEED?" While any player can develop game sense regarding this by playing a large number of games, I was immediately reminded of w3jjjj's excellent
With that inspiration in mind, this post will attempt to delve into the question of, "How many drones do I need to produce X of some Zerg unit?". For the most part I won't get too specific into builds, but I will include some interesting results I found while crunching the numbers, and offer some suggestions in the way this information should be used. I will be the first to admit that I'm not a very good player, so you should take any opinion on balance and gameplay that I might express in this article with a grain of salt. I also do realize that there are some very good tools out there that already do similar things, which I recommend wholeheartedly that you use.
Every Zerg player should be familiar with the maxim, "build drones when safe, build army when not safe." It's likely that this piece of advice has helped a significant number of lower level players take their play to the next level, but rarely does anyone ask "how many drones do I NEED?" While any player can develop game sense regarding this by playing a large number of games, I was immediately reminded of w3jjjj's excellent thread on BW Zerg econ management. This guide singlehandedly improved my ICCUP rank from D- to D+, and while I don't think this thread will be quite as useful I do hope that the following will be useful for all Zerg players.With that inspiration in mind, this post will attempt to delve into the question of, "How many drones do I need to produce X of some Zerg unit?". For the most part I won't get too specific into builds, but I will include some interesting results I found while crunching the numbers, and offer some suggestions in the way this information should be used. I will be the first to admit that I'm not a very good player, so you should take any opinion on balance and gameplay that I might express in this article with a grain of salt. I also do realize that there are some very good tools out there that already do similar things, which I recommend wholeheartedly that you use. Theory
In the most general case, determining the worker-to-production ratio for one facility is very easy. The formula below should be obvious and can be applied to all three races.
In the most general case, determining the worker-to-production ratio for one facility is very easy. The formula below should be obvious and can be applied to all three races. Resource Cost of Unit = (Number of Workers) x (Mining Rate of 1 Worker per second) x (Build Time of Unit in seconds)
Or directly:
Or directly: Number of Workers = Resource Cost / (Mining Rate x Build Time)
In the cases with multiple units being built at the same time, we simply multiply Resource Cost by the number of units we're looking to produce.
For simplicity, we'll assume worker mining rate is ~40 minerals/minute, and ~38 gas/minute. Then we would be able to determine something like the following table for Terran, as it has the simplest macro mechanics to account for:
While the information contained in this table is useful to remember for all stages of the game, the most interesting application is towards developing all-ins. For example, we can confirm the existence of builds like the Terran 6-rax: on one base, 24 SCVs and 1 MULE mine an approximate equivalent of 24 SCVs on two bases - exactly the amount of SCVs required for constant Marine production with Supply Depots.
A similar table can be generated for Protoss as well, although both warp-in build time and chrono boost will complicate certain calculations. In general, Protoss macro mechanics will only increase the number of probes necessary to maintain constant production. The table below only shows the effects of warp gates:
For Zerg, larva production and unit build time are completely independent, so for Hatcheries with larva injection it makes more sense to look at unit production cycles of larvae rather than X unit every 15 seconds. For the purposes of this article, I chose to treat 7 larvae every 45 seconds as the ideal cycle as opposed to the more commonly held 6.67 every 40 seconds.**
Note that some of the figures have been rounded - i.e., producing one Drone in a round of 7 larvae actually requires something like 1.67 Drones and 11.7 for a full round, but were rounded up to 2 and 12 respectively for formatting reasons. Costs were included for morphing units, i.e. a Brood Lord costs (150/150) + (Corruptor = 150/100) for a total of 300/250. Higher-tier units were included for completeness, but it's a little silly to think that someone would attempt to maintain constant production of full larvae cycles of Brood Lords and Ultralisks.
In the cases with multiple units being built at the same time, we simply multiply Resource Cost by the number of units we're looking to produce.For simplicity, we'll assume worker mining rate is ~40 minerals/minute, and ~38 gas/minute. Then we would be able to determine something like the following table for Terran, as it has the simplest macro mechanics to account for:While the information contained in this table is useful to remember for all stages of the game, the most interesting application is towards developing all-ins. For example, we can confirm the existence of builds like the Terran 6-rax: on one base, 24 SCVs and 1 MULE mine an approximate equivalent of 24 SCVs on two bases - exactly the amount of SCVs required for constant Marine production with Supply Depots.A similar table can be generated for Protoss as well, although both warp-in build time and chrono boost will complicate certain calculations. In general, Protoss macro mechanics will only increase the number of probes necessary to maintain constant production. The table below only shows the effects of warp gates:For Zerg, larva production and unit build time are completely independent, so for Hatcheries with larva injection it makes more sense to look at unit production cycles of larvae rather than X unit every 15 seconds. For the purposes of this article, I chose to treat 7 larvae every 45 seconds as the ideal cycle as opposed to the more commonly held 6.67 every 40 seconds.**Note that some of the figures have been rounded - i.e., producing one Drone in a round of 7 larvae actually requires something like 1.67 Drones and 11.7 for a full round, but were rounded up to 2 and 12 respectively for formatting reasons. Costs were included for morphing units, i.e. a Brood Lord costs (150/150) + (Corruptor = 150/100) for a total of 300/250. Higher-tier units were included for completeness, but it's a little silly to think that someone would attempt to maintain constant production of full larvae cycles of Brood Lords and Ultralisks. Discussion/Application
With this knowledge in mind, I'd like to take a look at other aspects of Zerg macromanagement, beginning with some very simple confirmations of knowledge we already know.
2-Base Infestor/Ling is a very economically efficient style of play - with 30 drones on minerals and 10 on gas, you can afford 20 lings and 2 infestors (and 2 overlords) in every production cycle after your tech has completed. Considering the incredible utility of the Infestor in all matchups, it shouldn't be any surprise that this composition remains incredibly strong even after Patch 1.4.
is a very economically efficient style of play - with 30 drones on minerals and 10 on gas, you can afford 20 lings and 2 infestors (and 2 overlords) in every production cycle after your tech has completed. Considering the incredible utility of the Infestor in all matchups, it shouldn't be any surprise that this composition remains incredibly strong even after Patch 1.4. 14 gas/pool should always use the first 25 energy on larvae injection, since your mining rate is enough to build a full round of drones or zerglings.
should always, since your mining rate is enough to build a full round of drones or zerglings. Hatch-first builds with double Queens will have less than the requisite 24 to support double injection, and so should be spending your initial queen energy on at least one creep tumor.**** After the initial round of drone production, at least one injection should be used to provide enough larvae for the amount of minerals being mined.
builds with double Queens will have less than the requisite 24 to support double injection, and so should be spending your initial queen energy on.**** After the initial round of drone production, at least one injection should be used to provide enough larvae for the amount of minerals being mined. Pure Roach will completely drain your minerals, and will actually require mining at full 24-drone saturation if you want to maintain full production cycles. Obviously most players do not do this, and spend whatever leftover larvae/resources on tech units.
will completely drain your minerals, and will actually require mining at full 24-drone saturation if you want to maintain full production cycles. Obviously most players do not do this, and spend whatever leftover larvae/resources on tech units. Roach/Hydra is a fairly economically balanced composition on 3 bases at a 1:1 ratio, but its' utility is obviously limited by matchup, and there are some larvae that will go unused. May not require a 3rd Queen until much later.
It's possible to use these numbers to set different benchmarks whenever formulating different compositions or builds, especially all-ins. For example, a 2-base 2-gas build in ZvP is virtually unheard of in the current metagame, but with a fast Lair (delaying Metabolic Boost) opens up a lot of different tech options for aggressive play.*** More specifically, Ling/Hydra all-ins and Ling/Baneling with drops are both viable strategies that arise from this worker count, as they are virtually identical resource-wise, and two gas allows for a modest amount of teching to get either Hydra range (sometimes +1 carapace as well) or for faster Overlord Drop/Speed for bombing runs on mineral lines.
Of course, in a more general sense, simply having this knowledge is good to know in different game scenarios. For example, on two bases worth of gas you can only make 3 Mutalisks every round of production, so you must save gas for 3-4 rounds of production (or 2-3 full minutes!) to make a substantial amount of mutas in one cycle, i.e. when your Spire finishes.
With this knowledge in mind, I'd like to take a look at other aspects of Zerg macromanagement, beginning with some very simple confirmations of knowledge we already know.It's possible to use these numbers to set different benchmarks whenever formulating different compositions or builds, especially all-ins. For example, a 2-base 2-gas build in ZvP is virtually unheard of in the current metagame, but with a fast Lair (delaying Metabolic Boost) opens up a lot of different tech options for aggressive play.*** More specifically, Ling/Hydra all-ins and Ling/Baneling with drops are both viable strategies that arise from this worker count, as they are virtually identical resource-wise, and two gas allows for a modest amount of teching to get either Hydra range (sometimes +1 carapace as well) or for faster Overlord Drop/Speed for bombing runs on mineral lines.Of course, in a more general sense, simply having this knowledge is good to know in different game scenarios. For example, on two bases worth of gas you can only make 3 Mutalisks every round of production, so you must save gas for 3-4 rounds of production (or 2-3 full minutes!) to make a substantial amount of mutas in one cycle, i.e. when your Spire finishes. Some Thoughts on Expansion Timings
The following section is an extension of the information above, assuming our only goal is to take and saturate expansions. I thought it was particularly interesting to try to use the information to try and make a purely numerical argument on how to best take additional bases.
Assuming we have the production to support it, the number of mining needed to produce 24 drones, 3 overlords, and 1 Hatchery in a single production cycle is 64 drones, or four bases' worth of mining.***** While certain other considerations will complicate the issue of going between 1 base and 2 bases for this number to be used, it does work splendidly when considering moving from 2 to 3 bases since we have an even numbers of production facilities and cycles.
+ Show Spoiler [Explanation] + With 32 drones on minerals on 2 bases, each hatchery will consume mining equivalent to 13.3 workers - 10 for 6 drones, and 3.3 for overlords. Two hatcheries will produce 12 drones, consuming the mining of 26.6 workers in a single round, which leaves about 5.3 workers' worth of floated minerals. With a second production round we have once again 12 drones produced at a cost of 20 mining, but only one overlord needs to be produced for this round as there will be leftover supply from the previous round. The total remaining will be (5.3 + 5.3 + 3.3) for a total of 14, which is enough to satisfy the required 12 workers' worth of mining to produce a Hatchery.
Also note that the larvae work out quite perfectly, as 12 Drones + 2 Overlords are made in the first cycle, and 12 Drones + 1 Overlord + 1 Drone->Hatchery is made in the second cycle. Ideally, however, the Hatchery would be made first, so that the completion of the second production cycle would line up with the completion of the Hatchery for immediate mining at saturation. In this case, it may be wise to find a way to place the Hatchery down in a previous production cycle, such as a cycle of 48 Zerglings + 3 Overlords + 1 Hatchery.
Thus, when taking a 3rd base, we have enough mining and production such that a third base can be established in two production cycles time with enough drones to saturate it.
On going from 3 to 4 bases, an additional base of mining provides too many larvae and too few resources to satisfy drone/overlord production in a single cycle with only 16-drone saturation at each base. Even if the Hatchery can be placed in a previous production cycle, you will only have almost enough minerals to produce the requisite 24 drones and overlords, so you are forced to choose between 16-saturation or full-gas mining.
For going from 4 bases to 5 or higher, it should be obvious that Zerg will be capable of fully saturating a base in one production cycle, although the spawning Drones will have to wait for the Hatchery to finish building. It may be possible to use unspent minerals during the 3->4 base transition to double-expand as well.
With this in mind, here's a theoretical pattern for expansion timing for a Zerg player:
+ Show Spoiler [Theorycrafting] +
Suppose you are playing a Zergling heavy style, and after making a large army you decide to take your 3rd base at the end of a double cycle of Zerglings. While you can't outright kill your opponent, suppose that you are guaranteed to be able to stall him for at least 90 seconds. Thus, you add drones in the next two production cycles, and immediately take your fourth at the end of the second drone cycle. Two drones from the first round of production are transferred over to make two Extractors, and upon the completion of the second cycle all drones are transferred/rallied to the third.
By now, you've fully saturated your third and can resume army production. Although the fourth is not currently mining, it does not need to be immediately saturated if you feel you are unsafe.
Although in a real game this situation may never occur exactly as described, it does provide the backbone for a game plan. With this information, you should be able to develop different benchmarks and expansion timings for different composition/builds, like Roach/Infestor or Ling/Baneling, etc., even if you and your opponent fubar the opening stages of the game.
The following section is an extension of the information above, assuming our only goal is to take and saturate expansions. I thought it was particularly interesting to try to use the information to try and make a purely numerical argument on how to best take additional bases.Assuming we have the production to support it, the number of mining needed to produce 24 drones, 3 overlords, and 1 Hatchery in a single production cycle is 64 drones, or four bases' worth of mining.***** While certain other considerations will complicate the issue of going between 1 base and 2 bases for this number to be used, it does work splendidly when considering moving from 2 to 3 bases since we have an even numbers of production facilities and cycles.Thus, when taking a 3rd base, we have enough mining and production such that a third base can be established intime with enough drones to saturate it.On going from 3 to 4 bases, an additional base of mining provides too many larvae and too few resources to satisfy drone/overlord production in a single cycle with only 16-drone saturation at each base. Even if the Hatchery can be placed in a previous production cycle, you will only have almost enough minerals to produce the requisite 24 drones and overlords, so you are forced to choose between 16-saturation or full-gas mining.For going from 4 bases to 5 or higher, it should be obvious that Zerg will be capable of fully saturating a base in one production cycle, although the spawning Drones will have to wait for the Hatchery to finish building. It may be possible to use unspent minerals during the 3->4 base transition to double-expand as well.With this in mind, here's afor expansion timing for a Zerg player:Although in a real game this situation may never occur exactly as described, it does provide the backbone for a game plan. With this information, you should be able to develop different benchmarks and expansion timings for different composition/builds, like Roach/Infestor or Ling/Baneling, etc., even if you and your opponent fubar the opening stages of the game. Concluding Remarks
Rarely are games ever as cut and dry as we want them to be. Nevertheless, I do hope that this information will help people out in improving their gameplay and will encourage other people to make more mathematically (or at least, numerically) driven posts to analyze the game.
In the future, I may look at expansion timings once again for Roach builds again and see how it stacks up with the theorycrafting above. More importantly, I'd like to see how this information could be used in developing 2-gas or 3-gas builds, even if they are only timing attacks or all-ins.
Although not all such analysis might not be useful or even applicable to real game scenarios, I do believe that more structured inquiry into subjects like these will help to further develop the knowledge and skill level of the SC2 playerbase. I look forward to seeing more posts with similar (or better!) approaches than mine.
Footnotes:
+ Show Spoiler [*] + The math behind this is (16 SCVs at 100% efficiency) + (8 SCVs at 50% Efficiency) + (1 MULE = 4 SCVs) for a total of 24, though 1 SCV will maintain constant Supply Depot production for a total of 23. On the other side, we have (6 Barracks * 3 SCVs needed/Marine) + (5 SCVs needed/Depot) = 23.
+ Show Spoiler [**] + The reasoning for this is due to how energy regeneration rates are set. At a rate of 0.5625 energy/second for all units, a Queen will regenerate 22.5 energy every 40 seconds, and thus be at a slight deficit in energy. A Zerg player with 40-second injections and a small bank of energy may be able to have 20 larvae 15 seconds faster than a player using 45-second cycles, but effectively waste a larva from capping the hatchery spawn too quickly. Note that with a quicker injection cycle, you may have to bump up the numbers listed in the table by 2-3 drones if you plan on producing full cycles.
+ Show Spoiler [***] + Is this style of play particularly good - i.e., can the build be optimized such that the tech comes out fast enough to deal significant damage, and is it easily scouted? These are questions to be answered in the build refinement process, but from my limited experience it seems that 2 gas play seems sound enough, so long as you don't trade your army for nothing.
+ Show Spoiler [****] + If you do choose to inject, you gain one larva which can lead to a slightly faster drone now, but at the cost of wasting 1 larva one cycle later. Even so, I would think the unquantifiable benefits of double creep tumors would outweigh such a gain.
+ Show Spoiler [*****] + While it takes only 62 drones for the Hatchery, Drones, and Overlords, building 2 extractors (from non-mining drones) will add 50 minerals to the total cost, or the equivalent of 2 drones on minerals, for a total of 64. Rarely are games ever as cut and dry as we want them to be. Nevertheless, I do hope that this information will help people out in improving their gameplay and will encourage other people to make more mathematically (or at least, numerically) driven posts to analyze the game.In the future, I may look at expansion timings once again for Roach builds again and see how it stacks up with the theorycrafting above. More importantly, I'd like to see how this information could be used in developing 2-gas or 3-gas builds, even if they are only timing attacks or all-ins.Although not all such analysis might not be useful or even applicable to real game scenarios, I do believe that more structured inquiry into subjects like these will help to further develop the knowledge and skill level of the SC2 playerbase. I look forward to seeing more posts with similar (or better!) approaches than mine. once, not long ago, there was a moon hereBefore November of 1990, the cost of an LDS mission for two years could range anywhere from $2,000 to 10 times that amount. Thankfully, for almost the past 25 years, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been able to enjoy the church's mission equalization plan for |
of your characters' actions. It adds a dimension to "Breaking Bad" that is extraordinary.
I am a great consumer of television, especially as a kid growing up when I still had time to watch it. I’ve seen way more TV than anyone has a right to. It finally dawned on me that TV is about stasis, and it is about life, whereas our lives are about change. We get older with every passing moment. We change in our lives, we change our hairstyles. We change our outlooks on life, our political views sometimes. TV by design has to have a certain amount of stasis to it, because the goal in television is to have a TV show that lasts for many decades. But it’s hard to have characters on your TV show change when you are trying to provide a safe haven for the viewers, a familiar place for the viewers to come back to week in and week out. And, to that end, when you have a cop show, and a cop shoots a perp, that rule of stasis, that self-imposed stricture of stasis, dictates that a particular act of violence doesn’t resonate too strongly with the character, certainly within the body of the episode. The cop sits around with his boss, after the shooting, and the boss says, “You did what you had to do.” We’ve all seen that scene. But the next episode, it’s like it never happened. And I've written plenty of hours of TV with those kind of moments, certainly on “The X-Files.” But it occurred to me that it would be nice to try something different.
And that’s why from the outset, “Breaking Bad” was very much intended as an experiment in change, and in fact the opposite of the marching order of most TV shows. I wanted the characters to change week in and week out, primarily the main character, Walter White. So, to that end, when that ability and when that opportunity was available to me as a writer, I took it and ran with it. If Walt kills somebody, it’s going to have an effect on him. It’s going to have an effect on everyone around him. He’s never going to forget it. He’s going to carry emotions like baggage, and the baggage will weigh him down more and more. And it will change who he is, and you as viewer will never forget those moments, because he won’t allow you to, because he himself will remember them. And if it’s not he who feels bad in a given week about something, it’s Jesse, or some other character.
Advertisement:
It seems to me that Jesse and Walt are gradually splitting off, becoming unmoored from each other, due to the fact that Jesse seems more haunted by these consequences, and Walt seems less haunted by these consequences.
Right, that is true. That is part of the process of change. In the early days, the death of “Krazy 8,” the character who Walt throttled to death in Jessie’s basement back in our third episode, haunted Walt immensely. But, I got to imagine if you wind up doing it a second time and a third time, you build up calluses emotionally. And the more you do something, and I hate to put it in these terms, the better you get at it. And that is exactly what’s happening with Walt. As unpleasant as some of these tasks he has taken upon himself have been, there is something else that drives him. And that is this need for power. This need for feeling potent and feeling important in this little world he lives in. And to that end, he does what he would probably describe as a lot of unpleasant things. He rationalizes his behavior, and says that what he does, he does for his family. But, in fact, he does what he does for self-aggrandizement, to make himself feel important. So as the killings progress, they take more out of Jessie. They seem to bother Walt less and less.
And now, Mike Ehrmantraut, Gus’ former “security consultant,” seems to have a dog in both hunts. He somehow has a way of internalizing the violence, yet it somehow hasn’t corrupted his soul, in the ways that we see Walt being corrupted and Jessie being shattered.
Yeah, we want every character to approach these moments in a unique fashion. Every character will respond in a unique way. And Mike is a professional. He is a hardened professional who we suspect wants something more, wants something better, and I don’t mean in a greedy sense, because now in the first episode of Season 5, we’ve seen where he lives. (laughs) This is not a guy who does what he does so that he can smoke the finest cigars and drink the oldest port, or whatnot. This is a guy who lives in basically a dump, and watches TCM, and is a man of simple pleasures. He seems to do what he does because he’s in some deeply worn rut. He is very good at his job and, and so he sticks with it. But he doesn’t seem to get the least amount of enjoyment out of it.
Advertisement:
In my recap for that second episode, I mentioned the climax of that TCM movie Mike is watching, “The Caine Mutiny,” where the officers are forced to take down the psychotic at the end. If I didn’t know better, as I believe nothing is unintentional in "Breaking Bad," I'd guess that this is a deliberate plant. But, I know that’s probably complete speculation at this point.
Well, you may be right. It’s interesting that “The Caine Mutiny” came to us. It is indeed one of my favorite movies, and I’ve loved it ever since my dad introduced me to it when I was 8 or 10 years old. It was available to us because it is a Sony property, and when it became available to us, essentially for a song, I thought to myself, my God this is what he should be watching. I have to admit that I wasn’t thinking too deeply about the deeper meanings of the movie. And now I am kind of delighted to see the resonances, within “The Caine Mutiny” and within what’s going on in Season 5 of “Breaking Bad.” It does indeed feel like a very apt choice. I’d love to take credit for it and say this is completely engineered and we’re playing a very deep game here. And, indeed, we’re trying. But our game some days admittedly is not quite as deep as what viewers perceive. But I should probably just shut up and take credit for it, I guess.
This brings up something I find significant. A couple of trends have come up in popular media that haven’t existed before, and they’re intersecting in an interesting way. One, the rise of the novel for television, the deep-dish narrative construct that allows “Breaking Bad” to exist. The certain freedom of expression and form that’s just really come up in the last five years, and is really flowering now. And the second is the instant communication of the Internet. Every week, you’ve got people with way too much time on their hands, like me, reading – and writing -- about everything you're doing. I’m curious what your reaction to that sort of closed-loop feedback mechanism?
Advertisement:
I’m going to start with the pat answer, which is that I am eternally grateful for the enthusiasm that fans of the show feel for it, because we don’t have, on the face of it, enough raw numbers in viewership terms for this to be an out-and-out success. But what we do have is a very deep depth of enthusiasm on the part of the people who do love our show. And that translates into wonderful articles like the ones you are writing. And blog posts and people on various sites and the Internet talking about this show.
I feel like this show has been absolutely perfectly timed, by some bold stroke of luck or good fortune. I can’t take any credit at all for the timing of this show, I feel like I won the lottery with it. It is, indeed, an interesting time to be doing a show like this because the viewership has become much more interactive in television. And, yes, a show runner, like myself, absolutely has the ability to partake of minute-by-minute reaction now. I mean, you could be watching a Twitter feed of reaction. It’s something television’s never had before. It’s akin to being the director of a movie, and driving around from movie theater to movie theater on opening night and lurking down near the front and watching the audience watch your movie. And that’s something. The question that arises is: Do you partake of it? And I have to admit that I don’t partake of it, and it’s not for lack of interest. (laughs) I hope I get through my whole life and am able to honestly say this: “I have never Googled myself. And I’ve never Googled 'Breaking Bad.'” I don’t do it, not because I’m not interested, but because the opposite is true. I am desperately interested, but I know that I will disappear down some rabbit hole if I were to do that. And so while we have this amazing opportunity to listen in to these Twitter feeds and get this instant reaction, it would become a very dangerous sort of an echo chamber. I think my writers feel the same way. I think I’m safe to speak for them when I say this. There’s seven of us, in a room all day long trying to figure out these episodes.
We feel like one of our most important jobs is to be the first fans of “Breaking Bad.” We sit around and we say to ourselves over and over again, where’s Walt? Where’s Walt's head at right now? What does he want right this minute? What is he afraid of right this minute? We also branch off a little, and we say to ourselves, what do we want to see happen? What would satisfy us as viewers? What would really surprise us as viewers? You want to work those two questions carefully because the most important thing to do is keep the story flowing organically, to keep the characters true to themselves, not work them into weird corners, or drive square pegs into round holes character-wise, just because you want to get to someplace that you think would be fun to get to. But nonetheless, the seven of us try to be the first fans and try to please ourselves. And sometimes, pleasing ourselves means making ourselves unhappy. Sometimes it means coming up with a very sad moment instead of a very joyous or victorious moment. But, we’re trying to do right for us, letting the chips fall where they may, with every other viewer out there. It’s held us in good stead. But it just seems to me that it’s a dangerous proposition to be reading too much feedback. Even as overjoyed as I am that we have so much of it and the vast majority of it being very positive. I couldn’t be more flattered or happy. I know of this because I hear anecdotally from my editor on the show, who basically pores over it every day, reads every line that’s ever written and then she kind of aggregates it verbally for me and says, “Oh, people like that one.”
Advertisement:
But that’s as far as it goes because I don’t want to disappear down that rabbit hole.
I’m tremendously relieved! Especially as you approach the ending, when everyone is speculating on the ending. I’m glad to see it won’t be contaminated from the outside!
Thank you.
One thing you just said leads me to the next question. And that is that the seven of you are the biggest fans of “Breaking Bad” in the world. How does that work?
Advertisement:
I want to be precise and say that we are the first fans, but not necessarily the biggest. I learned it from this past weekend at Comic-Con, my first visit to Comic-Con. It was mind-blowing to see 5,000 people in a room, all of them gathered there to hear about “Breaking Bad.” I just like to think that my writers and I are the first ones.
So, you’re not going around dressed up in meth-yellow jumpsuits?
I’ve been in one of those. Those things are hot. They don’t breathe very well. (laughs)
OK, as a fan of "Breaking Bad," what’s an episode you particularly like? A desert island episode, if you will.
Advertisement:
Boy, it’s a toughie because I really feel it’s like picking your favorite child.
Then, are there scenes you look back on with special pleasure?
So many moments. One of the moments I’m most proud of on the show, because it was the bedrock that we built on to get us where we are now, was in Episode 5 of the first season. My original estimation of the character Walter White was that he was going to do this bad thing and feel bad about doing it. But -- he was going to do it strictly for his family. He’s going to cook this meth, make some money and feel dirty the whole time, but feel like he had no other choice. But then, I hadn’t thought it through quite a much as I should have, I suppose. I thought, well OK, this week, he’ll make a lot of money and then at a certain point he’ll have an amount of money. But then, I don’t know, the house will burn up or something and he’ll lose all his money, and he’ll have to do it all over again. But very quickly when you go down that path, you realize this can’t just become some crazy shaggy dog story, in which this guy is never really tested morally. His money just keeps getting carried off by crows to build a nest or something, and he has to start over from scratch. That would just be infuriating, nobody would watch that.
So, one of my favorite moments. In Episode 5 we presented Walt purposely with this deus ex machina moment. An old friend comes into his life and says, “I heard you have cancer. Your wife told me. I feel terrible. I am a very rich man and I’m going to pay for your cancer treatment with no strings attached. I’m going to give you a wonderful job at my very wonderful company. And I’m going to do that strictly out of love for you.” Walt has this deus ex machina offer that by any measure he should take. The guy is not in his right mind if he doesn’t take this. And then, at the end of the hour, he doesn’t take it. Instead, he goes off to cook more meth. That was one of my favorite moments. It wasn’t one of the flashiest moments, but it was the moment when I realized what this show could become and I realized why we were telling it. This is not at the end of the day a show about the failures of the healthcare system. It really is a character study of this one man. This one very flawed man. And it is the study of what drives him, because you don’t decide to cook crystal meth strictly for your family. I don’t care what anybody says. At a certain point, on some level, you've got to be OK with it. And Walter White was OK with it on some levels. Not what he saw himself doing way back when he was in grad school. But, it was his only avenue of power. It was his only way to feel alive and important. And realizing that in this fourth episode was a highlight moment. It wasn’t one of the most flashy pyrotechnic moments, but it was definitely a highlight.
Advertisement:
This points to that quality of improvisation with the work you're doing. In a traditional crime show, like “CSI,” if it were a big band, it’s a big band working off charts. The arrangements are very tightly controlled. And what I sense with “Breaking Bad” is a sense of, I don’t know, “John Coltrane on acid.” You have this sense of improvisation where you go with things you know, where you tell the story the length it needs to be told. You're inspired collectively by a moment and you decide to go deeper into that moment. You’re in essence leading a parallel life with your characters and letting those characters take you where they want to go -- not necessarily where the dictates of commercial convention say they have to go. Does that make any sense?
That’s an excellent way to put it, and that is on our best day what we accomplish. We, on our best days, tell the story absolutely organically. And that is our fundamental question in the writers’ room. We sit there and we say to ourselves over and over, “Where’s Walt’s head at right now?” What does he want right now? What is he afraid of right now. Those are the three questions. And, then we ask them about Jesse and Skyler and Hank and so on, and so forth. Having said that, we are not always strictly organic. A good example would be the first episode in Season 2. We started off with an image of a teddy bear, a burned-up teddy bear in a swimming pool. And we knew we wanted to bookend the season. We knew we wanted to end with the same images that we began with. And, we had a pretty good idea of how the teddy bear got in the pool. But we didn’t know every last detail that would get him there. And so that is a somewhat inorganic process. So we try to hybridize the two. We try to be as organic as possible.
Did you know the teddy bear came from an exploding airplane?
I had this image of a teddy bear in a pool, and I kind of went with it. I didn’t know why it was in the pool. But we did not commit to that idea until we had a good reason for it to be in the pool. Very often, you’ll have an idea in the writer’s room, and you’ll kick it around. And sometimes you don’t know where it came from and sometimes it’s wise to not look too closely. But in that case I just had this image that seems striking to me and everyone said to me, well, “What the hell does that mean? Why a teddy bear in a pool?” And I said, “I don’t know. Let’s go with it. Let’s talk about it. Let’s kick it around. Why would there be a teddy bear in the pool? Well, I guess there was a meth lab in Walt’s house and it blew up and maybe the cops came or maybe there was a bomb...” And then, you go through this process of elimination.
Advertisement:
What you’re working toward is the least guessable reason for there to be a teddy bear in a pool. However, the caveat in that case is Walt has to be ultimately responsible for that teddy bear being in the pool, even if it’s in a very abstract or inadvertent way. Walt has to carry some lion’s share of responsibility. Because if he doesn’t, then it’s just a random act, and then, this is just a chaotic, random world in which anything can happen and there's nothing satisfying about that. Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in in real life. But that’s not dramatically satisfying. Dramatically satisfying is when the character reaps what he sows. And so, then began the process of what’s the least guessable reason for there to be a teddy bear in a pool. “Well, maybe it came from an exploding plane high over Albuquerque. Well, OK, but how in the world is Walt responsible for that happening?” So then begins the idea of Jesse meeting Jane, and falling in love with her, and her dying. It was the hardest season we’ve had yet to break. It was mind-numbingly hard to try to play this game. None of us are Bobby Fischer, none of us are chess players, particularly in my writers' room. But we were trying to emulate that level of chess playing to think 20 to 25 moves ahead. And it was desperately hard for us. But we got through it.
So, you are saying, and I’m asking this with both shock and awe, that the teddy bear in the pool was really the catalyst for that entire season plot arc? That is what set you down the road of those twists and turns? That’s astonishing.
I tell you, it helps to have two things. It helps to have six really smart writers, because there's no way I could’ve done all that by myself. And it also helps to have a great deal of lead time. There’s been a lot of blessings bestowed upon this show. The very fact that it exists constantly amazes me. If Sony and AMC didn’t allow us the unbelievable lead time we typically get, there is no way that the show would be as well thought out as it is. It’d be full of holes. It’d be riddled with Swiss cheese-like plot holes. You got to have weeks and weeks and weeks in which to think these things through, to try to be that master chess player, when, in fact, you are not. I’m no more of a chess player than a chimpanzee. But, any story is breakable, if you really put your brain to it, and you have a lot of good help and you have enough hours to focus on it. The thing I’m most proud of is that we just don’t give up. We’re tenacious as hell in that writers' room, and even when our brains feel like they’re smoking, we keep pushing.
Now that you’ve been to Comic-Con, you’ll appreciate this next reference. You’re playing Vulcan three-dimensional chess, not just chess.
Advertisement:
I think we have thought of that! And I am a big "Star Trek" fan! And you know, we do think of it as 3-D chess. But having said that, it is funny how these stories derive. I mean, people always say; “Where did the idea come from?” And that’s the question I want to know when I ask one of my favorite authors or filmmakers. Where’d you get the idea? Yet I know as a writer, it’s a pointless question. Because, who the hell knows? I mean, I don’t know where the image of the Teddy and the pool came from, it just seemed apt. No, it didn’t even seem apt. It wasn’t even apt when I first conceived it. It just seemed intriguing.
Well, you’re in good company. Reminds me how when Michael Herr hung out with Stanley Kubrick, he finally had to ask the question you and I might ask Kubrick. He said, “OK, that Star Child hanging in space, how did you come up with that?” And Kubrick pondered, and answered, “You know, how does anyone ever come up with anything?"
I love it. I love it. Kubrick’s one of my all-time favorites. The other great quote, that I use all the time from him, was somebody asked him, “What about the space station, and using the Blue Danube throughout that sequence? Just genius! Why did you do it that way?” And Kubrick thought about it, and said, “Showmanship.” It was my favorite answer of all time.
Well, there you go.
That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what anyone is trying to do. It’s about showmanship. We've got a lot of choices now, and there are millions and millions of hours of great movies and TV shows that we can access at our fingertips. And there’s great new ones being made every second of the day. And it gets harder and harder to break through the noise and the clutter. And the only real way to do it is to tell an honest human story, but to do it in a way that people feel like they haven’t seen before. So that’s the constant effort: to show people something they haven’t seen, which is damn hard to do. We don’t always succeed. But that’s the effort, that’s the constant effort, that idea of “showmanship.”
There’s one other Kubrick line that seems relevant to this discussion. Matthew Modine wrote in his “Full Metal Jacket” diary that Kubrick was on the set, soliciting ideas from everyone on how he should end the movie. And Modine went in and gave him an idea, and he was understandably nervous. And Kubrick said, “Look, Matthew, there are no bad ideas. Only better ones.”
Ah, what a great line.
Yeah.
Great line. Well, you know, we try to speak into that. I mean, I’ve never used that line. That’s a great line, but you got to have a safe writers’ room. That’s the search that was going on there, Kubrick was just soliciting ideas. He had a little ad hoc writers’ room. And to me, I keep talking about my writers. They’ve got to feel safe in the room. I don’t ever want to beat up on them, even if I’m in a bad mood or something. Because, it is like, why would I do that? If they don’t feel free to say anything that pops into their head, we’re never going to get to the really good stuff. And I’m cheating myself. If I shot these guys down and tell them that’s a dumb idea, then I’m not getting all the good stuff.
You went to the “Chris Carter School of the Dramatic Arts” with “The X-Files.” What did you take away from there? I’m interested, as you now approach the ending of “Breaking Bad.” Because, I don’t remember "X-Files" really ending. I remember it just sort of dissipating. Maybe that is unfair, but I don’t get a sense that there was closure. And is that something you keep in the back of your mind as you approach the end?
I think about it all the time because I can tell you we worked our butts off from that show. And it’s just a function of raw numbers. We had 202 episodes of that show when we were done, after nine years. I was, I am proud of that show. I have to admit, I’m more proud of “Breaking Bad” because it is my personal baby. But it was a wonderful, wonderful job. But when you have that many episodes, you’re going to have some clunkers, especially when you're working at the pace that one works at in network television. That’s why people say, “Oh, you know, cable is better than network.” You hear that a lot. Network is the hardest work going. My hat is off to anyone doing a network TV show because they’ve got to do 24 in a season, 25, 26 in a season, and we’re dilettanting around doing 13 or 10 or eight or whatever. And that’s the way I want it, by the way. I don’t ever want to go back.
With a show like "X-Files," I learned a lot of lessons. Chris Carter was a great boss, a wonderful boss. And I learned how to produce television. I learned how to write for television. I wouldn’t be doing this job now. Wouldn’t know how to do it if it weren’t for “The X-Files.” But, honestly, ”The X-Files” was a bit of a cautionary tale for me, because we were busting our asses all through Season 9, but the rest of the world, in hindsight, felt like they had moved on around Season 6. They were into other things. And that was an unpleasant feeling, and it would’ve been even more so, if I had actually created the show. So a big lesson I’ve taken away from it is I want to end “Breaking Bad” as well as I can possibly end it. But I don’t want to end it a season or two or three too late. I want to go with people wanting more. I’d rather go out with people saying, “You are absolutely out of your mind to be ending this thing now. You’re at the height of this thing, you’re crazy to end it right now.” I’d rather have people say that to me with bewilderment, than to hear people in passing say, “'Breaking Bad,' I used to love that show. Is that thing still on?” One is far worse than the other.[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IfhvwJtLFQ4" width="425" height="239" resize="1" fid="21"]
I can't tell you how infuriating this is, that PA Gov. Tom Corbett has so easily implemented the ALEC agenda without most people in the state ever even noticing. (Because he almost never talks to the press, so there's very little media coverage.) When he ran for governor, he said almost nothing. His commercials highlighted his background as a prosecutor, and the Democratic candidate was so forgettable, that was all he needed to do. Imagine my shock when he turned out to be a Scott Walker clone! Part of that, of course, included making sure it was a lot more difficult for poor people to vote, since they do have that annoying habit of voting for Democrats. Hopefully this will be overturned by November. Via The Nation:
We’ve seen state officials around the country flat-out lie about the imaginary problem of voter fraud—and we’ve seen how people of color and other marginalized groups stand to have their rights swiftly confiscated in the process. This time, voters in Pennsylvania will feel the brunt of a bill signed into law this past March, which may disenfranchise nearly 10 percent of voters statewide and 18 percent of voters in Philadelphia.
Although Secretary of Commonwealth Carol Aichele has repeatedly stated that 99 percent of Pennsylvania voters were already in possession of the identification needed to comply with the new law, her numbers were way off. The deliberate or accidental overestimate means that the state is stuck with a law that will potentially disenfranchise 758,939 voters.In a press release dubiously titled “Department of State and PennDOT Confirm Most Registered Voters Have Photo ID,” issued Tuesday, her own office illustrates that more than 180,000 of Philadelphia’s voters lack the proper ID to cast a ballot. More than 44 percent of Philadelphia is African-American. Pennsylvania’s strict voter ID law means that only certain forms of identification are acceptable. Even government-issued photo ID cards without an expiration date aren’t acceptable. A hearing on the voter ID bill is scheduled for July 25.
Meanwhile, Aichele and two other state secretaries face an additional lawsuit, alleging violations to the National Voter Registration Act. Also known as Motor Voter, the federal law requires registration forms be made available at a variety of state-run agencies, so that a larger part of the potential electorate can participate.The suit, filed yesterday by a coalition of voting rights groups, claims that Pennsylvania is systematically barring low-income individuals from obtaining registration forms, because they are not offered at public assistance agencies throughout the state. Less than twenty years ago, nearly 60,000 people registered per year while interacting with a public assistance agency. Yet in 2009 and 2010, less than 5,000 people did so. The 93 percent drop in registration is especially alarming, because the number of food stamps requests nearly doubled during that time.AP and KSNW - KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - A Kansas thrill ride billed as the world's tallest waterslide remained off-limits Monday as authorities pressed to figure out how a state lawmaker's 10-year-old son was killed on a day the park honored elected officials and their families.
Details remained murky about how Caleb Thomas Schwab died Sunday on the 168-foot-tall "Verruckt" - German for "insane" - that since its debut two years ago has been the top draw at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas.
Copyright by KSNW - All rights reserved This June 2016 photo provided by David Strickland shows Caleb Thomas Schwab, the son of Scott Schwab, a Kansas state lawmaker from Olathe.
Copyright by KSNW - All rights reserved This June 2016 photo provided by David Strickland shows Caleb Thomas Schwab, the son of Scott Schwab, a Kansas state lawmaker from Olathe.
In a statement Monday afternoon, Schlitterbahn said it was "deeply and intensely saddened for the Schwab family and all who were impacted by the tragic accident." The park was tentatively scheduled to reopen Wednesday, but "Verruckt is closed," according to the statement.
Officer Cameron Morgan, a police spokesman, said no police report about the incident was available. He said investigators were treating Caleb's death as a "civil matter" rather than a criminal one and referred additional questions to the park.
Schlitterbahn spokeswoman Winter Prosapio declined interview requests Monday but told reporters a day earlier that Caleb had been at the park with family members, adding that "we honestly don't know what's happened."
It wasn't immediately clear whether results of an autopsy Monday on Caleb would be publicly released or, if so, how soon, said Margaret Studyvin with the Wyandotte County coroner's office.
Leslie Castaneda, who was at Schlitterbahn on Sunday, told The Kansas City Star that she saw Caleb's crumpled shorts or bathing suit at the bottom of the ride, along with blood on the slide's white descending flume.
"I'm really having a tough time with it. I really am," said Castaneda, of Kansas City, Kansas. "I saw his (Caleb's) brother. He was screaming."
On the waterslide certified by Guinness World Records as the world's tallest, riders sit in multi-person rafts during "the ultimate in water slide thrills," subjecting "adventure seekers" to a "jaw dropping" 17-story drop, the park's website says. Passengers then are "blasted back up a second massive hill and then sent down yet another gut wrenching 50 foot drop," the website adds.
Copyright by KSNW - All rights reserved This June 2016 photo provided by David Strickland shows Caleb Thomas Schwab posing with his father Scott Schwab, a Kansas state lawmaker from Olathe. Caleb died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, while riding the Verruckt, a water slide that's billed as the world's largest, at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan. (David Strickland/David Strickland via AP)
Copyright by KSNW - All rights reserved This June 2016 photo provided by David Strickland shows Caleb Thomas Schwab posing with his father Scott Schwab, a Kansas state lawmaker from Olathe. Caleb died Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016, while riding the Verruckt, a water slide that's billed as the world's largest, at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kan. (David Strickland/David Strickland via AP)
Each rider must be at least 54 inches tall, and the group's weight is limited to a total of 400 to 550 pounds. Authorities didn't release information about Caleb's height or the combined weight of his group of riders.
Caleb's parents - Republican state Rep. Scott Schwab and his wife, Michele - have requested privacy as the family grieves, saying in a statement Sunday that "since the day he was born, (Caleb) brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with."
"As we try to mend our home with him no longer with us, we are comforted knowing he believed in our Savior Jesus, and they are forever together now. We will see him another day," the statement added.
The tragedy happened on day the park offered lawmakers and other elected officials a buffet lunch, hot dogs and hamburgers.
Authorities initially said the victim was 12 years old, but Clint Sprague, a pastor acting as the family's spokesman, said Caleb was 10 and is among the couple's four sons. According to rules sent to the media in 2014, riders had to be at least 14 years old, but that requirement is no longer listed on the park's website.
Verruckt's 2014 opening repeatedly was delayed, though the operators didn't explain why. Two media sneak preview days in 2014 were canceled because of problems with a conveyor system that hauls 100-pound rafts to the top of the slide.
In a news article linked to the news release announcing a 2014 delay, Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry told USA Today that he and senior designer John Schooley had based their calculations when designing the slide on roller coasters, but that didn't translate well to a waterslide like Verruckt.
In early tests, rafts carrying sandbags flew off the slide, prompting engineers to tear down half of the ride and reconfigure some angles at a cost of $1 million, Henry said.
A promotional video about building the slide includes footage of two men riding a raft down a half-size test model and going slightly airborne as it crests the top of the first big hill.
The Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County said it does not inspect the operations of such rides and is responsible only for ensuring they've adhered to local building codes.
Without specifically mentioning water slides, Kansas statutes define an "amusement ride" as any mechanical or electrical conveyance "for the purpose of giving its passengers amusement, pleasure, thrills or excitement." Such rides, by statute, commonly are Ferris wheels, carousels, parachute towers, bungee jumps and roller coasters.
State law leaves it to the Kansas Department of Labor to adopt rules and regulations relating to certification and inspection of rides, adding that a permanent amusement ride must be scrutinized by "a qualified inspector" at least every 12 months. Kansas' Labor Department didn't return messages Monday.
Prosapio said Sunday the park's rides are inspected daily and by an "outside party" before the start of each season.
Kansas state Sen. Greg Smith, an Overland Park Republican, said that although state law doesn't specifically address waterslides, it's clear they "would fall into that category." He called any potential legislative response to Sunday's tragedy premature, saying the investigation should be given time to play out.
"Michele and I want to thank the Olathe and Kansas City, Kansas communities and all of our friends and family for their outpouring of support and compassion as it relates to the sudden loss of our son, Caleb Thomas Schwab," said Schwab. "Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came in contact with. As we try to mend our home with him no longer with us, we are comforted knowing he believed in our Savior Jesus, and they are forever together now. We will see him another day. Your continued prayers are welcome and appreciated. We appreciate your understanding of our family's need for privacy during this difficult time of grieving."NEW YORK – The New York World’s Fair of 1964 introduced 51 million visitors to a range of technological innovations and predictions during its run. Fifty years later, some of those ideas have turned out to |
a token gesture to Italy.
The summit defined the 40,000 scheme as “temporary and exceptional”, to be spread over two years. It will have little impact on the overall numbers, given that more than 600,000 people sought asylum in the EU last year. The figures for new arrivals this year are much higher.
According to the latest figures from Frontex, the EU’s border agency, the number of migrants arriving at the EU’s external borders has risen by a factor of 2.5 this year compared with 2014, from 61,500 to 153,000. The numbers coming through the Balkans were nearly nine times higher than last year.
Mediterranean crossings last month were 29% up on April, and there has been a five-fold increase so far this year in those using the eastern Mediterranean route compared with the same period in 2014.
The number of first-time asylum seekers in the EU in the first quarter of 2015 almost doubled compared with the first three months of 2014, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency. About 40% of the claims were lodged in Germany compared with only 4% in Britain.
The summit decided on a number of measures aimed at speeding up asylum processing and expelling those whose claims are turned down.
EU development funds, trade agreements and diplomatic pressure would be deployed as leverage on the migrants’ countries of origin to encourage them to sign readmission agreements with the EU.
“All tools shall be mobilised to promote readmission,” the summit decided.
“Structured border zones” or “hotspots” would be established in southern Italy to quarantine those arriving, fingerprint and register them and expedite the deportation of those deemed to have entered illegally or to be economic migrants.
European police and border agencies would be granted new powers for implementing policies that until now have been the sole remit of national authorities.
Syrians and Eritreans arriving in the EU in high numbers can seldom be repatriated because of the risk to their lives at home. Their treatment in the asylum regime would remain unchanged and their cases would remain in the relevant national systems as before.
Britain’s refusal to take part has been widely criticised. Peter Sutherland, the UN secretary general’s special representative for international migration, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that Britain’s decision had forced countries such as Greece and Italy to take on an “unfair burden of responsibility”.
“All member states, incidentally, should participate in the voluntary settlement, including Britain, Ireland and Denmark. There is absolutely no reason, if this is not compulsory, why they should feel they can opt out,” he said.
“This is a question, basically, of European solidarity. Why should Greece and Italy in particular take this unfair burden of responsibility for people who are refugees escaping from persecution?”
Sutherland acknowledged that Britain had been playing a role by rescuing some of the refugees in the Mediterranean. Asked if that was not enough, he said: “Absolutely not, sure. There is a massive degree of support from other countries in regard to helping people in the Mediterranean and saving lives. This is a separate issue. It is the issue of the fair distribution amongst the EU on the basis of solidarity of people who are refugees.”
He said EU leaders should have agreed a compulsory programme on the resettlement of migrants, and that the overnight deal was
a mistake.
“It could have been more ambitious. There is no doubt that it reflects limited progress nonetheless. We can only judge it when we see what countries come up with.”Blue and white banners filled Jerusalem yesterday to mark 49 years of Israeli rule in the city. Crowds of settler youth chanted the slogan “the Jewish nation lives” as they marched under the ramparts of Damascus Gate. Many wore stickers supporting rabbi Meir Kahane, a former Knesset member kicked out of the government after calling for violence against Arabs, while others pasted their clothes with decals backing a greater Israel, a Jewish-nationalist movement that seeks to annex the occupied Palestinian territory. Meanwhile, Palestinians were barred from sections of the city and postponed the start of their own festivities for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to avoid conflicts with the settlers.
Typically the parade is accompanied by clashes between Palestinians and police over barricades erected to cordon off a path for the paraders as they weave through Palestinian neighborhoods. The bustling Israeli festivities set against empty Palestinian streets where residents are prevented from roaming freely is always a jarring feature of the event.
“The soldiers and the police came and said by 5 o’clock you should be inside and everyone should close their stores,” said a Palestinian boutique owner, “I told my neighbors it’s better for us. The police don’t provide security for us.”
“The stores are closed, for anyone, even for business with tourists,” said Mohammed who runs a souvenir stall in the Old City and requested his last name not be published.
“It is difficult today, the streets are empty,” said another store owner, Ezz Rajabi, pointing to a keyhole on the front gate of his shop. “They will break the lock,” he said, explaining in years past the paraders graffitied the outside of his store with Jewish stars, and stuffed glue into his locks.
Annually Jerusalem Day is observed on the Jewish calendar. Ramadan follows the lunar phases. The dates of both holidays fluctuate each year, with yesterday’s timing coinciding on the same evening for a first.
In advance of yesterday’s march, the Israeli human rights group Ir Amim filed a petition to prevent national events inside of the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. The rights organization hoped to avoid confrontations by re-routing the procession.
Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat opposed altering the path. Sunday morning he told Army Radio, “Jerusalem is celebrating, this is an appropriate march,” reported the Jerusalem Post.
Israeli police then announced a compromise: Jewish celebrators would vacate the Palestinian hubs of the Damascus Gate area and the Muslim Quarter by 6:30pm, in order to allow for Muslims greeting the start of Ramadan.
When the Sunday evening expiration time hit, Israeli marchers continued to pour into the Old City under lanterns displayed for the incoming Ramadan holiday.
The parade was sponsored by an Israeli non-governmental organization that received more than half of its funding from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a further grant from a settler groups, according to an investigation by the Israeli daily Haaretz.
“Jerusalem Day is about the freedom of Jerusalem from the war in 1967. We have to celebrate that we can be in the holy city, we can pray at the kotel [Western Wall],” said parader Yisahai, 19, who requested his last name not be published.
“We sing together and we are all together in one group, no difference between one person and another. We celebrate the togetherness,” Yishai said.
For participants, mostly contingents of youth in matching shirts with the name of religious schools printed on the backs, the holiday is seen as a blend of religion and patriotism. Many remember 1967 war in which Israel captured East Jerusalem as the moment in which Jews regained prayer access to the Western Wall, located in the Old City. From 1948 to 1967 Israeli worshippers were prohibited from reaching the sacred site by the former local authorities, the Jordanian government.
For Palestinians Jerusalem Day signifies the beginning of Israeli’s occupation of the eastern part of the city, along with the West Bank and Gaza. The 350,000 East Jerusalem Palestinian inhabitants are not citizens of any country, and hold a resident card. They can vote in Israeli local elections and pay municipal taxes, but cannot cast ballots in national elections.
Across town at a state ceremony in a Jerusalem park, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed Jerusalem the unified capital. He said the city would not be divided through a summit in Paris where world leaders met on Friday to kick-start a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with Israel not invited. The French initiative Netanyahu said, would “only distance peace,” reported the Times of Israel.
“One of the names of Jerusalem is the City of Peace. The State of Israel wants peace. I want peace and I would like to renew the peace process in order to achieve [this],” he said, again from the Times of Israel.
Yet in nearly every direction of the celebrations, as Israelis rejoiced in their city of peace, Palestinians were sealed behind police dividers.
“Damascus Gate is closed,” shouted an officer to a group of Palestinians in a kettle behind a metal fence erected in the afternoon.With 2016 nearing its conclusion, we draw closer to another ICCA season.There's something about the spirit of competition that just helps a cappella to feel a bit more authentic. Could we survive without it? Sure. But think of all the great showstopping performances this illustrious event has given us. Not to mention, Pop TV has a show featured around it ( Sing It On ).And each year, it seems that the ICCAs continue to get bigger and better. Last year, we saw the splitting of the ICCA West region (into the Northwest and Southwest) and a reformat of the ICCA Central region. Not only this, but 341 groups competed last year, whereas 367 groups have been approved this year. While it's unfortunate that more groups had to be turned away, it's great for us, the audience, as the committee is becoming more selective on the level of talent.In any case, we are excited to see what the new ICCA brings.Late night host Jimmy Kimmel’s war of words with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) escalated Wednesday night when Kimmel doubled down on his criticism of the Senate’s latest bill to repeal Obamacare and responded to defenses from both Cassidy and President Donald Trump.
Kimmel first criticized Cassidy Tuesday night, arguing that the senator had gone back on his word that any Obamacare replacement would have to pass the so-called “Jimmy Kimmel test” and ensure that all kids get the health care they need. Cassidy responded to Kimmel Wednesday morning, claiming that the late night host simply does not “understand” the bill. Kimmel was less than pleased with that line.
“Oh, I get it. I don’t understand because I’m a talk-show host, right? Well then, help me out. Which part don’t I understand?” Kimmel asked in response Wednesday night. “Is it the part where you cut $243 billion from federal health-care assistance? Am I not understanding the part where states would be allowed to let insurance companies price you out of coverage for having pre-existing conditions?”
“Which part of that am I not understanding? Or could it be, Senator Cassidy, that the problem is that I do understand, and that you got caught with your G-O-Penis out? Is that possible? Because it feels like it is,” Kimmel added after pointing out that several health care groups have come out against the Graham-Cassidy bill.
Trump also jumped into the fray on Wednesday, claiming that Cassidy would never lie and that the bill covers pre-existing conditions.
Senator (Doctor) Bill Cassidy is a class act who really cares about people and their Health(care), he doesn't lie-just wants to help people! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2017
I would not sign Graham-Cassidy if it did not include coverage of pre-existing conditions. It does! A great Bill. Repeal & Replace. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 20, 2017
“There’s no way President Trump read this bill that he says is ‘great.’ He just wants to get rid of it because Obama’s name is on it,” Kimmel said Wednesday night in response. “The Democrats should just rename it ‘Ivankacare.’ Guaranteed he gets on board. Can you imagine Donald Trump sitting down to read a health-care bill? It’s like trying to imagine a dog doing your taxes. It just doesn’t compute.”
Watch the clip below via ABC:VANCOUVER - A Vancouver governed by the Non-Partisan Association would be open again as a home for resource businesses, including B.C.’s emerging LNG industry, and would cut some of the programs of the current Vision Vancouver administration, party mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe said Tuesday.
In a speech broad on policy but not nearly as detailed as his Vision counterpart, LaPointe said he believes a key to affordable housing is improving the economy and prosperity of the city. When people have higher-paying jobs, they can afford better housing, he said.
LaPointe disagreed with the idea of the Vancouver Economic Commission being involved in venture capital funding for startups and wants it to focus solely on attracting private-sector investment in businesses that create those high-paying jobs.
And he said the city will give back to neighbourhoods the right to determine how they develop and densify, as opposed to what he said was the “ad hoc and spot rezonings” being allowed under Mayor Gregor Robertson.
LaPointe unveiled the policies at Crab Park on Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet waterfront, against a backdrop of industrial and resource activities that he said Robertson appears ashamed of supporting, but which the NPA believes is a backbone of the city’s economy.
LaPointe pinned his plans to encourage housing affordability — particularly for seniors and young families — on the nearly two decades-old CityPlan, an unfinished master plan to control and direct community development.
In making the pledge, LaPointe also turned his back on his predecessor NPA mayor Sam Sullivan’s Eco-Density program, a planning exercise that replaced CityPlan and which was the forerunner of Vision Vancouver’s current planning process.
“We need to step back to take our next steps ahead. To address this challenge, an NPA government would revive CityPlan, an neighbourhood-based city-wide zoning plan that lays out the principles behind how we should change and behind community preservation,” LaPointe said. “This would move us out of the shadow of Eco-Density and the adoption of its principles by Vision Vancouver.”
That community power, he insisted, could even go so far as to allow neighbourhoods to veto high-density projects.
LaPointe poked a nerve raw for some Vancouverites who believe Robertson’s party is too cosy with certain developers, who he said “know the secret handshake” to get their projects approved.
On several fronts, LaPointe was specific. He said he would dismantle the city’s Rental 100 program, a rental housing policy that rewards developers who commit to renting out units for at least 60 years. LaPointe said he agreed with critics who believe the program doesn’t make units more affordable.
He also said he would order a study of the issues underlying foreign absentee home ownership, with a view to trying to get more of those homes rented to or sold to local residents.
And LaPointe reiterated a promise to reform the Community Amenity Contribution program and other developer fee programs that are used to create extra density, which he said “under Robertson has created a culture of coercion, a system of soft extortion, and a secretive system that has corroded confidence in our city.”Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2017 November 18
Friday, the Moon Smiled
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunç Tezel (TWAN)
Explanation: Friday, an old Moon smiled for early morning risers. Its waning sunlit crescent is captured in this atmospheric scene from clear skies near Bursa, Turkey, planet Earth. In the subtle twilight hues nearby celestial lights are Jupiter (top) and Venus shining close to the eastern horizon. But today, Saturday, the Moon will be new and early next week its waxing crescent will follow the setting Sun as it sinks in the west. Then, a young Moon's smile will join Saturn and Mercury in early evening skies.The Planetside 2 PC servers will be coming down at 6am (Pacific) / 14:00 (UTC) for a brief hotfix. Estimated downtime is 2 hours.
NSX Tanto carbine
The newest member of the Nanite Systems Export family of weapons is the NSX Tanto, a carbine with specialized stabilizers that allow for excellent initial accuracy from the hip. This functionality gives the Tanto the ability to fight up close or at range while maintaining a substantial mobility advantage for experienced shooters. Firing in short bursts is recommended, as the stabilizers require some time to recalibrate during sustained fire.
NSX Directive Master Tier Reward
The Master Tier directive reward for gaining Auraxium Medals on 5 Nanite Systems Export series weapons has been unlocked.
Infantry Balance
Falloff range adjustments to Assault Rifles and LMGs
Dev note: The previous one-tiered damage falloff scaled too well with damage over distance, marginalized the value of certain attachment choices, and restricted design freedom. These changes should help more weapons and weapon classes shine in their intended engagement ranges.
Damage range and damage value adjustments for LMG and Assault Rifles are listed below, and are unmodified by Soft Point Ammo and High Velocity Ammo. Directive Weapon adjustments are listed further down.
Carnage AR and Terminus VX9
Damage from 143@10m-125@65m to 143@10m-112@60m
Pulsar VS1, Equinox Burst, T1 Cycler, T1S Cycler, T1B Cycler
Damage from 143@10m-125@65m to 143@10m-112@80m
SABR-13, NC1 Gauss Rifle, Gauss Rifle S, Gauss Rifle Burst
Damage from 167@10m-143@75m to 167@10m-125@90m
HV-45, TAR, Cycler TRV, GR-22
Damage from 143@10m-125@60m to 143@10m-100@60m
Orion, Pulsar LSW, SVA-88, Polaris, T9 CARV, T16 Rhino, T9 CARV-S, MSW-R, EM1
Damage from 143@10m-125@60m to 143@10m-112@65m
Assault Rifles
Darkstar
Damage from 143@10m-125@65m to 143@10m-112@80m
Vertical recoil from 0.198 to 0.187
Horizontal recoil from 0.16 to 0.15
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.7 to 0.525
T1 Unity
Damage from 143@15m-125@65m to 143@15m-112@80m
Horizontal recoil from 0.18 to 0.16875
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.5 to 0.375
Muzzle velocity from 550 to 551 (bug fix)
Gauss Prime
Damage from 167@10m-143@95m to 167@8m-125@110m
Vertical recoil from 0.2850 to 0.255
Horizontal recoil from 0.14 to 0.13125
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.4 to 0.3
Projectile velocity from 650 to 651 (bug fix)
Light Machine Guns
T9A Butcher
Dev Note: We wanted to enable the 400 round magazine that was previously on PTS, but there is a bug barring a proper implementation at the moment. We'll look to changing this in the future, but in the meantime, the Butcher has received a minor rate of fire increase alongside the removal of the spinup mechanic.
Damage from 143@10m-125@65m to 143@10m-112@65m
Removed spinup mechanic.
Refire rate from 80ms to 78ms
Min damage from 125 to 112
Equip time from 1250ms to 1300ms
Betelgeuse
Damage from 143@10m-125@65m to 143@10m-112@65m
GODSAW
The GODSAW now has a secondary firing mode which deals minor damage to heavy vehicles, but reduces its damage against infantry by 50%.
Submachine Guns
Skorpios
Now properly restores one magazine per tick from ammo boxes
Max damage range from 10 to 8
Min damage range from 48 to 60
ADS Cone of Fire from 0.2 to 0.3
Vertical recoil from 0.3 to 0.2
Recoil angle from 20 to 15
Horizontal recoil from 0.3/0.392 to 0.225/0.294
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.9 to 0.675
Short reload from 1.74sec. to 2.08sec.
Long reload from 2.8sec. to 3.36sec.
Shuriken
Now properly restores one magazine per tick from ammo boxes
Max damage range from 6 to 4
Min damage range from 50 to 62
Velocity from 388 to 370
ADS Cone of Fire from 0.2 to 0.3
Vertical recoil from 0.225 to 0.15
Horizontal recoil from 0.3470/0.3760 to 0.26/0.282
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.9 to 0.675
Short reload from 2.25sec. to 2.7sec.
Long reload from 2.92sec. to 3.5sec.
Tempest
Now properly restores one magazine per tick from ammo boxes
Max damage range from 6 to 4
Min damage range from 54 to 66
ADS Cone of Fire from 0.2 to 0.3
Vertical recoil from 0.36 to 0.3
First shot recoil multiplier from 2.25 to 2.5
Horizontal recoil from 0.212/0.304 to 0.159/0.3
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.7 to 0.675
Short reload from 1.855sec. to 2.23sec.
Long reload from 3sec. to 3.6sec.
Pistols
The Immortal
Velocity from 163 to 325
ADS CoF bloom from 0.12 to 0.06
Magazine size from 17 to 15
Ammo capacity from 85 to 90
The Executive
Velocity from 188 to 375
ADS CoF bloom from 0.14 to 0.07
Magazine size from 15 to 13
Ammo capacity from 75 to 78
The President
Velocity from 188 to 375
ADS CoF bloom from 0.1 to 0.05
Magazine size from 21 to 18
Ammo capacity from 105 to 108
Vehicle Balance
Vehicle third person cameras have been adjusted.
Dev Note: Opened the viewing angles on most vehicle cameras for drivers to allow for increased awareness in third person.
Valkyrie
Pelter Rocket Pods
In-game stats now display correct indirect damage range.
Magazine from 8 to 10
Ammunition capacity cert line from 8 rockets per rank to 10 rockets per rank
Velocity from 150 to 250
Ammo capacity from 64 to 100
Dev Note: Pelters were not only difficult to use on moving targets, but also didn’t yield comparable rewards for the skill required. These adjustments make landing shots easier, and the increased magazine size and ammo pool allows for more damage over time and staying power.
Prowler, Magrider, Vanguard
Ranger
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5
Walker
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5
Dev Note: Adjusting the pitch down limits on Ranger and Walker helps reduce the situations you’ll find a vehicle on your horizon and unable to be damaged. This is more a quality of life adjustment than anything else, though Walker receives at least a bit more viability against infantry at longer distances.
Harasser, Flash, Sunderer, ANT
Fury
Indirect damage from 334 to 150
Dev Note: Fury received some splash adjustments across the board, since the weapon currently performs well in an anti-vehicle role, while maintaining high effectiveness versus infantry. The direct damage remains, but it pays more for its versatility on the anti-infantry front.
Galaxy
Pelter Rocket Pods
The Galaxy may now purchase Pelter Rocket Pods for the left and right wing mounts.
Hyena Rocket Pods
The Galaxy may now purchase Hyena Rocket Pods for the top weapon mount.
Dev Note: Galaxy has been the least-touched vehicle over the years by far, and hasn’t received anything new in the weapons department since the Walker. These new options aren’t anticipated to adjust the overall Galaxy meta, but it does open up some new options for Galaxy pilots and gunners to explore.
Bulldog
Direct damage from 1000 to 600
Indirect damage from 500 to 400
Double Dev Note: As an aerial platform with some of the highest health in the game, bulldog was simply too powerful a farming tool, especially in smaller scale fights. These changes increase the importance of direct hits for gunners, while giving victims a better chance to respond to incoming damage.
Pitch and Indirect damage adjustments
Dev Note: With a few exceptions, the pitch angle adjustments listed below are intended to create small pockets of infantry vulnerability close to the vehicle. This change was especially important for the ANT, which has the maneuverability to get into tight spots occupied by infantry, while also maintaining an immunity to small arms fire.
Sunderer
Basilisk
Pitch down limit from 24 to 18
Bulldog
Pitch down limit from 17 to 11
Fury
Pitch down limit from 17 to 11
Refill ammo per tick from 32 to 16
Walker
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5
Ranger
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5
ANT
Fixed various third person cameras
Basilisk
Pitch down limit from 24 to 15
Fury
Pitch down limit from 17 to 11
Refill ammo per tick from 32 to 16
Kobalt
Pitch down limit from 25 to 18
Walker
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5
Ranger
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5
Bulldog
Pitch down limit from 17 to 11
Misc. changes and additions
Hossin’s orange glowing death-bulbs should now be easier to drive around and over.
Adjusted NSX Masamune projectile effect.
BioLab internal lighting has been updated.
Added a battery of outfit decals to player studio.
Reduced the size of some yellow dot sights.
Hyena has received an updated model.
Bug fixes
Removed smoke from default rocklet rifle projectiles.
Fixed Typhoon Rocklet projectile visibility and adjusted effects.
Fixed muzzle flash on the Spiker.
Engineer's Quick Shield Recharge should now work.
First person NSX Naginata muzzle flash has been adjusted.
Heavy Shield shouldn’t obscure Lasher AE optics. (This change was missed last update.)
Mines should no longer detonate when placed on enemy corpses and that enemy respawns.
Medic Revive should now correctly cancel the death counter.
Turbo Shark Decal now shows properly.
Sunderer Geared Riot Armor's icon has been fixed.
Various missing localization strings added.
Zotz North Garden construction no-deploy no longer affects non-construction objects.
1CC1 Armor Decal now shows appropriately.
NCLS decal icon added.
Predacons decal infantry version added.
Phaseshift headshot from hipfire now uses intended multiplier.
Hydra Corps decal fixed.
LUXE decal fixed.
Grenades should clean up more quickly after they detonate.Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) measured by the AMSR-E instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite continue their plunge as a predicted La Nina approaches. The following plot, updated through yesterday (June 17, 2010) shows that the cooling in the Nino34 region in the tropical east Pacific is well ahead of the cooling in the global average SST, something we did not see during the 2007-08 La Nina event (click on it for the large, undistorted version):
The rate at which the Nino34 SSTs are falling is particularly striking, as seen in this plot of the SST change rate for that region:
To give some idea of what is causing the global-average SST to fall so rapidly, I came up with an estimate of the change in reflected sunlight (shortwave, or SW flux) using our AMSR-E total integrated cloud water amounts. This was done with a 7+ year comparison of those cloud water estimates to daily global-ocean SW anomalies computed from the CERES radiation budget instrument, also on Aqua:
What this shows is an unusually large increase in reflected sunlight over the last several months, probably due to an increase in low cloud cover.
At this pace of cooling, I suspect that the second half of 2010 could ruin the chances of getting a record high global temperature for this year. Oh, darn.Samsung Made $7.92 Billion in Profit During Q4, Shipped 90 Million Smartphones
Samsung had quite the year throughout 2016. Not only did they spend money by taking the Galaxy Note 7 off the market, but they also had to invest money into actually getting these recalled devices shipped back to them. Many thought it spelled doom for the South Korean conglomerate but things didn’t really turn out that way.
Sure, profits would have been higher if they hadn’t had to deal with this recall, but the company’s other flagship and various endeavors were enough to help keep the mobile division afloat.
During the 4th quarter of last year, Samsung Electronics was able to bring in 53.33 trillion won in overall revenue. Compared to the same quarter in 2015, this was actually a slight increase from 53.32 trillion won. When we look at the whole year for Samsung, their revenues reached 201.87 trillion won, which again was up from the 200.65 trillion won they brought in for 2015. Looking at just the profit portion of the financial report, we see that Samsung was able to earn 9.22 trillion won for the quarter (which is about $7.92 billion).
This was a huge increase compared to the 4th quarter in 2015 when they brought in 50.1% less than they did in 2016. Profits for the whole year of 2016 reached 29.24 trillion won and this was a modest increase compared to 2015’s profits when they were able to bring in 26.41 trillion won. So yes, Samsung’s mobile division did slip a little compared to what it could have done if the Galaxy Note 7 hadn’t had any issues, but they were still able to do well thanks to the company’s components businesses (mainly the memory and display divisions).
It’s also being reported by The Korea Herald that Samsung was able to ship a total of 90 million smartphones throughout all of Q4 2016. This is in addition to the 9 million “tablet PCs” that the company shipped during the same time period. A Samsung spokesperson has been quoted as saying they’re going to try and get a water and dust resistant device in both the low-end and mid-range markets sometime in the future.Cholera has now spread to all of Zimbabwe's provinces, the UN says Nearly 300 people have died in Zimbabwe in recent weeks in a cholera outbreak which has hit about 6,000 people, the World Health Organization reports. The UN body predicted the water-borne disease would continue to spread because of poor sanitation in the impoverished country's urban areas. Many hospitals have shut down and most towns suffer from poor water supply, broken sewers and uncollected waste. An outbreak of cholera on this scale is rare in Zimbabwe, correspondents say. The outbreak is likely to continue as the water and sanitation situation is worsening
WHO statement
Harare's hospitals die While the disease is endemic in Zimbabwe, it seems this will be the worst outbreak since 2000, Michel Van Herp of the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) told the BBC. The WHO said that tackling the problem would be difficult because of the local shortage of drugs, medical supplies and health professionals, and the start of the rainy season was "also of concern". "The outbreak is likely to continue as the water and sanitation situation is worsening, with severe shortages of potable water, sewage and waste disposal problems reported in most of the populated areas," a WHO statement said. In Geneva, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs specified that cholera had spread to all of Zimbabwe's provinces. It and the WHO put the total number of suspected cholera as of 18 November at 6,072 with 294 deaths. 'Unprecedented' Zimbabwe's own government has reported fewer deaths, putting the figure at 90, but Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said this week that his ministry was "battling to control unprecedented... outbreaks". CHOLERA An intestinal infection caused by bacteria Is often linked to contaminated supplies of drinking water Can spread quickly in areas where there is poor sanitation Rarely spread by person-to-person contact Most people infected do not actually get ill He identified Budiriro, a suburb of the capital Harare, as "the epicentre of the disease", adding that the current wave of cholera had begun in September in Chitungwiza, a satellite town south of Harare. Admitting the situation in government hospitals was "bad", he told the Herald newspaper he hoped food would soon be made available under the Reserve Bank's programme to ensure Zimbabweans had basic commodities. The country's Association of Doctors for Human Rights highlighted the dire state of a health service once widely admired in Africa. "Our health delivery system, previously the envy of many developing countries, is now teetering on the verge of virtual collapse," it said. "Sick people in need of medical attention are being turned away from Zimbabwe's hospitals and clinics." The usually busy reception at Harare Central is deserted Harare's Central Hospital officially closed down last week and now hardly a doctor or nurse is in sight, Zimbabwean journalist Brian Hungwe reports from the city. Cholera-sufferers would be "coming to hospital to die because there is nobody to care for anyone", said Dr Malvern Nyamutora, vice-chairman of the Junior Doctors' Association. "Cholera is treatable, just fluids and tetracycline [an anti-biotic] is enough, but if you get people dying of this diarrhoea - that explains the state of the health crisis," he added.
Bookmark with: Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionMichael Shane Satterfield poses with his mother, Lynn Brewsaugh. Brewsaugh has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Decatur County Jail officials. The lawsuit alleges that jail officials failed to provide timely medical treatment to Satterfield, who showed severe symptoms of alcohol withdrawal while he was an inmate at the jail. (Photo: Provided photo)
Michael Shane Satterfield had tried and failed several times to quit drinking alcohol.
He was arrested in December in Decatur County while driving drunk. He later quit his job and turned himself in. He was to serve a two-week sentence as part of a plea deal. The plan was to use his jail time to get away from alcohol and seek treatment after he got out.
But Satterfield, 38, never finished his sentence. He never made it out. He died just four days after turning himself in. A wrongful death lawsuit filed against Decatur County Sheriff Gregory Allen and several of his jail staff alleges they failed to provide timely medical treatment after Satterfield showed symptoms of delirium tremens, the most serious and sometimes deadly form of alcohol withdrawal that involves hallucinations and mood swings.
A complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana reveals the horrifying details of the last few days of Satterfield’s life.
The Greensburg man first showed signs of alcohol withdrawal just hours after he was booked on March 13. Without examining Satterfield, the jail’s medical doctor told jail personnel via text message to give Satterfield Benadryl four times a day to help with his symptoms, according to the complaint.
Two days later, Satterfield asked to be moved from the jail’s general population area. He was crying and saying he “just wanted to (be) by himself,” according to the complaint. One inmate told a jail deputy that Satterfield had been hallucinating and said he drank “a gallon of vodka a day.” Satterfield was then moved to a detox cell.
About 2 a.m. March 16, a jail deputy saw Satterfield ripping his blanket. According to the complaint, he told the deputy to “not harm his mother.” Later he began screaming.
He told another deputy a few hours later that there was a fire, that “someone was being raped on the other side of the wall,” and that “there was a bomb in his cell,” the complaint said. Satterfield continued yelling. Jail deputies told him several times to calm down.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Breaking News newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Urgent developments you should know now, not later. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-888-357-7827. Delivery: varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Breaking News Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
Later that morning, Satterfield wrote the word “HELP” on the wall using his feces, the complaint said. Jail personnel also saw the letters C and H etched on his skin. Satterfield, who had been temporarily moved to the booking area, said he had used his glasses to write a message on his arm in case he died. He was later moved back to his cell, where he continued screaming.
“There’s a man in here and he’s making me do this and act this way,” Satterfield yelled, according to the complaint.
He went on to say that the man “was putting serpents in his pants,” the complaint said. He was seen walking around his cell with his hands on the walls, yelling that someone was trying to kill his mother.
Satterfield was transferred to a padded cell about 3:30 a.m. the next day. While he was being moved, a jail deputy noticed dried blood on Satterfield’s tongue. By that time, Satterfield had been refusing to eat and to take his medication.
About midday March 17, Satterfield was placed on a 30-minute medical watch. But according to the complaint, jail surveillance video showed that no one checked on Satterfield until 4:30 p.m., more than three hours later. By that time, Satterfield was sitting in the corner of his padded cell, breathing heavily and barely moving.
At no time during the four days that Satterfield showed signs of alcohol withdrawal did |
to chair the Federal Reserve can be seen as a vote for continuity, as Powell is widely expected to maintain the policy approach of current Fed Chair Janet L. Yellen. In many ways that’s a good thing. Recent Fed policy has produced stable growth and low inflation, which is all we can really ask from monetary policy. Powell is also well-liked and respected within the Fed and will probably be able to work effectively with his colleagues.
Nonetheless, there are a few reasons to be concerned about his appointment. The past four Fed chairs have all been economists, with a deep understanding of monetary policy. Powell is a lawyer. Putting a lawyer in charge of the Fed is roughly analogous to naming an economist to be chief justice of the Supreme Court.
That’s not to say it can’t work. Both positions have lots of extremely qualified staff assisting them, and Powell has already had some on-the-job training during his period on the Federal Reserve Board. But there are lots of more qualified people available, including Yellen. It’s not clear why a change is being made, especially given that That’s not to say it can’t work. Both positions have lots of extremely qualified staff assisting them, and Powell has already had some on-the-job training during his period on the Federal Reserve Board. But there are lots of more qualified people available, including Yellen. It’s not clear why a change is being made, especially given that Yellen’s performance has been excellent by the usual metrics for judging Fed chairs.
opinions Orlando Shooting Updates News and analysis on the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. post_newsletter348 follow-orlando true after3th false Please provide a valid email address. Sign up You’re all set! See all newsletters true The story must be told. Your subscription supports journalism that matters. Try 1 month for $1
Some might object to the Supreme Court analogy by arguing that being Fed chair simply involves raising and lowering interest rates to keep the economy stable. In this view, low interest rates represent an “easy money policy.” But there’s much more to monetary policy than adjusting interest rates, which is why we should want a highly qualified specialist to lead the central bank.
Even many economists can get confused by the connection between interest rates and monetary policy, but the problem is even more severe among non-economists. Consider this Even many economists can get confused by the connection between interest rates and monetary policy, but the problem is even more severe among non-economists. Consider this recent comment by Powell: “In contrast, the [Federal Open Market Committee’s] easing of monetary policy increased over time as the longer-term economic effects of the crisis gradually became clear. From 2007 through 2013, the FOMC added ever greater support for the economy.”
At first glance, that looks plausible. The federal funds rate — that is, the interest rate targeted by the Fed that banks charge each other for loans — At first glance, that looks plausible. The federal funds rate — that is, the interest rate targeted by the Fed that banks charge each other for loans — fell from 5.25 percent in July 2007 to 2 percent in May 2008. Non-economists might see this as a policy by the Fed of easy money. But in fact, policy was getting much tighter during that time. Rates did not fall because of anything the Fed did; indeed, the Fed did not inject any new money into the economy over that 10-month period. Rather rates fell because the economy was weakening rapidly during the financial crisis. The Fed failed to cut its interest rate target fast enough to reflect this weakness, and hence we tipped into recession.
The last non-economist to serve as Fed chair was because of inflation. His replacement, The last non-economist to serve as Fed chair was G. William Miller. His performance during the Carter administration was so poor that he was replaced after 17 months. Interestingly, his problems were quite similar to what we experienced during the financial crisis, but in the opposite direction. Miller thought that to fight the high inflation of the time it was enough to keep interest rates high. But rates were highinflation. His replacement, Paul Volcker, had a much deeper understanding of monetary economics. He understood that the Fed needed to tighten the money supply to get inflation under control, even if that meant temporarily ignoring interest rates.
Another concern is that Powell believes the Fed should focus not just on macroeconomic stability, but should also try to prevent financial market excesses. As Another concern is that Powell believes the Fed should focus not just on macroeconomic stability, but should also try to prevent financial market excesses. As he said earlier this year: “I would also agree that monetary policy may sometimes face tradeoffs between macroeconomic objectives and financial stability.”
Many economists are skeptical of this view — for good reason. Many economists are skeptical of this view — for good reason. In 1929, the Fed tightened policy to try to stop a stock market bubble, tipping the economy into the Great Depression. In the long run, a stable macroeconomic environment is most conducive to a stable financial system. Financial excesses are better addressed through regulation, not the blunt instrument of monetary policy.
Despite these reservations, I expect Powell to do fine in the near future. He is a consensus decision-maker in the mold of Ben Bernanke and Yellen, not a more dictatorial type like Alan Greenspan and Volcker. Over the next few years, he is likely to continue Yellen’s policy approach.
The real danger occurs at the extremes of high inflation or a deep recession. It’s at those times that a deep understanding of monetary policy is most essential. A job as important as Fed chair should be given only to the most highly qualified individuals.A B.C. woman is pushing for longer Employment Insurance benefits for people battling life-threatening illnesses, so they aren't left in sickness and poverty after a lifetime of paying their dues.
Chilliwack resident Bev MacGregor was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer.
"They did a needle biopsy. September 12th I was told I had two tumours that were both cancerous. September 27th they removed my left breast and 10 lymph nodes," she recalls.
Since her mastectomy she's been undergoing chemotherapy, which is expected to continue for several more months.
But along with dealing with the chemo, she is now also struggling to pay her bills.
"I've worked here my whole life almost and paid into the system and paid my taxes, paid my dues, and I'm kicked to the curb and there's nowhere to go," she told CBC News.
That's because sickness benefits are limited to 15 weeks, meaning her Employment Insurance benefits ran out before Christmas.
That's why MacGregor is now pushing the federal government to extend EI sickness benefits for those battling a life-threatening illness.
"You shouldn't be allowed only 15 weeks. I mean you can't miraculously be cured of cancer in 15 weeks."
No easy way out
MacGregor was actually eligible to receive EI until March when she was laid off by a software company that was downsizing in July.
But once she was diagnosed with cancer and began treatment those benefits were immediately cut short.
The single mother also owns her own condo and has a small amount saved in RSSP, so she is not eligible for social assistance until she drains all her assets first.
She also applied for federal disability assistance, but was not at her last job long enough to reach the minimum 600 hours required to qualify.
That's why the 52-year-old thinks the EI benefits she contributed to all her life should be there to help her out.
"It's just wrong. We pay into that EI and it should be there to help us," she said.
Chilliwack-Hope NDP MLA Gwen O'Mahony is supporting MacGregor's push for improved EI benefits, but notes employment insurance is a federal issue.
"The federal government has got to look at these situations with compassion and they need to relax these rules for women such as Bev," said O'Mahony.
Federal Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley was not available for an interview on Friday.
Her ministry did send an email to O'Mahony on Friday, saying the matter will be given proper consideration.Integration of pIC3 into the HEK293 genome. ( A ) The map expected for pIC3 integrated into the targeted site in the HEK293 genome is shown. Cleavage sites for the restriction enzyme NsiI used for the Southern blot experiment are indicated. The probe used against the Puro CDS is shown as a stippled line, the pre‐existing pFW plasmid as grey rectangles, the incoming pIC3 as white rectangles, and genomic DNA as a solid line. ( B ) Southern blot performed on HEK293‐FW cell DNA using the Puro probe. The expected band at 1,782 bp can be seen in the untransfected control lane. DNA from transfection 1 and transfection 3 yielded the 6,075 bp band expected for pIC3 integration. Transfections 1 and 3 differed only in the gRNA used to target the genomic DNA sequence: G1 and G2 plasmids were used, respectively.
In order to verify that the complete vector was integrated into the HEK293‐FW genome in these puromycin resistant transfectants, we performed Southern blotting on the genomic DNA extracted from transfections 1 and 3 using the Puro CDS as a hybridization probe. As a control, we used the untreated host HEK293‐FW cells carrying the original pFW plasmid with no insertion. Cleavage of the host DNA with NsiI should yield a 1,782 bp fragment from the integrated pFW plasmid sequence, while cleavage after insertion of the donor plasmid should yield a fragment of 6,075 bp (Fig. 2 a). As can be seen in Figure 2 b, the Southern blot showed a single band in the wells with transfection #1 and #3 corresponding to the length of ∼6 kb confirming the integration of the complete plasmid.
In parallel to colony counting, duplicate treated cultures from transfections #1 to #5 were expanded for 3 more days and their DNA extracted for PCR and sequencing. In order to verify the integration of the pIC3 plasmid into the HEK293‐FW genome, we amplified the integration junctions by PCR using primers designed to bind ∼150 bp upstream and downstream of the putative DSB, 3 nucleotides upstream of the PAM sequence (Jinek et al., 2012 ). PCR products were ligated into the pGEMT‐EZ vector via TA cloning and amplified in E. coli to obtain cloned integration junctions from the HEK293‐FW cells. Almost all (31/32) the junction sequences exhibited small deletions (dashes in Table III ) of 1 to 43 nucleotides, with only a single insertion of 15 nt (italicized in Table III ). Surprisingly, all four 3′ junction sequences from transfection 1 ended in the sequence CCCGGG (underlined in Table III B). This hexamer represents the last 6 nt of the 23 nucleotide plasmid target sequence of which the nucleotides GGG are the PAM sequence (Fig. 1 ). It is not clear from our results whether the cleavage happened immediately after the PAM sequence or that cleavage occurred as expected three nucleotides upstream of the PAM (Jinek et al., 2012 ), followed by a six nucleotide insertion of a CCCGGG sequence. We sequenced at least three different clones derived from the PCR product of each pool of cells. Surprisingly, for each of the individual junctions, most of the sequences yielded identical indels. The cause of this uniformity is not clear (see Discussion).
The P1 and B2 targeting sequences proved to be the most effective. Indeed, P2 was ineffective, suggesting considerable sequence specificity and suggesting that a wider screen of targeting sequences might improve integration frequencies further. Linearizing the donor plasmid with a restriction enzyme before transfection yielded few insertions compared to targeted DSB cleavage, consistent with earlier studies in zebrafish and CHO cells (Auer et al., 2014 ; Cristea et al., 2013 ). No colonies appeared in negative controls without genomic DNA cleavage.
The constructed pX330 vectors along with the pIC3 donor plasmid were co‐transfected into ∼50% confluent HEK293 cells. The selection was applied for 8 days, after which the colonies formed were fixed and stained for colony counting. The results of targeting different combinations of genomic DNA and plasmid DNA sequences are shown in Table II.
In order to introduce the DSB via CRISPR‐Cas, we used the 8.5 kb long pX330 expression vector developed in the Zhang laboratory (Ran et al., 2013b ). It carries two expression cassettes: a human codon‐optimized Cas9 endonuclease derived from Streptococcus pyogenes with an SV40 nuclear localization signal and a customizable chimeric guide RNA (gRNA) driven by an RNA Polymerase III promoter. To direct the Cas9 to induce a DSB at a defined site in the pIC3 plasmid as well as in the HEK293 genome, corresponding gRNA sequences were introduced into the BbsI restriction site of the pX330 expression vector using standard cloning protocols. Since gRNAs can have variable activities, two gRNAs were designed to induce each DSB: P1 and P2 targeting the plasmid and G1 and G2 (Table I ) targeting the HEK293 genome, respectively (Ran et al., 2013a, 2013b ).
Promoter complementation selection. gRNAs were designed to target the region upstream of the promoter‐less Puro gene provided by pFW (grey rectangles) in the HEK293 genome (solid line) and the region downstream of the CMV promoter on the pIC3 plasmid (white rectangles). The gRNA target sequences in the genome and in the plasmid are shown by thick vertical black lines representing the two different sequences at each of the two target sites. This assay ensures that only site‐specific integration in proper orientation can give rise puromycin resistance. Protospacer adjacent motif (PAM) bases are in grey and the expected DSBs 3 nucleotides upstream to the PAM are shown as dotted lines.
In order to introduce the DNA fragment into a defined site in the genome, we developed the following puromycin resistance assay. The strategy was to target and cleave the DNA sequence upstream of a promoter‐less Puro transgene integrated into the HEK293 genome as well as the sequence downstream of the CMV promoter in a transfecting donor plasmid. As a host, we used a transgenic cell line, HEK293‐FW, developed by Arias et al. (2015) that carries a 5,300 bp plasmid (pFW) harboring a promoterless puromycin gene ( Puro ) inserted into the PLEKHG1 gene of HEK293 cells (chr.6, 150,823,513). As a donor, we used a 4,300 bp plasmid (pIC3) containing a CMV promoter (Fig. 1 ). The insertion of the in vivo linearized pIC3 plasmid into the DSB upstream of the promoter‐less Puro gene, with the proper orientation of the CMV promoter, will drive the expression of the Puro gene, thus rendering the cells resistant to puromycin. The use of such a promoter complementation test ensured that random insertion in the genome or transient transcription of the donor plasmid would not yield resistant clones.
CRISPR‐Cas Mediated Plasmid Insertion in CHO Cells via NHEJ
To test the generality of NHEJ integration, we turned to CHO cells. CHO cells are widely used for the commercial production of therapeutic biologics, a process that involves integration of plasmids bearing minigenes specifying recombinant proteins (Cacciatore et al., 2010). CRISPR‐Cas was used to target plasmid integration into the hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase locus (Hprt) of CHO K1 cells. The idea was to introduce the pFW plasmid coding for the neo gene into the disrupted Hprt gene, thus conferring resistance to both G‐418 and 6‐TG. The X‐linked Hprt gene is present in only a single copy in CHO cells (Grant and Worton, 1989; Xu et al., 2011) and its disruption confers resistance to 6‐thioguanine (6‐TG), allowing the ready selection of knockouts. The 5.3 kb pFW plasmid, which carries a neo gene, was used as the donor. As we did for the HEK293 cells, we transfected the CHO cells with four separate combinations of two CRISPR‐Cas plasmids with guide RNAs targeting the CHO Hprt gene (pHprt1 and pHprt2) and 2 CRISPR‐Cas plasmids targeting the pFW plasmid (pFW1 and pFW2, Table IV).
Table IV. CRISPR‐mediated insertions at the Hprt locus in CHO‐K1 cells Transfection gRNAs targeting the genomic DNA site gRNAs targeting the plasmid DNA site Donor plasmid Colonies 1 pHprt1 pFW1 pFW +++a 2 pHprt1 pFW2 pFW ++ 3 pHprt2 pFW1 pFW ++ 4 pHprt2 pFW2 pFW ++ 5 pHprt1 – pFW + 6 pHprt2 – pFW + 7 – pFW1 pFW 0 8 – – pFW 0 9 – – – 0
Transfected cells were first selected for resistance to G418 and this population was subsequently selected for resistance to 6‐TG. These cells survived both G418 and 6‐TG selection requiring that they had both a neo gene and a disrupted Hprt gene. The pHprt1 and pFW1 targeting sequences proved to be the most effective (Table IV, rows 1–4). Omission of the gRNAs targeting the donor plasmid also yielded some colonies (Table IV, rows 5 and 6), as expected whenever disruption of the Hprt gene and the random insertion of the pFW plasmid occurred in the same cell. No colonies appeared in the negative controls without targeting the Hprt gene.
We used inverse PCR to determine the genomic location of the inserted pFW plasmids in the CHO genome. Genomic DNA samples from transfections 2 and 4 were digested with a four‐cutter restriction enzyme to generate linear fragments (see Materials and Methods). The linear fragments were circularized under conditions that favor intramolecular rather than intermolecular ligations. We used primers specific to the pFW sequence to amplify a fragment that includes the expected plasmid junction and the flanking chromosomal region (Fig. 3). PCR products were ligated into pGEMT‐EZ (Promega) via TA cloning and amplified in E. coli for sequencing.
Figure 3 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Inverse PCR strategy used to determine the chromosomal insertion site of pFW plasmids targeted into the Hprt gene in CHO K1 cells. Genomic DNA of pooled transfectants was digested with a restriction enzyme that cuts pFW within ∼300–∼500 nt from the targeted plasmid site and at unknown sites in the genomic flanks. The DNA fragments were then circularized with T4 DNA ligase. The flanking genomic sequences were amplified by nested PCR using primers 2 and 3 followed by primers 1 and 4.
Transfection 4 yielded four sequences: all four showed perfect end joining between the targeted plasmid site and the targeted Hprt site (CHOgenome.org scaffold NW_003613932.1 at nucleotide 1137989); both orientations of the plasmid were represented. The sequences from transfection 2 mapped onto the genomic scaffold NW_003613932.1 at nucleotide 1129841, which is ∼2 kb downstream of the DSB targeted by pHprt1 gRNA. This integration site bears no similarity to the intended target. It is not clear whether this integration represents a nearby off target event or whether the cleavage happened at the targeted DSB, with a subsequent ∼2 kb deletion event. In addition to these sequences, each of the two transfections yielded an off‐target integration (Fu et al., 2013; Hsu et al., 2013), each of which unexpectedly included plasmid sequences from untargeted regions. Since these cells are resistant to 6‐TG, it is likely that they all contain disruptions in the Hprt gene; the off target integrations would then be occurring in addition to the targeted integrations.
In order to compare the efficiency (transfectant colonies per treated cell) of the NHEJ insertion in CHO cells to that in HEK293 cells, we used the same Puro gene reconstruction strategy employed in the HEK293‐FW cells. As a target, we used the population of G418 and 6‐TG resistant CHO‐K1 cells from transfection 4 in the experiment described above. We picked the guide RNAs that gave the highest efficiency in HEK293‐FW cells, i.e., G1 and P2, to target the upstream region of the Puro coding sequence present in the integrated pFW plasmid sequence (i.e., now genomic) and the downstream region of the CMV promoter present in pIC3. The CRISPR‐Cas vectors along with the pIC3 donor plasmid were co‐transfected into ∼70% confluent CHO‐K1 cells. After 3 days of expression in non‐selective medium, selection for puromycin resistance was applied for 5 days, after which the colonies formed were fixed and stained for counting. The results of different combinations of genomic DNA and plasmid DNA targets are shown in Table V.
Table V. CRISPR‐Cas mediated insertions at the Puro sequences in CHO‐K1 cells Transfection CRISPR gRNAs genomic DNA site CRISPR gRNAs plasmid DNA site Donor plasmid Coloniesa Efficiencyb 1 G1 P2 pIC3 2,700 0.45% 2 G1 – pIC3 505 0.08% 3 – P2 pIC3 42 0.01% 4 G1 – – 54 0.01% 5 – – pIC3 30 0.01% 6 – – – 29 0.01%
We observed 2,700 colonies in the sample treated with the guide RNAs targeting both the genomic DNA and donor plasmids, representing an efficiency of 0.45%, about three times higher than the 0.17% achieved with HEK293‐FW cells and identical guide RNAs. It is interesting to note that we found ∼500 colonies (an efficiency of 0.08%) by targeting the genomic Puro gene but not the donor plasmid, suggesting that the CMV‐bearing plasmid may undergo cleavage inside the cell and that many of these linearized plasmids were able to provide the necessary promoter activity to the genomic Puro CDS. It should be noted, however, that no such untargeted promoter provision was seen using HEK293‐FW cells.
To determine if the pIC3 plasmid had indeed integrated into the targeted genomic promoterless Puro gene, we amplified the predicted integration junctions by PCR as described earlier; the PCR products were ligated into pGEMT‐EZ vectors, cloned in E. coli and sequenced. The clones from both the junctions resulted in insertions and deletions of up to 20 nucleotides (shown in italicized letters and dashes, respectively, in Table VI). Similar to the sequences obtained from HEK293‐FW cells, many of the clones sequenced from the two junctions were identical.Ted Nugent addresses a seminar at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Pittsburgh. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
Gun owners are pressuring the National Rifle Association to boot longtime board member Ted Nugent from the organization’s leadership ranks after the rock star’s social media outburst that depicted prominent American Jews as the men and women “really behind gun control.”
Nugent, an outspoken Second Amendment advocate, posted a photo on Facebook earlier this week calling Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), “Jew York City Mayor Mikey Bloomberg,” former senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, among many others, “punks” who would “deny us the basic human right to self defense and to keep and bear arms while many of them have paid hired armed security.”
The Israeli flag appears over or next to each of the 12 faces in the photo, which is the same one that has been shared many times in white supremacist circles, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The post prompted applause from anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi groups.
Know these punks. They hate freedom, they hate good over evil, they would deny us the basic human right to self defense … Posted by Ted Nugent on Monday, February 8, 2016
Nugent later posted a photo of Nazis rounding up Jews during the Holocaust and described gun-control advocates as “soulless sheep to slaughter.”
Nugent’s Facebook posts triggered cries of anti-Semitism and prompted gun-control activists and Second Amendment advocates alike to call for his removal from NRA’s board of directors; even several leading voices in the gun rights movement say they can no longer justify his “simple-minded” remarks.
The “Cat Scratch Fever” singer has served on the NRA board since 1995.
An NRA spokeswoman told The Washington Post on Wednesday that “individual board members do not speak for the NRA.”
[Ted Nugent rocks the political world]
Nugent’s comments have landed him in trouble in the past. He has targeted the Supreme Court, Trayvon Martin and Hillary Clinton. He once called President Obama a “sub-human mongrel” — and then apologized. (Even Nugent’s own brother said he had “clearly crossed a line.”)
But he has shown no remorse this time, even as other gun rights activists have taken to publicly criticizing him.
Amid the backlash, Nugent on Wednesday reposted his 2010 tribute to Aaron Zelman, who founded Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
“My hero, my American BloodBrother and an American Warrior legend, the great Aaron Zelman perfectly represented all free men who refuse to be controlled by others or denied our God given right to keep and bear arms,” he wrote at the time. “We stand repulsed by the ugly soullessness of unarmed helplessness.”
On Wednesday, Nugent pointed out that Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership recently criticized him for this week’s controversial comments.
“How tragic that the self inflicted scourge of political correctness can blind so many otherwise intelligent people!” he wrote on Facebook.
But Bob Owens, editor for BearingArms.com, wrote online this week that Nugent should have realized he “stepped in it” when “even-tempered pro-gun folks took issue” with his Facebook posts.
Instead, Nugent rehashed his point in another post — comparing Jewish gun-control advocates to Nazis.
“What sort of racist prejudiced POS could possibly not know that Jews for gun control are Nazis in disguise?” Nugent wrote.
Just when you hope that mankind couldnt possibly get any dumber or more dishonest, superFreaks rise to the occasion…. Posted by Ted Nugent on Monday, February 8, 2016
Owens said many gun rights advocates are now “simply done with Nugent.”
“They’re tired of feeling that they have to defend his half-baked rhetoric and simple-minded outbursts,” Owens wrote on BearingArms.com. “Many people are calling for him to resign from the NRA Board and for him to have his membership stripped from him.
“While I think forcing him out of the NRA entirely is a bit much, I do think he owes the world a sincere apology. If he can’t find that sincerity in his heart, then he has no business being on the board of an inclusive organization such as the National Rifle Association.”
[Cheat sheet: Ted Nugent’s greatest hits]
In fact, many gun owners who once supported Nugent seem to have changed their minds.
His recent Facebook posts are littered with negative comments suggesting that he may have gone too far.
One commenter called Nugent’s post “disgraceful.”
“Uncle Ted, I support (many) of your viewpoints, and have been a long term fan of your music,” the man wrote, “but this time you’ve gone way over the line.”
Another user told Nugent: “You sank low here.”
“I call total f—— b——- here,” he wrote. “I am a Jewish conservative gun owner. This is just f—— hate. I’ve always supported you, but f— you Ted.”
Debbie Schlussel, a conservative political commentator and columnist, called out Nugent for mocking Holocaust survivors.
[Nugent says Obama administration is like Nazis]
Robert Farago, publisher of the Truth About Guns, said that Nugent’s remarks “take it to the next, deeply disgusting level” and asked the NRA to act.
“Mr. Nugent should remove this post and ‘clarify’ his statement,” he wrote on his group’s website. “The NRA should distance itself from Mr. Nugent. They should revoke his membership and remove him from their Board.”
Anti-Defamation League Director Jonathan Greenblatt said Nugent’s comments were “nothing short of conspiratorial anti-Semitism.”
“Regardless of one’s views on gun control, this kind of scapegoating of an entire religious group is completely unacceptable and completely divorced from reality,” Greenblatt said in a statement. “It should go without saying that anti-Semitism has no place in the gun control debate.
“Nugent should be ashamed for promoting anti-Semitic content, and we hope that good people on both sides of the gun control debate will reject his tactics and his message.”
Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, took aim at Nugent as well after being featured in the Facebook post.
“Ted Nugent’s latest comments go beyond being anti-Semitic — they are ignorant and do nothing but fuel hate,” Gross said in a statement. “Personally, I am repulsed — my brother was shot and seriously wounded in a religiously-motivated mass shooting on the observation deck of the Empire State Building. Reasonable people on both sides of the debate recognize Mr. Nugent’s comments for what they are: hate speech and nothing more.”
Gross added that Nugent’s posts were “yet another clear sign of how out of touch NRA’s leadership and Board” are with the group’s members.
(h/t Huffington Post)
This story has been updated.
MORE READING:
Jeff Nugent says brother Ted Nugent ‘crossed a line’ with ‘sub-human’ comment
Town to Ted Nugent: Thanks but no thanksABSTRACT
Background: Weight gain and obesity have reached alarming levels. Eating at a later clock hour is a newly described risk factor for adverse metabolic health; yet, how eating at a later circadian time influences body composition is unknown. Using clock hour to document eating times may be misleading owing to individual differences in circadian timing relative to clock hour. Objective: This study examined the relations between the timing of food consumption relative to clock hour and endogenous circadian time, content of food intake, and body composition. Design: We enrolled 110 participants, aged 18–22 y, in a 30-d cross-sectional study to document sleep and circadian behaviors within their regular daily routines. We used a time-stamped-picture mobile phone application to record all food intake across 7 consecutive days during a participant's regular daily routines and assessed their body composition and timing of melatonin release during an in-laboratory assessment. Results: Nonlean individuals (high body fat) consumed most of their calories 1.1 h closer to melatonin onset, which heralds the beginning of the biological night, than did lean individuals (low body fat) (log-rank P = 0.009). In contrast, there were no differences between lean and nonlean individuals in the clock hour of food consumption (P = 0.72). Multiple regression analysis showed that the timing of food intake relative to melatonin onset was significantly associated with the percentage of body fat and body mass index (both P < 0.05) while controlling for sex, whereas no relations were found between the clock hour of food intake, caloric amount, meal macronutrient composition, activity or exercise level, or sleep duration and either of these body composition measures (all P > 0.72). Conclusions: These results provide evidence that the consumption of food during the circadian evening and/or night, independent of more traditional risk factors such as amount or content of food intake and activity level, plays an important role in body composition. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02846077.
See corresponding editorial on page 1171.
INTRODUCTION
The coordination and timing of specific behaviors and biological processes in the brain and body are necessary for healthy physiologic functioning. Human circadian physiology has evolved to promote certain behaviors and activities during the day (e.g., physical activity, arousal, and metabolism) or night (e.g., sleep and fasting) (1). In mammals, the internal circadian timing system is entrained to the 24-h light-dark cycle through light signals reaching a master clock located within the hypothalamus (2). With the relatively recent widespread availability of electrical lighting, humans have the ability to self-select their light-dark cycles and extend wakefulness activities far into the night (3). This capability to alter the timing of wakefulness can result in a misalignment between behavior and endogenous circadian physiology (3, 4) and has been associated with adverse health outcomes such as decreased energy metabolism (5, 6), impaired glucose metabolism (7–9), and increased cardiovascular disease risk (7, 10).
One potential mechanism for adverse health from the misalignment between behavior and physiology is food consumption at an inappropriate circadian time (11, 12). There have been numerous reports in animal models (13, 14) and human studies (15, 16) that eating during a time normally reserved for sleeping can result in weight gain and adverse metabolic health. Populations that are susceptible to pushing activities to a later clock hour, such as night or rotating shift workers (17) or adolescents and college-aged individuals (18–20), also have a higher incidence of weight gain and obesity (21–23). Therefore, understanding the interaction of the timing of dietary intake with an individual's circadian rhythms is important, particularly because using clock hour to document eating times may not be physiologically relevant due to individual differences in circadian timing relative to clock hour (24).
In this cross-sectional study (registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02846077), we characterized the eating patterns of college-aged individuals during a week of their regular daily activities by documenting the timing and content of their entire dietary intake with the use of a mobile phone application (Figure 1). The relation of these patterns was then quantified relative to circadian timing, habitual sleep timing and duration, and wakefulness behaviors.
FIGURE 1 View largeDownload slide Raster plots (top) of the ∼30-d protocol from 2 participants: 1 with a large phase angle (time difference) between caloric midpoint (average time at which 50% of daily calories were consumed) and DLMO timing (left) and 1 with a small phase angle between caloric midpoint and DLMO timing (right). The x-axis represents the time of day, and the y-axis represents days into the protocol. The black bars represent sleep episodes, gray hatched bars represent the in-laboratory overnight stay for recording percentage of body fat and a DLMO phase assessment (light <4 lux), the black dotted box represents the week of monitoring caloric intake via the time-stamped mobile phone picture food diary, and the open boxes represent caloric events (i.e., any food or beverage that is not water). Note that the in-laboratory assessment could occur before or after the week of monitoring caloric intake but was during the ∼30 d of the protocol. The black arrow on the top and bottom panels denotes the timing of caloric midpoint relative to DLMO. Relative timing of physiologic events in the 2 participants (bottom). The dotted line is the timing of the DLMO, the gray shaded area denotes the phase angle, and the black shaded area denotes habitual sleep timing for that participant relative to DLMO. DLMO, dim-light melatonin onset.
FIGURE 1 View largeDownload slide Raster plots (top) of the ∼30-d protocol from 2 participants: 1 with a large phase angle (time difference) between caloric midpoint (average time at which 50% of daily calories were consumed) and DLMO timing (left) and 1 with a small phase angle between caloric midpoint and DLMO timing (right). The x-axis represents the time of day, and the y-axis represents days into the protocol. The black bars represent sleep episodes, gray hatched bars represent the in-laboratory overnight stay for recording percentage of body fat and a DLMO phase assessment (light <4 lux), the black dotted box represents the week of monitoring caloric intake via the time-stamped mobile phone picture food diary, and the open boxes represent caloric events (i.e., any food or beverage that is not water). Note that the in-laboratory assessment could occur before or after the week of monitoring caloric intake but was during the ∼30 d of the protocol. The black arrow on the top and bottom panels denotes the timing of caloric midpoint relative to DLMO. Relative timing of physiologic events in the 2 participants (bottom). The dotted line is the timing of the DLMO, the gray shaded area denotes the phase angle, and the black shaded area denotes habitual sleep timing for that participant relative to DLMO. DLMO, dim-light melatonin onset.
METHODS
Participants
Participants (n = 110, 64 males; Supplemental Figure 1 and Supplemental Table 1) with an age range of 18–22 y were enrolled in a cross-sectional 30-d protocol to document sleep and circadian behaviors within their regular daily routines (Figure 1). Participants were of mixed ethnicity (21.0% Hispanic, 76.0% non-Hispanic, and 3.0% unknown) and race (1.0% American Indian, 30.9% Asian, 12.7% African American, 41.8% white, 10.0% reporting >1, |
website via mobile phones.'
About 70 per cent of the site's users log on via a mobile phone, and Frind added: 'Unfortunately about two per cent of men have started to use POF as more of a hookup site mostly due the casual nature of cell phone use.'
The dating website was founded in 2003, and now has a turnover of more than £6.6m a year
NO SEX, PLEASE: THREE MAJOR CHANGES TO PLENTY OF FISH
Frind says many women on the site are actually men pretending to be female 1. First contact cannot be sexual: 'Anyone who tries to get around this rule will be deleted without warning.' 2. Users can only contact others who are not more than 14 years younger or older than themselves. There is 'no reason for a 50 year old man to contact a 18 year old women,' according to POF. 3. Intimate Encounters have been terminated. According to POF statistics, there are 3.3 million people who use the site every day, and of those there are only 6,000 single women looking for intimate encounters.
And of those 6,000 women, many are men. 'Intimate Encounters on POF can be summed up as a bunch of horny men talking to a bunch of horny men pretending to be women,' Frind said.The Titanic left Queenstown harbor and sank while en route to the United States. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)
For decades after the disaster, there was little doubt about what sank the Titanic. When the "unsinkable" ship, the largest, most luxurious ocean liner of its time, crashed into an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, it took more than 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers to the bottom. As the ship slipped into the North Atlantic, so, too, did the secret of how and why it sank.
[See photos commemorating the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.]
Two government investigations conducted immediately after the disaster agreed it was the iceberg, not any weakness in the ship itself, that caused the Titanic to sink. Both inquiries concluded the vessel had gone to the bottom intact. Blame for the incident fell on the ship's deceased captain, E. J. Smith, who was condemned for racing at 22 knots through a known ice field in the dark waters off the coast of Newfoundland. The case of the Titanic was considered closed.
But lingering questions about what might have sunk the seemingly indestructible ship never completely disappeared. In 1985, when oceanographer Robert Ballard, after years of searching, finally located the ship's remains 2.5 miles down on the ocean bottom, he discovered that it had, in fact, broken in two on the surface before sinking. His findings made the Titanic rise again in the public imagination. Why had it cracked, experts wondered? If the official inquiries were wrong, was the invincible Titanic weak? A few years after Ballard discovered the wreck, the first pieces of the ship were brought to the surface, raising even more eyebrows when they seemed to offer physical evidence that low-quality steel might have caused the disaster. In 1997, James Cameron's film Titanic, largely mirroring the scientific consensus at the time, seared Titanic's terrifying last moments, with its stern soaring high into the air before it cracked in two and disappeared, into popular memory.
Still, the search for answers about the Titanic didn't end there. In two new books, a group of historians, naval architects, and materials scientists argue that fresh evidence has further unraveled the familiar story of the Titanic, raising more questions about what caused the disaster. In What Really Sank the Titanic: New Forensic Discoveries, Jennifer Hooper McCarty, a materials scientist at Oregon Health and Science University, and Tim Foecke, a scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, make the case that it wasn't the ship's steel that was weak; it was the rivets, the all-important metal pins that held the steel hull plates together. Titanic's Last Secrets, to be published next month, describes the work of Richie Kohler and John Chatterton, wreck-diving historians who believe two recently discovered pieces of the Titanic's bottom prove the ship's stern never rose high in the air the way many Titanic experts, including Cameron, originally believed. The two divers, whose discovery of a lost German U-boat was chronicled in the book Shadow Divers, say the ship broke up and sank while still relatively flat on the surface—a potential sign of weakness, they believe, that was covered up after the disaster.
When the Titanic's keel was laid down in 1909, Harland & Wolff, the Belfast shipbuilder that constructed the ship, certainly didn't believe its design would still be controversial a hundred years later. Built in response to a rival company's construction of a new generation of fast liners, Titanic and her sister ships, Olympic and Britannic, were the biggest ships ever made—from bow to stern, they were almost 900 feet long, dwarfing even the world's biggest skyscrapers. Specially outfitted to handle the challenges of the North Atlantic, including big waves and major collisions, they were also supposed to be among the safest. The Titanic could stay afloat with four of its 16 watertight compartments flooded, more than anyone could imagine on a ship of its size.
On the night of April 14, 1912, though, only a few days into the Titanic's maiden voyage, its Achilles' heel was exposed. The ship wasn't nimble enough to avoid an iceberg that lookouts spotted (the only way to detect icebergs at the time) at the last minute in the darkness. As the ice bumped along its starboard side, it punched holes in the ship's steel plates, flooding six compartments. In a little over two hours, the Titanic filled with water and sank.
Low quality. More than 70 years passed before scientists were able to study the first physical evidence of the wreck. As luck would have it, the first piece of steel pulled up from the bottom seemed to put an end to the mystery. When the steel was placed in ice water and hit with a hammer, it shattered. For much of the 1990s, scientists thought this "brittle" steel was responsible for the massive flooding. Only recently has testing on other, bigger pieces of the ship disproved this theory. The original piece, scientists discovered, had been unusually weak, while the rest of Titanic's steel passed the tests. "We know now there was nothing wrong with the steel," says William Garzke, chairman of a forensics panel formed by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers to investigate the wreck.
Experts looking for explanations landed on another potentially weak link: The more than 3 million rivets holding the ship together. McCarty and Foecke began examining 48 rivets brought up from the wreck and found they contained high concentrations of "slag," a residue of smelting that can make metal fracture prone. Researching in the Harland & Wolff archives, they discovered that the shipbuilder's ambitious plans to build three large ships at the same time had put a huge strain on its shipyard. "Not because of cost, but because of time pressures, they started using lower-quality material to fill the gaps," says Foecke. This substandard iron was pounded by hand into the ship's bow and stern, where the large machines required to pound in steel rivets didn't fit. Steel rivets, meanwhile, which are much stronger than iron, were put in the more-accessible middle of the ship.
When the Titanic hit the iceberg, McCarty and Foecke say, the weaker iron rivets in the bow popped, opening seams in the hull—and hurrying the ship's demise. It's no accident, Foecke says, that the flooding stopped at the point in the hull where the steel rivets began.
Harland & Wolff, now an engineering and design firm, flatly rejects the notion that its rivets were weak. Tom McCluskie, the company's retired archivist, points out that Olympic, Titanic's sister ship, was riveted with the same iron and served without incident for 25 years, surviving several major collisions, including being rammed by a British cruiser. "Olympic deliberately rammed a German submarine during the First World War and cut it in half," says McCluskie. "She was plenty strong." The Britannic sank after hitting a mine during World War I. Both ships were strengthened after the Titanic disaster with double hulls and taller bulkheads, but their rivets were never changed.
Stronger rivets might have slowed the sinking process, but once water began flooding six of the Titanic's compartments, it was only a matter of time before the ship went down. Questions remain, though, about exactly how and why the ship ultimately broke apart and sank. In 2005, an expedition organized by Kohler and Chatterton found a new clue. Wandering away from the main wreckage site, they stumbled upon two large pieces of the ship's bottom on the ocean floor. Closer examination revealed the two hull sections had split exactly where the ship broke in two, making them a possible key to the mystery of the ship's final moments. Simon Mills, an Olympic-class-ship historian who advised the divers, calls the find "very likely the most interesting piece of Titanic research to be carried out in the last 20 years."
When Roger Long, a naval architect hired to accompany the expedition, began analyzing the edges of the hull pieces, he came to a surprising conclusion. It was impossible, he believed, for the ship to have broken up the way experts for two decades believed it did, with the stern rising up to a 45-degree angle before the ship's hull split. "There are a lot of very contradictory things you can see in the pieces," he says. "But the only scenario I could come up with to explain all of the contradictions was that the ship broke at a very shallow angle." Close examination of the pieces showed that they had been interrupted in the middle of tearing apart—a sign, Long says, that the ship was still at a low-enough angle (he estimates only 11 degrees) that its stern could regain buoyancy as it began to crack. If the back of the ship had been raised out of the water at a 45-degree angle, as depicted in Cameron's movie, once the stern tore off, nothing would have stopped it, and the hull pieces would have torn in two.
Why does it matter exactly how the ship broke in two? For Titanic's passengers, it may have been the difference between life and death. "In the movie, the stern rises up and [then] sinks," says Chatterton. "It's this protracted, dramatic experience." But in Long's scenario, the ship may have tilted over only slightly as the bow filled with water, giving those on board a false sense of security. "If you're standing on the deck with 10 degrees of incline, and they're saying 'Quick, everyone into the lifeboats,' you're thinking, 'You know, things aren't looking so bad here, maybe I can just stay in the bar,' " says Chatterton. "The passengers and many of the crew didn't understand the seriousness of the situation they were in." Of course, since the Titanic had enough lifeboats for only half its passengers, many people were never going to make it off the ship alive. When the bow filled with enough water, Long says, the ship split in two and sank in a matter of minutes.
Interestingly, much of the survivor testimony seems to confirm this sequence of events. Charlie Joughin, Titanic's chief baker, said that he had been standing near the stern when the ship went under, but he reported none of the signs of a high-angle break. No suction, no big splash, and no roller-coaster ride to the surface. He said he swam away from the ship without even getting his hair wet. Unlike in the Cameron film, there was no huge wave reported from any of the lifeboats when the stern went under. One survivor reported slipping into the water, turning around, and discovering the ship had disappeared. "He was in the water 50 feet from the ship, he heard a'shloop,' and it was gone," says Long. "That's not what a person would remember if 25,000 tons of steel fell nearby."
Eyewitnesses. While some survivors in the lifeboats did remember seeing the ship's stern rising high in the air, Long says that might have been an optical illusion. At an 11-degree angle, the ship's propellers would have been raised out of the water, making the ship, already nearly 20 stories tall, appear even taller and making its angle in the water appear even steeper. Technical advisers to the movie Titanic say Cameron, who did not respond to a request for comment, may have been aware of this but exaggerated the angle at which the ship sank for effect.
Though experts still quibble about the exact nature of how the ship broke up, a consensus does seem to be forming around how Titanic sank. "We all agree that the ship did sink at a shallow angle," says Garzke, head of the naval architects' forensics panel. Historians believe Harland & Wolff was probably aware of this at the time, but when the official inquiries absolved the shipbuilder of any liability in the matter, the company didn't protest.
Some conspiracy theorists believe that the company's silence was a sign of a coverup, and that the post-disaster retrofitting of Titanic's sister ships proves Harland & Wolff knew its ship was flawed. But most historians come to a different conclusion. "The fact that the ship broke up on the surface does not mean she was weak," says Long. When 38,000 tons of water filled its bow, pushing the stern up even 11 degrees out of the water, the ship was loaded beyond its capacity and cracked in two.
Could the Titanic have been stronger? Certainly. Higher-quality rivets or a thicker hull might have kept the ship afloat longer. But ultimately, the Titanic was designed to be a passenger liner, not a battleship. "[The ship] was built to the best of their knowledge at the time and to the proper standards. Nothing could have survived what happened to it," says McCluskie. Extensive forensic analysis of the wreckage has, in a way, brought the story of the Titanic to a familiar place. "The ship," says Foecke, "was just not designed to run into icebergs." When it did, nothing could stop its journey to the bottom.Cartoon Network USA Yoursday Thursday 9th June
On Thursday 9th June, The Yoursday programming block on Cartoon Network USA will feature a new episode each of The Amazing World of Gumball, Clarence, Teen Titans Go!, The Powerpuff Girls, Regular Show and the season six premiere of Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. The fun begins at 5pm ET/PT on Cartoon Network.
Thursday 9th June Yoursday Schedule:
The Amazing World of Gumball
The Bus
5.00pm ET/PT
Rocky detours from his usual route and convinces the kids not to go to school.
http://theamazingworldofgumball.wikia.com/wiki/The_Bus
Clarence
Space Race
5.30pm ET/PT
Ms. Baker assigns a really fun class project. With Clarence distracted by the mysterious power of the moon, his class competes to build the highest-flying rocket.
http://clarence.wikia.com/wiki/Space_Race
Teen Titans Go!
History Lesson
6pm ET/PT
Robin tries to teach the other Titans valuable history lessons but the others turn his stories into their own twisted yarns.
http://teen-titans-go.wikia.com/wiki/History_Lesson
The Powerpuff Girls
Viral Spiral
6.30pm ET/PT
The Amoeba Boys cause chaos on the internet and Bubbles hacks her sisters in to stop them.
http://powerpuffgirls.wikia.com/wiki/Viral_Spiral
Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu
Infamous
7pm ET/PT
In the season premiere, a new evil surfaces after the Ninjas return from destroying the Cursed Realm.
http://ninjago.wikia.com/wiki/Infamous
Regular Show
Lame Lockdown
7.30pm ET/PT
The head scientist puts Mordecai and Rigby on a 24-hour lockdown inside the Dome, but they want to sneak out and see one of their favorite bands.
http://regularshow.wikia.com/wiki/Lame_Lockdown
The Yoursday promo for Thursday 9th June:
Cartoon Network USA’s premiere info for June can be seen on the link below, the premiere info is regularly updated:
http://www.toonzone.net/forums/threads/cartoon-network-june-2016-premiere-info.5544752/Incorporated in 1848, West Brookfield is Rich in Early American History
The New England Town of West Brookfield is located approximately 20 miles west of Worcester, Massachusetts. Situated on the Historic Boston Post Road, the town was the halfway stop on the stage route from Worcester to Springfield. The picturesque Common is the beginning of the Center Historic District. Within walking distance is the Old Indian Cemetery and other locations of historical significance.
West Brookfield has the sites of the first white settlement, the Indian villages, and is in reality the mother town of the Quaboag Plantation. The Quaboag Plantation was deeded in 1660, and thirteen years later this area was incorporated as a town and was called Brookfield. Quaboag is a Nipmuc Indian name meaning "before the pond". The site of the largest of the Quaboag Indian Villages was at Wekabaug, later known as Wickaboag. This site joined the southerly end of what is now Lake Wickaboag in West Brookfield. With the advent of the railroad, West Brookfield was incorporated as a separate Town in 1848.Researchers Build Eco-Treehouse For Adults
September 17th, 2008 by Ariel Schwartz
If you miss the treehouses of your childhood, you may just have a new excuse to own one relatively soon. Researchers from have Tel Aviv University and MIT have built a prototype treehouse that can process waste and reduce carbon emissions— so you can feel even more justified in reliving your youth.
The researchers built the model treehouse from malleable tree roots that are hardened into steel girder-like structures. Apparently, the houses can be outfitted with solar panels and wind turbines, and they can even convert waste into nutrients for trees.
Prototype homes will be ready in ten years—but don’t get excited yet. They’ll be too expensive for all but a few. I also wonder about how realistic this model is for areas that experience natural disasters (and in this age of global warming, what area doesn’t?). Do you really want to be mired in the middle of a tree during a hurricane, tornado, or flood? But all practicalities aside, the nouveau treehouse looks like a lot of fun.
Photo Credit: The UK Telegraph
Related posts:LYON, France (Reuters) - Budding tennis stars who dream of being the next Novak Djokovic should think twice before shelling out for more coaching when they might better invest in the racket that tracks every move.
Created by venerable French tennis company Babolat, which started out in 1875 making strings from animal gut, the soon-to-be-unveiled prototype invention is designed to look and feel just like a regular, hollow-tube racket.
The twist is that the frame is lined with tiny sensors recording reams of data on every volley, lob, serve and drop shot. Uploading this information to a separate monitoring device will allow players to pore over the finer points of their performance without a coach or high-end video equipment.
It could be a big leap forward for a sport where rackets are often seen in a reverential, almost mystical light, and where critical distance and scientific analysis are left to the pros.
“There is an imaginary side to a player’s racket, that it’s like Excalibur, the sword that will win it all,” says Eric Babolat, the company’s grey-haired but youthful-looking 42-year-old chief executive, at his offices in Lyon, southeast France.
“We feel that people are looking for more rationality, more information on what is actually happening.”
Surrounded by display models of current rackets he believes will become relics of the past, the CEO reels off examples of precision data measured by the prototype racket dubbed “Play & Connect”: Force exerted, ball speed, string vibration and the exact position of where the ball is hitting the racket.
While international champions are already used to having their stats plastered across the world’s TV sets during top-flight tourneys, this will be the first time average players at the local club will have access to such data.
The more it is used, the more the racket will build up a broad performance history and track how a player is improving.
“It’s going to be like having your own personal coach,” says Babolat, who believes the new racket will be a key weapon in his fight for market share against rival brands like Amer Sports’ Wilson and Head.
COMPUTER COACHING
Such souped-up electronic equipment exists already for other sports that require more endurance testing, such as rowing or cycling, helping athletes get prepped for this year’s Olympic Games in London.
Rowers can use computerized oars to measure power and position, while cyclists can buy mini-computers to fit to their bikes to measure speed and distance.
Where a similar invention for tennis could prove useful is in analyzing mechanics and the arc of motion, rather than just power, according to Philip Friere Skiba, director of Sport and Exercise Medicine at Exeter University.
“In racket sports, not only could power data be valuable, but things like direction or position of the face of the racket,” he says. “Those things determine how fast the ball is going to travel.”
Whether the device takes off will depend on how sophisticated it is and whether it will be more than a marketing gimmick that few players will really use, adds Skiba.
There is also the risk that coaches might feel threatened if players are encouraged to analyze their own performance.
“Coaches tend to look at a good player and think: “That’s my brain, that’s my witchcraft”,” Skiba said.
Babolat counters that the device could help coaches deal with players who are sometimes blind to the flaws in their own performance.
Retailers and players will have to wait until May to see the first unveiling of the racket at the French Roland Garros Open, though some already see the benefits.
“I do believe the average customer could benefit from this,” says Chris Gaudreau, owner of Connecticut-based retailer Racquet Koop. “You can take it out, you can plug it in, you can look at how you’ve improved or haven’t improved. This is data that’s kind of cool.”No one wants to talk about DVDs as such, but their impact on the world cannot be ignored. The DVD was an invention to look up to. It took 4 giants – Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Toshiba to develop these Silicon-Valley donuts and change the way we store data. Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for over a decade and don’t know about DVDs – consider handbags. Handbags help you carry things (except that they aren’t as costly as Gucci or Louis Vuitton!). DVDs carry Data. There’s been a natural progression in the development of storage devices – DVDs, CDs, Portable Hard Disks, flash drives and the latest in the family – cloud Storage. But one player in there has been underperforming, despite of its phenomenal features – The BluRay Discs.
Take it this way, what do we need from a storage device? Large storage capacity, eortability and Easy maintenance. These are the factors which led to development of storage devices. Storage devices changed the way we developed electronics, because now you could store a large chunk of your data in these portable devices. But one has to admit, the BluRay was late to the party!
The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition by Sony in 2000. The BluRay was actually developed by the Blu-Ray Disc Association. By 2001 a trademark for the disks was registered, and on 19 Feb 2002, the project was officially named ‘BluRay Disc’. They’re called so because of the blue lasers that read data from them, which helps with a substantially higher storage capacity.
2002 might sound early, but one needs to know in 2005, YouTube was available. And Netflix had been alive since 1997. The largest rivals to DVD market – online streaming channels had already arrived by the time BluRay was launched. The BluRay thrashed away the HD DVD market. Some of the largest players in media, distribution and retail segment like Warner Bros, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Future Shop, Netflix, Blockbuster – all started opting out of HD DVDs by 2002. In that context, the BluRay was a success. But in the bigger scheme of things, the BluRay lost to the internet, and to digital streaming.
Also Read: Nobody Needs Cable TV
Well, there’re numerous reasons why BluRay is turning obsolete day by day, moment after moment.
First and foremost, a BluRay costs more than an average Pendrive or DVD. Yes, it does give you an additional feature of comfortably playing anything in 1080p, but at similar cost, you can actually download the movie (legally) and store it on almost all of your devices using via the cloud.
Then there’s portability. These portable discs are actually not that portable now. No one tailors jeans with pockets big enough to fit in BluRay disks. Simple.
It gives you the best picture quality in the market. Agreed. But at quite a lower price point, one can get next to best picture quality. Hence, even if you’ve an eye for quality, you’ll need to pay quite bit extra for those extra pixels.
Related: The Future of Cloud Computing
DVDs have always been constructed in the 120mm dimension, and BluRay continues that trend. Conventional BluRay discs contain 25 GB on a single layer. So on dual layered discs you get 50 GB, on triple player 100 GB and on quadruple player 125 GB. But, if you actually want to store that much data, the hard disk is a better choice, irrespective of its storage capacities. The BluRay is still an optical and more prone to damage due to its delicate structure.
All that said and done, let’s take a dip into reality. Video on Demand stands as the largest rival, and that too a winning one. Movies, Videos, TV shows – all of them are available on video streaming websites. And this has had a significant effect on the BluRay market:
In April 2011, BluRay market showed promising growth with a 28% market share. But that dropped to around 25% in April 2012. With the rise of better Internet Infrastructure and better connectivity, the scene was supposed to worsen.
But somehow, BluRay stood stable. It remained at around 27% in 2013. Theo overall DVD market had increased by 0.5%. But, this is not the complete story.
This is a Graphical Repesentation by the reputed, Wall Street Journal which shows, that despite of BluRay sales increasing, the revenue had dropped in comparison to 2012.
In all these market trends, one thing stands tall. In comparison to the previous year, either the revenues or the overall sales – is on its way down. This is indicative of how the BluRay market might be shrinking faster than we expect. BluRay players have seen a fall in their prices, which led to better sales. But the revenue eventually dropped. With Facebook and Google working to provide free internet worldwide, BluRay’s condition will only worsen.
Yes, BluRay does provide a useful platform for the PlayStation and Xbox. But in the context of movies, the scenario is changing. Average global broadband speeds have increased, superior picture quality is available on the internet itself, and people can easily make transactions online – all this negatively impacting BluRay sales. The media houses do show optimism by launching BluRay versions to their movies, but primary sales still depends on the theatrical release of the movie itself. With the impending shift to cloud storage, the BluRay will soon be an ancient warrior.The Metropolitan Police have launched a hate-crime investigation after literature stating that those who insult Islam “must be killed” was reportedly handed out at a London mosque.
The leaflets, said to be distributed at a holy gathering by the Dar-ul-Uloom Qadria Jilania mosque in Walthamstow, state that apostates “deserve to be assassinated” and point to a classic manual of Islamic law to justify such killings.
Imam Syed Abdul Qadir Jilani, whose named appears on the front cover of the booklets, is believed to be linked to their distribution, the London Evening Standard reported, although he has strongly denied the claims.
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.
The booklet cites the case of Mumtaz Qadri, a fundamentalist who murdered Pakistani governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011 after he spoke in support for liberal reforms to the country’s strict Islamic laws. It says “all Muslims should support” Qadri and that being a “big shot” does not prevent someone from being an apostate who deserves to be killed.
One worshipper who received the leaflet said: “Two or three people delivered the leaflet. I am shocked. I think it gives a bad impression. Islam teaches when you live here you obey the law and the rule of law, but this is not doing that.”
Scotland Yard responded to the reports that action was being taken to establish whether a criminal offence has taken place.
A spokesman said: “We are committed to tackling hate crime in all its forms and have long since recognised the impact of hate crime on communities.”
Mr Jilani said that he had no knowledge of the booklet being distributed. He said that he had not given permission for his face to be used on the front, that it had been “falsely attributed” to him, and that he does not agree with its message.
He said: “I am not aware of if, why or how, the booklet was distributed in Dar-ul-Uloom Qadria Jilania.”
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 nowLena Horne, an African American pioneer who fought for equality as an artist-activist, died May 9 at age 92. She is remembered as a crusader for civil rights and a symbol of black pride.
In a statement President Obama said Horne was “one of our nation’s most cherished entertainers.”
Obama continued, “From the time her grandmother signed her up for an NAACP membership as a child, she worked tirelessly to further the cause of justice and equality. In 1940, she became the first African American performer to tour with an all white band. And while entertaining soldiers during World War II, she refused to perform for segregated audiences – a principled struggle she continued well after the troops returned home.”
Obama said he and First Lady Michelle Obama “join all Americans in appreciating the joy she brought to our lives and the progress she forged for our country.”
Horne broke new ground for black performers during the 1940s after signing a long-term contract with MGM. She made appearances in several movie musicals at the time. But the studio made sure her scenes could be easily cut from the film when it played in the South, where Jim Crow racism ran rampant, and white audiences saw black actors as only playing servants or savages. Horne refused to play maids and other stereotypical roles for black actors.
Horne was unafraid to take on racism, and during World War II she criticized the way black soldiers were treated. She also collaborated with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in passing anti-lynching legislation in Congress.
When her tenure ended with MGM, Horne said she, along with her friend Paul Robeson and countless others were blacklisted from Hollywood during the 1950s anti-communist McCarthy period.
In the early 1960s, Horne became increasingly active, participating in numerous marches and protests. She marched with Medgar Evers in Mississippi and Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington.
Born in 1917, Horne is considered part of the “greatest generation” that fought fascism and discrimination, yet, in many ways many African Americans and others of that time were lost to a crippling and violent national prejudice towards blacks and people of color.
“But she was also a symbol, in the best sense of the word, of what it takes to get through stormy weather to the rainbow on the other side,” notes a recent Boston Globe editorial.
Horne is most remembered for her 1943 role in an all-black musical called “Stormy Weather,” which was the title song she sang in the film that became her signature performance.
Although blacklisted in Hollywood, she triumphed on Broadway, TV and on the concert stage as well as on some 40 albums.
Later in life Horne is also remembered as playing Glinda the Good Witch in “The Wiz,” the movie version of the all-black Broadway musical based on “The Wizard of Oz.”
She was also a frequent guest to Sesame Street, where she transformed Joe Raposo’s “Being Green” into a personal testament of breaking racial barriers.
In 1981, Horne was back on Broadway in a one-woman show, “Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music,” telling her story which ran for 14 months and won rave reviews and two Tony Awards.
Horne’s career represents a trailblazing life of someone who fought back with a fierce sense of identity as a black woman and a leading lady. She showed and proved to the world, many note, that despite racial prejudice, being black is beautiful.
Even though Horne suffered the same discrimination that kept other blacks from living up to their full potential, she never denied her heritage.
Writing in the Washington Post Eugene Robinson called Horne an “infiltrator” and one of the most significant American entertainers of the 20th century.
“She was able to bridge the gap between black and white in a way that others could not,” writes Robinson. “She could be vocal, even strident in her advocacy for civil rights; she could be a proud black woman who stood up for African American causes and refused to back down. But she could do all of this without ever seeming alienated.”
He adds she would sing “Stormy Weather” on the Ed Sullivan show and “she would own the stage – a glamorous, elegant revolutionary who helped change the way American eyes perceived black and white.”
Reflecting on her achievements Horne at age 80 said: “My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman. I’m free. I no longer have to be a ‘credit.’ I don’t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don’t have to be a first to anybody. I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.”
Photo: Lena Horne in the film “Till the Clouds Roll By,” 1946. (Public Domain)What would Eric Morecambe say? Probably that he didn’t have a leg to stand on.
A 32-year-old man was arrested in the Lancashire town of Morecambe yesterday after an attempt was made to steal a statue of the town’s most famous son - by sawing through its leg.
Police were called to Marine Road Central following reports that the statue of Eric Morecambe had been damaged in an attempt to steal it.
The statue, which has now been removed to repair the damage, took sculptor Graham Ibbeson six years to complete and captured the comedian in his famous pose, with one hand raised and a leg cocked.
The theme tune of the Morecambe and Wise TV show, Bring Me Sunshine, was played over loudspeakers as thousands of fans attended the unveiling of the statue by the Queen in 1999. and the statue has been a popular tourist attraction ever since, with many posing for photographs next to it in the same Bring Me Sunshine pose.
The comic, born John Eric Bartholomew, was born in Morecambe in 1926 and used his home town for his stage surname. He died on May 28, 1984 after collapsing on stage with a heart attack.
Speaking at the unveiling of the statue, his widow Joan said: “I think Eric would have been staggered. You think in terms of buildings or streets being named after you, but a statue? Not for a comic.”
Ernie Wise and Eric Morecambe (Alamy)
For Morecambe’s admirers the vandalism of his statue is no laughing matter.
The British Comedy Society tweeted: “We’re very distressed to hear this news. What an awful thing to have happened,” while the official Morecambe FC Twitter feed said: “Unbelievable that the Eric Morecambe statue has been vandalised. Let’s get him back where he belongs.”
Only the statue’s standing foot remains after the rest of it was placed face down in the back of a council van and driven away for repairs.
Mark Cullinan, chief executive of Lancaster City Council, said: “When we got to the site it was clear someone had sawed through most of Eric’s leg and then left him like that. When we inspected it we knew we couldn’t repair it at the site.
“We’re removing him in a van and taking him to a safe and secure place, and will work with the sculptor to get him back as soon as possible.”
Sgt John Bond said: “We are in the early stages of our investigation and I would urge anyone who may have seen what happened or has any information to get in touch with police.”This column warned, in February and again in May, that Alex Salmond wasn’t to be under-estimated. The Scottish National Party’s canny leader has a track record of surging late to secure a close-run victory. He did it in the Scottish parliamentary elections of both 2007 and 2011.
The Union is now in grave danger. Over 300 years of history could be reversed when Scotland votes on Thursday 18 September. No-one should be surprised by the latest “shock” polls showing the pro-independence vote within spitting distance of upending the |
in this country. The failure of our elected officials to act regarding undocumented immigrants just boiled over in East Haven. Racism is wrong but now an entire town hates the Latino community, not just 5 cops…I hope it gets better!
posted by: Angel on January 30, 2012 2:34pm Imagine if newly ousted Chief Adger from New Haven ended up as the Chief of East Haven….. Think about it.
posted by: Memorial Field on January 30, 2012 2:35pm This is a good day for East Haven, it’s a day that I hope will be remembered positively for those of us who live here and are not hate mongers, and who embrace our entire community.
Lets remember though before the world starts to think we are all stuck in 1962 East Haven, for four years we ourselves elected a young female progressive mayor, and only failed to do so just recently by a mere 33 votes. Time has changed this town, and today’s events will further change East Haven, for the better.
But I fear that marchers and interference from people who do not live here - regardless of ethnicity - will be met with the same diDustinhat the Reconstruction era northern carpetbaggers were. We’ve seen the light, let the change come from within, and let the change be real.
East Haven is indeed a throwback, and has some work to do, but it’s a town that is redefining itself, and should be given the proper credit.
posted by: CHris O on January 30, 2012 2:35pm While I have seen racism first hand in East Haven, I also see it in New Haven and most suburban towns. This racism/ hate is often between “minority groups”. While it is easy to vilify its harder to think about why this exists and what we can do about it. I am no expert but I see a correlation between education levels/ wealth and tolerance. Broad brush painting is used so often in each direction on this topic. Not all of East Haven is racist nor is anywhere totally accepting.
posted by: Matt on January 30, 2012 3:06pm Agree 100% with Stever. Some of the people here defending the actions of Gallo are embarrassing themselves. You’ve now aired your biases and prejudices out in a public forum. Why not embrace a news service for covering and helping to coerce change in a town that is in need of good news right now.
posted by: Dave Francis The Liberals, Unions, farmers, radical groups, special interest and even the major churches still think America should absorb every foreign visitor or every illegal migrant, even though these entities would pay nothing towards their monetary support? Under their foolish direction this land could be overrun with even more abject poverty than what we have now. Then again, ObamaCare will treat anybody with the compliments of US taxpayers. We will all be forced by law to pay our fair-share of taxes into his massive healthcare pool in future years. Not only have to accept paying for our own low income, homeless people, but the absconders from other lands? We will become the United Nations of PPO’s, HMO’s that will bankrupt this nation? We are already sliding into a giant mire, but we can at least take release some of the intense pressure by the example of Mitt Romney statement; that we can still exercise a citizen’s right in demanding the ‘Legal Workforce Act’ or Mandatory E-Verify (H.R. 2885). This is true unadulterated immigration enforcement, by driving illegal aliens into self-deportation. The US Government has nothing to do, but audit business or listen to informants or whistle-blowers that have a front row seat, well aware of companies not complying with E-Verify? Once a few business owners see the inside of a prison cell or get fined millions of dollars the word will emanate around the country. These tough sanctions for violating the law will be determined to be an absolute deterrent if they hire illegal labor. The second urgent bill is the “Citizenship Birthright Amendment bill (H.R.140), which will derail the persistence of any illegal alien, of any national gaining immediate citizen for their baby and thereby unable to collect welfare benefits, that only citizens should have the approval. Outside of the radical manipulation of the Liberal press, read THE TRUE FACTUAL daily news columns at “American Patrol” Site. Only the American people have the unique power of the vote, to descend on any given political representative and insist they co-sponsor these laws? If you think for one minute that either party without your pressing by voters that politicians are going to support either of these laws without you harassing them; nothing will happen, ever? One thing’s for sure that paying out over $113 billion dollars a year in pandering to 22 million plus illegal aliens is not going away and the cold facts is the dollar amount is not going to fade? The public assistance programs are going to accelerate under this administrations Socialist dependency? It’s just going to grow as well as the overpopulation of this nation. Are we to face shortages of everything in our future? Learn the absolute truths at NumbersUSA. The E-Verify program must be succeeding as 4 Democrats have now co-sponsored this bill and you too should contact your federal or local lawmaker’s at 202-224-3121 and demand it. REMEMBER NON-CITIZENS DO VOTE IN ALL ELECTIONS AND WILL AGAIN IN 2012, WHILE DEMOCRATS LOOK THE OTHER WAY. The TEA PARTY does not segregate any race or nationality as the Liberal media would like you to believe, it doesn’t alienate any person who is here—LEGALLY. The WE THE PEOPLE TEA PARTY of tens of millions of members just requests that the 1986 Immigration law (IRCA) enforced and not altered to pander to illegal migrants and immigrants. Learn some fact-finding by researching at NumbersUSA, American Patrol, and Judicial Watch and Heritage Foundation sites. Outside of the radical manipulation of the Liberal press, read THE TRUE FACTUAL daily news columns at “American Patrol” Site. The E-Verify program must be succeeding as 4 Democrats have now co-sponsored this bill and you too should contact your federal or local lawmaker’s at 202-224-3121 and demand that this bill be passed.
posted by: Born in Connecticut on January 30, 2012 4:09pm I was born and raised here in CT. and I’ve always been warned “not to go into East Haven”, it has always been “listed” as a prejudice town. I never had a reason to go there, I don’t know anyone that lives there, and I’m not going to shop somewhere that my green money is accepted, but not my black a$$. So,, I stay out of East Haven. And I’m sick of the Malik Jones story, he was looking for trouble, and had a rap sheet a mile long.
posted by: Bill on January 30, 2012 4:12pm Streever seems to be calling folks that believe in innocent until proven guilty racists. Obviously the NHI does not support that right by their slanderous reporting....
posted by: Eric Smith on January 30, 2012 4:19pm Angel! That would be a brilliant twist on two current stories affecting two cities. I like the way you’re thinking. I don’t know if it would ever happen, but it would be great if it did.
posted by: Eric Smith on January 30, 2012 4:23pm Memorial Field…If most of the people in East Haven think like you, and I hope they do, your city will be fine.
posted by: Billy on January 30, 2012 4:38pm I hope that Mr. Brow and Mr. Krebs are successful in their attempt to get Chief Gallo fired BEFORE he can retire. Gallo deserves NOTHING but a long stay in a small, federally funded cell. If Mr. Brow and Mr. Krebs are not successful in that effort, I applaud them for doing the honorable thing in a direct protest of these abusers of power - Maturo and Gallo - who have used their power to intimidate their fellow East Haveners.
posted by: anon on January 30, 2012 4:41pm “They’re all criminals.” Really? East Haven Hispanic Population
1990: 500
2000: 1,200
2010: 3,000 Violent Crimes per 100,000 persons
1990: 220
2000: 210
2010: 130
posted by: streever Bill,
where does this article claim anyone is “guilty”? The article says people have been “charged” and some people are “happy” to see them retire. The bias is in the disproportionate defense—Gallo’s defenders are jumping to his defense despite the NHI not having said he is guilty of anything. They merely are letting you know that the story is relevant because Gallo is being charged by the FBI with a crime. When Malik Jones was shot dead, was he presumed innocent? When every latino in East Haven is routinely harassed and you and the other defenders say “well there are so many illegal immigrants what do you expect” is that a presumption of innocence? You currently have it both ways. Your people are presumed innocent, while the people who are being mistreated are not. When one points out this contradiction, you and the defenders start accusing them of doing exactly what you are doing. Where is the logic? Where is the justice? The comments here in blanket defense of racial profiling state that those of us against racial profiling are presuming guilt, but it is the opposite—you’ve not only accepted and acknowledged that racial profiling is happening, but are defending it as acceptable. You can’t REALLY reason this both ways.
posted by: dee on January 30, 2012 5:07pm Dave Francis, I read things like what you wrote, and I don’t know whether to scream or cry....
posted by: streever Dave Francis
Is that comment relevant to this story? Under Chief Gallo, the EHPD received record levels of complaints about police harassment of latinos who were legal americans. Now the FBI is investigating him. How is it biased to describe this? How is that liberal/biased/etc? This is news. It is something that matters to a lot of people (as you can see by all these comments and the FBI probe). I just don’t understand what makes you say that this is a liberal bias.
posted by: Anon on January 30, 2012 5:45pm Very well said, Streever @ 4:48. The flawed logic gets me every time. To frame their racism and inhumanity around immigration is quite convenient this time around.....
posted by: Bruce on January 30, 2012 7:32pm The FBI rarely brings charges unless they already have a lock solid case. I’d be surprised if this didn’t end in convictions on most counts.
posted by: Truth Avenger on January 30, 2012 7:32pm @Dave Francis who said, “The TEA PARTY does not segregate any race or nationality as the Liberal media would like you to believe”...No they don’t segregate, they just slander, defame, insult, intimidate, bully, spit, swagger with guns at the hip, with very few folks of color entering their ranks. Francis- I’ve been to tea party rallies up close and personal as an observer. We have all seen the ugly placards and watched the twisted faces spewing twisted words. Your comments have me reaching for my check book to write another check to The Southern Poverty Law Center(http://www.splcenter.org/) Articles at the site, like the one below, routinely expose entities across the country whose anti-immigrant or racist rhetoric undermines the foundations of our democracy:
Warning to Lawmakers Considering State Anti-Immigrant Bills: Remember Alabama
By Mary Bauer, Legal Director(http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/warning-to-lawmakers-considering-state-anti-immigrant-bills-remember-alabama)
With a new year upon us, many state legislatures across the country will be convening. Some may attempt to follow in the steps of Alabama by passing harsh, anti-immigrant legislation. Before they do, they should remember Alabama.
posted by: Lance on January 30, 2012 8:01pm It’s a great day for law enforcement. Len gallo ruined the east haven police department and his adverse effect on the quality of life in east haven can never be reversed. That is the legacy he leaves. Not to mention probable jail time for the officers that chose to follow him over the cliff. I feel bad for those guys but they were warned long ago, they chose to get buffaloed by gallo instead.
posted by: marko on January 30, 2012 8:10pm Wow, Dave Francis, there’s some serious truthiness going on in your treatise.
posted by: Curious on January 30, 2012 9:14pm Retired with pension? This guy is a bigot who probably could get nailed in a lawsuit. He should have been fired. Let’s hope the feds pick the bones clean on this one and get his pension revoked. I may hate illegal immigration, but I hate bullies even more.
posted by: Curious on January 30, 2012 9:17pm Dave Francis, You think the cops don’t have a union?... It’s the police union that lets BS like this happen, and let’s them retire with pay.
posted by: R. A. Gibson on January 30, 2012 9:38pm Will East Haven be known to the world as the 1960s era Birmingham, Alabama of the North? If East Haven does not clean house politically it will solidify its reputation as one of the most racist and intolerant cities in Connecticut.
East Haven’s racial and cultural diversity is bound to increase. Those quoted in this story who believe that the East Haven police have been doing a stellar job in protecting the rights of all the people and who believe that Hispanics merchants and residents are ruining their town are going to have to get used to change. Otherwise the federal government is going to have to come into East Haven and uphold the U.S. Constitution and federal laws to protect the civil rights of those who have been abused by East Haven leadership.
A first step was made in getting rid of Chief Gallo. The next step is to get rid of your mayor who is a clueless and foolish embarrassment to East Haven, the state of Connecticut, and the United States of America.
The whole world is now watching East Haven. East Haven had better do the right thing or go bankrupt trying to fight truth, justice and the American way in the federal courts in defense of a defenseless police department and a racially insensitive mayor.
posted by: Leonidas on January 30, 2012 10:33pm The argument about illegals is not what this is about. The issue is profiling. Through profiling government takes away rights of legal, law abiding citizens. American citizens of Latino ethnicity (Please note that Latino is not a “race”) living in, working in or driving through East Haven were systematically harassed simply because of ethnicity. Those in East Haven, including police officers, who questioned the legality and morality of this were harassed. These citizens were deprived of their rights and this was reinforced by the creation of a hostile and intimidating environment. When this happens all of our rights have been deprived no matter who we are.
posted by: Danno on January 31, 2012 12:17am Gallo should be denied pension....
posted by: cecilia proto on January 31, 2012 6:28am I am surprised that people can actually lie that racism does not exist. I have lived in New Haven for 39 years and also when I was younger. I am always at XPect in East Haven and never ever saw a cop sit on Main Street across from the barber shop. The bakery opens they are sitting there daily. Harassment, don’t know?
But the whole problem is not just racism, its horrible attitudes by young rookie’s... I am a grown woman, 62 years old and white, I have had double knee replacements and still having them repaired. They always torture me at the East town beach. Cocky, rude and not professional at all.
I recently was talking to police in front of my house about policies of the police dept. My Dad always told me,“if someone comes after you with a pitchfork,what do you do”. I told these young officers, I know they have a hard job,you chose it. but the kids today are lost, no values, no education,no parent involvement. You maybe the only source of direction they have,don’t be the enemy,try aprroaching with some understanding of what some of these kids go through.
I am very involved in my community,I have seen police brutality for years. we need a change in teaching the police of today that you are considered the enemy today, not a ali. I have met a lot of great cops, but a handful. Too many who hide behind a badge and abuse their authority.
So its not just about racism, its a entire problem of no trust in the police and fear of them. Thats a big problem.
posted by: Just saying! on January 31, 2012 6:48am Why is everyone pointing the finger at Gallo? Gallo didn’t do anything the Mayor didn’t allow him to do.So in all actuality It’s their Mayor who should resign or retire Not Gallo.
posted by: And the Band Played On on January 31, 2012 8:12am Unfortunately the town has not always made the best decisions when it comes to elected officials. I was thrilled with April as our mayor but was horrified at all of the sexist comments hurled at her for four years. She did the right thing, she did her job. Good people, long time residents, want this to be an inclusive, diverse town. I’m disappointed Mr Cerrato’s comments may be the ones people believe represent our town. He and others, who thought a bunch of white men finally had control back, are sickened to discover it is not going to be business as usual. Thank you April. Thank you online media! There are lots of naysayers trying to reduce this to a game of semantics. It’s not. We know we have a problem and we need to recognize we seem to be incapable of fixing it ourselves. When the feds come in to investigate, this town is using NATIONAL tax dollars. You have a say in this, all of you. This town needs your support to do the right thing. Gallo being out of the way is a start, but we need new leadership. We are relying on good reporting, accurate and fair, and good citizens from everywhere to support change in our little town. We need you.
posted by: streever Just Sayin!
There is a lot of context here. I agree that Maturo absolutely should resign. The profiling has been happening for a long time, however, under Chief Gallo. I’m sure Gallo is a great guy—even a good person—but he has a very different view of acceptable than federal laws or society in general. Most people don’t want to be profiled. If I told you that a number of italian terrorists had cropped up, and East Haven police were going to be routinely pulling over ALL Italians, people would be up in arms. However, this is how Gallo treats Latinos, because of the federal immigration problem. He has directed his officers to treat Latinos as criminals for years. Maturo ran and won BECAUSE OF Gallo—Gallo and his officers door knocked, got out the vote, and heavily supported Maturo, because Maturo had promised to “undo” the suspension that former Mayor Capone had Gallo under. Gallo supported Joe because Joe supported Gallo. Because of that, both should go—or both should welcome federal oversight and a revamp of the policies that enabled them to profile latinos.
posted by: NH Resident on January 31, 2012 10:23pm Love it! Adger for East Haven!! I mean, she can do better, but wouldn’t that be great.A 76-year-year-old disabled woman facing eviction by Fannie Mae will announce that she will not leave her home, as supporters hold a candlelight vigil tomorrow evening (Wednesday, January 16, 7 p.m., 2334 N. Mason).
Mary Bonelli, whose family has lived in the house in Belmont-Cragin since 1921, was current on mortgage payments when Fifth Third Bank’s online payment system stopped taking deductions from her account, said Sabrina Morey of Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction.
When she became aware of the problem and contacted the bank, she was told it was too late, Morey said. Bonelli and her 83-year-old sister hired a lawyer who took $2,500 up front before dropping the case, she said. Her home went into foreclosure last spring.
Fannie Mae acquired the mortage in September, but representatives there have refused to meet with Bonelli, Morey said. She said supporters have written and petitioned Fannie Mae on Bonelli’s behalf. At a court hearing last month, Fannie Mae lawyers told Bonelli that her home would go on the eviction list on January 16.
“I have no place else to go, and moving in my condition would be a nightmare,” said Bonelli, who has lymphoma. “To see all the hard work that three generations of my family have put into our home slip away because of the bank’s mistake would be devastating.”
CUAFE is prepared to carry out an eviction blockade if the sherriff attempts to remove Bonelli, Morey said.
The group has organized numerous homeowners who say they were unfairly foreclosed on and are “occupying” their homes in defiance of eviction notices. All of them have been able to remain in their homes; in one case a homeowner won a loan modification, Morey said.
She said eviction blockades in other cities have been “very successful.”Bell, Rogers, and Videotron are on the hot seat and will face tough questions regarding the way they charge for live and on-demand television on mobile apps. Canada’s telecom regulator is “taking this seriously” and has decided to review the mobile TV apps offered by the aforementioned telcos, reports the Globe and Mail.
At issue is the telcos’ $5 fee for streaming up to 10 hours of video content per month on mobile devices from select Canadian TV stations with no impact on their wireless data caps. At first glance, everything seems to be fine, but not when compared to 10 hours of video content streaming using Netflix, for example, in which case users may incur significant fees for exceeding their monthly data caps.
In other words, the CRTC is investigating whether Bell, Rogers, and Videotron are prioritizing their own content. To get to the core of the issue, the regulator has sent a list of up to 20 questions to each company, requesting details such as the number of subscribers, data usage, and content delivery.
While Videotron declined to comment, Bell and Rogers sent the following statement to the newspaper:
“Bell Mobile TV is a next-generation wireless service that’s increasingly popular with Canadian consumers, and it operates in compliance with all regulatory rules,” BCE spokesman Mark Langton said Monday, noting that the service had 1.5 million subscribers as of the second quarter of 2014. “We’re concerned that applications like this only serve to stifle mobile innovation.” Jennifer Kett, a spokeswoman for Rogers, said mobile television is “still in early days in Canada,” and, “the $5 [Rogers Anyplace] TV offer was designed to reflect that and encourage Canadians to use their mobile devices to consume more video content.” Plus, she said, it offers more access to Canadian content than customers would otherwise get with services like Netflix.
The issue was highlighted last year in a complaint submitted to the CRTC by Benjamin Klass, a University of Manitoba student who pointed to Bell’s suspect policy, which could be in violation of the Telecom Act. Since then, the regulator has received other complaints as well over Rogers and Videotron apps.Copyright by WWLP - All rights reserved
David McKay - WESTFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - There are currently about 1,700 homeless veterans in the state of Massachusetts.
Homeless military veterans can sometimes find a more permanent home or apartment with federal assistance, but many times those new homes come empty.
David Felty, of Homeward Vets, told 22News, "To give them the keys to the apartment is one thing. To give them the furniture and call it a home is a completely different idea."
That idea came from Navy veteran himself, David Felty. He helped form Homeward Vets- a non-profit organization that collects furnishings from residents or businesses to help veterans establish their homes. Felty says it helps keep veterans from returning to a life of homelessness.
Felty: "In my mind it has helped with the veterans not falling back into remission with drug use or alcohol abuse or you know many have mental health or PTSD issues and I think having stuff like this and having a place you can actually call your home is definitely a very rewarding experience for them and as well for me."
Whether it be a toaster, cookware, or couch, every bit stacked up Saturday at Stanley Park in Westfield to make a big difference.
Chris Chistolini, a volunteer at Homeward Vets, explained to 22News, "It's just a sad situation that these veterans who worked and gave their service to the country and they get nothing for it. They're virtually ignored. They should be supported as well they can and we're doing our part."
Since Homeward Vets started in 2012, they have helped furnish the homes of over 400 local veterans, all for free.
To find out where you can make a donation to Homeward Vets you can log onto our website wwlp.com (www.homewardvets.org)FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2013, file citizen journalism image provided by the Local Committee of Arbeen which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Syrian girl receives treatment at a makeshift hospital in Arbeen town, Damascus, Syria. The early-morning barrage against rebel-held areas around the the Syrian capital Damascus immediately seemed different: The rockets made a strange, whistling noise. Seconds after one hit near his home, Qusai Zakarya says he couldn’t breathe, and he desperately punched himself in the chest to get air. Hundreds of suffocating, twitching victims flooded into hospitals. Others were later found dead in their homes, towels still on their faces from their last moments trying to protect themselves from gas. Doctors and survivors recount scenes of horror from the alleged chemical attack a week ago. (AP Photo/Local Committee of Arbeen, File)
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has dropped yet another bombshell allegation: President Obama wasn't honest with the American people when he blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a sarin-gas attack in that killed hundreds of civilians.
In early September, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had proof that the nerve-gas attack was made on Assad's orders. "We know the Assad regime was responsible," President Obama told the nation in an address days after this revelation, which he said pushed him over the "red line" in considering military intervention.
But in a long story published Sunday for the London Review of Books, Hersh — best known for his exposés on the cover-ups of the My Lai Massacre and of Abu Ghraib – said the administration "cherry-picked intelligence," citing conversations with intelligence and military officials.
A former senior intelligence official told me that the Obama administration had altered the available information – in terms of its timing and sequence – to enable the president and his advisers to make intelligence retrieved days after the attack look as if it had been picked up and analysed in real time, as the attack was happening. The distortion, he said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when the Johnson administration reversed the sequence of National Security Agency intercepts to justify one of the early bombings of North Vietnam. The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”’
Here's what Hersh alleges:
The administration buried intelligence on the fundamentalist group/rebel group al-Nusra. It was seen, Hersh says, as an alarming threat by May, with the U.S. being aware of al-Nusra member able to make and use sarin, and yet the group – associated with the rebel opposition in Syria – was never considered a suspect in the sarin attacks. Hersh refers to a top-secret June cable sent to the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency that said al-Nusra could acquire and use sarin. But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Defense Intelligence Agency could not find the document in question, even when given its specific codes.
RELATED: October and November Are the Cruellest Months For Healthcare.Gov
Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, told a press conference: ‘It’s very important to note that only the [Assad] regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses sarin.’ It is not known whether the highly classified reporting on al-Nusra was made available to Power’s office, but her comment was a reflection of the attitude that swept through the administration.
The administration was learning about the attack at roughly the same speed civilians were. Hersh says the thorough daily intelligence briefings in the days surrounding the gas attack did not make a single mention of Syria, even as videos and photos of the attack went viral across the Internet. He added that there was revealed a sensor system in Syria that had, in December 2012, shown sarin production at a chemical weapons depot arranged by the Syrian army. Though it was unclear whether this was a simulation or not – all militaries, Hersh says, practice simulations of such things – Obama promptly warned Syria that use of sarin gas would be "unacceptable."
‘If what the sensors saw last December was so important that the president had to call and say, “Knock it off,” why didn’t the president issue the same warning three days before the gas attack in August?’
The media succumbed to confirmation bias in response to a UN report on the attack. That report, which is less than certain in its terms, said that the spent weapon "indicatively matches" the specifics of a 330mm calibre artillery rocket. MIT professor Theodore Postol and other munitions experts later reviewed the photos and said that it was improvised, likely made locally, didn't match anything in the Syrian arsenal and would not have been able to travel the nine kilometres from the Syrian army base that the media presumed it was fired from.You have now 2090 followers. Add 10% to that and you will get 2299. You can now follow up to 2299.
Now you have 2299. Add 10% to that and you will get 230. You can now follow up to 2529.
And it goes on like this.
If you are new to, chances are that you still have not attained the 2000 barrier limit imposed by Twitter. Twitter has abased on the number of followers you have. This means that you can not be following more than 2000 people unless you have the same amount of followers. This barrier exist to avoid a lot of things, among which, is spamming. It does not make sense to follow a lot of people and no one following you. This obviously is against the intent of the Twitterverse as there people who use Twitter to only send out making money online messages and while it can work, you will only end up with people not following you.This limit actually works on a percentage level (10%), but only when you are almost following 2000 people. As an example, say you have 1900 followers. 10% of 1900 is 190 and adding this to 1900 you will reach a total of 2090. This means that you can not be following more than 2090. When you reach this limit, Twitter will not let you follow more people, until such a time that your followers plus 10% increases.Let us take the example above and continue with it.You may find a lot of opinions on what is the best practice on following or not, people on Twitter. I believe that it is polite to follow those who follow you, and for that matter, the other way around. Unless you are specifically interested on somebody, I believe that it is not unpolite to unfollow those who do not follow you. Obviously, there are people that may interest us in following them, regardless whether they follow us or not. Example of these people can be Barrack Obama, Guy Kawasaki, Google, CNN, DiTesco (that’s me, lol), etc. Also, you should make it a point to follow people that have the same interest as you. It is likely that you will get them to follow you, if you share the same interest. Do not follow people just for the sake of having your numbers high. For example, following someone who’s interest is in SEO Tips, and your is fishing, does not seem to be relevant. They will probably unfollow you and ultimately, this will hurt you, and your credibility. Just like anything else,oris about sharing knowledge, entertaining and being polite. Give your followers something of value. Telling them that you are having a cup of coffee does not seem to valuable enough, don’t you think?So there you go, when you reach the limit on Twitter, simply unfollow those who do not follow you back and that will raise your limit again, until you reach the 10% gap.Image copyright AFP Image caption United Airlines faced a public relations disaster
Two weeks after a passenger was violently dragged from one of its planes, United Airlines says it is to link pay more closely to customer satisfaction.
The US company has also revealed its chief executive, Oscar Munoz, will now not become chairman, as anticipated.
The airline has been under heavy scrutiny since video of the incident was shared worldwide.
The executive pay decision features in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission financial watchdog.
"United's management and the board take recent events extremely seriously and are in the process of developing targeted compensation program design adjustments to ensure that employees' incentive opportunities for 2017 are directly and meaningfully tied to progress in improving the customer experience," the filing said.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption United Airlines boss Oscar Munoz had to apologise over the "dragging" incident
It said a prior employment agreement with Mr Munoz had been reversed, so he would not become chairman of the board in 2018.
The company, listed as United Continental Holdings Inc, said Mr Munoz initiated the amendment, and future appointments to the chairman position would now be at the board's discretion.
The filing also showed Mr Munoz was paid $18.72m (£14.5m) in 2016.
Mr Munoz was heavily criticised and faced calls to resign after passenger Dr David Dao two lost teeth and suffered a broken nose as he was dragged from the plane in Chicago on 9 April.
In his first public statement, the executive had appeared to place the blame on Dr Dao, describing him as "disruptive and belligerent".
Days later, Mr Munoz said he felt "shame and embarrassment", and vowed that it would never happen again.
United was due to answer detailed questions about the incident at a Senate panel on Friday, but the airline requested a further week's postponement.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption An eyewitness describes how the passenger sitting next to her was dragged off the plane
Law enforcement officials dragged Dr Dao off a flight departing from Chicago for Louisville, Kentucky, because it was fully booked, and the airline wanted four passengers to make way for staff members.
The 69-year-old Vietnamese-American physician had refused to leave, saying he needed to go home to see his patients. He was then dragged down the aisle of the aircraft.
Dr Dao's daughter, Crystal Dao Pepper, later told a news conference in Chicago that the family had been "sickened" by what had happened.
The ordeal led to demonstrations at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and turned into a public relations disaster for United Airlines.A Florida company kept a dangerous secret from the public for three weeks: A massive sinkhole had leaked at least 215 million gallons of radioactive water into an aquifer.
The mining company said workers first noticed it around the end of August, but didn't tell anyone because they found "no risk to the public."
SEE ALSO: Robots are slowly taking over the job market
And the sinkhole seems to be draining into an aquifer that provides drinking water to millions of people. It also feeds water into springs used for recreational activites.
See photos of other infamous sinkholes from around the world:
16 PHOTOS Massive, shocking sinkholes from around the world See Gallery Massive, shocking sinkholes from around the world SOLIKAMSK, RUSSIA - NOVEMBER 20: A view of a sinkhole stretching 20 by 30 meters at the Solikamsk-2 mine on November 20, 2014 in Solikamsk, Perm region, Russia. (Photo by Uralkali Press Center/TASS/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) SOLIKAMSK, RUSSIA - NOVEMBER 20: A view of a sinkhole stretching 20 by 30 meters at the Solikamsk-2 mine on November 20, 2014 in Solikamsk, Perm region, Russia. (Photo by Uralkali Press Center/TASS/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) TORONTO, ON - JULY 9 - A sinkhole on Disco Rd. near the Hwy 427 is seen as a result of Monday's rain storm. July 9, 2013. (Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star via Getty Images) Buildings collapse into a sinkhole at the Summer Bay Resort on U.S. Highway 192 in Clermont, Florida, Monday, August 12, 2013. No one was injured but about three dozen resort goers left behind car keys, medication and other personal belongings inside their luxury condominiums after the crumbling edifices were evacuated. (Red Huber/ Orlando Sentinel/MCT via Getty Images) TORONTO, ON - JULY 9: A sinkhole opened up on Disco Road at Hwy 427 after a massive storm and flooding in the GTA. (Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star via Getty Images) CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 18: Workers pull a truck from a sinkhole that opened up on a residential street in the South Deering neighborhood on April 18, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. The driver of the truck was hospitalized after driving into the 15-feet-deep hole while on his way to |
get any pushback, immediately shine light on how this affects your core customer and following it can save hundreds of hours. And, don’t forget ADA Compliancy!Baseball can impart history lessons S.F. STATE
Student Matthew Innes wears his Giants orange gloves while taking notes in Mark Sigmon's class on the history and literature of baseball at San Francisco State University. Student Matthew Innes wears his Giants orange gloves while taking notes in Mark Sigmon's class on the history and literature of baseball at San Francisco State University. Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Susana Bates, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Baseball can impart history lessons 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
Racial hatred. Union-busting. Class warfare. The bitter themes of American history are staples of college classrooms - and still put students to sleep.
"I've lectured on the history of labor, and my students get sort of glassy-eyed," admitted Mark Sigmon, who teaches at San Francisco State University, holds a doctorate from Cal, and thinks he has an answer.
Baseball.
When word got out that Sigmon was teaching "The History and Literature of Baseball" this semester, his class quickly filled up with dozens of students.
Sigmon, 53, is an expert in American history and race relations who wrote his doctorate on "squaw men," 19th century white guys who married American Indian women. He could easily lecture students about prejudices of the era and drone on about, say, the nascent labor movement.
Or he could tell them a baseball story, as he did the other day. The late 19th century was a time when ballplayers earned little money and team owners held all the power, Sigmon told the class packed with students who were neither gazing at cell phones nor doodling in notebooks.
"John T. Brush, an investor from Indianapolis, proposed a classification scale where players would be graded," he said. The top-ranked players would earn $2,250 a year. The lowest, much less.
"It was sort of like a meat market," the professor said. "It got everyone really angry."
It also inspired John Montgomery Ward, one of baseball's best players before he became a lawyer, to organize team members into "the very first players union, the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players," Sigmon said.
"You could be fired for joining a union," he said, giving the flavor of the time by quoting a headline that called unionized players "Lazy, Pampered Men of Leisure."
Racial tensions
Meanwhile, pro ballplayers who weren't in the National League were in the American Association, the precursor of the American League, Sigmon said. And in the 1880s, black players began to join.
Because of the Brush Classification Scale (you were taking notes, right?), that meant black players could push lesser white players into the lower ranks.
"If you're barely hanging on, and all of a sudden you're introducing all these new players, you could be out of a job," Sigmon told the class.
Some white players demanded the ouster of black players. Ward, the white union organizer who had pitched baseball's second perfect game for the Providence Grays in 1880, argued to keep black players playing.
But an even bigger name - super-slugger Cap Anson of the Chicago Colts, later the Cubs - refused.
"So the American Association had to cut black players, largely because of Cap Anson," Sigmon said.
"He's racist!" hissed a guy near the front of the class.
"Yeah, he was pretty racist," Sigmon said, easing into a discussion of Plessy vs. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld segregation in 1890.
"Baseball plays into the history of the United States," he said.
Then a voice in the back said, "I almost feel that baseball wasn't ready for black players. It would have caused too much upheaval."
Sigmon paused. The syllabus for the class - which meets 15 times (not on Opening Day), requires seven books and covers baseball from its origins to the eras of steroids and sabermetrics, used in "Moneyball" - promises that the class "will be dealing with sensitive topics" and that discussions will be "spirited."
Matt Kunst, the 26-year-old history major who offered the "upheaval" observation, is a devotee of spirited discussion who also argued on behalf of baseball owners who "risked their wealth, so shouldn't they reap the profits?" and for overlooking steroid use, as "it seems immoral that they don't let Barry Bonds into the Hall of Fame."
Finding parallels
Like many in the class, Kunst sees baseball as a microcosm of the nation- about stepping up to the plate and giving it your best shot.
But he sees other, less sanguine parallels. "You're not supposed to cheat. But people do it. There's all kinds of insider trading. Ponzi schemes. You do all these little things that could be considered immoral," he said in a way that made it hard to tell if he was talking about baseball or Wall Street.
So a response to his comment about 19th century baseball perhaps not being ready for black players required some care.
Finally, Sigmon said, "Cap Anson could have said, 'Hey, this is a competitive game. We need the best players.' Not ready? No. It could have been done. It should have been done."
Loved by his students and nominated for a national teaching award, Sigmon is the kind of teacher who keeps trying to perfect his craft. Later, thinking back, he wasn't entirely happy with his response.
"I should have emphasized how much individual people can do to shape situations," he reflected. "History allows us to figure out why people did what they did in the past - and if we can really understand the forces at work, then we can do it better."After a lengthy period of his life spent on Merseyside, Australian-born Brad Smith now considers himself to be a 'Scoussie'.
The Liverpool defender made the move halfway across the world at the age of 14, when his footballing talents were just emerging.
Since joining the Academy, he has gone on to progress through the ranks at Kirkby all the way to the first team, and now represents his homeland on the international stage.
Having spent so much time in the city of Liverpool and around its people, Smith’s accent has altered in a way familiar to Reds legend Jan Molby - whose Danish tone now regularly features Scouse inflections.
"I've been here eight years now - it's gone quick," Smith told Liverpoolfc.com to promote the launching of the club's first full-time coaching programme in Australia.
"They're both my homes. [I'm] half and half - a Scoussie!"
Born and growing up in Penrith, in the state of New South Wales, Smith turned to football at a relatively late age.
His first footballing recollection was when he was 11 years old, having been side-tracked with other sporting interests.
"I used to do sprinting as a child and stuff like that. I used to play football but then I had to put athletics to the side and focus on football," Smith said.
"I played rugby too, but not cricket - the boys give me stick for not liking cricket when I'm an Aussie, I just never got into it.
"Obviously I used to watch Liverpool when I was younger, but I remember when [John] Aloisi scored the winning penalty to take Australia to the World Cup [in 2005] - that was probably my first memory to be honest.
"It was a great day for Australia because we hadn't been in the World Cup for so long.
"I also used to love Roberto Carlos. I just loved the way he played, left-footed, crazy shot and he was just a great player."
Despite the late start, Smith quickly adapted and found his feet at'soccer'.
As a result, it then led to some tough very choices needing to be made at an early age, after he caught the eye of Liverpool scouts with his sheer athleticism and impressive ability on the pitch.
The 22-year-old recalls: "I was just enjoying playing it as a kid with my friends and stuff and then it kind of took off.
"I was playing up a few ages and got into a representative team and came over to England. [I] played a few games over here and went from there.
"Both of my parents are English and I've got a lot of family over here, [but] it was a big decision for my family.
“I don't know if I would have done it if my mum, step-dad and brother didn't come over.
"The hardest thing was going to school. It was just different going to a new school where I didn't speak the same or look the same - I had long hair!
"[But] it was obviously a dream come true to be approached by such a big club and to get the chance to show what I can do was a great honour.
"It was a big decision but it's paid off."
Liverpool recently announced the launch of an international academy not far from where Smith resided.
At Southern Cross University and other locations around New South Wales, youngsters down under will be given the same footballing lessons that Smith received during his time at Kirkby.
The Academy graduate provides an example of the talent within the southern hemisphere, and he feels the stars of tomorrow are there to be found down under.
"I think it's a great opportunity over there because I didn't have something like that when I was growing up. I think it'll be great, especially because it's not too far from where I grew up," Smith continued.
"It's a great chance, especially with the coaches coming from here, and this is where football is born.
“To go over there and coach the kids from a young age, I think, will really help them. There will be some good talent over there.
"I was in everyday and you learn from great coaches, just working on things everyday and slowly getting better and better."
Read more about LFC's new International Academy in Australia hereLocksmiths and firemen in Spain are rebelling against a wave of evictions in the economic crisis by refusing to help bailiffs open ruined homeowners’ doors to throw them out.
“Families’ lives were being ruined and we were acting as executioners,” David Ormaechea, president of the Locksmiths Union, told AFP. “It was causing us tension and unease.”
A wave of evictions of mortgage-holders ruined by the recession has prompted several suicides and sparked a protest movement that last week brought a motion to parliament for a law to end the procedure.
With the locksmiths refusing to take part, some authorities have been asking the fire service to step in and break open the doors of those resisting eviction.
On Tuesday in the northwestern city of A Coruna, firefighters were called to help evict an 85-year-old woman who had defaulted on her rent.
A crowd of protestors gathered outside the apartment to block the eviction. When the firefighters arrived they refused to open the door and some of them joined in the protest.
Firefighters in other regions such as Catalonia and Madrid have since followed their example.
“We come to the aid of people in emergencies. It is contradictory to help the banks that are putting people’s lives in danger” by evicting them, Antonio del Rio, a labour union representative for the Catalonia fire service, told AFP.
“The only thing we do is help citizens,” said another Madrid fireman, Pedro Campos.
“We only enter a home when there is danger inside. Getting a woman of 85 out of her home is not a situation of danger.”
PAH, the campaign movement that brought the proposed law to parliament, says hundreds of thousands of people face eviction following the collapse of Spain’s housing boom in 2008.
The resulting recession has driven the unemployment rate over 26 percent, leaving many unable to pay mortgages on houses that have lost much of their value.
Regularly demonstrating on evictees’ doorsteps, PAH says it has blocked half a million evictions since 2009, in some cases enabling families to stay in their homes and pay rent.
Its bill, backed by a petition with 1.4 million signatures, proposes to end evictions and let insolvent homeowners write off their debts by surrendering their home.
Under the current law, a bank can pursue a borrower for the remaining balance of a loan if the value of the seized property does not cover it.Far Cry: Primal is a time machine, throwing you back to a period when simply getting through the night with all your body parts intact was worthy of a cheering crowd. This is a pitiless world, stocked with hungry beasts, hostile tribes, and the occasional cliff with a murderous drop. There are no guns in this place, just back-to-very-basics melee destruction. The graphics are fantastic, the environments wonderfully rendered to create an atmosphere both stunning and fearful. Sometimes I just perched myself on a bluff to watch predators fight over fallen prey in all their vicious glory. Other times I found myself dreading sundown knowing what waited out there, a tension highlighted by the great audio, with howls and roars echoing somewhere in the distance. Although, upgrading your skill set does go a long way to taming the night. The soundtrack is mostly otherworldly sounds and ominous tribal beats, enriching the feel of this Stone Age landscape. The beastmaster concept was great, I had all sorts of fun sniping people with an owl, and some of your beast buddies are the best weapon you have.
There were things that nagged me, though. The central character, Takkar, is woefully underwritten, muting the emotional payoff after the main plot is completed. Not enough is known about him to care that much. The numerous side quests, while initially satisfying, do get a little too repetitive. The combat is certainly nasty, but suffers from a lack of defense mechanics. No parries or dodge rolls here, expect to eat some hard hits when dancing with a cannibal. I also couldn’t help but feel UbiSoft missed an opportunity to enhance the uniqueness of the experience by failing to add more prehistoric creatures. Sabertooths, mammoths, and the occasional woolly rhino are present, but I would have loved to tame a big terror bird, run from packs of large terminator pigs, and hunt giant sloths. In the end, I enjoyed the game immensely, but I wish it reflected a tad more thought and imagination.A screenshot taken from the trailer for "No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka" No Fire Zone
India's film censors have refused permission for the general release of a film chronicling the violent closing months of the civil war in Sri Lanka because the documentary may strain friendly relations between the two countries.
The Central Board of Film Certification also said in a letter to the director of “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka,” reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, that it would not grant a certificate to allow the documentary to be shown in theaters because “most of the visuals are of a disturbing nature and not fit for public exhibition.”
In response, the documentary’s director Callum Macrae has decided to make the film available free online on the film's website starting Sunday.
The censor board could not be reached immediately for comment.
The film is a collection of footage recorded in the northeast region of the island nation by doctors, civilians, Tamil rebels and Sinhalese soldiers on cell phones and hand-held cameras as the Sri Lankan government allegedly bombarded areas filled with refugees fleeing the fighting.
"This is an explicit admission that India doesn't want the film to be seen for political expediency," Mr. Macrae said in a telephone interview with the Journal. "India is denying access to evidence of war crimes, and participating in a process to prevent the truth from getting out," he added.
The film premiered at private screenings in Mumbai and Delhi in November, at which time the Indian government did not grant Mr. Macrae a visa to visit India. The Ministry of Home Affairs told the Wall Street Journal at the time that Mr. Macrae's visa was denied because he had violated visa norms in 2011, but has not provided an explanation to the British director for their refusal to grant him a visa.
Attempts to screen "No Fire Zone" in Nepal and Malaysia have also met with government opposition and censorship, said Mr. Macrae. In Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, police and censor board officials raided a film screening to prevent it from being shown. The government of Nepal also came under pressure from the Sri Lankan government to change venues for a screening in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, according to Mr. Macrae.
But India's reluctance to show the film is most concerning given the country's tradition of free speech and democracy, said Mr. Macrae. "It is India's moral duty to allow the truth to come out," said Mr. Macrae.
"India is the most important country in this conflict after Sri Lanka itself... It is the leading power in the region, the rest of the world looks to India for leadership on the [Sri Lankan conflict]," said Mr. Macrae.
The decision to ban the film is the most recent example of curtailment of freedom of expression in India. Earlier this month, publishing house Penguin agreed to withdraw and pulp copies of a book about Hinduism written by a prominent American scholar after a legal battle with a nationalist group.
Mr. Macrae’s 93-minute documentary contains eyewitness accounts and personal testimonies from U.N. workers and Sri Lankan civilians who were in Vanni province and other areas of the north east where the fighting was fiercest.
The film pieces together this footage as evidence that the government failed to honor the “no fire zones” it created for civilians seeking shelter. Between January and May of 2009, Sri Lankan forces repeatedly opened fire on these “safe zones” and makeshift hospitals, the film alleges.
Mr. Macrae says that the footage has been verified by forensic experts who analyze evidence in British courts.
A United Nations panel in 2011 said that up to 40,000 people, mainly ethnic Tamil civilians were killed as the decades-long Sri Lankan civil war came to an end in 2009, while members of the U.N.’s in-country team and humanitarian agencies claim that over 70,000 people are unaccounted for.
The Sri Lankan government estimates that fewer than 10,000 civilians were killed in the war, according to a November 2012 internal U.N. report.
Follow Shanoor and India Real Time on Twitter @shanoorseervai and @WSJIndia.Romantic Soul
You love being in love and can remember vividly the sensation of your first infatuation. Breakups are tough and though you never completely get over someone you’ve loved, you are able to pick up the pieces and start anew. Each relationship is like a beautiful garden to which you tend with tender care and attention. You water it with love and affection and devote considerable effort toward it’s maintenance. When your other half does not show the same commitment, it hurts you. Love is a two-way street and you deserve a partner who is as thoughtful and romantic as you are or at least one who appreciates the sentiment. You fall in love easily and are a sucker for beautiful appearances and superficial cynosures. Flattery will get others everywhere with you as it sparks the romantic candles in your brain.
You possess fine taste and an eye for quality and you are liable to become an avid incense user whose home smells like a Turkish harem. That’s a flagrant generalization but the point is that you like nice things. You are an afficionado of all things sensual and you may have a greater emotional response to food and material comforts. However, if your moon and venus are well aspected with Saturn, then excessive emotional eating should not become an issue. Your loving nature may manifest in a desire to nurture others especially animals. You probably own a pet of some kind or hold an interest in getting one because they can satisfy the need to dote and express affection. You are sensitive to disharmony and the suffering of others which sullies and puts a damper on your idyllic ideals. You are not fond of violence and cruelty is unconscionable to you. You have pacifistic tendencies and are able to assuage conflict with your calming influence.
Like this: Like Loading...Citigroup economists Samiran Chakraborty and Anurag Jha said a combination of good monsoon rains crucial for farmers, wage hikes for public sector employees and festival demand were supportive for consumption demand. "But the sharp decline in our rural demand indicator indicate that this data point could be prone to revision in subsequent releases," they said.
A question many asked is how accurately did the quarterly GDP figures capture the impact of demonetization on India's sizable informal sectors, where much of the transactions happen in cash. Experts say the quarterly statistics use data on organized sectors as a proxy for India's unorganized sectors, implying the numbers may not accurately capture the effects.
Radhika Rao, an economist at Singapore's DBS Bank, told CNBC sub-trends suggested the formal sector might have benefited from the banknote ban, with more transactions taking place through electronic means.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) member of parliament in the upper house, Subramanian Swamy told CNBC's "Squawk Box" that much of the calculations for the informal sectors were based on "guesswork," "benchmarks" and "ratios" as opposed to raw data.
"Therefore, I won't place too much emphasis on it. The real issues are the slowdown in small-and-medium industries because of the cash crunch," Swamy said, adding public-sector banks also needed huge recapitalization and the fiscal deficit was well beyond what the government budgeted for — issues, he said, the government needed to address. But he acknowledged that it was too early to tell if the demonetization shock on the economy is over.In an expose on Microsoft’s response to Consumer Report’s Surface Reliability claims, Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott made some pretty significant claims about Microsoft’s hardware unit and the reasons why its current range of devices have fallen somewhat flat when it comes to innovative features.
Owners of the last generation of the Microsoft Surface range (Surface Pro 4, Surface Book) would know about persistent complaints of power management and reliability issues which have, via word of mouth, been lain at the feet of Intel’s Skylake processors.
According to Paul Thurrott, this was a big lie which was being spread by senior Microsoft officials, even internally.
Thurrott writes:
Since then, however, another trusted source at Microsoft has provided with a different take on this story. Microsoft, I’m told, fabricated the story about Intel being at fault. The real problem was Surface-specific custom drivers and settings that the Microsoft hardware team cooked up.
The lie came to light when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Lenovo last year and asked them how it was dealing with the Skylake reliability issues and was told that no-one except Microsoft was having these issues.
The revelation of internal software incompetence caused Microsoft to cancel or delay more ambitious products last year, resulting in the current boring generation of slightly upgraded Surface Pro (tellingly without the driver-nightmare USB-C/Thunderbolt ports) and the even more boring Surface Laptop.
Thurrott notes “more forward-leaning products like a new Surface Hub, code-named Aruba, and a mobile device code-named Andromeda, were pushed back, in the former’s case to 2019.”
The good news is that Microsoft appears to have gotten on top of the issue internally, but one wonders whether the company’s own confidence in launching innovative products such as the detachable Surface Book, which had a 16% return rate due to reliability issues, has been dented for a long time going forward, and whether this killed interesting products such as their foldable phablet.Olfactory dysfunction
Disturbances in olfaction can result from pathologic processes at any level along the olfactory pathway. They can be classified in a way analogous to otologic dysfunction, as conductive or sensorineural defects. In conductive (ie, transport) defects, transmission of an odorant stimulus to the olfactory neuroepithelium is disrupted. Sensorineural defects involve the more central neural structures. Overall, the most common causes of primary olfactory deficits are aging, nasal and/or sinus disease, prior viral upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), and head trauma. [12]
Conductive defects
Inflammatory processes cause a large portion of olfactory defects. These may include rhinitis of various types, including allergic, acute, or toxic (eg, cocaine use). Chronic rhinosinusitis causes progressive mucosal disease and often leads to decreased olfactory function despite aggressive allergic, medical, and surgical intervention.
Masses may block the nasal cavity, preventing the flow of odorants to the olfactory epithelium. These include nasal polyps (most common), inverting papilloma, or any nasal tumor.
Developmental abnormalities (eg, encephaloceles, dermoid cysts) also may cause obstruction.
Patients with laryngectomies or tracheotomies experience hyposmia because of a reduced or absent nasal airflow. Children with tracheotomies who are cannulated very young and for a long period may have a continued problem with olfaction even after decannulation because of a lack of early stimulation of the olfactory system.
Central/sensorineural defects
Infectious and inflammatory processes contribute to central defects in olfaction and in transmission. A viral URTI may result in smell loss by replacing olfactory neuroepithelium with respiratory epithelium, but studies suggest that stem cells remain, allowing for potential regeneration of the olfactory epithelium. Recovery of smell in these cases can take months to years and, in some instances, may never occur. Sarcoidosis (affecting neural structures), Wegener granulomatosis, and multiple sclerosis are also diseases that can result in smell loss. Once thought to be mostly a conductive defect through mucosal edema and polyp formation, chronic rhinosinusitis also appears to disrupt the neuroepithelium with irreversible loss of olfactory receptors through up-regulated apoptosis.
Head trauma, brain surgery, or subarachnoid hemorrhage may stretch, damage, or transect the delicate fila olfactoria or damage brain parenchyma and result in anosmia. [13] A study by Bratt et al found that out of 182 patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), olfactory dysfunction was diagnosed in 13.7% of them, with 8.2% of the total group suffering from anosmia. The study found an association between olfactory dysfunction and TBI patients who had sustained a fall, skull base fracture, or cortical contusion. [14]
Sense of smell decreases with age, and it has been shown that the number of fibers in the olfactory bulb decreases throughout one's lifetime. In one study the average loss in human mitral cells was 520 cells per year with a reduction in bulb volume of 0.19 mm3. [15] These olfactory bulb losses may be secondary to sensory cell loss in the olfactory mucosa and/or general decline in the regenerative process from stem cells in the subventricular zone.
Congenital syndromes may be associated with neural losses. Kallmann syndrome is one type of congenital smell loss and is due to failed olfactory structure ontogenesis and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. One study found the vomeronasal organ to be absent in patients with Kallmann syndrome.
Endocrine disturbances (eg, hypothyroidism, hypoadrenalism, diabetes mellitus) may affect olfactory function.
Toxicity of systemic or inhaled drugs (eg, aminoglycosides, formaldehyde) can contribute to olfactory dysfunction. Many other medications and compounds may alter smell sensitivity, including alcohol, nicotine, organic solvents, and direct application of zinc salts. [16]
Over-the-counter zinc nasal sprays have been implicated in the cause of smell loss. On June 16, 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public health advisory and notified consumers and healthcare providers to discontinue use of intranasal zinc products. The intranasal zinc products (Zicam Nasal Gel/Nasal Swab products by Matrixx Initiatives) are herbal cold remedies that claim to reduce the duration and severity of cold symptoms and are sold without a prescription. The FDA received more than 130 reports of anosmia (inability to detect odors) associated with intranasal zinc. Many of the reports described the loss of smell with the first dose. [17]
The NHANES study determined that smoking can be linked to greater risk of olfactory alteration. [18] Research has identified squamous metaplasia and change in the morphology of the olfactory receptor neurons in smokers, as well as a higher level of apoptosis of these neurons in smokers than in controls. In addition, there is evidence that the volume of the olfactory bulb is reduced in smokers. [19]
Various neuropsychiatric disorders (eg depression, [20] seasonal affective disorder, bipolar disorder [21] ) have been linked to hyposmia. It has also been shown that patients with schizophrenia or acute major depressive disorder have not only decreased olfactory sensitivity but also reduced olfactory bulb volumes. [22, 23] The neurologic explanation for these findings is under active investigation and may lead to new therapies or early detection screening tools.
Degenerative processes of the central nervous system (eg, Parkinson disease [PD], Alzheimer disease) and other neurologic diseases (Huntington disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron disease) have been associated with hyposmia. Patients with Alzheimer or Parkinson disease show changes in detection, discrimination, and identification of odors compared with age-matched controls. The severity of dysfunction is correlated to disease progression, although in most cases, olfactory loss is present years before motor or cognitive symptoms; this is usually a gradual loss and often goes unnoticed or unreported by patients.
The presence of olfactory dysfunction at the time of PD diagnosis increases the risk of developing dementia. [24] Indeed, in general, olfactory loss in an individual increases the odds of being diagnosed with dementia within 5 years, [25] but this may be a phenomenon of an overall association of age-related sensory impairment with cognitive impairment. [26]
A study by Cecchini et al found severe olfactory impairment in persons with Down syndrome, with these individuals performing worse than euploid controls on tests of odor detection threshold, odor discrimination, and odor identification. Among 56 subjects with Down syndrome, 27 demonstrated functional anosmia. [27]
An association has also been recognized between smell loss and increased risk of mortality. [28] This has been found to be unrelated to dementia and may be an indicator of deteriorating health. [29]
The assessment of olfactory function should become a more standard aspect of patient evaluation. There are numerous functional and structural approaches available to assess the olfactory system, including psychosocial and electrophysiological testing, as well as imaging studies. Objective measures of olfactory function may serve as an early marker for these diseases or as a prognostic indicator. An understanding of the mechanism of the decrease in smell could help to further elucidate the pathophysiology of these disorders or uncover new treatments. [30, 31]
Gustatory dysfunction
Much of what is perceived as a taste defect is truly a primary defect in olfaction resulting in an alteration of flavor. The components that comprise the sensation of flavor include the food's smell, taste, texture, and temperature. Each of these sensory modalities is stimulated independently to produce a distinct flavor when food enters the mouth.
Taste may be enhanced by tongue movements, which increase the distribution of the substance over a greater number of taste buds. Adaptation in taste perception exerts a greater influence than in other sensory modalities.
Other than smell dysfunction, the most frequent causes of taste dysfunction are prior URTI, head injury, and idiopathic causes, but many other causes can be responsible.
Lesions at any site from the mucosa, taste buds, unmyelinated nerves, or cranial nerves to the brain stem may impair gustation.
Oral cavity and mucosal disorders including oral infections, inflammation, and radiation-induced mucositis can impair taste sensation. The site of injury with radiotherapy is probably the microvilli of the taste buds, not the taste buds themselves, since taste buds are thought to be radioresistant.
Poor oral hygiene is a leading cause of hypogeusia and cacogeusia. Viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections may lead to taste disturbances because of secondary taste bud involvement.
Normal aging produces taste loss due to changes in taste cell membranes involving altered function of ion channels and receptors rather than taste bud loss. [3, 32]
More than 200 medications have been associated with taste disorders. [33] Clinicians need to be aware of this, especially with regard to patients taking numerous drugs.
Malignancies of the head and neck, as well as of other sites, are associated with decreased appetite and inability to appreciate flavors.
Use of dentures or other palatal prostheses may impair sour and bitter perception, and tongue brushing has been shown to decrease taste acuity.
Surgical manipulation may alter taste permanently or temporarily. Resection of the tongue and/or portions of the oral cavity, most commonly for reasons of malignancy, decreases the number of taste buds. Radiation and chemotherapy damage taste receptors and decrease salivary flow, altering taste perception. In otologic surgery, stretching or transection of the chorda tympani nerve may result in temporary dysgeusia. Bilateral injury still may not result in permanent taste dysfunction, because of the alternate innervation through the otic ganglion to the geniculate ganglion via the greater superficial petrosal nerve.
Gastric bypass surgery can also have adverse olfactory and gustatory effects. In a study by Graham et al of 103 patients who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, sensory changes in taste and smell were reported by 73% and 42% of these individuals, respectively, [34] although patients seem to have less olfactory loss if the bypass is done laparoscopically. [35]
Nutritional deficiencies are involved in taste aberrations. Decreased zinc, copper, and nickel levels can correlate with taste alterations. Nutritional deficiencies may be caused by anorexia, malabsorption, and/or increased urinary losses.
Endocrine disorders also are involved in taste and olfactory disorders. Diabetes mellitus, hypogonadism, Sjögren syndrome, and pseudohypoparathyroidism may decrease taste sensation, while hypothyroidism and adrenal cortical insufficiency may increase taste sensitivity. Hormonal fluctuations in menstruation and pregnancy also influence taste.
AIDS patients often complain of alterations in taste, and detection thresholds of glutamic acid and hydrochloride are higher in patients suffering from AIDS. [36]
Heredity is involved in some aspects of gustation. The ability to taste phenylthiourea (bitter) and other compounds with an –N-C= group is an autosomal dominant trait. Studies have shown that phenylthiourea tasters detect saccharin, potassium chloride (KCl), and caffeine as more bitter. Type I familial dysautonomia (ie, Riley-Day syndrome) causes severe hypogeusia or ageusia because of the absence of taste bud development.
Direct nerve or CNS damage, as in multiple sclerosis, facial paralysis, and thalamic or uncal lesions, can decrease taste perception.
Many other diseases can affect gustation (eg, lichen planus, aglycogeusia, Sjögren syndrome, renal failure with uremia and dialysis, erythema multiforme, geographic tongue, cirrhosis).This is somewhat embrasssing to admit, but I used to know her. I used to be a member of website known as IronMarch.org. It's a forum for fascists and Nazis. Her name on the website was "With Hate As My Sword" or something very similiar. Basically, Iron March is not a white nationalist website. It's Fascist, so people like her could stick around without getting banned. The man who runs the website is multiethnic - Russian and Uzbek.Basically, she was involved romantically with the admin/owner of the website. He is known as Alexander Slavros. His real name is Alisher, but she was deeply in love with him. Slavros never really cared about her, and was pulling her around for a, basically. One of the site users told her that Slavros was going to break up with her during a Skype group call, and she went absolutely ballistic. She wanted to kill herself and die. Because of her psychotic behavior, they were able to stick together for a little longer. They broke up, and she was a shell of her former stuff. She was deeply depressed and mentally ill after the incident. Slavros is a lolcow by himself as he's a Russian meme master:She was also legit necrophile. She got off on dead people and wrote stories about it, which explains her obession with that creepy skeleton shit. The only mystery regarding her sexuality was whether she wanted to be eaten or if she wanted to be the eater.She even has an account on hereHome Daily News Lawyer resigns post as school board president…
Education Law
Lawyer resigns post as school board president after calling parent a 'chubby wubby'
Video from the board of education meeting.
An attorney who called a parent a “chubby wubby” during a break in an upstate New York school board meeting last month has resigned from his post as board president.
Raymond Cote also withdrawn as a candidate for re-election to the Mahopac Board of Education, a lawyer for the Putnam County school district announced at a Tuesday meeting.
The New York Daily News, the Journal News and Reuters have stories.
Cote’s words about an unidentified mother of six and PTA volunteer were picked up by an open microphone and broadcast on live coverage of the April 8 meeting, eliciting public outrage after a resident posted a clip on YouTube.
Although the YouTube video is difficult to understand, a transcript quotes Cote as saying “Oh I know, I know. This one here, ‘Chubby wubby.’ She gets fatter and fatter at every meeting. She really does!”
In addition to resigning, Cote emailed a statement to parents: “I would like to apologize for my choice of words after the close of the board meeting on April 8, 2014, which are regretful. My words were inappropriate and do not reflect my feelings or attitudes. I will strive to regain the trust and respect of the community.”Here’s Miley Cyrus, Columbusing. Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for MTV
At some point in their adolescence, most people will come to learn that the oft-taught grade school tidbit that Christopher Columbus “discovered” the Americas is, at best, a significant stretching of |
. - A Jacksonville man charged with murder in the 2013 death of his girlfriend's 22-month-old daughter changed his plea Thursday from not guilty to guilty.
Todd Howell, who had been set to go to trial April 3, will now be sentenced April 27.
Police said Howell claimed that he dropped Kyleann Burress in November 2013 at the Villages of Baymeadows apartments and tried to shake her to wake her up.
The girl stopped breathing and was taken to a hospital, where she died from shaken baby syndrome.
"It's sad and it's tragic, and it definitely serves as a reminder and a wake-up call to all single parents that they should be choosing their partners very carefully," Department of Children and Families spokesman John Harrell said in 2013.
Police said the incident happened after Howell took the girl's mother to work. The two had been together for two months.
"When we interviewed him, he actually denied doing anything wrong, but he said he was changing the child, and during the course of changing the child, he dropped the child and started shaking the child in order to revive the child," Asst. Chief Chris Butler, of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, said in 2013.
Police said no other children were in the home at the time.
Copyright 2017 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.In Greece, austerity along these lines unleashed chaos and rage in the streets of Athens and brought about the rise of political extremism. The crisis in France helped drive the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy from the presidency in favor of a socialist, François Hollande, who is calling for a renewed emphasis on growth.
But for all the talk of fascism and firebombs, most people in the austerity zone — which includes Ireland, Greece and Spain — seem to accept their lot. Even the Irish, who have occasionally rebelled against their own government, approved the deficit-cutting European Union fiscal treaty last week by a healthy margin.
Perhaps nowhere, however, are people quite so acquiescent as in Portugal. Month after month, the government has obligingly put in place the budget cuts, tax increases and loosened labor laws demanded by its international creditors — the so-called troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — with little protest from the Portuguese.
The troika recently cited Portugal’s success in cutting its budget deficit last year to 4.2 percent of gross domestic product, from a high of 10.2 percent in 2009. And with exports rising to a record level in 2011, Portugal’s trade balance has also improved significantly.
While some opposition leaders and trade unions have called to slow the pace of budget cuts, few suggest that the changes are not ultimately necessary. Nor do they contest the urgency of efforts to improve the economy’s competitiveness.
“The Portuguese are mild people,” Mr. Marçalo said. “We don’t take to the streets so much.”
That forbearance seems likely to be tested in the coming years. Although the country’s budget deficit is shrinking, public debt as a percentage of gross domestic product continues to rise as the economy contracts. With bond yields in the double digits, there is even talk of a second bailout.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
There is little immediate prospect of growth, economists say, particularly with educational levels far lower here than anywhere in the European Union or in much of the developed world. In 2009, only 30 percent of Portuguese adults had completed high school or its equivalent, according to figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Photo
“The poor Portuguese, they have just neglected to invest in high-quality human capital,” said Daniel Gros, the director of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels. The only path to growth will be through further wage cuts, Mr. Gros said, “because their economy, structurally, given the low human capital, is in products and industries in which low-wage competition is just overwhelming.”
That competition has changed the outlook at TemaHome, which has been manufacturing furniture since 1981. Five years ago, annual sales hit $18.5 million, with 70 percent of that coming from exports to the rest of Europe. Last year, with demand plummeting, sales fell to just $10 million.
In 2007, 160 people worked on TemaHome’s factory floor in Tomar, about 75 miles north of Lisbon; today, there are just 105, and the company is struggling to compete with factories in Eastern Europe and China, said Luís Vicente, the production director. TemaHome’s future lies in producing high-quality, customized furniture, he said, and it has hired a handful of designers and salespeople even as it has shed factory workers. Revenues in the first quarter were up 20 percent this year.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content, updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
“This crisis is making us a little stronger than we were otherwise,” said Miguel Calado, one of TemaHome’s primary investors. “And you can say the same thing about the country.”
The problem, Mr. Calado said, is that the health of the Portuguese economy — which, like TemaHome, relies heavily on exports — is linked to demand in Europe, which is tipping into recession.
José Santos oversees painting at TemaHome, where he has worked for three decades. Of the $1,500 he takes home each month in salary, Mr. Santos, 52, used to set aside $125 to $185 as savings. But with taxes rising and his son’s $1,250 academic scholarship revoked as part of the austerity cuts, he said, “I spend what I earn.”
He is angry at the cuts, but feels some personal responsibility for Portugal’s plight just the same.
“We’re all guilty,” he said. “Everyone knew what was happening before. Everyone closed their eyes.”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
He has no plans to protest, and he does not expect that many others will, either. “It’s a question of culture,” he said.
It is a common refrain here, though by no means universal. There have been walkouts by both public employees and company workers, including two general strikes. There have also been demonstrations in downtown Lisbon, but no violence.
“We obviously need to clean up our national accounts,” said Rogério Silva, the general secretary of Fiequimetal, a federation of manufacturing unions. “We’re just against these measures because they’re not making the economy grow.” He says he is upset by a general “attitude of inaction,” calling it “typically Portuguese.”
Memories are still sharp here of the poverty of the mid-20th century, when just half of homes had running water and only 30 percent had electricity. In the 1980s, with the state nearly bankrupt and inflation running at over 30 percent, more than one million workers saw their salaries withheld for months on end. There were no major protests, though, said António Barreto, a sociologist and former government minister. Most workers declined buyouts and continued to work without pay.
“This generation doesn’t want to lose what they have,” Mr. Barreto said. “There is complacency, yes. But there is wisdom, too.”
Joaquim César, a supervisor at the TemaHome factory, said the budget cuts were deeper than necessary, but he accepted austerity as a necessary evil. “Since we were poor before the crisis, we don’t feel so different now,” said Mr. César, 54. “To be angry, it’s not worth it,” he said. “Bad humor won’t get us anywhere.”File Photo: All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
In what is claimed to be the first such case in the world, Indian surgeons have removed a kidney tumour weighing 5.018 kg from a patient suffering from kidney cancer along with dissection of the lungs."The patient's right kidney had bloated 35 times the normal size making it the world's biggest ever kidney tumour on record as per the medical literature. The previous record was removal of a 2.5kg (5.5lb) tumour by doctors at Sir Ganga Ram hospital," said Dr MD Ray, consultant at department of surgical oncology, AIIMS.The patient, 66-year-old KL Das, a resident of Darbhanga, who has been living in Delhi for last 25 years, had approached doctors at AIIMS with a huge mass in the right side of the abdomen with discomfort and heaviness."The mass was rapidly progressing for the last two and three months and the cancer had spread to the lungs. Surgery was the only option left before it spread to other parts of the body," said Dr Ray.So, after a pre-anesthetic check-up, Mr Das was operated on May 14 through a long incision of almost 25 cm from chest to abdomen, a procedure which is called thoracoabdominal incision in medical terms."The tumour was compressed to the inferior vena cava (IVC) which is the main vein of the body. The surrounding structure was stuck to the mass so that had to be separated and another important gland that is adrenal gland was spared."That gland is important for fluid electolyte balance and metabolisnm of food. Also, it produces the sex hormone," explained Dr Ray.Ultimately the mass was removed along with the part of the lungs to which the cancer had spread. Chest and abdomen were closed separately and respiratory muscles were repaired. "It was five and half hour long procedure. After the operation, the patient was in the ICU for a day after which he was shifted to a general ward. He is doing well. He will be discharged tomorrow", Dr Ray added.On Gödel Escher Bach, on page 137 there are two “married” functions defined:
for n >= 1:
F(n) = n – M(F(n – 1))
M(n) = n – F(M(n – 1))
for n = 0:
F(0) = 1, M(0) = 0
I wondered whether it is easy to define three function that increase their value every time n is increased by three, using only addition, subtracting and recursive calls to the previous value of the functions. It turns out it is not too hard to find some.
for n >= 1
F(n) = n – M(n – 1) – N(F(n – 1) + M(n – 1) + N(n – 1) – 2)
M(n) = F(n – 1)
N(n) = M(n – 1)
for n = 0:
F(0) = 1, M(0) = 0, N(0) = 0
AdvertisementsA new class of wealthy citizens are currently fueling changes within the North Korean economy, leading to the creation of unofficial financial services, an international panel of experts said today at a conference in Seoul.
Speaking at the “Doing Business in North Korea: Business and Finance in the DPRK” hosted by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies (IFES), the experts concluded that looser controls on private capital were creating a new class of rich North Koreans, called donju (money masters).
“There is a booming industry of private finance in North Korea,” Andrai Lankov of Seoul’s Kookmin University said at the conference.
Lankov said three unofficial financial services have been created from scratch within the DPRK in order to cater to the new wealthy class.
Distrust in North Korea’s official banks, which only offer the most rudimentary banking services, has led to unofficial currency exchange merchants and money lending and transfer services.
‘There is a booming industry of private finance in North Korea’
North Koreans can now send money both domestically and internationally, Lankov said. It is even possible for defectors in South Korea to send money to their relatives in the North, and occasionally vice-versa.
Using a system of brokers, North Koreans with Chinese bank accounts and mobile internet banking near the Chinese border it is possible for defectors to move between $10 and $20 million a year to the DPRK.
The growth of these services, however, has outpaced North Korea’s official financial institutions. While North Korea’s central bank performs some functions of a bank, North Korean citizens are generally unwilling to deposit any money there.
“If you put the money in the bank, you can never get it back: That’s a myth, it is possible, if you can find the person in charge, but this is very difficult,” said Mitsuhiro Mimura, director and senior research fellow at ERINA.
Two experts also cited the creation of electronic payments systems and cards which can be used by both foreigners and North Koreans to pay for items in stores.
The ‘Narae’ debit card can be charged with foreign currencies and used to purchase a wide variety of goods and services, two of the experts said.
The new privately owned capital has led to a groundswell of new stores and purchasable items, from delivery services to fast food restaurants, IFES Director Lim Eul-chul said.
To help the private financial interactions continue and expand, North Koreans need greater experience and support building commercial banking services and infrastructure, which is still currently lagging.
‘I think the collusion between private finance and the regime will continue’
“For private businesses to grow in a healthy and organic manner, they need some sort of financial support, but there is not such support,” Minura said.
Despite many of the new financial services being illegal, crossover with state institutions mean they are likely to be tolerated for the foreseeable future, Lankov said.
State-owned companies can also now borrow from private lenders, and pay back the debts with whatever goods the company produces.
“I think the collusion between private finance and the regime will continue … The regime cracking down … is highly unlikely. Private finance will continue to grow,” Lim added.
Although many of the changes were encouraging, Lim also warned that so far the benefits were only for a select few. Details on the number of donju, and how much capital they have amassed, are very scarce.
“The gap between have and have nots is also developing in North Korea. These services are available to a wealthy minority,” Lim said.
SANCTIONS ENVIRONMENT
While conditions within the DPRK might be improving for those with private capital, this does not translate into easier inroads for potential foreign investors, according to Lankov and former UN Panel of Experts member William Newcomb.
“If I had money I would not invest in North Korea, because it is a very risky business,” said Lankov, who also laid out three rules that might result in a successful return on capital invested in the DPRK.
Potential investors should always have representatives in country, who are willing to keep a low political profile.
Generating a return on an investment is not a fast process, Lankov warned, with foreign businessmen having to spend many years building trust, without asking too many questions.
‘The DPRK is a threat to the international financial system’
As well as internal risk generated by the North Korean government, any potential investors will also have to be aware of the UN and unilaterally imposed sanctions.
“If you are going to be doing business in North Korea, you’re going to be doing business in a sanctions environment,” Newcomb said at the conference.
Although sanctions are targeted at North Korea’s weapons programs, moving money to and from the DPRK is complicated rules from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), who added North Korea to their public list of states involved in money laundering in 2011.
The FATF rules mean any banks dealing with North Korea make face much higher costs, due to enhanced due diligence procedures. Any transactions will also be much slower than normal, and likely affect both NGOs and foreign embassies in the DPRK.
“This has nothing to do with testing nuclear weapons … The DPRK is a threat to the international financial system,” Newcomb said.
Inconsistent sanctions applications across UN member states also complicate the process. All in all only 50 percent of member states implemented UN resolutions, with patchwork reporting also making the implementation difficult to accurately gauge.
The result means that any foreign businesses looking to engage with the DPRK should not proceed without first conducting the proper due diligence.
Featured image: Leo ByrneLucy Bronze scored three goals in 23 appearances for Manchester City last season
Carli Lloyd made her Manchester City debut as they beat Reading in the Women's FA Cup fifth round.
World player of the year Lloyd played in Georgia Stanway in the first half, but she was denied by Mary Earps' save.
Earps thwarted Stanway from the penalty spot after the break following a foul on England full-back Lucy Bronze.
City dominated throughout, with Nikita Parris and Jane Ross both denied by Earps, before Bronze headed in from Melissa Lawley's free-kick late on.
Jill Scott came close to doubling the lead soon after, but Earps was able to keep out her low strike.
United States international Lloyd, who joined City on a short-term deal in February, had the ball in the net in the first half, but the whistle had been blown for offside several seconds earlier.
The 34-year-old has joined the defending Women's Super League champions for the Spring Series, which starts in April and ends in June, with her contract also covering City's FA Cup and Champions League campaigns.
Manchester City: Bardsley, Houghton, McManus, Bronze, Walsh, Stokes, Scott, Lloyd, Parris (Asllani 73), Stanway (Ross 66), Lawley.
Subs not used: Hourihan, Christiansen, Middag.
Reading: Earps, Jane, Scott, McGee (Bartrip 90), Furness, Van Den Berg, Green (Allen 75), Estcourt, Chaplen (Bruton 57), Fletcher, Rowe.
Subs not used: Moloney, MacKenzieSurprise! AMD revealed a fresh lineup of graphics cards on Tuesday, and the Radeon RX 500-series is a perfect complement to the company’s new Ryzen 5 processors. What they aren’t, however, are AMD’s hotly anticipated Vega GPUs.
Instead, the Radeon RX 500 series are based on the same Polaris graphics processors as the Radeon RX 400 series launched last year, with the exception of a new low-end GPU focused solely on e-sports and home theater PCs. “Polaris refined and evolved,” as AMD calls it.
Yep, they’re tweaked refreshes, with one notable exception.
While the term "refresh" typically sends shudders of apathy down enthusiasts' spines, the improvements AMD made moving from the RX 400 series to the RX 500 series are still notable—mostly because they combat issues present in the original cards. The original Radeon RX 480, as great as it was, didn’t offer much overclocking headroom above its 1,266MHz maximum boost speed. (Even factory-overclocked custom cards tapped out at a mere 40MHz to 50MHz boost.) A power-draw controversy struck the card at launch as well, though to its credit, AMD pushed out a rapid fix for the issue.
AMD
The Radeon RX 500 series is built using AMD’s third-generation 14nm process, which lets the graphics cards achieve higher clock speeds than their predecessors. The Radeon RX 580, for example, packs a 1,257MHz base clock—which is roughly the same as the RX 480’s maximum clock—and a 1,340MHz boost clock.
AMD has also added a new power state, which allows the Radeon RX 500-series cards to consume less power at idle, while watching video, and while using multi-monitor setups. (Overall memory frequencies and bandwidth weren’t increased, however.) Radeon representatives also stressed the significant power and temperature gains achievable in games that support the awesome Radeon Chill, which debuted with Radeon Crimson ReLive in December. AMD’s working hard to whitelist games for Chill, and as part of the Radeon RX 500-series announcement, it revealed that the insanely popular League of Legends and Dota 2 are now compatible with the feature.
AMD
Meet the Radeon RX 500-series graphics cards
But enough blather! Here’s the new Radeon lineup, from top to bottom. Any details not mentioned remain the same from the RX 400-series.
The Radeon RX 580 rocks a 1,256MHz base and 1,340MHz boost clock, as mentioned. Cranking those clocks brings the rated TDP up from 150W to 185W.
rocks a 1,256MHz base and 1,340MHz boost clock, as mentioned. Cranking those clocks brings the rated TDP up from 150W to 185W. The Radeon RX 570 has a 1,168MHz base and 1,244MHz boost clock. While that’s a mild increase from the Radeon RX 470’s 1,206MHz maximum clock, it’s a significant jump in base clocks, which was a mere 926MHz before. Again, that extra oomph isn’t free, as the TDP increases from 120W to 150W.
has a 1,168MHz base and 1,244MHz boost clock. While that’s a mild increase from the Radeon RX 470’s 1,206MHz maximum clock, it’s a significant jump in base clocks, which was a mere 926MHz before. Again, that extra oomph isn’t free, as the TDP increases from 120W to 150W. The Radeon RX 560 provides a decent bump over the RX 460’s 1,090MHz base/1,200MHz boost speeds, cranking things to 1,175MHz/1,275MHz, respectively. More notably, this is the full-fledged version of the Polaris 11 GPU. Whereas the RX 460 only packed 14 compute units (potentially to keep it under 75W, which is necessary for cards that don’t require extra power pins), the RX 560 rocks the full 16. That combined with the clock-speed boosts means the RX 560 could offer decently more performance than the RX 460—albeit at a higher power draw that will likely demand a 6-pin connector. Alas, AMD declined to share more details about this card.
provides a decent bump over the RX 460’s 1,090MHz base/1,200MHz boost speeds, cranking things to 1,175MHz/1,275MHz, respectively. More notably, this is the full-fledged version of the Polaris 11 GPU. Whereas the RX 460 only packed 14 compute units (potentially to keep it under 75W, which is necessary for cards that don’t require extra power pins), the RX 560 rocks the full 16. That combined with the clock-speed boosts means the RX 560 could offer decently more performance than the RX 460—albeit at a higher power draw that will likely demand a 6-pin connector. Alas, AMD declined to share more details about this card. The Radeon RX 550 is a completely new model designed to appeal to e-sports gamers and home theater PC aficionados looking for more than what integrated graphics alone can provide. It’s essentially half of an RX 560 (or a third of an RX 570) with a mere eight compute units clocked at a 1,183MHz boost speed. AMD didn’t reveal a base speed. It’s got 2GB of memory over a 128-bit bus, though a limited number of models will offer 4GB capacity. It won’t need a supplemental power connector, drawing all needed power through your motherboard.
AMD
The Radeon 550 highlights another reason for the existence of the Radeon RX 500 series. AMD's marketing materials don’t compare the graphics cards against the RX 400 series, because frankly, that’s not an upgrade worth spending your money on. Instead, AMD emphasizes how the RX 500 cards add a solid performance boost and worthwhile ecosystem features—like support for FreeSync and modern, 4K-capable media codecs—over the Radeon 300-series cards, and even older models. (For what it’s worth, that was the same major hook the RX 460 offered.)
Despite the appearance of the cards shown in some of the images above, there won’t be any reference RX 500-series boards available. Instead, AMD’s hardware partners (like Sapphire, XFX, Asus, et cetera) will be offering custom designs from day one—which makes sense, as this is a refresh of an existing graphics architecture.
AMD
As far as pricing and release date info goes, the Radeon RX 570 and 580 go on sale today. The 4GB Radeon RX 570 carries a suggested e-tail price of $170, just like the RX 470; the Radeon RX 580, meanwhile, starts at $200 for a 4GB version and $230 for 8GB models. The $80 Radeon RX 550 will follow shortly after, on April 20; while the $100 RX 560 will hit the streets in May.
Attack of the clones
Let’s be honest: No gamer likes to see rebrands and minor iterations, especially when the world’s been waiting for Vega for what seems like an eternity. But the Radeon RX 470 and 480 already delivered compelling value compared to Nvidia’s (wildly different) 6GB GeForce GTX 1060 and 3GB GTX 1060, and that continued as drivers matured and supplies stopped being as limited as they were at the Polaris launch.
Mentioned in this article AMD Ryzen 7 1800X processor $259.99 MSRP $499.00 See it on Amazon
Lots of people are upgrading their PCs right now thanks to new competition on the CPU front. This Radeon release gives buyers the advantage of a refined manufacturing process, gives reviewers a reason to revisit mainstream Radeon cards, and lets AMD sell shiny "new" graphics cards to go with those shiny new Ryzen processors. It’s not exciting whatsoever, but it’s practical from a business standpoint, especially since we probably won't see new graphics card architectures from AMD or Nvidia any time in the immediate future.
So yeah, this is basically a repeat of the Radeon 300-series situation, but with memory speeds untouched.
Head over to PCWorld’s reviews of the Gigabyte Aorus RX 570 and the Sapphire RX 580 Nitro+ to see just where these new cards fall in the pecking order, and if you’re waiting for Vega, well, just keep waiting. AMD still says those enthusiast-focused graphics cards are due to launch sometime before the end of June. In the meantime, check out PCWorld’s in-depth interview with Radeon head Raja Koduri from CES on all things Vega, FreeSync 2, 4K gaming, and more in the video below.Forty years before Democrats nominated their first candidate of color, President Lyndon Johnson told 1968 presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey that he should pick a Japanese-American as his running mate.
It was Sen. Daniel Inouye, who was awarded a silver star in World War II, and who lost an arm in battle.
"He answers Vietnam with that empty sleeve. He answers your problems with Nixon with that empty sleeve. He has that brown face," Johnson said.
Humphrey, though he was one of the Senate's foremost liberals, balked.
"I guess maybe, it's just taking me a little too far, too fast," Humphrey said. "Old, conservative Humphrey."
The Vietnam War was tearing the country apart. Democrats wanted their convention platform to call for a halt to U.S. bombing.
From his Texas ranch, Johnson - whose son-in-law was serving in Vietnam - told an aide "no way."
"I'm telling 'em what our position is as Commander-in-Chief that I'm not about to stop this bombing unless they arrest me and take my power away from me," he said. "Because I've got some of my own right there and I'm not gonna shoot 'em in the heart. Not for a bunch of goddamn draft dodgers."
Johnson got his way, but the convention in Chicago was a disaster. He listened without comment as his attorney general, Ramsey Clark, blamed the police.
"It was a very disgusting moment in my judgment, Mr. President," Clark said. "I think it was caused by law enforcement."
But Johnson, who sympathized with Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, was having problems with his attorney general.
"Well, he doesn't see this as you and I see it," Johnson said
Daley argued that his police had been provoked.
"What are you gonna do if someone hits you with human manure in the face, are you gonna stand there?" Daley said.
Johnson did halt the bombing just before the election, which was extremely close. The morning after, Humphrey called to apologize for losing.
"I'm sorry I let you down a little," he said.
Johnson replied: "No you didn't, no you didn't, it's on a lot of other folks but not you. It's our own people in the party that created all the problems."
Today's tapes were the final release of Lyndon Johnson's phone calls - recordings that have provided an extraordinary insight into his presidency. Since LBJ, no politician has controlled the party so completely - and none is likely to do it ever again.Maybe, like me, those of you with blue eyes have experienced great sensitivity to light. I find that most times when I step outside into the light, I sneeze. Also, when I am outside in sunlight, my eyes will water terribly. Sometimes, I am worried people will think I cried the whole way to class. When I was little, my mom told me it was because blue eyes are more sensitive to sunlight...I decided to find out if it was true.
I am not the only one who claims that their blue eyes are sensitive to light. Just the other day, a girl I know was complaining about how the light hurt her eyes, and there have been numerous baseball players that say their blue eyes affect their batting.
In "Baseball's Curse of the Baby Blues", it describes that in an ideal world, all of the best baseball players have brown eyes. Josh Hamilton has recently came out and said that his blue eyes are the reason for the difference in his daytime to nighttime batting averages. Hamilton's optometrist agrees, saying "Because of the lack of pigment in lighter color eyes, like blue or green opposed to brown, you get a lot more unwanted light and that can create glare problems."
In another article on.org, the phenomenon of light sensitivity in blue eyes is called "photophobia." Photophobia occurs because people with light eyes have less pigmentation and light can affect their eyes more harshly. The article suggests that fixing the problem could be as easy as "avoiding prolonged time spent in harsh lighting or bright lights or wearing UV-blocking sunglasses and wide brimmed hats when outside..." DukeHealth.org, the phenomenon of light sensitivity in blue eyes is called "photophobia." Photophobia occurs because people with light eyes have less pigmentation and light can affect their eyes more harshly. The article suggests that fixing the problem could be as easy as "avoiding prolonged time spent in harsh lighting or bright lights or wearing UV-blocking sunglasses and wide brimmed hats when outside..."
As for sneezing when I step out into sunlight, it seems that this is not a "blue eye" problem, but rather, about 25% of people "sun-sneeze." Sun-sneezing is sometimes called "photic sneeze reflex" but it is not widely understood how or why it happens. This article suggests that sun-sneezing may be genetic...now I'm definitely going to have to ask my parents.
Do you have sensitive blue eyes? Are you a "sun-sneezer"?Media playback is not supported on this device Hodgson selects Terry on form
Liverpool striker Andy Carroll has been included in England's 23-man squad for Euro 2012, but there is no place for Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand.
The 33-year-old is a surprise omission but Chelsea's John Terry has been named in a squad captained by Steven Gerrard.
There are call-ups for uncapped Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy.
Andy Carroll's recent form Scored six in first 41 outings this season
Scored three goals in last seven games
Helped 10-man Liverpool beat Blackburn 3-2 on 10 April, scoring a late winner
Scored a goal and impressed as a substitute in Liverpool's 2-1 FA Cup defeat against Chelsea
Liverpool winger Stewart Downing and Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck have also been picked.
"It's not been an easy squad to put together," said boss Roy Hodgson. "But I'm pleased with the squad I've put together and I think it's a well-balanced squad."
Gerrard, who captained Liverpool during Hodgson's time as manager at Anfield, also led England at the 2010 World Cup.
"I know him as a player and a person and how committed he is to the England cause," explained Hodgson.
"He will help me build the team unity and environment we need to thrive in a tournament."
As expected, Wayne Rooney is selected despite being suspended for the first two games of England's Group D campaign, against France on 11 June and Sweden four days later.
"After the debacle in South Africa, everyone was clamouring for youth. I'm slightly surprised Roy Hodgson has only named four forwards considering he will be without Wayne Rooney for a couple of games."
In addition to Carroll, Welbeck and Rooney, Hodgson will take Jermain Defoe - who has not played a competitive match for England since September 2010 - as a striking option.
Birmingham goalkeeper Jack Butland is among the list of five standby players, which also comprises Adam Johnson, Daniel Sturridge, Phil Jagielka and Jordan Henderson.
Barring injury, Johnson will miss out on a major tournament for a second time, having been axed from Fabio Capello's provisional World Cup squad in 2010.
Hodgson's wide players are Ashley Young, Theo Walcott, James Milner, Downing and Oxlade-Chamberlain.
There is no place for Manchester United's Michael Carrick as Gareth Barry, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Scott Parker - who is struggling with an Achilles injury - take the central midfield berths.
Manchester City right-back Micah Richards also misses out as Hodgson names only seven orthodox defenders, including Phil Jones and Joleon Lescott, who are both capable of filling more than one position.
Media playback is not supported on this device England's Euro highs and lows
Tottenham right-back Kyle Walker was ruled out with a toe injury.
Ruddy joins Joe Hart and Robert Green in the goalkeeping contingent.
"It's a real honour for me and hopefully it's an indication as to how far I have developed as a player," said Ruddy.
"Playing for my country has been a dream of mine, of course it has.
"I'm under no illusions as to the quality of Joe Hart and Rob Green and that I will be number three keeper. But I'm really looking forward to training with them and getting down to some hard work."
The Football Association's planned training camp in Spain has been cancelled.
Instead, England will meet up in Manchester on Wednesday before flying to Norway on Friday for their friendly in Oslo on 26 May.
Seven days later, they face Belgium at Wembley - although Ruddy will be missing having been given special dispensation to leave the squad for his wedding on 2 June.
England squad:
Goalkeepers - Joe Hart, Robert Green, John Ruddy.
Defenders - Leighton Baines, Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole, Glen Johnson, Phil Jones, Joleon Lescott, John Terry.
Midfielders - Gareth Barry, Stewart Downing, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Scott Parker, Theo Walcott, Ashley Young.
Strikers - Andy Carroll, Jermain Defoe, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck.
Standby - Jack Butland, Phil Jagielka, Jordan Henderson, Adam Johnson, Daniel Sturridge.Jared Loughner spends his life in isolation but is never alone. Cameras watch his every movement. Guards log his actions every 15 minutes.
His existence is charted in three colors. Blue means he's in bed. Green means he's up and awake.
Red means he is pacing in tight circles in his small cell. Red made up the largest slice on Loughner's chart some days during the summer.
Since then, the red slice has shrunk. The colors shift with his moods as the man accused of fatally shooting six people and wounding 13, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, responds to therapy and drugs.
He is being treated at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo.
Christina Pietz, prison psychologist, delves into his past and trawls through his psyche, trying to restore the 23-year-old to mental competency so he can stand trial on 49 charges related to the Tucson shooting Jan. 8. He has pleaded not guilty.
Prison officials won't talk about Loughner's confinement. His family and attorneys have turned down interview requests. Pietz didn't return calls. But a fascinating glimpse into his world emerges from court testimony by Pietz and from others who have reviewed his file.
Right after Loughner's arrest, news reports detailed his bizarre rantings and strange videos on the Internet. In March, prosecutors asked that he be evaluated for his paranoid fears and the voices he was hearing.
Pietz met him on March 23. He sat on his bed. She was in a hallway, talking to him through a grill. He looked at her out of the corner of one eye. He laughed at things that weren't funny and cried at things that weren't sad.
It was during high school, in 2006, that Loughner started having trouble. That year he drank so much vodka he had to be taken to the emergency room.
"His family got him to seek treatment," James Ballenger, a forensic psychiatrist who read Loughner's prison evaluations and testified about them, said.
Ballenger and Pietz told the U.S. District Court in Tucson that Loughner was spiraling into schizophrenia by early 2008. He heard voices and acted strangely.
By the time he was in prison, the illness was raging. He threw chairs and wads of wet tissue paper at the cell-door grill when he saw video cameras. He stripped and showered in front of female guards.
On May 25, during a court hearing in Tucson, Loughner burst into a rant and called U.S. District Judge Larry Burns "your cheesiness." Burns ruled him unfit for trial.
On June 21, the prison team began giving him drugs. Lough |
wrote. “The store margins have not been hurt by Always Fresh Baking. In fact, the margins are the same or better.” (Clanachan also denies that he or House ever told the owners that the new price of an unfinished donut would not exceed 12 cents.)
So why is Garland so adamant that the opposite is true? He is “an embittered franchisee” with “an unremittingly bad attitude,” Clanachan says. “We simply hear him out or read his memos and as politely as we can register disagreement and move on. Garland has major blind spots but he is not a stupid man and I am sure the situation is as frustrating to him as it is to us.”
And Jollymore? “As to why (if it is true) Jollymore hasn’t achieved labour savings when the average Ontario store owner has been able to, I can only say that it is likely that it stems from his abilities as a manager and a failure to follow the training provided with the necessary discipline,” he wrote.
Clanachan also addresses the issue that matters most to customers: the quality of the current donuts. Jollymore claims that the frozen versions have “a shorter shelf life,” and some do “not have the same aroma or taste.” Says Clanachan: “Our experience does not bear out this assertion.” To the contrary, he says Hortons has “received more positive comments about the aromas in the stores since Always Fresh Baking, since product is cooked more often.”
One man would certainly disagree: Ron Joyce. In his book, the Hortons founder writes that although the frozen donuts “have improved greatly” since they were first introduced, “they will never be as good as the fresh product we prepared completely in the stores.”
Near the end of his autobiography, Joyce also seems to foreshadow the current legal battle. “Since my departure in January 2001, senior management at Tim Hortons has begun altering its relationship with franchise owners by placing pressure on their margins,” he wrote. “When I owned the company, the number one customer of TDL was the restaurant owner. They were the backbone of the company; they were what made the system work. They are on the front lines, dealing face to face with the customer, and are therefore integral to the company’s success. Any change to that could have dramatic ramifications for the company in the long run.”
Like his cousin, Joyce declined an interview request. But Aileen O’Rafferty, the president of his charitable foundation, did pass along this message: “He still strongly believes in that statement and stands by it today.”Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told voters he won't compromise their religious liberties or right to bear arms during a rally in Green Bay, Wis., on April 3, sponsored by Keep the Promise. (Reuters)
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told voters he won't compromise their religious liberties or right to bear arms during a rally in Green Bay, Wis., on April 3, sponsored by Keep the Promise. (Reuters)
Wis. — On the final weekend before Tuesday’s closely watched Wisconsin primary, hundreds of Republican voters streamed into a hotel ballroom here to see Sen. Ted Cruz, who brought along Gov. Scott Walker and former Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Kabeer Gbaja-
Biamila to make a final pitch.
The only inkling that this was not a typical campaign event were the staffers wearing green “KTP” badges stationed at the doors. They worked for Keep the Promise, a super PAC allied with the Republican presidential candidate. Instead of handing out Cruz campaign material, they were distributing “Choose Cruz” signs and stickers paid for by the group.
In recent months, the super PAC has been effectively serving as an extension of Cruz’s official campaign, hosting major rallies for him from South Carolina to Utah. The senator from Texas appears at the events as a “special guest,” an arrangement that takes advantage of the loose federal rules governing how campaigns and super PACs can interact.
Since January, Cruz has appeared at nearly 20 rallies that Keep the Promise PAC has organized, often alongside well-known surrogates such as conservative talk show host Glenn Beck and Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty.”
The tactic serves to offload costs onto the super PAC, which has been financed by six-figure checks from wealthy Cruz supporters — allowing Cruz to harbor his resources for a drawn-out Republican nomination battle with front-runner Donald Trump.
Although his campaign raised more than $66 million by the end of February, Cruz entered March with just $8 million left in the bank. Keep the Promise had less than $1 million in cash at the end of February, but the super PAC can quickly replenish its coffers because it can accept unlimited donations from individuals and corporations.
Cruz spokeswoman Alice Stewart said the campaign was not short on cash. “I can assure you we are doing quite well with fundraising, so that is not an issue,” she said.
Stewart said that the senator is invited to speak “at a wide variety of events,” adding that the campaign’s attorneys make sure his appearances comply with campaign finance rules.
[Cruz: Nominating ‘white knight’ at convention would cause Republicans to ‘revolt’]
The role that Keep the Promise is playing in hosting campaign-style rallies for Cruz — who is backed by at least eight different super PACs — provides new fodder for Trump, who touts his independence as a billionaire using his own money to fund much of his campaign. He has also disavowed super PACs, although one group recently began spending money on his behalf.
“This is financial corruption of the highest order, and further proof that Lyin’ Ted Cruz is totally owned by donors and special interests,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks wrote in a statement, using Trump’s regular insult for Cruz. “Our entire political system has been corrupted by special interests who want to drive down wages and incomes, and Ted Cruz has now been unmasked as their favorite pawn.”
In response, Stewart noted that Trump has received millions in contributions.
“What’s surprising here is Donald’s continued lack of honesty with the voters about how he’s paying for his campaign and who he hopes will pay for his campaign in the future,” she said. “Not only has Donald raised more than $9.5 million, despite claims of self-funding — his campaign manager is a lobbyist, the operative brought in to run his delegate operation is a lobbyist, and Donald recently hobnobbed with a dozen high-
powered special interest lobbyists in Washington to see where they shared mutual interests. Make no mistake about it, Donald Trump is the Washington Cartel.”
Keep the Promise’s move into event production shows how super PACs allied with this year’s presidential candidates have expanded their portfolios beyond expensive television campaigns. The big-money groups — which are not allowed to coordinate their paid advertising strategy with candidates or political parties — have taken on policy research, rapid response and field organizing as they seek new ways to bolster their favored candidates.
Last fall, super PACs supporting Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, both Republicans, sponsored campaign-styletown halls.and rallies featuring their candidates, handling the promotion, logistics and staffing
In doing so, they were relying on advisory opinions issued by the Federal Election Commission giving candidates permission to appear as guests at super PAC fundraisers, as long as they do not ask supporters to donate more than $5,000.
“There is specific FEC guidance that it is permissible for candidates and their surrogates to appear at events, as long as they are not soliciting soft dollars,” said Stefan Passantino, an attorney for Keep the Promise PAC. “It’s perfectly legal.”
[It’s bold, but legal: How campaigns and their super PAC backers work together]
But advocates for stricter campaign finance regulations said the arrangement shows how super PACs financed by wealthy contributors are increasingly operating in conjunction with campaigns, violating the principle of independence that the Supreme Court laid out in its 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision.
“It just tilts the system even more to the super-rich,” said Nick Penniman, executive director of Issue One, a bipartisan group working to reduce the influence of wealthy interests on politics.
Larry Noble, general counsel of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, said that if a super PAC is coordinating with a campaign to schedule a rally, the money it spends to produce the event could be considered an in-kind donation.
“It’s one thing to have a candidate appear at something billed as a super PAC fundraiser,” he said. “What this has morphed into is the super PAC putting on campaign events, and that is illegal.”
Passantino rejected that argument. “The campaign simply responds to our requests as to the availability of any invited guests,” he said. “All other details are handled by PAC staff in conformity with FEC regulations and guidance.”
[As Cruz hits Trump on the trail, he wages a quieter assault on Kasich]
Keep the Promise officials decided to start regularly producing rallies featuring Cruz after the group hosted such events in Iowa and saw how popular they were, according to super PAC spokeswoman Laura Barnett. She said the super PAC makes all the arrangements, choosing dates close to a primary when Cruz probably will be in the area.
For supporters in the audience, however, the fact that a super PAC is sponsoring the rally is often a lost distinction.
“I didn’t know anything about the super PAC or his campaign and I’m not sure how that works,” Cindy Kennard, a 54-year-old librarian who went to see Cruz at a Keep the Promise event in Provo, Utah, last month. “I just heard he was coming to Utah for a rally.”
Steve Matz, a Cruz supporter from Franklin, Wis., who attended a Monday evening rally in Waukesha hosted by Keep The Promise, said he did not realize the group was a super PAC. But that made no difference, he said.
“Cruz is in my backyard and I came to see him,” he said with a shrug.
Katie Zezima in Washington and Provo, Utah, and Sean Sullivan in Green Bay and Waukesha contributed to this report.Two weeks after a Fort McMurray man was arrested and charged in a murder that has become linked with the alleged Toronto Mayor Rob Ford drug video, police say the Alberta man's former home was the scene of a bizarre incident where a man allegedly fell from a fifth-floor balcony.
According to RCMP in Alberta, the 28-year-old Fort McMurray man is in stable condition in hospital after falling from the window of his downtown apartment balcony early Thursday. Police sources say the apartment building is the same address that Hanad Mohamed, 23 – who has been charged in the March slaying of Anthony Smith in downtown Toronto – was living in until at least last year.
Toronto police said that they are aware of an arrest at the Fort McMurray address, but don't believe it has any connection to the ongoing investigation into Mr. Smith's murder.
Story continues below advertisement
An RCMP press release says the cause of the fall is currently under investigation. It's not known whether there is a connection between the victim and Mr. Mohamed, or whether the latter was still living in the apartment up until his arrest. The apartment was listed as Mr. Mohamed's home until at least January, 2012, in a job application.
Mr. Smith's death has been the source of intense speculation in recent weeks, after an image of Mr. Ford with his arm around the young man was circulated by owners of an alleged video showing the mayor smoking crack cocaine. The photograph was provided by the video owners in an attempt to show that the mayor had ties to the drug scene.
Mr. Ford has since denied reports of an alleged drug-use video, and said that he does not smoke crack cocaine.
The same northwest Toronto home where the photo was taken was also the site of an armed home invasion earlier this month.
Mr. Mohamed, who was arrested May 24 in Fort McMurray, worked as a security guard at Athabasca Lodge, and is now in custody in Toronto.
Nisar Hashimi, 23, has also been charged with first-degree murder in the case.Turtles do have ears, however unlike most other animals they do not have “outer ears” that stick out of the side of their heads. This is probably why many believe that turtles do not have ears since they are not easily visible.
Turtles have “inner ear” mechanisms that other animals have. They also have the auditory nerve and brain center that is required to hear. The outer ear gathers sound vibrations which makes them louder. What this means is that turtles do not hear airborne sounds, however they do sense and interpret vibrations within their environments. Hearing isn’t as important to turtles as they have very keen sense of vision and smell. The brain center for hearing in a turtle is quite small in comparison.
A turtle has 3 ears. Two which are internal located on the sides of their head (small holes) and one on their nose.He is the most famous—and perhaps the loneliest—atheist in the country. For 14 years, Michael Newdow, an emergency room doctor and an attorney, has challenged what he sees as violations of the First Amendment's prohibition against governmental endorsement and support of organized religion—the so-called church-state separation clause.
Newdow works alone from his Sacramento, California, home. His only tools are a computer, a printer and a razor-sharp sense of injustice. He has sued to have "In God We Trust" removed from U.S. currency, to bar prayer at presidential inaugurations and most famously—or infamously—to strike the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.
To date, Newdow has never won a single case. Yet he remains undeterred.
He has plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court early this year to hear his "In God We Trust" case, which he lost last March at the California-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. After that, he said, he may revive his pledge case, this time on behalf of other families who feel harmed by the pledge's religious reference.
"I don't think there is any question that I am right," said Newdow, 57, who was raised in a nominally Jewish home but told the Brown Alumni Magazine that he was "born" as an atheist. "I am going to keep fighting, hopefully winning, and getting the government to do what it is supposed to do, which is [provide] equal protection for all religious views."
Constitutional scholars and religious liberty activists agree with Newdow that the First Amendment protects against a government establishment of religion. But many disagree with his choice of battles.
The greatest fear, even among those who share Newdow's views, is that if he were to win, Congress could pass a constitutional amendment that changes the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and possibly erode the separation of church and state.
"There is a deep concern on the separationist side that some of their major fights could be weakened if they spend their resources and squander public opinion on fights they are not going to win anyway," said Charles Haynes, director of the Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum in Washington. "They have to pick their battles and use their resources strategically. I think that is why he is not getting full-throated support."
The president of American Atheists, David Silverman, said, "Newdow is a good man with good ideas and too little patience." American Atheists was founded by the late Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who successfully sued to ban teacher-led prayer in public schools in 1963.
"When his suits fail, they can make matters worse by setting a precedent that can be used against us in other lawsuits," said Silverman.
Newdow fights his uphill battles alone from his kitchen table, where he does most of his work. He says he has never received financial assistance from church-state separationist groups and has paid for his filing and printing costs with private donations.
Newdow's court battles recently shifted into a bid to challenge family statutes he considers unfair. The father of a 16-year-old daughter, he does not have equal custody with the girl's mother, to whom he was never married.
Newdow graduated from the University of Michigan's law school in 1988 but returned to his career as an emergency room doctor. In 2002, he sued his daughter's California school district for leading students in the Pledge of Allegiance, which since 1954 has included the phrase "under God."
No one in the legal community gave Newdow much attention until he won on appeal in the Ninth Circuit. A number of organizations filed amicus briefs in support of his case, including the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and American Atheists.
Newdow, who had never argued a case before, represented himself before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004 and by all accounts held his own. The court rejected his claim, however, after justices decided that as a noncustodial parent, he lacked standing to bring the case on his daughter's behalf.
So far, he has lost all of his cases on either their merits or because of a lack of legal standing. But the losses may only be a part of Newdow's legacy.
"Win or lose, without these fights there is no public awareness of the plight of nonbelievers," said Dan Barker, copresident of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. "If you are right about this—and he is—it's worth it to fight because even when you lose, someone is educated. Mike is putting us on the map."
Haynes of the Freedom Forum agreed. "I think he has put a face on the contemporary reality that many Americans do not have a religious affiliation," Haynes said. "For any cause to advance and for any voice to be heard, someone needs to be the face of that movement and give voice to those concerns. In that sense, Michael Newdow has been very successful."
For his part, Newdow seems unfazed by his legacy or his popularity. He says he remains focused on his fight, which he says actually has little to do with religion. "I've said it is not a case of people who believe in God versus people who don't believe in God," he said. "It is about people who believe the government should treat us all equally and those who want their view favored above others. You can't do that. That is what our Constitution says." —RNSThe University of Sydney will for the first time publish its minimum ATARs for entry into most courses, in a bid to provide more certainty for students and ensure entry is based on academic standards rather than demand.
From Monday, students will know the ATARs they will need to receive an offer for the majority of the university's undergraduate courses, in what deputy vice-chancellor Professor Tyrone Carlin said represents "a major change" from previous years.
From Monday, students will know the ATARs they will need to receive an offer for the majority of the University of Sydney's undergraduate courses. Credit:Rob Homer
Until now, Sydney University, like most institutions, has provided estimated "ATAR cut-offs" based on the the previous year's intake.
"The fixed ATAR will be based on an academic judgment," Professor Carlin said. "You set a level of academic preparedness that you'd expect a candidate to have [for each program]."PTI By
NEW DELHI: Delhi is all set to get its youngest Assembly with the average age at 42 years, primarily due to 28 newly-elected MLAs, who fall in the 25-40 years age bracket, a 35 per cent rise as compared to the last Assembly.
According to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), in the 2013 Assembly, 18 MLAs fell in that 25-40 age group.
26-year-old Prakash Jarwal of Aam Aadmi Party, who won from the Deoli constituency, is the youngest legislator whereas Patel Nagar MLA Hazari Lal Chauhan (66) is the oldest.
AAP's Ritu Raj Govind (26), Rakhi Birla (27), and Sarita Singh (28) representing Kirari, Mangolpuri and Rohtas Nagar constituencies respectively, are among the younger candidates to have been elected to the Delhi House.
There are a total of 13 MLAs who fall in the bracket of 25-35 years followed by 28 MLAs in the 36-45 year age bracket.
Only 2 MLAs fell in the 66-75 years age group whereas the report said that one MLA fell in the "unknown age" category, down from two in the previous election in 2013.
The percentage of MLAs aged between 25 and 50 is 70 this time as compared to 57 and 41 in 2013 and 2008, respectively.
On the other hand, the percentage of MLAs aged in the 50-70 years group has fallen to 29 per cent this time from around 40 per cent in 2013 and 59 per cent in 2008.I am the Fucking Managing Editor of the Weather.com Homepage
I can’t help but notice that you seem to be staring in bemused wonderment at my most spectacular creation: the homepage of weather.com. I assume you went to a website with only one word, WEATHER, because you are interested in how the aforementioned subject will relate to your day. You are shit out of luck. Now, please excuse Daddy while he snorts a bump of cocaine.
Did you know there is currently a motherfucking severe storm?? It is somewhere in the United States! Damage is goddam imminent. Could it affect you?? Probably not. While you are here, you might as well click on that article titled WHAT’S BEHIND THE CLIFF? Seriously, you won’t believe the shit that is behind that cliff. Do you really want to be the only dumbass by the water cooler tomorrow who doesn’t know what was behind the cliff? Be my guest, but I heard the secretary, Kelly, is single now — and she loves talking about mysterious things found behind cliffs. Oh boy, Daddy needs another bump.
Seriously, this isn’t click bate, this a fucking public service. How else are pieces of crap like you supposed to start conversations? By talking about the weather? If you want to talk about that crap, go and hang with the nerds at noaa.gov.
If we have to talk weather — it has to be crazy shit. I’m not talking about highs or lows, snow or rain. You want to know if you should bring an umbrella? Go to www.lookoutyourfuckingwindow.com. If you come to me we are gonna be talking about the good shit. I’m talking Freezing Fog, Snow Thunder, and Squall Lines. If you can’t imagine a weather event taking place in a movie starring Bruce Willis then I don’t want to talk about it. Honestly, I don’t even know if these things exist. I just put up alerts about snow thunder to promote my nu-metal band. You can check us out at www.myspace.com/snowthunder.
All this talk of snow… Daddy’s gonna take a big bump.
Remember that scene in the movie Twister where a cow goes flying through the fucking sky? He’s all like “Moooooo.” Yeah, that part is pretty awesome.
Are you aware that I have in my possession a gallery of pictures that includes the most expensive house in every fucking state. Stop. Think about that. I’m not talking one state, I’m not talking about nine states. I’m not even talking about the continental US. This shit includes AK and HI, bitches.
You don’t need to know the weather because you don’t need to go outside. You need to do some coke with me and spend the next two hours looking over some SPECTACULAR homes. Go ahead, like that shit on Facebook. If we’re lucky, everyone will click on it so nobody will need to know the weather today, because I sure as hell don’t.Shakespearean scholar Emma Smith picks her five favourite plays of the Bard, and controversially argues that not only are some of his plays just too long, but also that the most moving moments in Shakespeare's oeuvre are where we might not expect them
Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare studies at Oxford University. Her book The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio (2015), tells the story of the birth of the First Folio and Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book (2016) describes its reception over the four hundred years of its history.
You’ve written a book on the reception of the First Folio, and one on how the First Folio came to be published. How much do we owe of our understanding of Shakespeare to the First Folio? Would we be celebrating the 400th anniversary of his death if we didn’t have that book?
That’s a really interesting counterfactual. The First Folio is our sole documentary source for half of Shakespeare’s plays. So, probably, if it hadn’t been printed, we would not have those eighteen plays—plays like Macbeth and The Tempest, and Twelfth Night—and we would have a really different shape to Shakespeare’s career. He would be known as an Elizabethan playwright rather than a Jacobean one. The history plays would be more prominent, we would have a much smaller corpus of work overall. I think that would make a difference.
“I think that—particularly in the theatre—a lot of Shakespeare is too long.”
There are other, more practical, things about the First Folio. Because it’s a big book, it’s been difficult to lose. For example, when the theatres reopened at quite short notice when Charles II came to the throne in 1660, one of the people—Thomas Killigrew—who was charged with getting the theatres up and running owned a copy of the First Folio, and he turned to it to think about what to put on. There are ways in which the size and permanence of the book have made Shakespeare more permanent in our cultural lives.
There was a collected edition of the works of Thomas Middleton about ten years ago. Middleton wrote as much as Shakespeare, and across a range of genres. But because he’d never appeared in that format we’d lost our sense of that. Being collected or not being collected does make a difference to a critical reputation.
What’s your impression, as a historian of the book, of why Shakespeare has become such a globally important figure. Do you feel it’s as a result of his individual genius, or was it more influenced by these editorial decisions?
It’s a difficult question. I think it’s there in the inherent characteristics of the work. There are ways Shakespeare’s plays were never all that fashionable. If you look at other writers of the time, they’re writing something much more urban and contemporary. Those plays may have been more popular then, but there’s something timeless about the faraway locations and archetypal plots that Shakespeare has. They make him very available to being reinterpreted in different cultures, both historically and geographically.
“I think the problem plays are part of a bleak moral world view right at the end of Elizabeth’s reign.”
I also think that by gathering these works together in 1623 and putting them out with a big puff from other writers and an imposing picture of the playwright, a statement was made about the importance of this writer that gave him a kick start into the seventeenth century.
There’s a fascinating intersection between the idea of genius and a very practical series of decisions made by booksellers.
We know there was all kinds of contingent business when the First Folio came together. It was a big job of work to get done and to get organised. Troilus and Cressida only got in at the last minute because they couldn’t get the rights. Quite likely there are some copies that don’t have it, because it was slotted in when copies were already for sale. It could have been very different because of these practical considerations.
Read 1 Macbeth by William Shakespeare Read
Let’s talk about Macbeth. This is your first in preference. Why?
This is going to sound heretical, but I think that—particularly in the theatre—a lot of Shakespeare is too long. I think Act 4 in a lot of Shakespeare plays is a bit of a bum-number, and not much happens. I like to see Shakespeare intelligently cut, often to speed it up. Macbeth is a play that may have been cut. We don’t really understand the provenance of that text. It’s very short by Shakespearean standards and it’s very powerful because of that. There’s no subplot, there’s no parallel plot. Just this really intense journey through a psychological drama. It’s a really punchy play because everything is tightly headed in the same direction: the language, the imagery, the plot, the way the characters work. It’s a really superbly powerful, compact, condensed play.
As you’re a textual scholar, can you tell me something about the history of the text of the play?
The textual history has changed a lot very recently. In the last ten or fifteen years we have come to think that the play as we have it probably represents a revision by Middleton of a Shakespearean original. We don’t know the extent of Middleton’s work on the play. We don’t know whether it’s merely that he slotted in some extra witchy material that he had from his own play, called The Witch. Did he bring in the Hecate scene? This is an interesting moment where witches become spectacular in a way that’s not primarily frightening, but visually compelling: they sing and they dance. What Middleton seems to do with Shakespeare’s play is to bring in some of that more fashionable material. So, we don’t know what the play that Shakespeare wrote in the first place was like and that may explain why it’s so short. It may be that Middleton streamlined it, or took certain bits out.
To what extent do you think Shakespeare wants us to believe that the witches are real?
In certain ways the psychological drama of Macbeth, which is a drama about temptation and ambition, doesn’t need the witches to set it off. It doesn’t need the supernatural backdrop. You could use an idle moment of someone in court saying, “you must be thinking you’d be a good king.” But the play, I think, is really ambivalent about whether the witches cause things. One of the things I like about it is that it’s about the question of agency. Who makes all these terrible crimes happen: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, or some supernatural elements? The play seems to present all those as possibilities but not endorse any of them.
Read 2 Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare Read
Next is Measure for Measure. It’s a so-called ‘problem play’, what drew you to it?
It’s not a likeable play, they’re not likeable characters, it’s not a warm play. I think it’s a different side of Shakespeare, writing a philosophical, ideas-driven play. One of the things I’ve enjoyed about it is a sense that it seems like a mash-up. It feels to me as though all the characters are off-cuts from other plays. Claudio, Isabella’s brother who’s imprisoned, wants to be Hamlet. He wants to have big long speeches about death and the unknowability of it. The Duke wants to be in a romantic comedy where he can say at the end, “Hey presto, here we all are and we’re getting married.” Angelo, I think wants to be Brutus, or a tragic figure. And Isabella wants what lots of women in Shakespeare’s comedies want, which is to be independent and not to have a husband. We always know that if that’s what a woman says at the beginning of the play, she is not going to be able to say it at the end. Shakespeare sees a woman who says she doesn’t want to get married as a challenge. He’ll throw the most extraordinary plot at that woman in order to make her marry.
Is the play an exploration of selfishness?
It’s about the impossibility of compromise, or people who won’t compromise. In Measure for Measure, Isabella and Angelo are puritanical fundamentalists who deserve each other. That’s a deeply unfeminist thing to say, because she doesn’t want him and he’s an aggressor, I can see that. But the play has got all this sex in it and all these marriages at the end, and the only scenes that could possibly count as courtship scenes of back-and-forth conversation between a man and a women—as we get in comedy—are the interviews between Isabella and Angelo. They’re a really perverse kind of wooing scene.
Get the weekly Five Books newsletter
What do you think the play tells us about Shakespeare’s attitude towards sex?
My academic training is very resistant to the implications of that question. Given that Shakespeare’s plays depict such different things, it’s a category error to think that any one of them tells us what he thinks about a single topic. I think the problem plays are part of a rather bleak moral world view right at the end of Elizabeth’s reign, during the plague, and a sense of corruption that we’re going to see rather interestingly developed in Jacobean plays. It may tell us something about the times rather than about him.
Read 3 Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare Read
Twelfth Night is my favourite, and a very similar and very different play. Why did you choose it?
If you’ve got Measure for Measure in your mind, Twelfth Night looks a bit darker. What I really like about this play is its sexual playfulness. It seems very modern in that way. There’s no way to play it straight. You’ve either got Orsino in love with Cesario, or you’ve got Olivia in love with Viola, and you’ve always got Antonio in love with Sebastian. It feels to me as if its subtitle What You Will, is a cheeky way of saying ‘whatever, anything goes’. I like the fact that quite often you see productions where at the end Olivia and Orsino are still mixing up the twin they are with and there’s still playfulness. Why do you like it?
For similar reasons: the playfulness and the fact there are problems. Olivia and Sebastian’s marriage makes no sense. They’re suddenly put together at the end merely because Sebastian looks like Cesario.
Yes, because if you believe in the Orsino/Cesario relationship, which says that someone’s externals don’t matter, and what matters is how you get to know them, then the Olivia/Sebastian relationship seems to give exactly the opposite message. It’s really hard to reconcile them. There’s a very dark view of the play, which is that Olivia is being punished like Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, even like Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, or Isabella, for opting out of the marriage world and for running her own household. She’s bought out of that in a very extreme way.
Is she punished for falling in love with a woman?
I wonder, yes. We tend to think a woman dressing as a man must have been a great transgression of social order, but that doesn’t seem the case in Twelfth Night. Viola is the only person who’s really rewarded in the play. She knows who she wants and she gets him, and everybody else’s ending is a little more compromised. Think about how Viola is treated for pretending to be a man against how Malvolio is treated for pretending to be rich, or for wanting to marry advantageously.
I think comedy is quite a conservative form. Shakespeare is much more sexually liberated than he is in terms of social class. He seems to feel it’s impossible for people to change where they’re born.
Which is interesting because Twelfth Night itself is historically the period of misrule.
Yes, gender inversion is ok. Though the idea of the master waiting on the servants, the social inversions which were part of Twelfth Night, are not ok.
Viola bides her time like no other character in the plays, hence her famous speech about being “patience on a monument.” Could this be the reason she’s rewarded at the end, because she’s passive?
I remember reading an interview with Zoe Wanamaker, when she played her, saying Viola is a catalyst, she comes into this very static world where people are fixed in their roles, and she breaks things up. But I think scientifically a catalyst is itself quite inert. It acts on other people and other things but isn’t itself active. That would fit with that idea.
Read 4 Pericles by William Shakespeare Read
I was surprised you chose Pericles. It’s not in the First Folio. Is it the only play not in the First Folio?
Two Noble Kinsman is not in the First Folio either.
Why did you choose it?
Because it distills a lot of the elements of the late plays: romances like The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale and Cymbeline. It’s a very retro play, it’s looking backwards. Its form is nostalgic, its language is pretty nostalgic. It seems like a very odd little piece of almost medievalism. Also, I think that the reunion between Pericles and Marina at the end of the play is probably, when I’ve seen it in the theatre, the most moving moment in Shakespeare that I have experienced. There are lots of problems with it. It’s not realistic except emotionally. It’s got emotional realism in this unbelievable, fairytale structure.
It begins with incest, there’s something very real about that.
Absolutely. It begins with incest and can’t ever quite get away from it. Pericles meets Marina at the end because somebody says, “there’s this very chaste woman who works in a brothel and can cheer anyone up, go and see her,” and it’s his own daughter.
In a production I saw years ago a lot of the audience walked out in the interval because the plot is so confusing. Could you tell me about its reception?
Contemporaries loved it. There’s a line in Ben Jonson, where he talks about plays that are too popular, and therefore can’t be very serious. He talks about a “mouldy old tale like Pericles.” It gets reprinted. It’s not in the Folio, either because it’s not completely Shakespearean or because they didn’t think it was very good, which is what we tended to believe. But it may be that it’s not in the Folio because it was too commercially alive a product for them to get the rights to reprint. There are lots of references to Pericles in the period which suggests it’s a really popular play. There’s a really tantalising piece of performance history where we know a group of Catholic travelling actors in North Yorkshire around 1609/1610, were arrested for performing Pericles and King Lear for Catholic households. It was popular, though I think it became old-fashioned quite quickly. It’s nostalgic and knows that it’s outdated, but quite quickly it just came to look outdated without that irony. I think it struggled to find a place. Again, the First Folio is important, it’s struggled to find a place in the canon since then. It may be that only recently it has got some performance history and is starting to recover the ways in which it can be powerful. There have been some really interesting projects where refugee groups have done Pericles. |
Trump campaign took little interest in other aspects of the GOP platform. And Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser for Trump, gave several public speeches in Russia condemning current U.S. policy there in July, just days before the new platform language was adopted.
Page, a former adviser and current investor in Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled gas company, compared U.S.-led sanctions against Russia to police killings of unarmed black men in the U.S.
Still, days after joking that Russia should find Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s missing State Department e-mails, Trump sought to downplay his ties to Russia in an interview with ABC News on July 31.
The real estate mogul claimed that the only time he profited from a business transaction involving a Russian was when he sold a mansion in Florida to a Russian oligarch. He also denied that he has any debts, including to people in Russia. This is impossible to verify, since Trump has not released any of his tax returns, and neither Epshteyn nor the Trump campaign responded to requests for more information about their business and investments in Russia.
Like many experts outside of Trump’s orbit, Stoner actually agrees that giving the Ukrainians lethal weapons would be “problematic” ― unless the U.S. is prepared to intervene completely in Ukraine, something nobody is seriously discussing. But she said Trump’s reliance on advisers who are cozy with the Russian government suggests he is devising policy in a way that leaves him vulnerable to being outmaneuvered by Putin.
“It is very dangerous to run your foreign policy that way, because you can say a lot of things about Vladimir Putin, but he is not dumb and he reads people very well,” Stoner said.Over the next three days, a crack team from 23andMe will be at the annual Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank, to inject even more fun into the event while also offering tips on using genetics in genealogical searches.
Most exciting for us is that the team is offering a sneak peek to a host of cool new ancestry features that we’ll be launching in a test format in the coming weeks. We’ll be signing up attendees at the conference to do beta testing of the new features as we make them ready for a broader release in the near future.
But you can get a look at what’s to come here.
The first thing that will change is how we surface the collection of ancestry tools we offer users. Now when you click on My Ancestry Page, you’ll get a dashboard summary giving you a quick overview of things like your overall maternal and paternal line ancestry, a summary of recent changes to your Relative Finder matches and sometimes hard-to-find ancestry gems.
To dig deeper into your ancestry, a few of our scientists have overhauled the Ancestry Painting V2 analysis, which we believe is the most accurate breakdown of your genetic ancestry now being offered anywhere. Previously we “painted” individuals ancestry by displaying their Asian, African and European ancestry. Our Ancestry Painting will soon draw from approximately 20 different world regions, creating much finer detail of your genetic ancestry and break down European ancestry and differentiate between Native American and Asian ancestry. Here’s an example of the results from our friend Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who is also the host of the recent 10-part PBS series Finding Your Roots.
Another enhancement includes a turbo charged upgrade of how results are displayed in our popular Relative Finder tool. A new Relative Finder Geographic Map View offers you the chance to display your matches on a world map. This can be incredibly helpful for anyone on a genealogical hunt who must triangulate between multiple different sources of information about their ancestry. In this case we show how your relatives cluster on a world map, which in turn can help you target your search for relatives.
Finally, we’ve added another essential tool for those interested in ancestry with a new Family Tree.
The beauty of this the new tree is that it offers a easy to use and intuitive way to store a profusion of family history. For those who use other ancestry services, they can import their GEDCOM data into 23andMe’s new family tree tool. You’ll be able to enter into the Family Tree relevant dates, life events, professions and other data.
We believe that these new features and enhancements will be both helpful and fun in your exploration into your own ancestry with 23andMe. Stay tuned for the release and if you’re in Burbank this weekend drop by our booth (#706 and #707).A competitive deck is, as the name states, meant to be able to compete and perform well in tournaments. It is true that the different series are by no meaning equal in power and viability, so take these decks as the cream of the crop for the specific series in question, because even the best deck of one set may not be a match for a semi-good deck from another.
The Deck
Today, I’ll show you guys my first and still strongest competitive deck, the one that literary grew with me from a trial deck to the amazing form that it’s in now 🙂
Here’s the WS Deckbuilder link for your convenience: Wishes for a Demon.
Level 0
4x Kyoko Shares an Apple
BOND w/ “Second-year of Mitakihara Middle School, Sayaka”: when she CIP, you may pay 1 stock. If you do, choose that particualar Sayaka in your WR, and add it to you hand.
She also boosts the Sayaka in question for +1000, regardless of stage position.
3x Madoka from the New World
If you have 2 or less cards in stock, she has 4k power.
3x Sayaka Looks Up to Mami
When she CIP, check the top card of your deck and put it either back on top or on the bottom of the deck.
When she attacks, reveal the top card of the deck: if it is a character, put it into your hand & discard a card to WR (can be same card).
2x Supporting Role, Kyubey
If he’s on the center stage, your other character in the middle slot gets clock encore.
2x Homura Watches Over
Brainstorm: Pay 1 stock & rest 2 characters, flip 4 cards from deck to WR, search your deck for one character for each CX revealed – discard nothing.
1x Memories of a Witch, Sayaka
Brainstorm: Pay 1 stock, flip 4 cards from deck to WR, search your deck for one character for each CX revealed – discard same amount.
Level 1
4x Second-year of Mitakihara Middle School, Sayaka
1/0 vanilla.
2x Doubt Towards the World, Kyoko
Level 1 suicider.
When she gets REVERSED in battle, choose one of your characters that gains +1500 for the turn.
1x “Magical Girls’ Tea Party” Sayaka
Discard a CX from hand to WR: she gets +1000 power for the turn, and when she reverses a character, you may draw a card – STACKABLE EFFECT!
Also has clock encore.
Level 2
4x Sayaka’s Wish
Put a Sayaka from stage to WR, put the top card of your clock into your hand and send this card to memory – BYPASSES ANTI-HEAL.
3x Magical Girl Appears
Put 2 characters from your WR to hand and discard a card from hand to WR.
2x Madoka’s Swaying Feelings
Frontal level assist.
Change: at the beginning of your draw phase, you may pay 1 & send this to the WR from stage. If you do, choose an “Ultimate Madoka” in your WR and put it on the stage slot this was on.
1x Time Regressor, Homura
When she CIP, if you have 5 or less cards in your deck, refresh your deck (no penalty point), put up to 2 cards/markers from the top of your deck under “End of Karma for Madoka” (not in this build) & all of your characters gain +2k power for the turn.
1x Exterminating Nightmares, Kyoko
Backup Level 2, + 2500 power: pay 1 & discard this from hand to WR.
When you use her backup, you may pay 2 & put a character from your stage into to WR; if you do, choose one of your opponent’s character that is a higher level than they are, and put it into their WR.
Level 3
2x Ultimate Madoka – ORIGINAL
Heals on play.
CX Combo with Madoka’s Wish: when the CX is played, you may put her into memory, search your deck for “Homura “Fights On””, put it on the stage slot this was on and that card get +3k until the end of your opponent’s turn (not running this combo at all.)
2x Ultimate Madoka – REBELLION
When she CIP, draw a card and she gets +2000 power for the turn.
She also has +500 power for each of your other characters.
2x Homura Becomes a Demon
When she CIP, you may put an “Ultimate Madoka” under her as a marker; if you do, put a “Madoka from the New World” from your WR to any slot on stage.
If she has a marker under her, she has +8500 power.
When her battle opponent gets reversed, you may pay 2 stock & discard a card from hand to WR; if you do, put that character into your opponent’s clock.
2x Sayaka Miki
Heals on play
Has +500 power for each of your other characters.
When she becomes reversed, she goes to memory.
1x One Guided by the Law of the Cycle, Sayaka
If you have 6 or more CXs in WR, she gets -1 level in your hand.
CX combo with Sayaka’s True Identity: When she attacks, you may pay 1; if you do, search you deck for 2 characters and put them into your hand.
At the beginning of your opponent’s draw phase, if she’s on your center stage, choose one of your characters that gets +4k power until the end of their turn.
Climaxes
4x Sayaka’s True Identity
1k1soul, PANTS trigger.
4x Sayaka VS Kyoko
1k1soul, GATE trigger.
Analysis
A tri-color deck can get a bit harder to manage at times, but it doesn’t seem to happen often with this one. At level 0, your main powerhouse will be Madoka from the New World, boasting 4k if you have less than 3 cards in stock (a Rebellion upgrade to this Madoka from the original set.). She’s extremely nice if you’re going first, since she’ll be a wall for you opponent as well as still letting you take down a character next turn if you attack with her first. Even without the boost, she’s still not too shabby at her 2.5k base power. Your other level 0s are mainly utility cards: Kyubey keeps them alive, and clock encore can help you with colors in clock as well. Sayaka/Mami is a nice hand filter, and can also prevent a CX going to stock if you’re lucky enough – but keep in mind that a CX as the last card of your deck is not ideal either, since even if you cancel damage with it, it’s not gonna go immediately back into the deck with the refresh! We also have 2 brainstormers, the spammable Sayaka & the plussing Homura – the 1/2 split on them is my personal choice more than anything and can be turned around if wanted. Sayaka can be used very early on to filter your hand and help you mill through your deck faster if you’re in a bad situation with CXs and need to hit refresh ASAP. Homura requires backrow characters to spare, but she does increase your hand size, so there’s that.
And then we have the Apple Kyoko-Sayaka bond. This one is so beautiful… just epic, indeed. Ideally, you’ll want to hoard up 2 of the 0/0 Kyoko and one or two copies of the 1/0 Sayaka – you can still bond those from WR if you don’t manage to get them in hand on time. The desired level 1 setup is 2 Kyokos in the back and 3 Sayaka’s up front – all with 7.5k power. I’m not saying that they won’t ever get reversed, but to most decks, they will still be a bother: your opponent will either have to play characters with cost, pay stock for power boosts, use a CX or level 1 suiciders – all of which hurts them one way or the other. In my experience though, it’s highly unlikely that all 3 will get reversed in one turn. Even if you don’t manage to get the combo in proper numbers, it can still work. One Kyoko is a bit risky, but 2 Kyokos will give you an edge whether you have 1 Sayaka to play or 3. Some funny situations can also arise from these cards: imagine a single Sayaka, sourrounded by a fleet of 4 Kyokos; not the wisest thing to do, but in a different build that had 2k1soul CXs, I reversed a level 3 with such a formation once… imagine the salt.
Oh yeah, I’ve mentioned level 1 suiciders before, might as well cover the one we’re running: Doubt towards the World, Kyoko, which replaced the old standard suicider. The 7.5k Sayakas and her 1.5k boost when she gets reversed? Wrecking havoc, I tell you 😛 The remaining level 1 card, Tea Party Sayaka, is only included as a tech card, since she’s a lil’ bit situational. However, she too can lead you to victorious salt moments: she’s saved me from losing CXs multiple times, but this one time totally takes the cake: I got to discard 5 CXs right before deck refresh, reverse an SAO marker wall & then draw 5 cards from the newly refreshed deck. Prepare to get questioned if the draw effect is truly stackable… which it technically isn’t, it’s just the card gaining the same ability multiple times, so in the end… still kinda stacks.
Level 2’s got more events than a prom queen’s facebook, but we’ll get to it right away: Sayaka’s Wish. The ultimate reason to run blue in Madoka. Not only can you use it during your main phase, it’s a counter too – a really versatile one. As written before, it bypasses anti-heal, gets you a card to hand (which you can manipulate to an extent with clocking & choosing which one of your opponent’s 3 attacks to use the counter on wisely) and also screws with on-reverse effects like Shimakaze and the likes. It also doesn’t require for the Sayaka you’re removing from stage to be in battle or anything like that… heck, it can even be reversed or on your backrow for all this event cares. The other one we have is Magical Girl Appears, a simple salvage option. You’ll mostly be using this to prep for level 3 and to acquire your level 2 characters, which are scarce though: 2 copies of the Changer/Level assist Madoka and 2 tech cards, both rather situational again: Free-fresh Homura (nope, you don’t need to have End of Karma for Madoka to get +2k boost with her effect) and the anti-change backup Kyoko. These two are more of a “use if the opportunity rises” kind of thing, but key factors still.
Homura Became a Demon vs. “For Madoka’s Sake” Homura
Lastly, we have the somewhat controversial level 3 play – gonna explain that in a minute. Main star of your late game is gonna be Ultimate Madoka, which has 2 forms since the release of Rebellion. The 2/2 split is my personal preference again, since some people opt for just 4 of the Rebellion Madokami version to counter anti-heal, but as far as I’ve played it, running both versions just offers a bit more diversity when you need it the most.
Here comes the controversial part: Homura Becomes a Demon. If you’ve looked through some other meta Madoka builds, you’ve probably seen this Homura & her climax combo instead of the one I run. When I was building this deck, and looking around for feedback and opinions, almost everyone told me to scrap HomuDemon and run the “For Madoka” Homura clock-shoot instead, since “this one requires too much setup.”Hmm… well, it is true that it costs 4 stock all together to set up the HomuDemon wall (since you need to play Madokami as well first), but it’s not like that first 2 stock is just thrown into the wind, since it either gets you a heal or a replacement card in hand, depending on which Madokami version you use – and even if you’re desperately low with characters, you still get a “replacement” for the one you’ve sacrificed to be a marker: just a level 0, but hey, if you need to deal just that one extra damage to win, you still can. The “For Madoka” Homura has her own plus sides by letting you filter your hand with draw2-discard1, but her clock-shoot requires a CX in play aka you need 2 cards as well, so same amount of setup needed. One heavier on your stock than the other, but still. Don’t forget that if you don’t get her via change, she requires you to rest a standing character when you play her, which can make or break you when you’re running low on characters, since you’re getting one less attack off that turn.
But the game changer between these too for me? HomuDemon‘s clock shoot is not bound to anything. In reality, while she probably won’t be reversing level 3s at base 10k, you can still use her clock shoot without the Madokami marker, and it’s likely that your opponent will still have something on your stage that you CAN reverse with 10k power – so virtually zero setup if we get down to it. I’m not saying that you’ll get much off of her without the marker, but she at least can clock-shoot by herself, while “For Madoka” Homura can not. The clock shoot itself is extremely costly (pay 2 drop 1) compared to “For Madoka” Homura’s version of the effect, but I think the independence of it justifies it somehow. It’s not limited to the turn it’s played, and can be used during your opponent’s turn as well – you have no idea how many times people didn’t pay attention and rammed something weak into my HomuDemon at 3/6 just to get an attack off… and then I clock-shot them.
And finally, their power at peak form (either with marker or with CX, ignoring possible assists since that’s additional setup): HomuDemon has 18.5k… constantly. No doubt she’ll reverse level 3s on your turn, but she’ll also be a pain in the ass to deal with on the opponent’s turn – realizing she’ll live to your next turn suddenly makes her setup a lot more worth it, doesn’t it? “For Madoka” Homura, on the other hand, has only 13k (2kfrom her own boost + 1k from the climax) – incredibly risky if you’re looking to reverse a level 3, since as little as a 2k backup could turn the tables on you entirely.
I’m not looking to put down the more popular “For Madoka” Homura – it’s an extremely viable card regardless. What I’m trying to show you guys it’s that if you want to run HomuDemon, don’t let the majority’s opinion discourage you. It seems that a lot of people just looked at it and deemed it inferior, not taking all factors into account.
Moving on to the rest of level 3 play, you have Sayaka Miki, a healer that gets a power boost from other characters (quite nice if you have the level assists up) & the only CX combo, Law of the Cycle Sayaka: pay 1 to search deck for 2 characters on attack is amazingly useful, especially with her being early play. With this deck, it’s rather easy to manipulate the number of CXs in your waiting room, so it’s totally possible to often get her out at level 2 if wanted. I only run 1 copy of her currently because she still seems a bit too risky to run in greater numbers, but I guess switching the 2/1 split on the level 3 Sayakas can totally be done too. She also gives a 4k boost to one of you characters at the beginning of your opponent’s draw phase, so she’s really useful on defense, since she can boost herself too.
The climaxes are 4 PANTS and 4 GATES. As mentioned, I only run 1 cx combo here; I didn’t really intend to build it that way, but it somehow ended up as it is now, and while it may seem like it’s not using it’s potential to the fullest, it works remarkably well. You want to have 4 gates in here and that’s it… doesn’t matter which ones, I’ve just kept the older ones for nostalgia purposes 🙂
Important stuff to keep in mind when playing:
All your characters are
Get the Sayaka-Kyoko apple bond going as soon as possible
Don’t hold on to the situational cards too much.
This deck’s peak potential is reached by stalling at level 2 as much as possible.
Always plan in advance; your level 0 is stalling for level 1, your level 1 is Sayaka wall while you get ready for level 2 & your level 2 is trolling with Sayaka’s wish until you have the means to absolutely own level 3 game.
Don’t get stuck on these plans: they CAN and WILL go downhill sometimes. Your level zero won’t always be 4k Madokas, Kyubeys & Sayaka-Mami handfilters; some days you’ll have to attack with brainstormers and excessive Apple Kyokos. You might also not be able to get Apple Sayaka in hand at all and you’ll find yourself at level 1 with nothing but the Kyoko suiciders. And who knows, maybe you’ll even get to level 3 without being able to set up any level assists at all. Like all other decks, this one too can go to shit – it’s good because even when it does, it still manages to come out on top.
What can be changed or modified?
As mentioned before, the level 0 brainstorm numbers are switchable, with another option being the 1/0 Madoka brainstormer from the 1st set if you want to have more power-up chances – however, with the Sayaka wall, I don’t really find use for it at all… maybe run it as a 1-of? Another tech card option at level 0 is “In Order to Protect Everyone”Madoka, which actually used to be in my old build. You can also try removing one 2/1 salvage event and replacing it with another Free-fresh Homura, since both are very useful cards. At level 3, there is probably the highest amount of maneuverable space in this deck: you can try changing the Homura-clock shoot since adding an extra CX combo doesn’t cost you anything if that’s what you’re after, and if you want to remove healing completely, you can just run 4 of the Rebellion Madokami versions and replace the 2 Sayaka Mikis with another level 3, perhaps Kyoko Sakura.
AdvertisementsIt is a heart-warming sight that deserves to be bottled. On a sunny May morning in east Suffolk as far as the eye can see, the flat but gently rolling fields are a vibrant shade of yellow. Bees and butterflies are flitting around the blooming rape flowers which will gradually die off, leaving the seedpods to be harvested in July and August.
This scene of expanding fields of gold is being replicated across the UK as farmers turn more of their land over to growing rapeseed. Retail experts report it is now the fastest growing vegetable oil in the UK, with supermarkets expanding their ranges to meet shoppers’ appetite for a cheaper, healthier alternative to olive oil. Rapeseed oil has the lowest saturated fat content of any edible oil – just 6% compared with 14% in olive oil and 51% in butter –is rich in Omega 3 – which is good for blood circulation and young brains – and contains Omega 6 and 9.
The UK’s biggest brand is Farrington’s Mellow Yellow, which Nigella Lawson described in her cookbook Kitchen as her rapeseed oil of choice. More recently, the company was chosen to become a partner of Michel Roux Jr’s London cookery school where the chefs have been using the oil since the enterprise opened in 2013.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Production of Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil, Nigella Lawson’s favourite, at Bottom Farm, Northamptonshire. Photograph: David Rose/Rex Features
Galton Blackiston, owner of the Michelin-starred Morston Hall restaurant in north Norfolk, said his kitchens now used 99% cold-pressed rapeseed oil because of its improved flavour, consistency and versatility.
“I was first introduced to rapeseed oil about 18 years ago when a lady came to the door of my hotel and asked me to taste it,” he explained. “It was ‘cabbagey’ and unrefined. But the oil has improved in leaps and bounds through better production and filtering.”
For Morston Hall’s menu, Blackiston has devised a lemon-flavoured rapeseed oil ice-cream, barbecued asparagus drizzled with rapeseed oil, and almond and orange cake in which rapeseed oil provides a low-saturated-fat substitute for butter.
“It has a distinctive and subtle flavour that is earthy and nutty rather than fruity, and is fantastic for pan frying, deep frying and even baking. Importantly, I love using it because I know where it comes from,” Blackiston said.
The owner of Hillfarm Oils, Sam Fairs, started producing cold-pressed rapeseed oil in 2004, after feeling that the full value of rapeseed, then a little-hailed ingredient in generic vegetable oil, was not being achieved. His was the first company to have its rapeseed oil products sold in supermarkets and it has grown to become one of the UK’s largest producers, with production leaping from 2,000 litres in 2004 to 500,000 litres this year.
The family business, based in Heveningham, Suffolk, has doubled its production facilities over the last year to cope with growing consumer demand, which Fairs said was down to the oil’s health benefits, culinary versatility and affordability. “We are very proud of our product and believe that once our customers discover the mild flavour, great health benefits, versatility and low food miles, they will want to buy a British alternative for traditional olive oils.’’
In the nearby barn, staff are processing of 1,388 tonnes of seed which will yield 500,000 litres of oil, compared with 722 tonnes which produced 260,000 litres the previous year. According to the retail analysts Kantar, the cold-pressed rapeseed oil market is now worth £6.4m.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Hillfarm Oils production line. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Guardian
Chefs such as Raymond Blanc, James Martin, Oliver Rowe, Richard Corrigan and Tom Kerridge have all introduced rapeseed oil to a wider audience through their recipes. An early and enthusiastic ambassador of Hillfarm Oils’s products was the chef and restaurateur Mark Hix, who has even been experimenting with cooking the “greens” – the edible stems – of the plant.
“I’ve been a fan of rapeseed oil for a few years now,” he said. “I’ve never advocated it as an alternative to olive oil as it’s completely different in flavour and aroma and each have distinct uses. Like olive oil, though, rapeseed oil needs to be used with care as its unique flavour can overpower a dish or dressing.”
Tesco edible oils buyer Harry Gillespie said: “There is a growing awareness with shoppers that cold-pressed rapeseed is a healthier alternative to olive and other vegetable oils and that has helped boost demand in the last year.
“At the same time shoppers have also been tempted by keener prices as many UK producers have cut the cost of their products. Rapeseed oil is very versatile in cooking and can be used in stir fries, roasting or salad dressing and to replace butter in a flapjack, bread and cakes.”
Tesco reports that over the last year demand for rapeseed oil has grown by nearly 30% – driven by lower prices after an excellent harvest last year as well as clear health benefits. Tesco now stocks 10 different rapeseed oils produced around the UK.
Waitrose has noted a similar trend, with overall sales of rapeseed oils up 30% over the past year. It is currently promoting on special offer Leckford Estate rapeseed oil, made on its own estate. The online retailer Ocado reports even higher sales – up 73% year on year.
Meanwhile back at Hillfarm Oils, a package is being prepared for special delivery: a bottle of Hillfarm cold-pressed rapeseed oil, complete with a symbolic union jack screwtop lid. It will be sent to the prime minister, David Cameron, who appeared in his kitchen at the beginning of the election campaign with a container of Italian Filippo Berio olive oil. “I don’t think that sent out the right message,” Fairs said. “I’d like to see more help for British farmers and production of local food.”Donald Trump signs a hat after speaking in Claremont, N.H., in January 2016. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
Shaking out the Internet doesn’t result in tidy piles of content: some real, some fake; some human, some automated; some sincere, some trolling. The nature of the online world is baked into its name. It’s a web of conflicting and conflicted stories, arguments and people that can make identifying how and why something has seized the popular attention often tricky.
Kate Starbird, a researcher at the University of Washington, first realized this directly when she was studying the online reaction to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. Analyzing a dataset of 600,000 tweets about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, she helped put together a map of how information was shared among those close to the event and more broadly. In addition to tweets about the likely effects of the spill, she noticed an undercurrent of another type of information: misinformation about the most dire possible outcomes — often coming from politically focused accounts.
“There were these weird claims the ocean floor was going to collapse and there was going to be a tsunami of oil coming ashore,” Starbird said when we spoke by phone last week. “It was confusing. I remember people were emotionally affected and scared about this, people that lived in the area.” One woman who lived in Louisiana even sent Starbird a panicked message asking if that risk was real. It wasn’t, of course. But the story was shared within that community as though it might be, including by one Twitter user central to the conversation whose main focus during the spill was using it to be critical of Barack Obama.
After the 2016 election, Starbird revisited that discussion and noticed something resonant.
“I went back and tracked some of these articles using the Wayback Machine and they cited Russian scientists, and they went through right-wing blogs that we might call alt-right now,” Starbird said, referring to the Internet Archive’s tool for cataloging the history of websites. “At the time, I didn’t notice what was going on, but with the benefit of hindsight, you notice that this stuff was happening for a long time.”
While Starbird didn’t document any direct influence from Russian actors in her analysis, it would not have been the only instance of their behaving in that way. In his analysis of a Russian disinformation agency for the New York Times in 2015, journalist Adrian Chen documented an incident from 2014 in which Russians actively spread a news story about a disaster at a chemical plant in Louisiana, going so far as to create fake Web pages and news videos to add realism to the effort. Why? As Chen later explained, the intended effect “was not to brainwash readers but to overwhelm social media with a flood of fake content, seeding doubt and paranoia, and destroying the possibility of using the Internet as a democratic space.”
In early 2016, Starbird and her research team embarked on a different but related analysis. Over the course of the first nine months of the year, they gathered any tweet about a shooting incident in the United States, including tweets using the words “shooting,” “shootings,” “gunman” or “gunmen” and any tweets that used language indicating skepticism about the official story of an attack: “hoax,” “false flag” — meaning an attack secretly launched by authorities to push a political agenda — and “crisis actor,” a term for people theoretically playing roles in a false-flag type of attack. The team then analyzed the data, looking at how “alternative narratives” — a nonjudgmental way of saying “conspiracy theories” — took root and spread.
Of course, the first nine months of 2016 was a particularly interesting time to document the spread of rumors on the Internet. And, sure enough, Starbird documented an ecosystem with which many would soon become intimately familiar as the campaign of Donald Trump was bolstered by the same sort of doubt and factual relativism that Chen’s Russians sought to sow.
The graph below shows the result of Starbird’s work. Bigger dots show domains that were mentioned more frequently in tweets her team analyzed. The size of links between them indicate how frequently the same user tweeted links to those two domains. They are colored by type: purple is mainstream media; aqua, alternative media; red, government-controlled media.
The story that image tells isn’t simple to extract. For example, why, in a network of conspiracy theories, is The Washington Post so big?
One of the major shooting events Starbird documented was the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. As it turns out, The Post debunked conspiracy theories about that attack. We’d also written about a professor who was fired for claiming that the attack at Sandy Hook was a hoax. Both of those articles were resonant within that universe of people discussing whether or not shootings in 2016 were real or manufactured, for perhaps obvious reasons. And one less obvious reason: That The Post was debunking the conspiracy theories was seen by some as evidence supporting the theory. After all, the Establishment must have been spooked if The Post were going to that trouble.
As Starbird summarized that argument: “Look, the mainstream media says this is untrue. This is even more evidence that it must be true.”
Several sites were central to sharing and fostering the hoax theories: BeforeItsNews.com, NoDisinfo.com and VeteransToday.com. One trait she noticed among this galaxy of sites was that the same story or theory was often repurposed among multiple sites, giving readers an impression of corroboration when what was actually happening was duplication.
Also prominent is Newsbusters.org, a site run by the conservative group Media Research Center — which itself is heavily funded by the Mercer family, who helped guide Trump’s victory in 2016. Newsbusters’ stated aim is to unearth the bias of the “liberal media” — meaning, in short, that it’s in the business of positioning many mainstream media outlets as fundamentally untrustworthy, making it of use to those wishing to promote alternative narratives.
It’s prominent in Starbird’s graph, she said, mostly thanks to another name that you may be familiar with from the 2016 election: Mike Cernovich, a prominent voice in the far-right social media community. A Cernovich tweet of a Newsbusters story about how CNN edited a statement from the victim of a shooting was used by Cernovich to suggest that mainstream narratives are often wrong.
Two Russian government-backed sites, RT.com and Sputnik, were also included in the alternate-narrative conversations. RT (formerly Russia Today) would duplicate stories from a site called 21stCenturyWire — a site which was generally shared by users in Starbird’s dataset who also shared stories from NoDisinfo and VeteransToday.
A node on that graph you might expect to see is Infowars, a site predicated on sharing poorly sourced theories of this nature. But Infowars, while prominent, stands apart from the main network. That’s in part because a lot of the accounts tweeting Infowars links were automated, Starbird said.
“It was amplified by an army of bots,” she said. Of the tweets she collected, “probably 80 percent, maybe even 90 percent were accounts that sent only one tweet that I captured, it pointed to Infowars, it was usually a retweet of another account.” This was evidence, she said, of a “pretty unsophisticated bot.”
Bots played a much bigger role in boosting another site — so much so that Starbird removed it from the graph because it was so inflated. TheRealStrategy.com “coordinated hundreds of accounts that tweeted content related to several different alternative narratives from these events and others,” she writes in an article about her research.
These bots were much more sophisticated and looked more like actual social media users.
“We think they were borrowing a set of accounts or leasing them,” Starbird said, “where certain accounts all of a sudden changed their profiles to become part of this botnet for a set period of time, and then they go back and later they’re tweeting about something else for somebody else.” In his analysis, Chen noted that the Russian disinformation agency was also selectively loyal. While many of the users he was following had stopped tweeting by the middle of 2016, “some continued,” he writes, “and toward the end of last year I noticed something interesting: many had begun to promote right-wing news outlets, portraying themselves as conservative voters who were, increasingly, fans of Donald Trump.”
The central challenge Starbird encountered was in determining “which properties are emergent and which properties are orchestrated” — that is, what parts of a network of conspiracy theorists is a function of natural skepticism and information-sharing and which part is bolstered by the use of automation and/or to promote a particular idea. Starbird’s study, limited in scope, couldn’t suss out where that boundary might lie.
Her research, though, did reveal a common theme from 2012 — when she analyzed the Deepwater Horizon spill data — through 2016: a group of sites focused mainly on opposition to “globalist” and corporate hegemony that |
a Thrill Kill move to brutally slay an opponent, depending on what button was pressed upon grabbing someone.
Plot [ edit ]
Ten damned souls have died and descended into Hell. This modern-day Hell is based on the real world of today's deviants. The characters are the physical manifestations of their mental illnesses or the evil hidden within their mortal selves. Each character has been a murderer, usually after their said illness/evil inner self. Marukka, the Goddess of Secrets, is bored of her usual routine and decides that it would be entertaining to pit all of the characters against one another in a fighting tournament with the prize being reincarnation. Each character is battling for nothing more than self-preservation and the hope of being reborn.
Development and cancellation [ edit ]
The controversy surrounding the game raised the interest of Thrill Kill in the gaming community greatly, helping bootleg copies of the game to become very common. In their September 2004 issue, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine cited Thrill Kill as one of the most overrated cancelled games, stating "It got lots of hype. But it really sucked, too."[1]
The Thrill Kill engine was later used in numerous other games. It was used to make Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style (released on October 31, 1999 by Activision), a game based on the rap group Wu-Tang Clan. The Thrill Kill engine was later used in two-player form for X-Men: Mutant Academy (released on July 11, 2000 by Activision), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (released on September 17, 2001 by Activision) and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Arena (released on November 30, 2000 by Mattel Interactive).
In 2009, Game Informer ranked Thrill Kill tenth on a list of "The Top Ten Games That Almost Were".[2] In 2011, GamePro ranked The Imp fourteenth on a list of "The 50 Best Fighting Game Characters Ever".[3]
Soundtrack [ edit ]
California-based industrial band, Contagion, recorded numerous songs and an entire score for the game (which later ended up on their album Infectant).
See also [ edit ]The number of businesses ensnared in a new malware attack revealed in a Department of Homeland Security report this week may run to six hundred, according to a cybersecurity firm that helped DHS prepare the report.
Hackers are using point-of-sale (PoS) malware to steal consumer payment data, including credit and debit card information, from businesses that use remote desktop applications, according to the DHS report out Thursday. The department is now investigating the breaches.
But cybersecurity company Trustwave says at least six hundred businesses across the country have had the malicious software, dubbed “Backoff,” installed on their networks since Oct. 2013, allowing hackers to steal data. The DHS declined to comment to TIME on the scope of the attack.
Many of the 600 are small independent brick-and-mortar shops, said Karl Sigler, threat intelligence manager at Trustwave, but large national chains have been caught up as well. A DHS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that large chains were specifically vulnerable when acquiring a smaller business that could have weaker security protections.
The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now
The hackers target businesses that use remote desktop applications, according to the DHS, of the same kind used by technical support to access a computer from an off-site location. Once they find businesses with basic I.T. security or weak passwords, they can gain the same remote access to systems that technical assistance might have and easily install the malware.
“Backoff” then scrapes memory from the victims’ machines, searches for track data and logs keystrokes to reap sensitive data such as credit card information. “Once the malware sees a credit card system in memory, or typed in, it grabs that credit card information, then encrypts it and ships it out to another system under criminals’ control,” Sigler explained.
The DHS first outlined how the hackers gained access to point-of-sale systems to install “Backoff” in its Thursday report. “Recent investigations revealed that malicious actors are using publicly available tools to locate businesses that use remote desktop applications,” it said, citing Microsoft’s Remote Desktop, Apple Remote Desktop, Chrome Remote Desktop, Splashtop 2, Pulseway, and LogMEin Join.Me as commonly used remote desktop solutions.
Many more victims are likely to be discovered in the coming months, Sigler added. “A lot of smaller businesses were affected but there were very large chains that were affected as well. But they’re names anyone in the states would recognize,” Sigler said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg, but only time will tell how far this reaches.”
All the businesses that have so far been identified as targets of the breach are aware of the attack, Trustwave said.
The Secret Service is investigating the hackers behind the attacks on retailers and Sigler said the Department of Justice would likely prosecute the hackers responsible. The Department of Justice did not return requests for comment, while the Secret Service said it could not comment on how many businesses were affected.
The release of the report will likely spur anti-virus vendors to code defenses against existing variants of “Backoff,” the DHS said in its report. Businesses should create complex passwords for their remote desktop access in order to make their systems harder to break into.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Dear Fellow Chess Parents,
Do children who play competitive chess develop skills that will give them advantages over their non-chess peers?
Yes, I certainly believe so!
My name is Chris Torres and I am the Organizer for the Susan Polgar Foundation’s National Open for Girls and Boys. If you sign your child up right now, I can promise your family a very special kind of tournament experience perhaps unlike any other you have ever attended.
First of all, by signing your child up for the 2016 SPFNO, you are guaranteeing your child the opportunity to meet and hang out with the former World Champion Grandmaster Susan Polgar.
But that’s only the beginning of the fun they’ll have when they start playing chess with us!
The first place winner in each championship section:
*Qualifies for the Prominent Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls (Girls sections only).
*Qualifies for the 2016 FIDE World Youth Chess Championship.*
*Wins $100,000 in prizes and scholarships to Webster University (U16/18 sections).
At the SPFNO, your child will be able to register for a Simul against Grandmaster Susan Polgar, the thrilling SPFNO Blitz Tournament and the first-of-its-kind SPFNO Puzzle Solving Competition.
The SPFNO will take place at a 34,200 square foot facility which we will not be sharing with any other activities. This means our players can be conformably spread out and parents have plenty of space to mingle while waiting for their kids to finish games.
At the SPFNO your family will be treated to free parking and offered a fine selection of affordable food cooked in a real restraint on site.
The SPFNO has its own state-of-the-art website which will keep you up to date on tournament results and pairings without requiring your participation in a stampede to view the wall charts.
The Fun of Watching Your Child Learn and Grow through Chess
Part of the fun of the SPFNO is watching your child meet and make friends with other youngsters who love chess as much as they do. As a competitor in the SPFNO your child will get to participate in a chess tournament attended by many of the best chess players their age in the U.S.A.
Another part – and an important one – is having your child get his/her games analyzed by brilliant players such as Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky who will be analyzing games for free at the SPFNO.
At the SPFNO your child will be placed in an environment where chess is considered cool and where being a high achiever is the norm. Basically, we are providing the ideal conditions for your child to learn and grow through chess.
The Excitement of Shaping the Future through Chess
For some families, the excitement of joining the SPFNO is reason enough to attend. For other families, it will be because of the enormous learning opportunity the SPFNO creates. For me, it is knowing that we, as parents, are doing something to make the world a better place. I honestly believe that many of our future “thought leaders” will be present at tournaments like the SPFNO.
Also, The SPFNO is an official qualifying event for the FIDE World Youth Chess Championships. What could be more exciting than earning the chance to compete against the best chess players in the world?!
By signing our own kids up for such events, I believe we are shaping the future through chess. Now that’s real exciting!
Come Play Chess with Us
So join the Torres Chess and Music Academy and the Susan Polgar Foundation for the fun of it, the learning opportunities and the excitement of shaping the future. The price goes up on Wednesday so join today!
Sincerely,
Chris Torres
Chess Dad
Advertisements
Share this: Email
Print
More
Twitter
Facebook
Tumblr
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Google
Reddit
Like this: Like Loading... Related
Tags: california chess, chess, Chris Torres, SPFNO, Susan Polgar, Susan Polgar Foundation's National OpenA new ransomware program called CryptorBit, which is similar to CryptoLocker and CryptoDefense, is being installed on Windows computers through fake flash updates and other social engineering tactics, warns Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of security awareness training company KnowBe4.
The malware, also known as HowDecrypt, presents itself in the form of a Flash update or anti-virus program, which unsuspecting users may install believing it to be a legitimate Adobe update or anti-virus program. It then corrupts the first 512 or 1024 bytes of any data file it finds, regardless of the file extension, and will only decrypt the files after $500 in bitcoin has been paid, according to Sjouwerman.
“To add insult to injury, the cybercrims are also installing so-called cryptocoin miner software which utilizes the victim’s computer to mine digital coins such as Bitcoin, which will get deposited in the malware developer’s digital wallet, making them even more money,” said Sjouwerman in his blog post. CryptorBit also reportedly has the ability to bypass Group Policy settings designed to protect against similar ransomware attacks.
Bleepingcomputer.com reported that once files are encrypted on a computer, the malware creates two files in each folder where a file was encrypted, “HowDecrypt.txt” and “HowDecrypt.gif.” In each file are instructions on how to access the payment site so that a user can send the ransom. The payment site is only accessible through the Tor network by visiting 4sfxctgp53imlvzk.onion, and the ransom can only be paid in Bitcoin.
The following are a few Bitcoin addresses believed to be associated with CryptorBit, which have received a total of ~40 bitcoins:
And don’t expect your anti-virus software to catch CryptorBit. Brian Dye, senior vice president for information security at security company Symantec, called commercial anti-virus software “dead.” Dye estimates that anti-virus software only catches 45 percent of attacks and leaves users vulnerable.
There are a few recovery options for those infected with CryptorBit, including a program called DecrypterFixer, which is designed to assist in the restoration of encrypted files. The first step in recovery is to use the System Restore function, which uses shadow copies of files to restore previous versions of computer files from before they were encrypted. For this to work, the System Restore function has to have been enabled and run at least once prior to the encryption.
The other option is to install a program called DecrypterFixer, created by Nathan Scott, which can recover corrupted PST, JPG, PDF, MP3, DOC, and XLS files.
Bleepingcomputer.com explains here how to use native Windows Previous Versions, Shadow Explorer or DecrypterFixer to restore files and folders.
Sjouwerman offers the following advice on how to avoid becoming a victim of the CryptorBit ransomware:
1) Backup, backup, backup and test your restore procedure on a very regular basis.
2) Don’t rely on just antivirus as they normally run 6 hours behind attacks like this, enough for the bad guys to get in and wreak havoc. See Virus Bulletin’s testing info.
3) Don’t open anything suspicious. Use extra care to avoid phishing links and attachments. If you didn’t request it, don’t open it.
4) If you do fall prey to CryptorBit, wipe the infected machine(s), rebuild from the ground up, and restore the files from the most recent backup. If there are no backups, try to restore the files from Shadow Volume Copies. If these are not available, you can try a utility called DecrypterFixer written by Nathan Scott.My rematch gift came just at the right time! It's been a stressful day, and I gave myself a papercut in the eyeball. So I was excited when the UPS guy showed up with two packages (as I struggled with a stuck door trying to get to them XD)
A dvd of the first two Troll movies! I do love me some B horror/dark comedy. Don't think I've seen these since I was a teen renting them on VHS from Mr. Movies with my friends, along with Basket Case and Toxic Avenger. XD
Plus a big box of popcorn for movie night!
There's also a cool 'zombie' plant! I've been wanting to get a good look at one of these. They stayed dried out for years, and spring back to life in an hour!
Lots of candy! A huge bag mini Reeses Cups, my favorite! A 3pk of Halloween theme Pop Rocks, which my daughter used to eat near obsessively. And some Eyeball marshmallows, filled with jelly. These made me laugh after my little accident earlier today (which feels better now, but annoying, like an eyelash I can't get out.)
Thank you so much, DuellaDent (cool character!), for making my day brighter!Blackacre State Nature Preserve is a 271-acre (110 ha) nature preserve and historic homestead in Louisville, Kentucky. The preserve features rolling fields, streams, forests, and a homestead dating back to the 18th century. For visitors, the preserve features several farm animals including horses, goats, and cows, hiking trails, and a visitor's center in the 1844-built Presley Tyler home. Since 1981, it has been used by the Jefferson County Public Schools as the site of a continuing environmental education program. About 10,000 students visit the outdoor classroom each year.
The preserve was created in 1979 when the land was given to the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves by Judge Macauley and Mrs. Emilie Smith creating the first nature preserve in the Commonwealth's system. The Blackacre Conservancy, founded in 1983, operates the historic homestead and conducts cultural and historical programs while the Commission retains ownership of the preserve and manages its natural resources.
Blackacre is part of the old Moses Tyler farm, several original farm buildings remain, including the 1844 Presley Tyler home, an Appalachian-style barn and a reconstructed stone spring house. The entire 600-acre (240 ha) settlement has been named a national historic rural settlement. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Tyler Settlement Rural Historic District in 1986.[1][2]
The name Blackacre is used as a generic name in legal contexts, particularly in law school and on bar exams, to refer to a parcel of land. The Smith family gave the land the name Blackacre; previously it was known as Land O'Skye.
History [ edit ]
Blackacre was first settled by the Tyler Family, who arrived in Louisville in 1780. Edward Tyler II purchased a Treasury Warrant allowing him to lay claim to a parcel of land. Moses Tyler was transferred, a portion of that, the 220 acres (89 ha) that now compromise the majority of Blackacre. Later the land was given to Moses's son, Presley. Moses Tyler had already built a barn, a stone cottage and springhouse, but Presley decided to add an impressive two-story farmhouse. In 1884, Presley sold the property to the Kroeger family, who were stewards of the property until 1902. After a series of other owners, the property was bought by the Smith family in 1950. In 1979, Emilie and Macauley Smith, seeing the immense beauty and value of the land, donated it to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, allowing Blackacre to become the first State Nature Preserve of Kentucky.
Buildings [ edit ]
The barn is one of the three original Blackacre buildings. Built in 1790, the double-crib Appalachian barn was made out of large poplar boards harvested from the Blackacre property. Today the barn displays the pre-industrial farm tools that would have been used at Blackacre.
The stone cottage is the second original 1790 building. Today it is a private residence.
The springhouse is the last of the original buildings. Springhouses acted as a refrigeration unit. Perishable food that could not be salted or smoked would be stored. A second floor of the spring was built to allow residents to cool off on hot days. The spring that lies next to the springhouse is man-made.
The farmhouse was built in 1844. Architecturally, it displays the influence of Greek-revival design. The farmhouse now holds the Blackacre's Visitors' Center.
Gallery [ edit ]
18th Century Spring house show during the wintertime
19th Century Presley Tyler Farmhouse and Historic Homestead
Redbuds
See also [ edit ]Earlier this summer, we gave you a list of 20+ best summer reads for adults. We know it is about that time: this week, we convened a panel to discuss the best summer reads for children and young adults too.
On Thursday’s St. Louis on the Air, three local booksellers and librarians joined host Don Marsh to discuss the best children’s and young adult books for summer reading. Suggestions ranged for children from age three to their late teens.
Listen to the full discussion, including tips and tricks to find age-appropriate titles and expand vocabulary, here:
Three local booksellers and librarians discuss summer reading suggestions for kids and young adults with St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh.
Here are reading suggestions from our panel:
Jeffrey Blair, Co-owner, Eye See Me Bookstore in University City
1. "A Spy Called James," a true story of a former slave turned Revolutionary War double agent; picture book for ages 3-8
2. "Chocolate Me," and "Mixed Me," by actor Taye Diggs about self-acceptance; picture books good for younger children
3. "I Love My Hair," which encourages African American girls to feel good about their hair; a picture book for ages 5-8
4. "Me! 10 Poetics Affirmations," written by a local St. Louis author Julius B. Anthony to inspire kids; picture book for younger children
5. "One Crazy Summer," by a New York Times-bestselling author and set during the 1960s; chapter book for ages 8-12
6. "The Hate U Give," a book about a young, African-American girl who is bussed to a wealthier, whiter neighborhood for school and her experiences therein while dealing with the themes of police shootings; ages 14+
Emily Hall, Co-Owner, Main Street Books in St. Charles
1. "When Dimple Met Rishi," a romantic book about two Indian-American teens whose parents try to arrange their marriage, though the parties may be unwilling; novel for young adults/teens
2. "Grendel's Guide to Love and War," an illusion to Beowolf but for fans of celebrity author John Green; novel for young adults/teens
3. "Lunar Chronicles," futuristic retellings of fairy tales by Marissa Meyer; teen/young adult
4. "Flame in the Mist," am Asian-inspired fantasy, "Tamora Pierce meets Mulan;" teen/young adult
5. "The Black Witch," a debut fantasy novel about witches and magic; teen/young adult
6. "Wonder Woman: Warbringer," the first in the DC Icons series about the origin stories of superheroes; teen/young adult
Jennifer Ilardi, Children’s Librarian, Florissant Valley Branch of St. Louis County Library
1. The "I Survived" series, which is good for young students interested in disasters who are looking to transition into non-fiction; chapter book for ages 7-12.
2. "100 Most Feared Creatures," a fun book that might pair well with St. Louis Zoo; non-fiction for ages 7-10
3. "Little Shaq," which is written by basketball star Shaquille O'Neal; a good series to transition from picture to chapter books
4. "The BFG," by Roald Dahl and "The Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary," which explains Dahl's eccentric use and creation of language; ages 8-12
5. "Families, Familes, Families," a book about how not all families look alike or are composed the same way; picture book for ages 3-7
6. "Where's My Mom?" by Julia Donaldson about how different families are; ages 3-7
St. Louis on the Air brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh and producers Mary Edwards, Alex Heuer and Kelly Moffitt give you the information you need to make informed decisions and stay in touch with our diverse and vibrant St. Louis region.The action will hit families heading off at the start of the Western Isles school holidays.
A full strike on Friday is likely to cause severe disruption, Cal Mac has stressed.
Severe disruption to ferry timetables serving 22 islands is expected during an imposed RMT union work- to- rule on Wednesday and Thursday.
Cal Mac cannot guarantee travel to Barra until Sunday due to anticipated travel chaos as seafarers take industrial action.
It also threatens to wreck Barra's hugely popular annual half marathon race and lead to a raft of cancelled hotel bookings at the height of the tourism season.
Some 55% of the RMT’s 585 or so members on Cal Mac ships voted to strike in protest of feared redundancies, cuts and pension changes as the company gears up to fight off private company Serco for the £1 billion tender to run west coast ferry routes.
Cal Mac is working on contingency plans which relies on changing “selected timetables which will be subject to revision during the period of industrial action.”
Ferries with essential supplies may be despatched to outlying islands ahead of industrial action, it is understood.
Alternatively, the firm may reposition vessels to sail as soon as possible in the early hours of Saturday, after the strike ends.
Cal Mac warned passengers: “It has been necessary to stop taking bookings for these dates.
“Should the situation change and industrial action is averted, we will open the booking system back up to our customers.
“CalMac would like to apologise for the impact this disruption may have on our customers.”
Cal Mac said: “The service impact that this industrial action will have is currently being assessed and contingency plans are being compiled at present.”
The shipping firm is phoning around ships and crew members trying to figure out how many are taking part in the dispute.
Navigating and engine room officers belong to a different union and will work as normal.
However, all it needs is for one RMT crew member to down tools as ships cannot legally sail without a full safe manning complement.Automatic Property Calculation Support With Animations In Angular 2 RC 6
One of the cool things about the Web Animations support in Angular 2 RC 6 is that you can use the "*" (wildcard) to reference the "runtime value" of a given property in either the source or destination styles of a transition. As I've been playing around with this feature, however, I've discovered that the support for this varies from browser to browser; and, also depends on whether or not you're using the Web Animations polyfill. So, moral of the story - be sure to test your animations and automatic property calculations across browsers.
Run this demo in my JavaScript Demos project on GitHub.
To demonstrate, I have a box that I can transition to and from the "void" state. In these transitions, I try to make use of:
width: "*"
height: "*"
borderRadius: "*"
In Chrome - which has native Web Animations support - and Sarafi - which uses the Web Animations polyfill - all three of these automatic property calculations work fine. In Firefox, however - which has native Web Animations support - height and width work but the borderRadius throws an error:
Animation to or from an underlying value is not yet supported.
I don't know if there's a list somewhere of the supported properties - these are just the few that I've tried to use in my research. Here's the demo code:
// Import the core angular services.
import { animate } from "@angular/core";
import { Component } from "@angular/core";
import { state } from "@angular/core";
import { style } from "@angular/core";
import { transition } from "@angular/core";
import { trigger } from "@angular/core";
@Component({
selector: "my-app",
animations: [
trigger(
"boxAnimation",
[
// When transitioning to and from a given state, we can SOMETIMES use
// the "*" to leverage whatever the existing runtime value is (or should
// be) for the given property. Support for this depends on the browser.
// For example, in Chrome, we can use borderRadius:"*"; but, in Firefox,
// it will throw the error:
// --
// Animation to or from an underlying value is not yet supported.
// --
// Both Chrome and Firefox support width:"*" and height:"*".
transition(
"void => *",
[
style({
height: 0,
width: 0
}),
animate(
"1000ms ease-in-out",
style({
height: "*",
width: "*"
})
)
]
),
transition(
"* => void",
[
style({
borderRadius: "*",
height: "*",
width: "*"
}),
animate(
"1000ms ease-in-out",
style({
borderRadius: 0,
height: 0,
width: 0
})
)
]
)
]
)
],
template:
`
<p>
<a (click)="toggleBox()">Toggle Box</a>
</p>
<div *ngIf="isShowingBox" @boxAnimation class="box">
<br />
</div>
`
})
export class AppComponent {
public isShowingBox: boolean;
// I initialize the component.
constructor() {
this.isShowingBox = false;
}
// ---
// PUBLIC METHODS.
// ---
// I show or hide the box depending on the current state.
public toggleBox() : void {
this.isShowingBox =! this.isShowingBox;
}
}
When executing the "enter" transition, I'm only using "height" and "width"; so, these should work in all the browsers. But, when executing the "leave" transition, I'm also using "borderRadius", which will break in Firefox:
The automatic property calculation feature in Angular 2 RC 6 is very awesome and is something that I'm excited to dig into more. The take-away of this post is simply that browser support varies and that you need to remember to test your animations across browsers - even when the browser has native Web Animations support.
Tweet This Titillating read by @BenNadel - Automatic Property Calculation Support With Animations In Angular 2 RC 6 Woot woot — you rock the party that rocks the body!My mind had changed further.
I wanted to go back. Nothing was forcing me, I just wanted to return to that place for another night. The rush of the previous night's final moments thrilled me, and I was back for whatever more would come next. I parked my car and walked up to the doors of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza for the fourth time. I shoved the doors open and just walked straight forward. Passing the show stage, I noticed Toy Bonnie's guitar was still bent. Laughing a little, realizing that everything from the previous night actually happened, I walked that familiar path to my office.
There was no desk, just the monitor and the chair. The floor was nearly bare, there wasn't even a desk fan in the room. There was just a phone, sitting on the tiles. As expected, it began to ring. I crouched down and picked it up.
"Hello, hello."
"Why the angry tone, Scott?"
"John. What did you do yesterday?"
I sighed. This wasn't going to be a good conversation.
"It was Chica this time. The other one... Foxy, was it? It chased me through the restaurant."
"I want to know about Bonnie's guitar, John."
"Weaponized it."
"...You weaponized that plastic guitar?! Wh-... why?!"
"Foxy was chasing me. Tried to kill me with that hook of his."
"Come on, that's absurd and you know it."
"Reality can be absurd."
"Don't get all philosophical on me, John."
"...Why did you hang up so quickly yesterday, Scott?"
Scott was silent for a long time. I heard a deep breath over the receiver.
"The Puppet."
"What's that?"
"It's the reason you wind that music box. It's the reason your monitor was beeping. It's... something else."
"What do you mean?"
"L-listen, John... uh... I need to go. I can't tell you much more, just... watch out. Please."
A click signified Scott hanging up. I dropped the phone onto the floor, and picked the tablet up in my hand, amazed that it survived Foxy's attack.
I couldn't tap on CAM 11. The monitor refused to show me the Prize Corner.
Loud noises suddenly startled me. Whirring, clanking, thumping, clattering.
Clicking my flashlight and looking down the hall, four animatronics twitched and marched forward. Freddy, Bonnie, Foxy, and Chica were advancing, completely sure of their movements. Their path didn't waver for a second. My entire body exploded in pain, and I fell out of the seat, onto the floor. I tried picking myself back up, but my hands stung too much for me to even try to put weight on them. Four voices screamed at me, saying many different things.
"You'll die tonight!"
"Leave us alone!"
"Why does it hurt so much?!"
"Stop it," I wailed, "get out of my head! Leave!"
I was still in intense pain, but I slid the flashlight into my back pocket and began crawling into the vent to my right. It was cramped, but at least it kept me away from those things. They still screamed, but I was trying to slide through the vent, hoping they wouldn't turn around and find me once I got through, presumably into one of the party rooms.
I stood up, finally out of the vent, and nearly slipped on a puddle. Party hats sat on striped tables, this was definitely one of the party rooms. Quietly sliding out of the room, I found myself directly behind the four broken robots. I slowly backed away, they didn't even notice. They were too busy moving to the office and screaming in my head.
I turned the corner and began to run. The night was only starting, but I was ready to leave.
The voices became silent as I entered the main area of the pizzeria.
The chime of a music box began to play. One piece of music, repeated over and over.
"Pop Goes the Weasel."
Oh, no.
Over the screeching of the childrens' voices, and the overall terror involved in my attempted escape, the incessant beeping of the monitor was drowned out. Not that it would've mattered, anyway, something was preventing me from getting to the camera view.
Could this be what Scott was talking about?
I turned to the Prize Corner itself. The gift box was open, and something was rising from it. A mask, its dark eyes crying purple streaks and its mouth a twisted, lipstick-covered grin. It was enormous, and disturbingly lean. Its black outfit had some stripes and buttons. It looked at me, and white pupils suddenly glowed from its eye sockets. I blinked, and it had left the box. It cocked its head, its neck bending.
"You."
It didn't speak through my head, it spoke clearly and crisply, by itself. Its voice was not that of a child, but the hushed tone of a young man.
"I never thought I'd see you again. Why are you here?"
I didn't answer.
The Puppet laughed softly.
"I don't know why I asked. I already know the answer, Jonathan."
It knew my name.
I was suddenly unsure of myself. Scott was right, it seemed. This thing was "something else."
"Have those five been giving you trouble?"
"...Five?"
"Oh. He hasn't made an appearance, yet? The one you let go the quickest? The one with the broken neck?"
"I left him without a costume all those years ago. Who is he... now?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
The Puppet wasn't even on the ground. It floated closer to me.
"Is... is this all real?"
"Let me show you. Like you showed me."
The long, black fingers wrapped around my neck. I tensed. They weren't cold and lifeless, they didn't feel like fabric, they were like hot skin. Burning, even.
The fingers squeezed harder, and I was in the air, too. I couldn't breathe.
The Puppet stared at me. What seemed like a mask at first had contorted into the face of a ferocious roar. The eyes still glowed, and looked into my own. I curled my hands into fists, and tried to punch the thing. Every hit I landed just succeeded in burning my knuckles. The Puppet didn't react, it didn't even move. It laughed like I did that day, in 1983.
"Remember this, Jonathan?"
I was suddenly sent hurtling to the floor. The Puppet used my technique. He tried to kill me in the same way that I killed him.
I looked up, and the skinny form loomed over me. It stood there in silence before it slowly faded away.
It was gone.
When I returned to my house, I called Scott.
"...Hey, John," he yawned. He never woke up early, my call must have forced him out of his sleep. "Why are you calling so early?"
"I'm calling at a decent hour, Scott, because of what I just went through."
"Is this about your shift? You usually update me on that when I call you at midnight. What happened to that?"
"The Puppet."
Scott seemed to snap out of his tired daze.
"What happened, John?"
"It tried to kill me. Using two different methods."
"O-... oh. I, uh, I see. So, that means you're calling because..."
"I'm not going back."
"Yep, I figured as much. See you on the flipside, or something, John. Now let me go back to sleep. Please."
"Alright, Scott." I chuckled and hung up.
So ended my days of working for Fazbear Entertainment.Disproportionate political power has crippled Britain
Roger C. Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 25, 2017
The Disproportionate Political Power Defining The State of Britain
From a party that had only one MP to a sect within a party, whose leadership candidate could barely muster single digit support within the party, disproportionate political power has been shaping British politics for some time and is now crippling it. UKIP have lost their only MP today, with Douglas Carswell quitting the party to continue as an independent MP.
The plaything of a wealthy backer, UKIP so unnerved the Conservative Party that they wrong-footed the Tories into acceding to their single political goal of taking Britain out of the European Union. Well, not entirely true. The Tories arrogance borne out of their compromising relationship with corrupting media barons led the Tories to believe that they could do as they pleased in government and the outcome was that they wrong-footed themselves. Undoubtedly, the political minnow of UKIP has been raised to well above its station or political importance by a fawning media that has inexplicably given a platform to UKIP and their single political goal that they have never deserved. The BBC’s Question Time has become a running joke and lost any credibility because of the frequency with which it has hosted the party. Along with the hapless Tory party, no other organisation is more responsible for the disastrous ‘brexit’ than the BBC, in their failure to hold either the Tories or UKIP accountable during the EU referendum campaigns, playing lickspittles to wealthy backers who pull the strings in the Tories and UKIP.
What Of Britain’s Opposition?
Within Labour, Labour’s Right, the remnants or descendants of the failed social neoliberal experiment of New Labour, are backed by wealthy patrons, which is the constant theme in the compromising effect on British politics of disproportionate political power. It is Labour’s Right that has fueled the current dissent within Labour, which has been undermining leaderships since 2007, and has been snatching defeat from the jaws of victory since David Cameron and his Tory shambles lost their EU referendum in 2016. Figures from Labour’s Right are, uncoincidentally, the most featured Labour figures on the BBC.
While the Labour leadership have twice been presented with a democratic mandate to lead the party, Labour’s minority sect have persisted in undermining the party’s democracy in their attempt to seize control of it.
It is remarkable that the Right in Labour see democracy as the enemy, even inspiring raving suggestions of conspiracies, but their fear of democracy is understandable when they are incapable of winning democratic elections. Last years Labour leadership election was marred by the Right’s gerrymandering and exclusions of voters in their attempt to overcome democracy; a shameful episode in Labour’s history.
*footnote
It is also worth mentioning that the minority LibDem party has not escaped the compromising of wealthy patrons, subjected, as they have been, to the attentions of the oft time Labour donor, Lord Sainsbury. Sainsbury’s political interest in the LibDems seemingly timed to his diminished influence in the Labour party since the current leadership have begun to move political influence away from wealthy donors and towards the democracy of its membership.
What Of Britain?
What cripples Britain is the disproportionate political power that a wealthy minority can buy. Within Britain’s opposition, wealthy patrons own and resource a sect who undermine the democratically elected leadership. Within Britain’s media, media barons control, influence and compromise the integrity of ‘news’ reporting, including that of the state |
ning polities. In fact, it elevates so much good, presentable stuff that many headline news sites—famously BuzzFeed, and Gawker too—use reams of Reddit content. It’s one of the Internet’s best curators. If the outing and shaming of Reddit’s “creepy uncle” accomplishes anything, it will be to leave users walking on eggshells, or moderators more likely to clamp down on offensive content. That won’t just be to Reddit’s detriment, or even ours. It will hurt places like Gawker too.Review: 10255 Assembly Square Posted by CapnRex101, 26 Dec 2016 18:00
Modular Buildings have become a highlight of the year for many LEGO fans and with very good reason. They offer spectacular structures, brilliant building techniques and a tremendous selection of different pieces which represent both the fundamental principles of LEGO products as well as the most advanced aspects of their design over the last decade.
2017 will mark the tenth year of the theme and this milestone is celebrated by the release of 10255 Assembly Square. The set contains 4002 pieces and is therefore the largest Modular Building yet as well as one of the most impressive based on the exceptionally positive reaction to its announcement in October. LEGO has kindly sent us a copy of the set so we can provide Brickset readers with an early review in advance of its worldwide release on the 1st of January.
Box and Contents
The box is far larger than that of any previous Modular Building and displays the model against a delightfully sunny background with the Creator Expert logo in the corner. A unique tenth anniversary icon has been designed for the packaging and it appears on both the front and back of the box as well as on the cover of the instruction manual.
The back of the box demonstrates many of the details which can be explored and shows the floors removed to reveal an extensive interior. 10251 Brick Bank and 10246 Detective's Office are shown for scale alongside 10255 Assembly Square and it is apparent that this set is far more substantial than either of its immediate predecessors.
The box contains 34 bags divided across six numbers as well as one 32x32 baseplate, one 16x32 baseplate, one 8x16 plate and an enormous instruction manual which is 308 pages in length. I was quite surprised to find that the manual is not packed in a bag as has often been the case in recent years, although it arrived in perfect condition even without additional protection.
Minifigures
Eight minifigures are included as well as a baby. They all share the same smiling face and are split between those who are designed to fill a specific role and those who are a little more generic. The packaging suggests that the woman on the left of the image below is a mother and an AFOL who occupies a small apartment above the bakery.
The man wearing a plaid shirt seems to be a musician and the other characters are a florist and a photographer, with the latter perhaps being a friend of the artist in 10243 Parisian Restaurant. Each minifigure has some more printing on the back of their torso.
The dentist features a new torso which is printed with a tooth emblem and some dental equipment while the barista wears a brown apron. This design has previously been seen in 60097 City Square while the neighbouring ballerina is sporting a white tutu which was first used in the fifteenth series of the Collectable Minifigures.
The final minifigure works as a chef and he comes complete with a toque as well as printing on the front and back of the torso. This element was only recently updated so is still uncommon, appearing in just three other sets at the moment.
A baby and a dog are also included. The baby looks absolutely adorable and this version is only available elsewhere in 60134 Fun in the Park - City People Pack while the dog, based on a Chihuahua, is seen in a total of four sets.
I think this range of characters is sufficient to populate the set, although there is plenty of room for many more and fifty minifigures could comfortably occupy Assembly Square on an especially busy day!
The Completed Model
Assembly Square looks absolutely spectacular when completed, presenting a colourful model which is packed with details and realistic architectural features. The set is unusual among the Modular Buildings in that it is divided across three structures, although two share a party wall. They represent distinct building styles and the variety of different colours used for the rendering and brickwork is very pleasing to the eye.
The back of the model is significantly less detailed than the front, as one would expect, but it still looks quite reasonable on the whole, with a nice combination of sand blue, sand green and tan walls which contrast with a green base. There was considerable consternation when the traditional green baseplate was retired in favour of a bright green version at the beginning of 2015 so I am sure the inclusion of green baseplates here will appeal to many buyers. 32x32 and 16x32 stud examples are present, giving this model a much larger footprint than any previous Modular Building.
Two smaller models are also included and these can be placed on the pavement outside or taken indoors. The camera is brilliantly designed, with bellows behind the lens and a large flash bulb mounted on one side to replicate the style of photographic equipment from the early twentieth century. The tripod is also constructed very nicely and the model makes use of some interesting pieces including a pearl silver parabola, three dark bluish grey ball connectors and a 1x1 round tile with pin which has not previously appeared in black.
The pram is also constructed using some interesting techniques as brackets are used to form an attractive curved shape. I like the red colour scheme and there is room for the baby to stand or lie down inside while a minifigure holds onto the handle at the back. There is plenty for the baby to see as they are taken around the square, most notable of which is a delightful fountain made using white parabolas which is topped with a metallic silver sphere. Curiously, the fountain is the final section of the model to be constructed but its octagonal base is among the first.
White lamp posts are a consistent feature of Modular Buildings and this set includes two at the edge of the pavement. 2x2 tiles form much of the pedestrian area but these are accented by a selection of 1x1 plates as well as some new 2x2 corner tiles with an angled surface which appear in four different colours and tessellate beautifully to create some interesting patterns. A bijoux café occupies the building on the left of Assembly Square and its design is reminiscent of 10182 Cafe Corner as the awnings consist of white and yellow stripes while a radial sign hangs over the door with a coffee mug at its centre.
However, these features have undergone substantial alterations since the 2008 set and now look far more refined in my opinion. I like the alternating colours of the teeth which form the valance of the awning and the tables underneath are equally impressive, with curved seats and a table design which is highly detailed despite using only three pieces. Potted plants are situated on either side of the door and this opens to reveal an equally detailed interior.
The café contains just two tables and looks very cosy, with a pair of golden lampshades on the wall as well as wooden flooring and a decorative counter design. The cash register looks very traditional and the coffee machine behind the counter does not look particularly modern either, maintaining the rustic designs which have dominated the other Modular Buildings. Plenty of accessories are included too such as cups, plates and slices of pie which are printed on the new 1x1 quarter-circle tile. This piece also appeared in 41126 Heartlake Riding Club which was released during the summer but I am sure it will be new to most people.
A minifigure can exit the café through a back door and this brings us into a small outdoor space which features a climbing plant as well as a narrow walkway through which one can return to Assembly Square. The walkway is covered by a pearl dark grey lattice and this has some more greenery growing on top which I like very much. Another door is hidden beneath the walkway covering and that opens directly onto a flight of stairs while the reddish brown door towards the left of the image below allows access to the florist which we will visit a little later in the review.
The sides of Modular Buildings are often rather unsightly and that is certainly the case here as the furnishing inside results in a jumble of different colours. The lower section is not too much of an issue as that will be covered if the model is attached to another building but the upper section might be visible if placed beside some of the smaller Modular Buildings such as last year's 10251 Brick Bank. However, this is unavoidable without the addition of an extra layer of bricks and that would reduce the space inside so I think this less attractive angle is a worthy trade for greater interior detail.
The view from the front is much more attractive, with tall windows surrounded by sand blue rendering which is formed using 1x2 grille profile bricks appearing for the first time in this colour. A window box filled with flowers is placed outside the angled window and this is held in place by turntables at the top and bottom. There is very little movement but it is worth noting that the window does not quite fit perfectly and its angle can therefore be altered accidentally, albeit only slightly.
Each floor is separated by a row of dentillation, formed using 1x1 tiles with half circles in light bluish grey. They are identically designed but for the inclusion of a small balcony on the top level which is accessible through a glass door. This is mounted in an angled frame which is new for 2017 and it looks great, as do the carved stone eaves above. There is even more detail to be found inside.
The first floor contains a music store which stocks guitars, both acoustic and electric, as well as saxophones and a drum kit. The acoustic guitar features some lovely printing and is very rare, having only previously appeared as an accessory for the Mariachi in Series 16 of the Collectable Minifigures. The counter is again topped with a vintage cash register and this includes a pair of new sloping elements which feature a flat surface on top. These are bound to prove useful and they also appear in white elsewhere in the set.
A dance studio occupies the top floor and this seems best suited to ballet as a mirror is mounted on the wall with a pearl gold barre fixed underneath. The mirror element first appeared in 10246 Detective's Office and is truly reflective so I am pleased to see it included in another Modular Building. An upright piano is placed beside the stairs and this is probably the best model of the instrument yet which is saying a great deal as plenty have been designed before! I love the three foot pedals beneath the keyboard and the alternating black and white keys look great, using grille pieces to good effect as has become the standard for LEGO pianos in recent years.
The roof is accessed by a third staircase which leads to an opening hatch. This is formed using a technique which may be familiar to some as the same elements represent a hatch in one of the alternative builds for 31026 Bike Shop & Cafe. A skylight allows plenty of light into the dance studio beneath and the rooftop features carved stonework around the edges, with a particularly attractive curved shape at the corner.
The next building is the smallest but features some of my favourite details, particularly when viewed from the front. A pair of large flowers is mounted above the door and this is decorated with a flower-shaped doorknob which I absolutely adore. The flowers resemble tulips and each one comes complete with a bright green leaf, represented by a claw appearing for the first time in this colour. Racks of plants stand outside the shop and the pink awnings look great in contrast with the white of the wall at ground floor level.
The upper level has sand green walls but only a sliver of this colour is visible as the windows are very large and the roof is dominated by two shovels which form a curved shape. I was impressed by this use of a Technic component when the first images were revealed but was also a little concerned that these would occupy a great deal of space. Fortunately that is not the case and I think the result looks tremendous, as does the architectural detail underneath which is created using a series of hammer accessories mounted on their side.
The view from the side is less appealing. Much like the side of the bakery there are some strange patches of colour but these cannot be easily obscured as the florist does not connect to any other buildings on this side. Fortunately the colours are arranged in large blocks so do not look too bad, although it would still have been nice to see something covering the white area on the first floor.
There is little detail at the back of the florist but I like the row of alternating trans-green and trans-clear windows which are included in reference to the colour scheme of 10251 Brick Bank. The window on the ground floor can be opened so might provide an opportunity for the burglars from last year's set to make another attempted robbery. The section of wall above the window is easily removed to access the interior as it is has a fairly high ceiling so would otherwise be difficult to reach.
The interior is quite detailed, with a flower display in the corner as well as some prepared bouquets on the rear wall. A small plant is kept underneath a bell jar on the counter and a staff member can get to the cash register by lifting the wooden flap. The owner appears to own a parrot as a new bird with a mixture of blue, green and yellow feathers is sitting on a perch next to the side door.
A photographic studio occupies the next floor and this is perhaps the most sparsely furnished room in the entire set, although the delightful camera discussed earlier goes a considerable way to make up for that! I like the roll of white paper against the wall and the white upper windows are also a great detail, representing partially retracted blinds.
The roof terrace is quite nicely detailed with a small outdoor kitchen and some equipment which is clipped to the wall. I like this area but find this blue chairs to be rather gaudy so would have preferred a more neutral colour which would be more in keeping with the traditional aesthetic of the rest of the model. I should also mention that the dark orange plant stalk has only appeared once before in 21128 The Village.
The roof terrace is accessed by a series of staircases which lead down to the bakery, passing through the dentist on the way. These look great and also serve a very practical purpose as this allows much more space inside which can be occupied by more detailed furnishings and minifigures. I like the wrought iron styling very much and also applaud the use of the relatively new bar connector elements to form the handrails.
As at the other end, the side wall looks rather messy and the patches of dark bluish grey and white at the top are particularly irritating as they are left exposed when joined to some of the other Modular Buildings. As ever, it can be connected using a pair of Technic pins at the base and they line up perfectly so can be attached to any of the eleven Modular Buildings released over the last decade.
The front of the bakery is one of my favourite aspects of the entire set. Rolling shutters are used to create the windows and each one is topped with a sloping roof in dark blue. A pretzel identifies the building as a bakery, although there are no pretzels to be found inside which is somewhat ironic. The light fixtures on either side of the window make use of acetylene torch elements which is a brilliant demonstration that almost every piece can be reused depending on your own imagination!
Another of the new angled door frames is used for the front door to the bakery, although this one is cast in black so is consistent with the dark colours of the door casing. A curved step leads up to the door and it opens outwards, passing just underneath the inverted underside of the bartizan tower.
The interior is densely furnished with a large counter, some shelving, an oven and a couple of displays which are shown in the windows. The rustic design looks great and I like the liberal spread of cakes and desserts which provide a splash of colour in contrast with the grey walls. The wedding cake is particularly impressive, using a Technic turbine element for the lowest tiers and even including a pair of tiny figurines to represent the bride and groom on top!
The bakery also hides the only true play feature found in the set. Pushing a green plunger at the back will reveal some biscuits on a tray inside the oven. This is a neat little feature but its activator is rather obvious and detracts from the appearance of the model when it is viewed from behind. Perhaps this could have been replaced with a subtler switch design.
Nevertheless, the function works very well and shows great attention to detail on the part of the designer as the baking tray would otherwise have been almost impossible to access. The door is hinged and there is a paddle clipped to the wall for moving food around inside the oven or placing it on the counter.
A dentist's office is found on the next floor and this can be seen from the exterior where the window is printed with a tooth emblem as well as the phrase 'prevents yellowing' in reference to the tendency of white LEGO pieces to become discoloured over time. Medium dark flesh tiles recreate brickwork and these are punctuated by light bluish grey 1x2 jumper plates to provide some additional texture.
The bartizan is undoubtedly my favourite part of the entire model. It presents a beautiful shape and makes use of the extremely appealing new brick with studs on two adjacent sides, allowing you to mount 1x1 slopes in a corner configuration as exemplified here. This will be very useful for other creations but is put to excellent use on this model as the colour scheme looks fantastic and the bartizan tower is unlike anything seen on the other Modular Buildings.
Dark blue slopes form the pinnacle and two decorative lattice windows are arranged around the base of the roof. The white finial on top matches the carved stonework on either side and there is a sculpted relief at the front which features a chicken!
The interior of the dentist's office is completely open plan which is rather unusual as the waiting area has a perfect view of the dental chair. Thankfully there is some reading material in a rack in front of the reception desk which will hopefully distract any nervous minifigures. A telephone is placed on top of the desk so inhabitants of the city can ahead call and make an appointment.
Going to the dentist can be a stressful experience but would be even worse if one were to find a truncheon hidden in a chest of drawers, perhaps for knocking out difficult patients! Fortunately that can be hidden away and the rest of the room is exactly as one would expect, with a sink fixed to the wall and a reclining chair. An articulated lamp is fitted above the chair and a table can be rotated over the legs of a minifigure.
The final area to be explored is also one of the most interesting. A studio apartment is found on the second floor and this is obviously the home of an AFOL who has been collecting for several years as various sets are on display, notably including 10182 Cafe Corner, 10190 Market Street and 10185 Green Grocer.
These are arranged on a shelf above the sofa bed and this really works as you can fold it into different configurations, although no pillows are included so it looks slightly plain when folded down to form a bed. There is also a small kitchenette which is complete with an oven, a sink and some cupboards, one of which is probably a fridge. A small bathroom is situated behind the kitchen and this contains a toilet with a high level cistern and a pull chain, designed much like the toilet in 75827 Firehouse Headquarters.
The occupant has constructed a train layout which appears to feature the orange hue of 10233 Horizon Express as well as a tunnel and an area of water around which the track runs. They are also displaying 10181 Eiffel Tower in the corner and the box for 10182 Cafe Corner is resting on the sofa bed. This is printed on a 2x3 tile and it looks terrific, adequately celebrating the tenth anniversary of Modular Buildings in my view. You might also be able to spot 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper Van and 10242 MINI Cooper MK VII on a shelf near the back door.
Overall
This is a tremendous set. I can never choose a single favourite Modular Building as my selection is constantly changing but 10255 Assembly Square is definitely another contender for the title! It is as detailed as any of the others and includes a thoroughly impressive selection of new pieces as well as plenty of interesting architectural features.
The small size of the buildings may bother some people but this is quite typical of many European cities and I think it looks brilliant. The tip of the bartizan stretches 35cm high so this model is taller than many previous Modular Buildings and will look splendid on display. I am also satisfied that the price of £179.99 or $279.99 is reasonable and would therefore have no hesitation in recommending this set. Whether you are an ardent collector of the range or have never bought one before, this will certainly be a worthy purchase when it is released on the 1st of January!
I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your thoughts on the set in the comments below.
This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review is an expression of my own opinions.Related Headlines Teen rescued from Va. lake
- Whatever you do, don’t call these construction workers heroes. They say they were just doing what anyone would do when they jumped into the murky waters at Lake Montclair’s West Beach and pulled a 17-year-old girl to safety.
“Everybody went in under the water and then everybody tried to find the lady under the water, and these guys saw the hand, saw the foot and the other guy tried to find the dresses,” said Dennis Cruz.
Cruz, 27, is one of six construction workers who helped rescue the teen Wednesday afternoon.
“The lady said, ‘I need help’ and everybody went inside the water for her,” he said.
All of this went down despite a language barrier between the crew who spoke little English and the teenager’s family and friends who couldn’t swim.
Even so, it was far from your typical day on the job and something the group is still talking about a day later.
The men work at Manassas-based JC Roman Construction Company.
“They're more concerned how the girl is doing, how her family is doing,” said Jarmale Armitage, a superintendent for the construction company. “And like Dennis said, a couple more minutes and she would have passed away, so that was their biggest concern.”
Now, the Good Samaritans are trying to find the girl they pray they saved.
“Still everybody's biggest concern until we have a sense of control on how she's doing and how her family is doing,” said Armitage.
The 17-year-old girl was taken to Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge. She was breathing and regained a pulse. She was then airlifted to Inova Fairfax Hospital where she remained Wednesday night.
Due to privacy laws, her condition is confidential.Image copyright Brendan Doherty Image caption The bus was extensively damaged in the fire
A fire on board a double-decker bus caused long delays on the M22 motorway in County Antrim on Monday.
The blaze on the Ulsterbus service from Belfast to Londonderry started just before 17:30 BST, about 40 minutes after it began its journey.
A Translink spokeswoman said the driver got all the passengers out of the vehicle and called firefighters.
The bus was extensively damaged by flames and Translink said an investigation has begun.
Watch the fire on the bus here.
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said the bus was well alight when firefighters reached the scene.
They added that the bus driver sustained a cut to her hand while trying to remove the fire extinguisher.
Three fire appliances attended the incident, which caused long tailbacks on the M22 near Randalstown.
The fire has now been extinguished.There is no arguing Johnny Gaudreau is the Calgary Flames‘ most dynamic offensive player. Gaudreau is among the league leaders in points this season with 37 to his name.
What about his centreman, Sean Monahan?
You know, the 23-year-old who has played four NHL seasons, all of them with 20 goals or more, including a 31-goal campaign. Is the Brampton, Ont. product having the best season in the league that no one is talking about? Maybe not no one, but here are a few things you might not realize.
Only two players in the league, Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov, have more goals than Monahan’s 17. No one has more game-winning goals than the six the Flames centre has accounted for, leaving him tied for the league lead entering Tuesday’s game against Minnesota.
Getting off to a start like this is something new for the 2013 sixth-overall pick. Outside of his rookie season in 2013-14, when he turned on the red light six times in his first eight games, Monahan has normally saved his best around the net for later.
Even in that year, after 30 games the centreman had found the net just 10 times. In fact, 11 was the most goals he had ever scored at the 30-game mark, until this season. Last season at this point Monahan had found the back of the cage just eight times. His current 30 points have him 14 ahead of last season’s totals.
Another interesting comparison between this season and last: 11 of his goals have come away from the Scotiabank Saddledome. Monahan scored all of nine goals on the road last season and is just two points shy of his 18 total road points from 2016-17. His faceoff percentage is up nearly six per cent from his rookie season. For the analytics types, his Corsi rating is 55.
The Flames’ number-one pivot is checking all the boxes. He just goes about his business quietly and effectively.
His ability to elevate the puck in tight spaces is one of his greatest assets. His wrist shot is lethal. When the game is on the line, who would you rather have with it in a position to score?
Monahan, who has two overtime goals already this season, has a franchise record of nine. Even in a difficult four-game playoff sweep at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks last post-season, who scored in all four games? Monahan.
Monahan doesn’t require the spotlight. Doesn’t want it. Doesn’t need it.
From where I watch, all this young man wants is to get better at his craft each and every day. As he wouldn’t be comfortable trumpeting the type of start he is off to, I thought I would.A man who loves free speech more than you do.
On Friday, president Trump said that the media “shouldn’t be allowed” to cite anonymous sources — because America’s most respected newspapers routinely “make up” such sources, and publish stories of their own invention. He reiterated his contention that “fake news” outlets like the New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, CBS, and CNN are “the enemy of the people,” and suggested that Americans should not protest their government in between elections.
The president also said, “I love the First Amendment — nobody loves it more than me.”
Trump and his administration have been waging a war on objective reality — and those tasked with describing it — from the moment he was sworn in. In his first appearance as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer demanded that reporters believe the president’s estimate of the size of his inaugural crowd over their own lying eyes. As Trump’s tumultuous (and not terribly productive) first month in office progressed, he grew ever more preoccupied with discrediting the Fourth Estate.
On Thursday, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Steve Bannon and Reince Preibus instructed the audience not to believe any negative news they read about the administration, over and over again. By the end of their conversation, the word media had been spoken 19 times, and the phrase opposition party, Bannon’s favorite synonym for the mainstream press, six times.
It wasn’t terribly surprising, then, that the president opened his remarks to CPAC with a long diatribe against the media. But Trump’s speech did represent a significant escalation in his crusade against independent journalism.
Previously, the president had criticized the press for printing “illegal leaks” from anonymous government officials and suggested that those officials have often shared false information. But he’d never before claimed that major newspapers were fabricating sources out of whole cloth and presenting works of fictions as reportage.
“The leaks are real. You’re the one that wrote about them and reported them, I mean, the leaks are real,” Trump told reporters at a press conference last Thursday. “You know what they said, you saw it and the leaks are absolutely real.”
As of Friday morning, the president still maintained that the anonymous officials quoted in the media were genuine members of the government.
The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security "leakers" that have permeated our government for a long time. They can't even...... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2017
find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S. FIND NOW — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2017
But hours later Trump suggested that reporters can’t find actual government officials to leak to them, and thus are forced to invent them.
“A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people,” Trump said. “Because they have no sources, they just make ’em up when there are none … I’m against the people that make up stories and make up sources.”
The people that “make up stories” ostensibly includes all of the major outlets listed in this recent tweet.
Late Thursday night, the Trump administration admitted that it had encouraged the FBI to anonymously leak exculpating information about the president’s relationship with Russia. On Friday morning, Trump declared, “They shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name … They should put the name of the person. You will see stories dry up like you’ve never seen before.”
Then, after briefly praising the First Amendment, the president said that media “doesn’t represent the people,” and “we’re going to do something about it.”
Trump’s only substantive argument for why his audience shouldn’t trust the media was that most of these outlets’ pre-election polling suggested that he would not win. He then credited the Los Angeles Times’ poll for its singular accuracy. That poll predicted that Trump would win the popular vote, making it one of the least accurate national polls of the 2016 cycle.
@FredLucasWH Note: Final LA Times poll had Trump winning nationally by 3%. He lost to Clinton by 2.1%. https://t.co/v7nN1Fw5aP — Aron Goldman (@ArgoJournal) February 24, 2017
But in the president’s telling, fake news outlets and skewed pollsters aren’t the only ones who have been abusing their First Amendment rights — the other enemies of the American people are … the American people who didn’t vote for Donald Trump.
Referring to the town hall protests in support of Obamacare, Trump said, “The people that you’re watching, they’re not you. They’re largely – many of them are the side that lost, you know they lost the election. It’s like, how many elections do we have to have?”
The election is over. The world’s biggest fan of the First Amendment won. So, if you voted against him, it’s time to shut up.Image caption There have been repeated allegations of prisoner abuse at Bagram airbase
Prisoners are being abused at a "secret jail" in the main American military base in Afghanistan, according to a report from a US policy think tank.
Ex-detainees said they were deprived of sleep and held in cold isolation cells in the site at Bagram, says New York-based Open Society Foundations.
A BBC investigation in April uncovered similar allegations of prisoner abuse at a hidden facility in Bagram airbase.
The US military repeated its denial that it was operating a secret jail.
'Very troubling pattern'
Open Society Foundations, which is funded by liberal billionaire George Soros, says 18 detainees claim they were held at a secret site, dubbed the "black jail", during 2009 and 2010.
The Department of Defence does not operate any secret prisons Capt Pamela Kunze, US military spokeswoman
The inmates said they were exposed to excessive cold and light, not given enough food or blankets, deprived of sleep, stripped naked for medical examinations and not allowed to practise their religion.
"Given the consistency of the accounts, the Open Society Foundations believes these are genuine areas of concern, and not outliers, that run counter to US rules on detainee treatment," the report says.
"We're not talking about being threatened to death in interrogation with drills to their head, we're talking about run-of-the-mill detention conditions that when seen as a whole create a very troubling pattern," report author Jonathan Horowitz said.
The US military said its detention centres complied with US and international laws.
"The Department of Defence does not operate any secret prisons," Capt Pamela Kunze, a spokeswoman for the US military task force overseeing detentions in Afghanistan, told Associated Press news agency.
In April, the BBC spoke to nine former detainees who said they had been held at a secret jail.
The prisoners said that they had been prevented from sleeping and that a light had been kept on in their small, cold concrete cells so they could not tell if it was night or day.
In June last year, the BBC spoke to a number of other former detainees who had been held at Bagram airbase, and they claimed they had been beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs.DELL Secureworks has published an interesting report regarding a large-scale illegal dogecoin mining operation that has taken place since at least February of this year.
As early as February 8th of this year, computer users began to notice their Synology Network Attached Storage (NAS) boxes were performing sluggishly and had a very high CPU usage. As a result, investigations ensued and eventually a Facebook post, directed at Synology, was made. Ultimately, it was discovered that the cause of the excessive resource consumption was due to illegitimate software that had infected the systems, which ironically, was stored in a folder labeled “PWNED”.
Synology is a Taiwanese company that is known for the NAS (network-attached storage) systems. In these systems was a custom Linux-based operating systems called DiskStation Manager (DSM), which is reported to have had four vulnerabilities that allowed attackers to gain administrative privileges to the devices.
These vulnerabilities were widely reported on over the web, and as that happened, the Internet Storm Center reported a rise in the amount of connection to port 5000 — the default port Synology’s NAS devices listen on.
Upon analysis of samples in the aforementioned “PWNED” folder, there was found to be CPUMiner running behind the scenes:
This combination of parameters, coupled with the destination port (8332) screamed “Cryptocurrency”. Upon further investigation, we were proven correct in our assumption ‐ we found that the malware was CPUMiner, compiled specifically for the Synology platform.
Further research revealed that the devices were mining dogecoin for this address: D9cDqmVjYXdeDjMtXSV7Z3LgiHvRZ12bPX, along with one other.
In all, whoever was behind this attack managed to mine a whopping 500 million dogecoins, worth $620,494 USD between the two addresses used for the mining operation.
According to Secureworks, “this incident is the single most profitable, illegitimate mining operation,” despite the fact it’s not the first we’ve heard of such a thing.
In fact, it’s relatively common. Scores of PCs out there are infected with mining programs running covertly — even mobile phones.
And while we don’t know very much about the person/people who perpetrated this illegal dogecoin-mining botnet, Secureworks suggests the party is of German descent.
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Source/Images[/textmarker] DELL SecureworksAttendees at Saturday night’s American Cinemateque screening of Monty Python’s iconic “Life of Brian” at the Aero received a bonus — six minutes of footage from the Pythonesque sci-fi farce “Absolutely Anything,” screened by director Terry Jones.
Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale star and the late Robin Williams voices Dennis the Dog. The Pythons are voicing key roles as a group of aliens who endow a disillusioned teacher (Pegg) with the power to do “absolutely anything” to see what a mess he’ll make of things — which is precisely what happens.
In a discussion with Cinemateque’s Grant Moninger, Jones explained that he and Gavin Scott had worked on the script for over two decades but shelved the project in 2003 when “Bruce Almighty” was released. “Five years later, Mike Medavoy asked me what project was at the bottom of my drawer,” he added.
He asked Williams to come on board during the Emmys in 2009.
Five years later, Williams came up with the key to the character after a recording session in San Francisco. “He rang me up as we were at San Francisco airport and said, ‘I’ve got a great idea — Dennis is a 16-year-old boy.'”
The clip showed Beckinsale’s character showing up unexpectedly as Pegg’s home, with Pegg explaining that Dennis’ voice from the bathroom is that of a plumber, who then yells, “Why don’t you shag her?”
Related Glenn Close on Working With Robin Williams on Her First Film 'Monty Python's Life of Brian' Gets 40th Anniversary Release (EXCLUSIVE)
Jones said Pythons John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Eric Idle are the voices of the aliens: “John does the chief alien; Terry does the nasty alien who’s very small; Michael is the nice one and Eric is the wisecracker.”
Gavin Scott, who co-wrote the script with Jones, told Variety that Williams never wavered in his commitment to doing the film. “He was rock solid for us and so talented, so that makes his passing all the sadder,” he added.
'We've been working on 'Absolutely Anything' for 25 years' – Gavin Scott and Terry Jones pic.twitter.com/VIJy3H6bGc — Dave McNary (@Variety_DMcNary) December 14, 2014
As for “Life of Brian,” Jones explained the why of George Harrison’s brief appearance in the 1979 film — he had financed the film by mortgaging his house — and noted that Michael Palin voiced over Harrison’s “Hello” because it wasn’t loud enough. Jones directed “Brian” and starred as Brian’s mother Mandy.
'He's in right after |
administration that has invested heavily in Abbas, a man they have wrongly portrayed as a peacemaker even as they have vilified Netanyahu as an obstacle to a deal. So rather than honestly assessing their policy and owning up to the fact that five and a half years of attempts to appease Abbas and tilt the diplomatic playing field in his direction have done nothing to make him say yes to peace, the administration will go along with the PA’s deception.
That’s a blow to Israel, which now finds itself more isolated than ever. But the real betrayal doesn’t involve Obama’s broken promises to the Jewish state or to pro-Israel voters. By buying into the myth that Hamas isn’t involved with the new PA government, the president is putting a spike into the last remote chances for a peace deal in the foreseeable future. So long as the Palestinians are allowed to believe that there is no price to be paid for rejecting peace, there will be no change in their attitudes. By allowing American taxpayer dollars to flow to a government controlled in part by Hamas, Obama is violating U.S. law. But he’s also signaling that the U.S. has no intention of ever pressuring the Palestinians to take the two-state solution they’ve been repeatedly offered by Israel and always rejected. For a president that is obsessed with his legacy, that’s a mistake for which history ought never to forgive him.Two women allegedly sexually assaulted by an Oxford University student activist have accused her of rape and said she had tried to "paint herself as the victim" to gain sympathy.
"She (Miss Teriba) literally did blame it on the alcohol and also tried to paint herself as the victim in an effort to garner sympathy"
Annie Teriba, 20, last week published on online statement admitting that had "failed to establish consent" during sex with someone she met at the NUS Black Students’ Conference.
She admitted that she had inappropriately touched someone on a previous occasion and apologised for her actions.
But her apparent victims have claimed that the "mea culpa" was less than forthcoming and was only released after they confronted Miss Teriba.
They said Miss Teriba - the student union's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual women's representative - was a liar, and claimed: "Let's be clear: Annie Teriba is a rapist."
The online statement, published on Tumblr, went on: "We find it particularly ironic that she has been a prominent voice against the very actions she herself has committed."
• Ex student sues Oxford University over rape claim
They said the confessional statement she released on October 9 was "by no means" the first statement she wrote.
"It took approximately three weeks for the statement to be finally released, which shows Annie has been hell-bent on dragging out this ordeal for us," they added.
Photo: OxfordUnion/YouTube
"She literally did blame it on the alcohol and also tried to paint herself as the victim in an effort to garner sympathy."
They also claimed Miss Teriba had been reluctant to use the word "rape" in her statement because of the potential legal implications.
• Teenager falsely accused of rape commits suicide
Miss Teriba, from Woolwich, southeast London, wrote in a Facebook post which has since been deleted: "At this year’s NUS Black Students’ Conference, I had sex with someone.
"The other party later informed me that the sex was not consensual. I failed to properly establish consent before every act. I apologise sincerely and profoundly for my actions.
“In a separate incident, in my first year of university, I was alerted to my inappropriate behaviour whilst drunk in a club, where I had touched somebody in a sexual manner without their consent. Therefore this is not an isolated incident. I apologise sincerely and profoundly for my actions.
“With these incidents I have rightly lost the trust of those who I organise with and fully intend to work to ensure that I both put my politics into practice in my personal relations and to prove to them that I am committed to transformation. As such, it would be wrong of me to accept platforms and access spaces until I have done so.”
Thames Valley police declined to say if they were investigating any allegation of rape or sexual assault by Miss Teriba.
Miss Teriba could not be reached for comment. Oxford University declined to comment.As the number of cord cutters in the U.S. continues to grow, The CW is doubling down on its own, subscription-free, over-the-top streaming service, which will now become the only way to watch in-season episodes of the network’s shows. The service will also expand across platforms, including support for Roku, Chromecast, AirPlay, Apple TV, Xbox, and Amazon Fire TV, in addition to iOS, Android, and the web.
Customers who click on The CW’s web banners and links touting the new streaming service are directed to a “Notify Me” page which will alert them when it becomes available. However, according to a CW Twitter post, the changes will go into effect next week.
Starting next week, The CW is available everywhere. Find out more: https://t.co/GKXJwFTYOZ pic.twitter.com/0Ia57HAvs5 — Supergirl (@TheCWSupergirl) September 19, 2016
Of course, The CW already made its content available for free streaming on the web and mobile, but the new service will reach the other platforms, as well as become the exclusive home to current episodes.
The service will also include trailers and other exclusive digital-only content, The CW says. And the app can alert users as to when their favorite shows are airing.
According to reports from earlier this year, The CW’s parent companies – it’s jointly owned by CBS and Time Warner – were working on a standalone streaming service that would offer access to all its programming for a low monthly fee. However, that has not yet come to pass.
Instead, the network forged a new deal with Netflix this summer, which makes Netflix the exclusive U.S. subscription service home to past seasons of The CW’s scripted shows. Netflix will receive the shows 8 days after their season finale – a big reduction from the 4 months it had to wait before, under its prior deal. The deal also led to The CW pulling its in-season content from Hulu, in favor of its own streaming service.
The changes would kick in starting with the 2016-2017 fall TV season, it was reported at the time, which is why The CW has begun to now heavily promote its standalone streaming service via its digital properties, including its website, and various social media accounts.
The ads tout the service as: “No Login. No Subscription. Just FREE.”
In other words, you don’t have to subscribe to a cable or satellite TV service and authenticate to use The CW’s app, nor do you have to pay a monthly fee. This means the service will be ad-supported but the network declined to discuss the costs per-ad or how many ads will be shown.
At present, The CW only provides access to the last 5 episodes for free, as it did on Hulu. This will continue, the network tells us – the only main difference is the expansion to the other platforms.
The network skews toward a younger demographic – primarily those aged 18-34. It used to be more aimed at young women viewers, but that has changed a bit in recent years thanks to investments in superhero shows like “The Flash,” “Arrow,” and “Supergirl,” in addition to more female-focused content like “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Jane the Virgin,” for example.
“Since we began providing free next-day streaming of our shows a couple of years ago, digital viewing adds about an additional 20% to our linear viewing audience, although that number can vary depending on the show,” a CW spokesperson tells TechCrunch. “Our most popular series last season digitally were ‘The Flash’ – which is also our highest rated series on air – and ‘Jane the Virgin,'” they added.
The move also comes at a time when parent company CBS is also experimenting with its own, standalone streaming offering. It that case, its over-the-top service CBS All Access is offering paid access to CBS fare, but the bigger draw is that it will be the only way for U.S. viewers watch the new “Star Trek” series. Unfortunately for CBS, “Star Trek’s” arrival is now being reported as delayed.A concerned citizen has photographed a pangolin trader openly selling a mother pangolin and her tiny baby at Sibu Night Market in Sarawak.
The photos were taken at approximately 5:30 pm on Wednesday, September 9. If you recognize the man in these photos, please contact local authorities immediately so that these pangolins have a chance to be rescued and the responsible parties can be brought to justice.
Malaysia’s Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) is classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ and is protected in Sarawak under Sarawak’s Wildlife Protection Ordinance. This species is listed in CITES Appendix II, with a zero export quota for wild pangolins.
Help bring this pangolin trader to justice. Call the authorities, and use the Wildlife Witness app (developed by Taronga Conservation Society Australia in Partnership with TRAFFIC) on your smartphone to report this crime. Download it free from iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/app/wildlife-witness/id738897823?mt=8
Comments
commentsJim Rogash/Getty Images
Week 13 NFL power rankings were shaken up on Sunday night when the New England Patriots stunned the Denver Broncos by the score of 34-31 in overtime.
Here are updated rankings, which were rearranged by that upset and more.
Week 13 NFL Standings AFC East AFC North AFC South AFC West NE (8-3) CIN (7-4) IND (7-4) DEN (9-2) NYJ (5-6) PIT (5-6) TEN (5-6) KC (9-2) MIA (4-6) BAL (5-6) JAC (2-9) SD (5-6) BUF (4-7) CLE (4-7) HOU (2-9) OAK (4-7) NFC East NFC North NFC South NFC West DAL (6-5) DET (6-5) NO (9-2) SEA (10-1) PHI (6-5) CHI (6-5) CAR (8-3) SF (6-4) NYG (4-7) GB (5-5-1) TB (3-8) ARI (7-4) WAS (3-7) MIN (2-8-1) ATL (2-9) STL (5-6) NFL.com
32. Houston Texans (2-9)
Nine straight losses and the Texans are officially in the running for Teddy Bridgewater.
31. Atlanta Falcons (2-9)
With three more losses, Atlanta will have lost as many regular-season games in 2013 as it had the previous three years combined. It's already matched its loss total for the past two.
30. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-9)
Jacksonville's opponents have outscored it by a league-worst 182 points this season. Two wins in its last three games, though, have saved face.
29. Minnesota Vikings (2-8-1)
Few teams are incompetent enough to blow a 23-7 fourth-quarter lead. Minnesota is one of them, doing just that against the Packers on Sunday, which led to a 26-26 tie.
28. Washington Redskins (3-7)
Washington will ride back-to-back losses into its Monday night showdown with the 49ers. However, at home—where the Redskins have a two-game winning streak—they could turn their season around.
27. Oakland Raiders (4-7)
Oakland has lost three of its last four games, its lone win coming against the Texans. Despite missing the last two, Terrelle Pryor still leads the team in rushing.
26. Buffalo Bills (4-7)
Buffalo can skyrocket up or plummet down the rankings over the next three weeks. Its opponents over that stretch have a combined seven wins.
25. Cleveland Browns (4-7)
Back-to-back losses removed the Browns from AFC North contention and sat them down where they're more comfortable—in last.
24. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-8)
Mike Glennon didn't care that Buccaneers fans wanted Bridgewater. He didn't, and he's led once-winless Tampa Bay to three straight wins.
23. New York Giants (4-7)
Dallas ended the Giants' four-game winning streak on Sunday via a three-point heartbreaker. Three of New York's next four are on the road, and its home game is against the Seahawks.
22. New York Jets (5-6)
Only the Jaguars have been outscored by more points this season than the Jets. That's a testament to the New York coaching staff's ability to win with little, but it's also a testament to just how little potential the Jets have.
21. Tennessee Titans (5-6)
Tennessee would make the playoffs if they started today, but its next three games are against the Colts, Broncos and Cardinals. When the Titans ultimately miss the postseason, they'll look back at their loss to the Jaguars as what cost them.
20. Miami Dolphins (5-6)
A victory over the Panthers would've given the Dolphins three wins in the last four weeks, but Miami coughed up a 16-3 lead. Now, instead of leading the race for the second AFC Wild Card spot, the Dolphins are tied with four other teams.
19. St. Louis Rams (5-6)
St. Louis has outscored its last two opponents, teams with winning records, by the combined score of 80-29. The emergence of Tavon Austin and Zac Stacy has made up for Sam Bradford's absence.
18. Baltimore Ravens (5-6)
Baltimore has won two of its past three games, but four of its final five opponents are ranked ahead of it in these power rankings.
17. Green Bay Packers (5-5-1)
Coming back from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to force a tie is typically a moral victory. When a previously 5-2 team loses three straight games and then must force a tie against a two-win team, though, it isn't.
16. Chicago Bears (6-5)
Chicago has lost every other game since Week 5. Simply maintaining that trend would earn the Bears a playoff berth most years in the NFC, but they could need to win four out of their final five this season.
15. San Diego Chargers (5-6)
Philip Rivers came up huge in a must-win game against the Chiefs to end a three-game losing skid. With three out of the Chargers' last five games coming against teams with winning records, they must continue to pull upsets.
14. Detroit Lions (6-5)
Back-to-back losses have dropped the Lions from borderline great status down to mediocre. Only one team remaining on their schedule has a winning record, but a losing record didn't stop the Steelers and Buccaneers from topping them.
13. Pittsburgh Steelers (5-6)
Pittsburgh has now won three straight games and five of its last seven. It should now be the favorite to claim the AFC's sixth playoff spot.
12. Dallas Cowboys (6-5)
Dallas is undefeated in the NFC East, which could be all it needs to win the division title. The final two opponents this season will be the Redskins and Eagles.
11. Philadelphia Eagles (6-5)
Week 17 could ultimately be the NFC East championship. Philadelphia has won three straight games, but four of its final five are against teams with winning records.
10. Indianapolis Colts (7-4)
Since shocking the Broncos, Indianapolis has been outscored by 53 points. A letdown against the Titans next week could prove to be detrimental with games at Cincinnati and Kansas City waiting in the wings.
9. Cincinnati Bengals (7-4)
Cincinnati is undefeated at home but just 2-4 away. The Bengals will make the playoffs if they maintain their current trend, but they won't last long in the postseason.
8. Arizona Cardinals (7-4)
Arizona has won four straight games, and its only losses since Week 3 have come against teams in the top seven of these power rankings. The Cardinals look like a favorite to make the playoffs, but they lack the firepower to last.
7. San Francisco 49ers (6-4)
Aside from another date with the NFL's best team, San Francisco's brutal schedule will soften up down the final stretch. Expect the 49ers to reestablish themselves as one of the NFC's elite.
6. Kansas City Chiefs (9-2)
Unless the Chiefs upset the Broncos, they'll enter Week 14 on a three-game losing streak. Kansas City has proved that it's good, but it'll need to bounce back with a vengeance to prove that it's great.
5. New Orleans Saints (9-2)
Three out of the Saints' next four games are against the Seahawks and Panthers. New Orleans has the ability over that stretch to establish itself as a legitimate Super Bowl contender or prove that it's a pretender.
4. New England Patriots (8-3)
New England erased a 24-0 halftime deficit against the Broncos to come back and win in overtime. It's safe to say that the Patriots offense is back to its explosive self.
3. Carolina Panthers (8-3)
Carolina tacked on another triumph to the longest winning streak in the NFL, pulling ahead of the Dolphins in the final seconds. The NFC South crown is the Panthers' for the taking.
2. Denver Broncos (9-2)
Four turnovers played a role in the Broncos choking away their three-score lead, as did Peyton Manning playing his worst game of the season. However, a three-point loss in overtime isn't enough to remove them as AFC favorites after the dominant start that they've had.
1. Seattle Seahawks (10-1)
Denver's loss shifts the label of early Super Bowl favorite to the Seahawks. Their reign will instantly be tested with back-to-back games against the Saints and 49ers.
David Daniels is a breaking news writer at Bleacher Report and news editor at Wade-O Radio.
Follow @TheRealDDaniels‘One fish, two fissshh, red frfrfrfrish, blue fisisish,’ begins Dr Seuss’s famous book - if you’re trying to talk with a speech jammer, that is.
In a new video, one man tries to read through the book while hearing his own voice being fed back to him, with a slight time delay.
The hilarious results see him stumble his way through the book while trying to overcome the debilitating sounds.
Scroll down for video
'Brian' from Pennsylvania tried to read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish while wearing a speech jammer (pictured) - which reduces his speech to gibberish. A speech jammer plays your voice back with a time delay of 0.2 seconds, which makes it very difficult to talk
In the video for YouTube channel Speech Jammer Storytime, host Brian explains that ‘a speech jammer is a device that records your voice and plays it back at a slight delay.’
WHAT IS SPEECH JAMMING? When your speech is played back to you with a delay of about 0.2 seconds, it can make it very difficult to talk. This can be done by using a pair of headphones and a microwave. Several apps are available that can produce the effect. Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) can be useful, though, in helping people overcome a stutter.
This confuses the brain and makes you ‘completely incomprehensible'.
Brian then proceeds to struggle his way through the Dr Seuss book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
From the beginning, it is obvious that he finds it incredible difficult to talk - with his speech full of stutters and his words slurred together.
Each time he reads a new sentence, before the delay kicks in, he seems to cope with the words.
But as soon as he gets halfway through a sentence, the delay makes it incredibly difficult to talk.
Speech jamming occurs because human speech relies on what is essentially a ‘feedback loop’ with the Broca area in the frontal lobe of the brain, which helps control speech.
To speak a sentence successfully out loud, your brain monitors your voice to keep it sounding like it normally does.
But when that loop is interrupted and your speech is played back, your brain becomes confused and tries to correct itself - resulting in garbled speech.
In addition to this, when you hear your voice back you hear it at a different frequency, so the effect is amplified as your brain tries to work out what to do.
Some studies have found that speech jamming occurs best when reading a pre-prepared speech or a book, rather than spontaneous chat.
With practice, it is apparently possible to overcome the effects of a speech jammer and keep talking, although it is difficult.
In 2012, a team of Japanese researchers designed a ‘gun’ called the Speech Jammer which they claimed could be used to stop people talking nearby.
When pointed at someone, it throws their words back at them in 0.2 seconds, apparently making it nearly impossible for them to talk.
Speech jamming isn’t all bad, though - some have claimed that such delayed auditory feedback (DAF) can improve fluency in individuals who suffer from a stammer.Jack and Emily were the most popular babies’ names registered in 2011, according to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Jack is Ireland’s favourite boy’s name for the fifth year in a row, but Emily moved up one position to replace Sophie as the most popular girl’s name this year.
Of the 38,223 boys born in 2011, 840 were named Jack, 44 more than the number of boys named James, the second-most popular name. Seán, Daniel and Conor complete the top five boy’s names, a list that has not changed since 2007.
Jack, Seán Conor and James have been in the top five since 1998.
The top girls’ names have varied more over the past few years. Emma has been in the top five since 2000, but this year marks the first appearance of Lily, which joins Grace to complete the top five list. Sarah dropped to sixth place this year after 13 years in the top five.
This was the first year that Mason, Donnacha, Tommy and Zach appeared in the top 100 list for boys. The highest new entry at number 70 was Mason, which rose from 128th place in 2010. The name Tommy rose 72 places.
The only new girl’s name on the top 100 list was Lexi, climbing from 102nd place in 2010 to 96th this year. Michaela grew most in popularity, rising 86 places in 2011 after exiting the top 100 in 2005.
Regional difference were recorded with Ryan the favourite boy’s name in south Dublin, Laois, Louth, Wicklow, Sligo, Cavan and Donegal. Alex was the most popular name in Cork City and Jamie topped the rankings in Co Monaghan.
Aoife, Ava, Caoimhe, Chloe, Ella, Katie, Lucy, Mia, Róisín and Sarah were county and city favourites for the girls.
Daniel and Chloe were the most popular names announced in the Irish Times birth column last year. They were followed by James, Robert, Thomas and Tom for boys and Anna, Isabelle and Katie for girls.
Most popular babies' names by region
Region Boys Girls
Border Ryan Emily/Sophie
Midland Jack Sarah
West Sean Chloe/Grace
Dublin Daniel Sophie
Mid-East James Emily
Mid-West Jack/Sean Emma
South-East Jack Sophie
South-West Jack EmilyClick here for downloadable printable (pdf) version (463kb)
click here for a list of setup frequently asked questions
Portugese_version.pdf
How I set - up my motorbike
It is going to be very difficult to set your bike up in one day unless you wish to spend a lot of time in the saddle. Therefore I have split up this article into different days to make it easier to read and carry out.
I bought myself a Yamaha YZF R1 bike which was supposed to a top handling bike. It was not. The bike was reluctant to turn. I took the bike to a club racer mate of mine and he had a test ride and then suggested that I increase the rebound (????) I turned the rebound (???) screw and it seemed to improve the bike handling. I turned it a bit more and it went back worse. I felt that since I had already fiddled with one of the settings, I might as well try other suspension settings.
I tried suspension setting from motorcycle newspapers, sports bike magazine, top racing websites and forums and they were all crap. In fact two sources never recommended the same setting for my bike and no one adequately explained how they got those settings. I felt I had to find my own suspension settings for my bike. In order to do so, I had to understand how it worked and this article will attempt to explain how I set up my bike and how you can too.
Lets start at the very beginning.
DAY 1 - What is “suspension” all about?
Your bike suspension is designed primarily to absorb the imperfections in the roads, and ensure that tyres keep contact with the roads. Most bikes suspension are based on a spring like you would find in a pen, mattress or trampoline but much stronger. To stop the spring from bouncing the tyre like a yoyo; the rate the spring moves up and down is controlled by “dampers”.
Dampers are “like oil filled bicycle pumps”. The pump will move faster or slower depending on the size of the hole the oil is being pumped through and the thickness of the oil. All bikes have both a spring and dampers. My bike has the spring on the outside of the damper on the rear wheel (called rear shock) but the front wheel suspension has the springs within the dampers hence you cannot see them. They are called the front forks.
The suspension for your front wheel is independent from the back wheel and can react differently to road and riding conditions.
Where did I start?
Before I touched the bike, I located the handbook for my bike as supplied by the manufacturer. The handbook contains details on what can be adjusted and where on the bike the knobs and screws are for setting up your bike front and rear suspension. Also it details the manufacturers recommended suspension settings for your bike. If you have aftermarket (third party) suspension, contact them.
Depending on your bike you may be able adjust some, all or none of the following
Preload (Spring tension, based on your weight)
Damping (speed the spring squashes and returns to normal ) Compression (advanced damping control, speed the spring squashes) Rebound (advanced damping control, speed the spring returns to normal after been squashed)
Note that compression and rebound are part of damping.
After I had established what I can adjust on my bike and how to adjust it, I got a pen and paper and wrote down my bikes current settings so that I can return the bike to it if I make a mess of things. On my bike, this meant counting “clicks” as I turned the screws for the compression and rebound clockwise or anti-clockwise. Preload is easier to note and record as you can see what “notch” the rear spring is on and what “ring” the front is on.
The manufacturer has spent a lot of time and money on research and development and they have a financial incentive to ensure that my bike handles well, therefore the manufacturers recommended suspension settings for your bike will not be that bad. Compare what your current settings are for your bike against the manufacturers setting. If they are different, and you think your bike could handle better, have a go at setting your bike to manufacturers recommended settings.
You should be able to fiddle with your suspension and bring it back to the settings recommended by the manufacturer or your original setting before you go any further. Do not read any further unless you are competent with the above and acknowledge that this whole article is purely for information only. Please do not fiddle with your bike, then injure yourself and then blame me.
DAY 2 - SET UP BIKE TO YOUR WEIGHT (PRELOAD)
To set up your bike you will require the proper tools as recommended in your bikes handbook, usually a long screw driver, spanner for the front and a funny looking tool for the rear preload and tape measure!!. You will need patience and time. It is best to set the bike up where you are most likely to use it i.e. on the roads or race track.. Ensure your bike is in good working condition, including replacing dodgy fork seals, lubricating linkage, and changing fork or shock oil and you have correct tyre pressure. If you are unsure of your tyre pressure and it is a track bike use 32psi front, 30psi rear.
Twiddling with setting randomly will not get you far. You suspension can be broken down to the following
Front wheel Preload Damping Compression Damping Rebound
Rear Wheel Preload Damping Compression Damping Rebound
If your bike does not have some of these setting then you will have to compromise on the setting of your bike or buy aftermarket suspension if necessary. You really should set up your bike in the right order. It is best to start with the preloads, front and rear as this is based on your weight and relatively easy to set up, then work your way down.
Rear Preload
Whatever your weight, when you sit on the bike, you want the bike to squat just a little bit (about 30mm) but not too much. You want to ensure that the bulk of your rear suspension travel is available for when you actually ride the bike as opposed to supporting your heavy frame. At the same time you should have a little bit of sag left. If the bike drops too much then increase preload and if you are very light and the bike barely moves under your weight, then soften the preload.
Below is a more detailed explanation. This is easy to set up but can be a bit confusing so just follow the steps one at a time.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
Step 1: First find the fully UNLOADED length of your rear suspension. Put your bike on its centre stand. If you do not have a centre stand find a means of lifting the rear wheel up under the engine so that there is no weight (including the weight of the bike) on the rear axle and wheel. Measure the distance between the rear axle and a fixed point directly above like a bolt or mark. Note this measure measurement. Do not use a rear wheel bike stand as there is still the weight of the bike on the swing arm.
Step 2: Find the NORMAL length of you rear suspension. This is amount the suspension drops under the weigh of the bike alone without the rider. Put the bike on level ground and bounce it up and down to free any stickiness. Measure between the same two points as above, i.e. the rear axle and the fixed point directly above.
Step 3: Find the fully LOADED length of your rear suspension. This is the length of the suspension with the rear wheel on level ground and the rider seated on it in his normal riding position in full biking garb. First bounce up and down on the seat to loosen the suspension then get into your normal riding position with all weight on the bike and both feet on the bike. To prevent yourself from falling of (if you have not already) lean the bike against a wall and get your mate to measure between the same two points as above i.e. rear axle and the fixed point directly above.
Next thing is to understand a couple of buzz words. “Static sag” and “Rider sag”.
RIDER SAG is the difference steps 1 and 3. This is the amount the bike drops when your heavy arse sits on the bike.
STATIC SAG is the difference between step 1 and step 2. it is how much the bikes weight acts on the rear suspension or how much you can lift the bike rear without the rider on it before it tops out.
A top racing suspension company suggest that rear wheel rider sag should be around 30-40mm and static sag should be around 5-10mm. However this many vary depending on your bike and manufacturer. The more rider sag you have, the softer the bike suspension will be. I personally use 35mm for road and a few track days use.
Therefore if your rider sag is less than 30 mm then your preload is too hard, if it is more than 40 mm, then it is a bit soft. Once you have set your rider sag as close as possible to 30-40 mm, next check your static sag. If you have more than 10mm then you may need stiffer springs. If however, if your static sag is less than 5mm or you have no static sag then your springs may be too hard for your weight.
If you have to compromise then try to have at least a bit of Static sag in order to stop the bike from topping out.
Note that books, videos, media and pub acquaintances will all have different opinions on the naming and figures quoted above (and below). I find that I get fewer complaints with the current labelling system than I would with other labelling systems. Avoid being obsessed with numbers and naming systems. I will try to explain the underlying principles of setting up your own bike. There are too many scenarios and permutations surrounding the effects of tweaking each setting that it would take me forever to cover them all. Therefore I will only touch on a few of the more common effects.
Front Preload
Some people set the front suspension based on rider sag and static sag. This is especially useful in determining if you need softer or stiffer springs. Use the same system as above to determine Rider sag (35-48mm) and Static sag (25-30mm). However I prefer the below method to optimise my current original front forks.
You want your bike to use as much front suspension "travel" as possible without "bottoming out" (no more travel) even in extreme conditions. So lets establish how much suspension travel you are currently using.
Wrap cable ties around the smooth part (stanchion) of front forks near the rubber seal to the forks. Ensure that it does not scratch the stanchion and it is not too tight as to damage the rubber seals.
With the cable ties in place ride your bike as normal using as many riding conditions (corners, braking, accelerating, wheelies and stopples) that you are likely to meet. Then increase or decrease your preload until the cable tie stops about 10 mm before “bottoming out”.
R educing preload should give you more travel. If the forks bottoms out, reset the cable ties and increase preload until the cable tie stops around 10mm above the limit. You should always leave about 10mm travel for emergencies like slamming into uncharted potholes.
Done
DAY 3 - FRONT DAMPING
The damping, both rebound and compression are best adjusted after riding your bike and feeling how it handles to you. You cannot use your mate’s settings. The reason why there is so much debate and controversy regarding suspension set up is because it is a personal experience and depends on how and where you ride your motorcycle.
Some people, media and websites will charge or tell you what they think is best for you whilst amongst top racers it is a closely guarded secret. You have to find your own settings that you are comfortable with and take notes as you experiment with different settings.
tyre profiles
Setting the right amount of damping depends on the type of bike, how you ride the bike of bike, and shape and pressure of tyres you use. Also it depends on your riding style and how much suspension travel you want at any particular moment. This article will try to explain what to look out for and how to tweak it.
If you can adjust the damping but cannot adjust the rebound and compression separately, then you will have to find a compromise between the two for your bike. If you run out of adjustment, then depending on if the damping, either rebound or compression, is too slow or too fast then you may need to change the damping oil to thinner or thicker suspension oil relatively.
Note that your suspension will handle differently under different conditions i.e. high or low speed, wet or dry conditions, therefore experiment with setting up your bike under the conditions you would like to use them.
To start with, set your bike damping rebound and compression to your manufacturers or your preferred setting.
I do not know the exact terminology used in your manufacturers owners manual but note that
Soft damping = little damping = decreased damping Hard damping = excessive damping = increased damping
Nose Up Nose down
Front Compression
You need your front compression under braking and when riding over uneven humps. You want your front suspension to compress slowly and controlled when you break. As your bike “nose dives” under braking, it transfers more weight over the front wheel. This helps slow the bike quicker.
If the front suspension compresses too quickly (too soft) you risk the suspension bottoming out and then your bike will feel vague and since it nose dives too quickly the back wheel may loose contact with the road and move sideways. On the other hand when compression damping is too high the suspension can't react quickly enough to compress over bumps and will skip and chatter. You will have an uncomfortable ride and your braking is compromised, especially in the wet.
Another important aspect of front compression is when you brake just before a turn. As you brake before the corner, the bike will naturally “nose dive”, this will shorten the wheel base and alter the geometry of the bike making the bike turn quicker into the corner. It is important that your bike compresses predictably and safely in a corner/turn.
SOFT: If your compression is too soft, your bike will nose dive too quickly, then as you turn into the corner, the bike will collapse into it and you end up having to compensate.
HARD: On the other hand if you have too much front compression damping, do not get enough nose dive and the bike will be reluctant to turn and may drift wide on entry to the corner.
Go for a ride on your bike and try braking and turning into corners at different speeds. This will cause a bit of nose dive so try different setting. If your bike bottoms out, increase the front preload. See preload notes above. Keep notes.
Front Rebound
Front rebound damping is to control the rate the bike “sits up” after the front suspension has been compressed i.e. from nose down position. If it is too soft, the front end will pop up too quickly after any situation causing the front suspension to compress e.g. braking or cornering causing the bike to "see-saw". This may result in lack of traction If rebound damping is too high you may have lack of “feedback” and in extreme cases where the suspension can't react quickly enough to extend again it will pump down until it bottoms out which is simply dangerous,
An alternative to manufacturers setting for front rebound is to place your bike on level ground and have your mate or rear wheel stand support the back of the bike. Press hard on the |
by 0.88 percentage points, was the only instance in which Johnson's total was even half the major-party point spread.
Mostly, that was because the election just wasn't close in most of the country. While Johnson's 0.99 percent national total might seem to be in the ballpark of the 3.87-point difference between Obama's winning 51.17 percent and Romney's losing 47.32, the fact is that a whopping 36 states (including the District of Columbia) were decided by double-digit margins. A measly four states—Florida, North Carolina (2.04 percentage points), Ohio (2.98) and Virgina (3.88)—were decided by less than five.
Oh, what a difference four years makes. Not only is Johnson mounting the biggest third-party presidential challenge in two decades, his impact on a state-by-state level is changing the Electoral College dynamic from 2012 in interesting ways. Across the country, and regardless of whether a state is red or blue, the polling margin between the Democratic and Republican nominee is almost universally smaller than the election results were four years ago. And according to my back-of-the-envelope calculations below, the Libertarian is exceeding those margins in 18 states.
I took FiveThirtyEight's up-to-date poll numbers for each state, and averaged them with RealClearPolitics' "RCP Average." (This is a somewhat crude maneuver; see the bottom of this post* for some methodological considerations; but still, it gives us a rough idea.) The following is a list of those 18 states ranked by the percentage-point distance between Gary Johnson's polling average and the current margin between the leading two candidates. The numbers displayed are, in order: Johnson's current polling in that state, the size (and owner) of the lead, the distance between those first two numbers (in bold), then Johnson's 2012 total and the size/recipient of the point spread in that election:
NM 17.0% HC 9.0 + 8.0 2012 GJ 3.55% BO 10.15
AZ 7.9% DT 1.5 + 6.4 2012 GJ 1.40% MR 9.06
NV 7.1% HC 1.7 + 5.4 2012 GJ 1.08% BO 6.68
IA 8.2% DT 2.8 + 5.4 2012 GJ 0.82% MR 5.81
OH 6.1% DT 1.0 + 5.1 2012 GJ 0.89% BO 2.98
NC 6.6% HC 1.6 + 5.0 2012 GJ 0.99% MR 2.04
NH 9.7% HC 4.9 + 4.8 2012 GJ 1.16% BO 5.58
AK 13.7% DT 9.4 + 4.3 2012 GJ 2.46% MR 13.99
CO 8.9% HC 4.9 + 4.0 2012 GJ 1.38% BO 5.36
ME 9.8% HC 5.9 + 3.9 2012 GJ 1.31% BO 15.29
FL 5.2% HC 1.9 + 3.3 2012 GJ 0.53% BO 0.88
WI 8.6% HC 5.3 + 3.3 2012 GJ 0.67% BO 6.94
GA 6.8% DT 5.1 + 1.7 2012 GJ 1.16% MR 7.82
VA 8.1% HC 6.6 + 1.5 2012 GJ 0.81% BO 3.88
MI 7.7% HC 6.6 + 1.1 2012 GJ 0.16% BO 9.50
IN 9.7% DT 8.7 + 1.0 2012 GJ 1.91% MR 10.20
MN 5.8% HC 5.0 + 0.8 2012 GJ 1.20% BO 7.69
PA 5.6% HC 5.4 + 0.2 2012 GJ 0.87% BO 5.38
A few items of interest here: 1) Note that the Obama 2012 state of Ohio is leaning Trump in 2016, and that Romney's North Carolina is currently led by Hillary Clinton. 2) The biggest tightening of margins on this list are in Maine (9.4 percentage points), Arizona (7.6), and Nevada (5.0). Looking at the states in which Johnson is not beating the spread, the biggest margin-changer, by far, is Utah, at 32.2 percentage points (I have Johnson polling at 11.8 percent there). 3) Nationally, Johnson has consistently been pulling equally from Clinton, Trump, and Other/Not-voting. While Jacob T. Levy has argued persuasively that Johnson on balance slightly helps Clinton (at least thus far), his impact is less studied on a state-by-state level. (I hope to do that here soon!)
Though I won't post the full numbers on the rest of the country, here are the 14 states in which there are more than 10 percentage points separating Johnson's polling average and the margin between the two leading candidates:
NY 6.5% HC 18.6 -12.1
WV 8.1% DT 20.8 -12.7
VT 10.0% HC 23.0 -13.0
ID 9.0% DT 22.0 -13.0
MA 7.7% HC 21.5 -13.8
OK 6.9% DT 21.1 -14.2
CA 5.9% HC 20.9 -15.0
NE 7.3% DT 22.6 -15.3
AR 4.7% DT 21.5 -16.8
AL 5.0% DT 22.1 -17.1
WY 9.2% DT 32.1 -22.9
MD 5.2% HC 29.9 -25.7
HI 5.1% HC 33.3 -28.2
DC 5.3% HC 63.7 -58.4
So even with two historically reviled candidates, and the shrinking margins between them, huge swaths of the country live in states where the presidential election is a foregone conclusion. After the jump, some notes on methodology.
* Averaging FiveThirtyEight and the RCP Average presents an obvious objection: There are way more polls collected and digested by the former than the latter—taking Texas as an example, 538 collates 26, RCP just three. So why do it?
Mostly because FiveThirtyEight steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the presence of Green Party nominee Jill Stein, let alone other candidates (the latter would have the most impact on places like Colorado and Utah, where the ballots are crowded and Evan McMullin is pulling tangible support). RealClearPolitics at least measures Stein where she pops up, and since there is a real "Stein effect" on the other candidates, I'd like to see that reflected. In any event, with only two or three exceptions, the numbers are pretty similar in each. When I revisit this list, or drill down deeper into a given state, I'll separate things with more precision.Not to be confused with University of Nanking
Nanjing University (NJU or NU, sometimes Nanking University, simplified Chinese: 南京大学; traditional Chinese: 南京大學; pinyin: Nánjīng Dàxué, Nánkīng Tàhsüéh), known as Nanda (南大; Nándà), is a major public university, the oldest institution of higher learning in Nanjing, Jiangsu, and a member of the elite C9 League of Chinese universities.
Established in 1902 as Sanjiang Normal School, it underwent a number of name changes until it was renamed Nanjing University in 1950. It merged with the University of Nanking in 1952.[6]
In addition to its membership in the C9 League, Nanjing University has been designated a Class A institution in the Double First Class University plan, a government initiative to cultivate an elite group of Chinese universities into "world-class" institutions.[7] The university is perennially ranked one of the best research universities in China,[8][9] and one of China's most selective universities.[10] It is ranked among the top universities worldwide in major global university rankings.[10][11][12] Regarding research output, the Nature Index 2017 ranks Nanjing University number 2 in China, number 3 in Asia Pacific and number 12 in the world.[13]
NJU has two main campuses: the Xianlin campus in the northeast of Nanjing, and the Gulou campus in the city center of Nanjing.
History [ edit ]
History [ edit ]
Nanjing, situated in the lower part of the Yangtze, has historically been the capital of various kingdoms and dynasties, with the reputation as the center of education. In 258 CE, the Kingdom of Wu under the reign of Emperor Jing of Wu, founded a Confucian learning institute for the purpose of learning Six Arts. In the first year of Jianwu reign (317), Taihsueh (太學) campus was built in today's Fuzimiao (夫子廟) area on the banks of Qinhuai River, and Nanking Imperial University began recruiting students from common families instead of only from noble families.[14] Like its forerunner Chengjun (成均) and succeeding Shang Hsiang (上庠) founded by Yu (禹, 21st century BCE) in Chungyuan, the earliest recorded imperial higher learning institutions and their successors, it was the Kingdom's central university, which after Han dynasty excellent students from local schools could be selected to attend to pursue further education.
In 470 during the Former Song dynasty, the Imperial Central University (Zongmingguan) became a comprehensive institution combining higher education and research, with five divisions: Literature, History, Confucian Study, Xuan Study and Yin Yang Study. The campus of School of Literature and School of History were located in today's Nanjing University Gulou campus, west to Gulou (鼓樓) mountain, and the campus was moved to today's Chaotian Palace (朝天宮) area at the time when Wang Jian (王儉) was university president and the areas of study were narrowed, with a heavy focus on Confucian classics. In the period the faculty members included such scholars and scientists as Zu Chongzhi (祖沖之), Ge Hong (葛洪), Wang Xizhi (王羲之), and students included such figures as Xiao Daocheng, Emperor Gao of Southern Qi who studied at School of Confucian Studies, and Zhong Rong, a founding scholar of poetics who graduated from division of literature. After the fall of Chen dynasty, the school was closed and later replaced by Nanking Academy (or Jiangzhou Academy, Jiangzhou Zhouxue) in Sui dynasty.
In 937 when campus of the imperial national university was again in Fuzimiao area, Li Shandao, a scholar of the university, established another national school Lushan National Academy outside the capital city Nanking which is called Bailudong Shuyuan (White Deer Grotto Academy), a famous academy that hosted many renowned scholars including Zhu Xi, Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming.
In 1382 the Imperial University (國子監 Kuotzuchien or Guozijian) moved campus from Nanking Fuzimiao area to south of Qintian Mountain (欽天山) and Xuanwu Lake (the area around Nanjing University campus before 1952. In 1952 Nanjing University moved to Gulou and its engineering school was split and formed several independent colleges including Nanjing Institute of Technology, which at its peak spanning 10 Li and hosting near 10,000 students, and around there were institutes including Qintian Jian (Imperial Astronomy Institute) and Taiyi Yuan (Imperial Medical Institute). In 1403 Peking Guozijian (Beijing Guozijian, Imperial University of Peking) was established. The Imperial University of Nanking (南京國子監) developed and flourished in the period, consisting of six schools: three basic level colleges (Chengyi, ChongChih, Guangye), two middle level schools (Hsiudao, Chenghsin) and one advanced level school (Shuaihsing), altogether 4 years to complete according to the system, one and a half years for both of the former two levels and one year for the latter level, to achieve 8 credit points a year and then upon graduation Chushen (qualification, diploma) would be awarded, with subjects including Confucian classics, history, literature, mathematics, law, calligraphy, equestrianism and archery, etc.[15] Yongle Encyclopedia was completed at Imperial Nanking University in 1408 after five years compilation, 9169 scholars selected from nationwide took part in it, thereinto 2180 were student scholars of the university. The publishing house of the imperial university of Nanking had been a publishing centre for several hundred years. Wu Cheng'en, Tang Hsiantzu and Zheng Chenggong studied there during the Ming dynasty.
Each time when Nanking became a non-capital city, the Nanking Imperial University was changed to be regional Nanking Academy. The Imperial Nanking University was changed to Nanking Academy (江寧府學, Jiangning Fuxue) in 1650 after Qing dynasty replaced Ming dynasty, and in 1865 after Taiping Rebellion the academy was relocated to Chaotian Palace. The ancient school history was recognized during ROC. In 1954 the school authority controlled by CPC decided to set the year starting to establish the modern new type school Sanjiang Normal College as the school's new founding year.[Note 2]
Late Qing and Republic of China [ edit ]
In 1902, Sanjiang Normal College (三江師範學堂) under the new educational system, using Japanese modern higher institutions of learning as references, was beginning to be established to replace the traditional Chinese school Nanking Academy, and was opened in the next year, with campus constructed south to Qintian Mountain. The name was changed to Liangjiang Normal College (兩江師範學堂) in 1906, and the new president Li Ruiqing (李瑞清) established the first faculty of modern art in China.
In 1915 after the Republic of China replaced Qing dynasty, the Nanking Higher Normal School (南京高等師範學校) was founded to replace Liangjiang Higher Normal School which was closed three years before due to Xinhai Revolution, Jiang Qian (江謙) was appointed as the president.[16] The school established the China's first faculty of modern gymnastics (physical education) in 1916. In 1920 the school consisted of five colleges: Liberal Arts, Agriculture, Engineering, Commerce and Education.
The "China Science Society" (中國科學社), a major science organization in the modern history of China, founded its headquarter in the school in 1918. Its members established "Academia Sinica" (中央研究院) which was later moved to Taiwan and known as the "Chinese Academy of Sciences" (中國科學院) in mainland China. Numerous Chinese modern science pioneers, most of whom studied in America and some European countries such as Britain, France, and Germany, converged there to found many fields of science in China. It became the Chinese cradle of modern science. Among 81 academicians of "Academia Sinica" elected for the first time in 1948, five entered or graduated from the university in 1920. More than half of the leading Chinese scientists whose works were published in scientific journals in the early period of Chinese modern science were graduates or academics of Nanjing University.
Kuo Ping-wen (Guo Bingwen, 郭秉文), an influential university president, was appointed in 1919 after Jiang Qian. The school meeting passed The Audit Law for Women Students (《規定女子旁聽法案》) on December 7, 1919, as result of efforts of the educationist T'ao Hsing-chih (Tao Xingzhi, 陶行知), as well as the president Guo Bingwen, and the professors including Liu Boming (劉伯明), Luh Chih-wei (Lu Zhiwei, 陸志偉), Yang Hsingfo (Yang Xingfo, 楊杏佛), etc., and then decided to formally recruit female students. The school became the first higher learning institution in China to recruit coeducational students. It enrolled eight women students in the first year 1920, and in addition, more than 50 female auditing students were admitted.
In 1921 the National Southeastern University (國立東南大學) was founded, and in 1923 Nanking Higher Normal School was merged into it. In the autumn of 1921, the Faculty of Business established in 1917 was moved to Shanghai to establish the first business school conferring degrees in China. The university consisted of five colleges (or schools) at the time: Liberal Arts (including departments of Chinese literature, foreign literature, history, philosophy, psychology，mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geoscience, and the Department of Politics, Law and Economics), Education, Agriculture, Engineering, and Commerce (or Business, including departments of general commerce, business administration, accounting, finance, economics, international trade, etc.), and soon later the College of Liberal Arts was divided to be College of Humanities and College of Sciences. The earliest modern scientific research laboratories and groups in China were established at the university. It integrated teaching and research, with status of university's independence and academic freedom, and was regarded as the earliest Chinese modern university. The university along with its affiliated primary school and middle school served as a pioneer and model which laid the foundations for the establishment of modern educational system (壬戌學制, Renhsü Hsüehchih, 1922) in China, and in addition, its experimental kindergarten (Gulou Kindergarten) founded in 1923 was later also adopted as the model for Chinese kindergartens (Kindergarten Courses Standards by Ministration of Education, 1932), including its teaching system, teaching materials, teaching methods and teaching tools. In October 1921, "Hsuehheng Society" (or Xueheng Society, 學衡社) was founded in the university which was the focus of the "Hsuehheng School" included the scholars Liu Yizheng (柳詒徵), Liu Boming (劉伯明), Mei Guangdi (梅光迪), Wu Mi (吳宓) and Hu Hsien-Hsu (Hu Xiansu, 胡先驌). They reinvigorated Confucian culture and humanism and published the monthly "Critical Review" (Xueheng, 學衡 in Chinese) in January 1922. It enabled Nanjing University to become a center of Confucian thought and humanistic scholarship. During this period, Nanjing University was known as the foremost "Oriental Education Centre" and recognized as an academic and cultural exchange centre for east and west. Many scholars visited and instructed there, including the American educationist Paul Monroe, W. H. Kilpatrick, E. L. Thorndike, philosopher John Dewey, British philosopher Bertrand Russell, German philosopher Hans Driesch and the Indian (also Bengali) poet Rabindranath Tagore.
The university became the capital national university after Nanking was made the capital by Nationalist Government, initially renamed National Dyisyi Chungshan University (or called National Nanking Chungshan University) in June 1927 when National Southeastern University merged eight public schools in Jiangsu province, and was renamed Jiangsu University in February 1928, and in May 1928, it was renamed National Central University (國立中央大學).[17] At the time there were eight colleges (or schools): Humanity, Social Science, Natural Science, Engineering, Education, Commerce, Agriculture, and Medicine. The College of Commerce moved to Shanghai in 1921 and College of Medicine established in Shanghai in 1927 were split from the university in 1932.[18] In 1935 College of Medicine was again established, in Nanjing. During the Anti-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945, the university moved to Chongqing, while the College of Medicine and Department of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Medicine of College of Agriculture moved to Chengdu. The Chinese Association of Natural Science (中華自然科學社) was originated at the university in 1927 and adopted the name next year, which was the second largest scientific organization in China in 1949, after China Science Society. China Association of Scientific Workers (中國科學工作者協會) was founded in the university in 1944.[19] China Science Society and the associations were merged to be the China Association for Science and Technology (中國科學技術協會) in 1958 in Beijing. The Natural Science Forum was initiated by the university faculties in 1939, which was later renamed Jiusan Forum (Sept. 3rd Forum) and became Jiusan Society in 1945, an organization for intellectual groups in China. In the united college entrance examinations beginning in 1937, about two-thirds of students put the university as the first choice. It became the first Chinese university enrolling blind college student, when enrolled Luo Fuxin (羅福鑫) in 1942.
People's Republic of China [ edit ]
In 1949, during the late time of Chinese Civil War, the central government of the Republic of China retreated from Nanking and the National Central University was renamed National Nanking University (National Nanjing University, 國立南京大學) after Nanking was controlled by CPC army, before the establishment of People's Republic of China. In 1952, many colleges and departments, mainly colleges of education (or teacher, normal, including art and physical education departments), engineering, agriculture, and medicine, were split from Nanjing University, and many new independent schools were formed, including Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing Institute of Technology which was located at former Nanjing University site and later renamed Southeast University, etc.[20] At the same time, University of Nanking (金陵大學), a private university established in 1888 and sponsored by American churches, was merged into Nanjing University (南京大學), which lost its "national" appellation in 1950 to reflect the reality that all universities in the PRC would be public, and Nanjing University moved campus to the site of University of Nanking where was west to Gulou Mountain and was also once the site of imperial Nanjing University in ancient times. A separate National Central University was reinstated in Taiwan by its old alumni association in 1962.
Nanjing University Student Activities Center, Xianlin Campus
During the period of communist society including the period of Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the school suffered heavily. In 1976, Nanjing University faculty members and students launched Anti Cultural Revolution Force Movement which was called "Nanjing Incident" by the authorities of the time, spreading countrywide. In 1978, Hu Fuming, a faculty member of Nanjing University in philosophy, wrote the historic article entitled "Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth", and after being published it led to the nationwide "Debate on Standards for Judging the Truth", and thus in certain degree liberated thought and promoted the ending of Cultural Revolution and the coming of reform era.
After the Reform and new development [ edit ]
Many faculties have been reestablished or newly founded since the Reform after 1978, e.g., law reestablished in 1981, medical school in 1987, environmental department newly founded in 1984. Some departments were divided into two or more departments, e.g., the Chinese language and literature department divided into departments of language & linguistics, literature, philology and drama arts, or some new faculties came out of older faculties, e.g., computer came out of mathematics, urban planning came out of geography, in many case formed integratively, i.e., formed based on parts of two or more faculties, e.g., parts of faculties of physics and chemistry integratively formed material faculty. In around 1990 the university consisted of schools (colleges) of Humanities, Sciences, Technological Sciences, Medicine, Business, etc.. Then many departments became schools, e.g., mathematics, physics, chemistry, or grouped into new schools, e.g., architecture and urban planning. The size of university significantly expanded during the years.
In 2009, Xianlin Campus opened to undergraduates, replacing Pukou Campus which was in use since 1993, and Pukou Campus became the campus of NJU Jinling College, an independent private college directed by NJU. The Xianlin campus now is a main campus along with Gulou campus.
Faculties [ edit ]
大禮堂 ) Old Great Hall (
More than 1500 years ago, ancient University of Nanjing founded the earliest faculties of literature, history, etc.. In modern times, Nanjing University established Chinese first faculties of art, gymnastics, biology, psychology, business management, etc.. Its faculties, departments and schools have been changed and evolved timely. For example, in 1921, the university consisted of 5 schools: liberal arts, education, agriculture, engineering and business, in 1928 the school of liberal arts had become three schools, and the university consisted of 8 schools: humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, education, agriculture, engineering, business and medicine, and now, many former departments of humanities, natural sciences and social sciences have become schools.
The system of academic degree or diploma has also been changed. In the early years of ROC the university adopted the system similar to western especially American universities and began to award bachelor's degree. The university founded China's first modern laboratories in physics, chemistry, etc.. In 1922, the university professors founded The Biology Research Institute of Science Society of China, the first modern scientific research institute in China, integrated with the university's biology department. With the aid of Rockefeller Foundation, Science Centre was constructed in 1924 and completed three years later. In 1926 the university passed The General Regulation of Graduate Institute. China's first doctor's degree was awarded by the school of medicine of the university in 1931. Soon the educational system was changed. In the early 1980s after a period of transformation, universities in mainland China resumed to award doctor's degrees, and graduate and undergraduate education were integrated into departments and schools. Nanjing University is the first in mainland China to award doctor's degrees in such fields as Chinese studies, world history, computer science.
It is distinguished in many fields including Chinese Language and Literature,[21][22] and natural sciences.[13] Its faculty, including part-time faculty, includes more than twenty Nobel Laureates engaged in teaching.[23] The university is a Double First Class University Plan university in 15 academic disciplines.[24]
Schools and departments [ edit ]
Main Entrance of the Gulou Campus
Nanjing University
Current schools and departments
School of Liberal Arts (School of Literature, or College of Literature) Chinese Language and Linguistics; Literature; Philology; Drama Arts
School of History Chinese History; World History; Archaeology
Department of Philosophy; Religion
School of Foreign Studies English; Russian; Japanese; French; German; Spanish; Korean; International Business
School of Government Politics; Government Administration; Labor, Personnel and Social Security; Diplomacy and International Affairs
School of Law
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences Sociology; Social Work and Social Policy; Psychology; Anthropology (institute)
School of Business (NUBS) School of Management: Business Administration; Human Resource; Accounting; Marketing & Electronic Commerce School of Economics: Economics; Industrial Economics; International Economics & Trading; Finance
Department of Information Management
School of Journalism and Communication
Department of Mathematics
School of Physics Physics; Modern Physics; Photoelectricity Science; Acoustic Science and Engineering
School of Astronomy and Space Science Astronomy; Space Science
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Chemistry; Chemical Engineering; Polymer
School of Geoscience School of Atmosphere Science: Meteorology; Atmosphere Physics School of Earth Science and Engineering: Earth Science; Water Science; Geology Engineering and Information Technology School of Geography and Ocean Science: Natural Geograpgy; Land, Resources and Tourism; Earth Information Science; Coast and Ocean Science
School of Life Sciences Biology; Biochemistry
School of Medicine Clinical Medicine; Dentistry; Basic Medical Science; Laboratory Medicine; Public Health and Medicine (institute)
School of Environment
School of Architecture and Planning Architecture; Urban Planning and Design
School of Electronics Science and Engineering Electronic Engineering; Micro-electronics and Optoelectronics; Informational Electronics; Communication Engineering
Department of Computer Science and Technology; Software Institute
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Materials; Energy; Quantum Electronics and Optical Engineering; Biomedical Engineering
Institute of Education (Graduate School of Education)
Institute for Gymnastics
Institute of Arts
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Science
School for Basic Sciences Education
International School
School for Overseas Students Education
Jinling College(Confer diplomas and degrees independently)
Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies (Hopkins-Nanjing Center)
Other research and education institutes in areas such as African Studies, Judaic Studies, Agriculture, Engineering Management, etc.
Campus [ edit ]
The Gulou campus in autumn
Duxia Library in Nanjing University, Xianlin Campus, built in 2007
Nanjing University has three main campuses: Gulou, Xianlin and Pukou campus. The distance between Gulou and Xianlin campus is about 18 kilometers.
Gulou Campus is located in Gulou District, at the center of Nanjing City. The main campus itself is divided into two sections by Hankou Road: North Garden, Bei Yuan, is where teaching and research take place; and South Garden, Nan Yuan, serves as the living area for both students and academic staff.
Pukou Campus is situated in the suburban Pukou District, by the northern side of Nanjing New & High-Tech Industry Development Zone, and became part of Nanjing University in 1993. Once Pukou campus hosted undergraduate freshmen, sophomore and junior students. In 2009, the Pukou campus became the campus hosted the undergraduate students in Nanjing University Jinling College, which was founded by Nanjing University in 1998. Nanjing University Biomedical Research Institute is also located in Pukou.
Xianlin Campus is located in the northeast of Nanjing, in the Xianlin Universities Town, south of Yangtse River and Qixia Mountain, east of Purple Mountain, and west of Baohua Mountain. The campus is home to undergraduate students and parts of graduate students. It was opened in September 2009. There is the stop of Nanjing University Xianlin Campus on Line 2 of Nanjing Subway, which enables Xianlin and Gulou campus to be connected through subway.
In Gulou campus, there are several museums including Nanjing University Museum, Museum of Art and Archaeology, Museum of Earth Science. There is Sun Yat-sen House. It's said that Sun Yat-sen, the first president (provisional president) of the Republic of China, lived there. There are also Pearl Buck House, John Rabe House, etc.. Gulou campus is now becoming mainly for professional graduate campus.
The location of Nanjing University has changed for several times, with historical campuses mainly in Fuzimiao (on the bank of Qinhuai River), Gulou, Chaotiangong and Sipailou (south of Qintian Mountain) areas. In addition, during Anti-Japanese War, its main campus moved to Shapingba, Chungking, with two auxiliary campuses, one in Bohsi, Chungking, and one in Hwahsiba, Chengdu, in some sense combined with Chongqing University and Western China University (now medical school of Sichuan University) respectively. It also deserves to mention that before the war, with the rapid development of the university, a new campus planned to cover an area of 8000 mu (about 5.3 km2 or 2.0 sq mi) south to Niushou Mountain in the southern suburb area of Nanjing had been built for near a year. After the war, it moved back to Nanjing, making former campus Sipailou as main campus, and the new campus Dingjiaqiao was built for agriculture and medical schools. Nanjing University relocated in Gulou six years after moving back, and then near sixty years later Xianlin campus emerged. Today's Nanjing University Gulou campus is the location of Imperial University of Nanjing during Former Song dynasty in more than 1500 years ago when it was in the west of the city, and now it's in the centre of the city.
Culture [ edit ]
School motto [ edit ]
Officially translated into English as "Sincerity with Aspiration, Perseverance and Integrity". Another version is "Be Honest and Intelligent, Study Hard and Act Sincerely."(simplified Chinese: 诚朴雄伟 励学敦行; traditional Chinese: 誠樸雄偉 勵學敦行; pinyin: chéng pǔ xióng wěi lì xué dūn xíng)
The first half of this motto was the motto during the National Central University time, and the last half was quoted from the classic literature work Book of Rites. It was voted to be the motto by university students in 2002, and the then university president supported it and wrote an article to interpret it.[25]
The translation does not fully express the meaning of the Chinese words of the motto. Motto counterparts between Chinese and English literally: Cheng (诚, Sincerity, Honesty, Integrity), Pu (樸, Simplicity, Austerity, naturally being oneself), Xiong (雄, Sturdiness, Majesty, being vigorous and keeping ideal and ambition, being firm and persistent with fortitude), Wei (偉, Greatness, having great ideal and ambition, with great mind comprehending, containing and improving world), Li Xue (勵學, Endeavor to Learn), Dun Xing (敦行, Urge to Act, Act Sincerely). The term Dun Xing comes from the context in Book of Rites: Having broad knowledge and strong learning ability and being modest, acting in sincerity and benignity and not slack, that is a gentleman (gentleperson) (博聞強識而讓 敦善行而不怠 謂之君子).
School song [ edit ]
The school song, recovered in 2002, was created in 1916. It is the first school song in the modern history of Nanjing University, with the lyrics written by Jiang Qian and melody composed by Li Shutong (李叔同).[26]
Anniversary [ edit ]
The present school anniversary is on May 20 every year, which was set by the school authority in 1954 in some sense due to some ideological reasons of the time, with the starting year being 1902 when relaunching the school as a modern higher learning institution, and the day May 20 in memory of the movement of anti-hunger and anti-war initiated by the university in that day of 1947. In recent years, the date May 20 has another new meaning: in Chinese Nanjing pronunciation, 5.20, sounds like I Love You (Wu Ai Ni). It shows students' love to their Alma Mater.
Recent status [ edit ]
Recent developments and present status [ edit ]
The School of Modern Engineering and Applied Sciences was established in 2009, replacing former School of Technological Sciences. NU received a RMB 400 million endowment gift from enterpriser Yang Xiu on the anniversary day in 2012, 300 million was designated for the establishment of engineering school and the rest for history study development fund. The Engineering Building covering floor space of 6000 sqm was started to construct in Xianlin campus in 2014.
Rankings [ edit ]
According to Nature Index released in January 2018, the ranking of high-quality natural sciences research by Nature Publishing Group, Nanjing University is ranked No.3 in China, No.4 in Asia Pacific, No.14 in the world among all institutions (including CAS in China, CNRS in France and other national organizations), and ranked No.2 in China, No.3 in Asia Pacific, and No.10 in the world among universities.[30]
Nanjing University was ranked 91-100 for World Reputation Ranking in 2017 by Times Higher Education World University Rankings,[31] and 114 by 2015 QS World University Rankings.[32]
It's ranked 7th in China by ShanghaiRanking in 2018.[33]
Reviewing rankings, domestically, according to university rankings in China, Nanjing University was generally ranked among the top 3 universities before the university merger tide occurred in the several years about after 2000, and then ranking down, even falling to No.7. Chinese university ranking by Chinese Academy of Management Science since 1995 ranked Nanjing University between 1st and 3rd before 2000 and since then between 3rd and 6th.[34][35] Chinese university ranking since 1999 by the higher education publisher Netbig consistently ranked the university among the top 3 before 2005, and in the most recent ranking among the top 5.[35] Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2003 by Shanghai Jiaotong University (ShanghaiRanking) suggested a domestic rank of number 2 to number 7.[36][35] The first-time integrative ranking of universities in China, in 1989, ranked Nanda as the No.1 comprehensive university.[37]
Admissions [ edit ]
Most selective university status [ edit ]
Known for its stringent admission criteria, Nanjing University was reported by national media to be the No |
the response before the agency’s Feb. 13 deadline for comment. Now they’re trekking to Washington to present their 325-page treatise before federal regulators in official meetings with the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and, yes, the SEC.
Last week, they met with 60-odd congressional staffers, including some Republicans, to give them a closed-door briefing on the regulation. And at the end April, the group is slated to sit down with Paul Volcker himself, the former Federal Reserve chair and namesake of the regulation.
The group has also worked on responses to scores of questions that the CFTC has raised about the Volcker Rule, which falls under the jurisdiction of multiple federal agencies — yet another source of regulatory headaches that the Occupy wonks are trying to sort out. Next up? Probably a comment letter on the Federal Reserve’s guidelines for determining which banks will be considered “systemically important” and thus subject to additional oversight.
Occupy the SEC is, in other words, working the system. And that can cause tension within a movement with members who would prefer to blow the system up.
Pragmatic approach
Even among the Occupy’s wonky set, some remain highly skeptical that any iteration of Dodd-Frank can make a meaningful difference. “I don’t believe you can appeal to Washington to reform the system. The grip of lobbyists on Washington is so great,” says Carne Ross, a former British diplomat who now lives in New York. “And given the pressures that exist in the industry, the banks are just going to innovate some kind of financial product that cannot be foreseen, and that won’t be affected by a piece of legislation like Dodd-Frank.”
Ross has helped establish another Occupy offshoot that is aiming to create an alternative banking system — a national “people’s bank” owned by its customers and employees that’s “accessible to everyone, including the poorest,” he says. Like Occupy the SEC, the Occupy Bank group emerged from an ad hoc gathering last fall as the movement was gaining broader appeal. Ross left a sign-up sheet on a table in Zuccotti Park for those interested in discussing bank reform, and Occupiers showed up in droves for the first meeting in his Union Square office.
Unlike many Occupy wonks, Ross had come from the world of diplomacy, not finance, but he found himself similarly disillusioned with the establishment: He had resigned from the British foreign service in 2004 after concluding that his country had gone to war in Iraq on false pretenses. But the financial meltdown had turned his attention to the banking system — and the possibility of creating a new one from scratch rather than trying to fix the flaws in the current system.
Meeting weekly at Ross’s Manhattan office, the Occupy Bank has since shrunk to a core of a dozen dedicated members, most bona fide experts in their fields, including a former SEC regulator and the former head of a community bank in Chicago. After months of research, however, the group is still grappling with the best way to structure a bank that not only conforms to their ideals, but is also commercially viable.
The group has looked to credit unions, community banks and co-ops for inspiration. Obtaining a bank charter from the FDIC is a long, complicated process, so members are considering a gradual ramp-up instead, setting up what’s known as a benefit corporation that would allow the Occupy Bank to offer basic banking services. To that end, the group has been talking to existing banks, which Ross declines to name, about forming such a corporation within their auspices to help get the Occupy Bank off the ground.
In other words, this isn’t just a political or intellectual exercise: Like Occupy the SEC, the group believes in going beyond the protest rhetoric, channeling the energy behind the populist movement to push for more concrete, pragmatic solutions. “There is a real limit to the effectiveness of protest,” Ross says. “It is more practical and more plausible to build up something, to build a new system to replace it.”
Unlike credit unions, which have restricted lending limits to businesses and typically target a specific community, the Occupy Bank would offer a full range of banking services to all customers; unlike community banks, it would ultimately have a national reach. “I personally think there is enormous market potential for a bank of the kind we described,” Ross says. “If you get it right, it could potentially change the system, which is not only politically but commercially ripe for revolution.”
Pocket change to system change?
In fact, Occupy Wall Street already has a track record of persuading the broader public to consider alternatives to the financial system’s status quo. On Nov. 5 — Guy Fawkes Day, inspired by a 16th-century English revolutionary — the movement was among the groups supporting “Move Your Money Day,” a grassroots campaign to persuade customers of the country’s big banks to transfer their funds to smaller institutions. Over $50 million was transferred that weekend, while new accounts cropped up in credit unions and community banks across the country.
In the grand scheme of the U.S. banking system, $50 million is pocket change. But Occupiers believe the campaign is yet another sign that it’s possible to direct the public’s simmering anger against Wall Street into concrete, if gradual, change within the existing financial system. That’s the focus of the Alternative Banking Group, another Occupy working group that spun off from the original Occupy Bank meeting in Carne Ross’s office last fall.
The Alternative Banking Group is less narrowly focused than the two other Occupy groups. The membership, too, is a hodgepodge: Those attending a meeting in early March included Michael Hudson, an economic adviser for Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich; a black-clad activist wearing fingerless gloves; a mathematics doctoral student; a former trader from Bear Stearns; and Manny Manhattan, who hosts an eponymous public-access TV program (“Make sure you mention my show,” he said repeatedly).
Perhaps because of its eclectic membership, Alt. Banking, as it is known, has focused more on educating its members and the public about the basic workings of the U.S. financial system. Cathy O’Neil, one of the group’s organizers, became involved in the movement by holding teach-ins on Wall Street — and she spoke from personal experience. A self-described quant who once worked at D.E. Shaw, O’Neil was inspired to go down to Zuccotti Park to correct an egregious falsehood being spread about the financial system — not by a Wall Street mouthpiece, but by an Occupy activist.
“He said to fix the financial system, we should ban short-selling. I found that to be a really ignorant perspective,” O’Neil said. “But I could either dismiss these guys for being ignorant or help inform them about the financial system.” In the first few months, the Alt. Banking group did just that, laying out how Wall Street worked, who the players were. “We think that only experts are allowed to have opinions,” O’Neil adds. “But you don’t have to understand a system completely to understand that it’s not working for you.”
The group has since tried to put its ideas about reforming the system into action, but its efforts have mostly been scattershot. It’s dabbled in the regulatory process, sending a comment letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to push for stronger oversight of credit bureaus. It’s putting together an amicus brief for a securities fraud case against Citigroup, a Web app to help people locate credit unions and a deck of playing cards illustrating the “top 52 villains of the financial crisis.” Last week, it wrote a letter to Citi CEO Vikram Pandit, urging him to engage in a public conversation about executive pay.
But the group’s comparatively broad mission points to some of the challenges facing the Occupy movement as a whole: How can a leaderless, consensus-driven movement survive when there are such diffuse interests and major disagreements about the best way forward? Can the chart-wielding wonks and the sign-wielding activists really get along?
In the eyes of some Occupiers, after all, the bankers are still the enemy. One discussion group at last month’s Alt. Banking meeting was devoted to “Psychopathy and Finance.” One participant referenced a Polish study that showed that those who lead our society — corporate executives, financiers and the like — tend to exhibit psychopathic personalities, as the system rewards them for being ruthless.
“Yeah, they’re all psychopaths, so what are you going to do about it?” said the former Bear Stearns and Barclays trader, a Russian immigrant in her late 30s who came to New York over a decade ago and who’s been unemployed since 2009. “There’s such a vast gap, so much hostility... It’s counterproductive, not understanding them. It’s important to develop that understanding,” she said, fiddling with her BlackBerry.
But like many Occupy wonks, the ex-trader — who declined to be named for fear that word would get back to her old bosses — sees herself as an emissary of sorts between Occupy and Wall Street. Last month, she brought a flow-chart to the Alt. Banking meeting that broke down the details of February’s $25 billion mortgage fraud settlement and proceeded to explain how mortgage servicing worked to a handful of skeptical activists.
Goldstein, for one, ultimately hopes that her group’s immensely technical undertaking can gain a broader grassroots audience. Occupy the SEC’s Volcker letter has garnered mention in the Financial Times, Reuters, and Businessweek, among other major financial news outlets. But Goldstein has been most heartened to hear about a supporter who printed out all 325 pages of Occupy’s comment letter on the regulation and hand-delivered it to a member of the Fed making a public appearance.
During last month’s meeting, she put it another way: The highest praise would be to hear that “they’re making bureaucracy sexy.”With just weeks left to affect the content of health care reform, a leading progressive group is launching a last-ditch effort to ensure that a public option for insurance coverage ends up in the final bill.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is targeting four liberal members of the Democratic caucus in the Senate, urging them to filibuster legislation that does not include a government-run insurance option. Titled the "We need a hero" campaign," the list of targets includes Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as well as Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Already, the PCCC is making moves in the media markets of the first two. On Monday, the group put out a television ad urging Feingold to fulfill President Obama's pledge to include a public option in any insurance reform. On Tuesday, it followed with a round of 10,000 robocalls-a-day in Vermont, in which a local resident pleads with Sanders to block a bill without the public plan.
"[The current plan] just mandates that people buy insurance from big insurance companies," says Northfield, Vermont resident AJ Van Tassel-Sweet. "That's not reform."
In addition to the television and robocall efforts, the PCCC is also running online ads in the states of each of the aforementioned four senators. It is certainly an uphill battle, since each of these members already voted for a version of reform that did not include the public plan and none have expressed the die-hard willingness to hold up the process should the final vote be on a similar piece of legislation.
It's curious, however, that the PCCC is going after Franken, as confirmed by the group's co-founder Adam Green. The Minnesota Democrat has kept an incredibly low profile during the health care debate (as he has throughout much of his first year in office). And while it seems fairly evident that Franken's sentiments do lie with PCCC's policy objectives, it's hard to imagine a freshmen member of the caucus -- especially one who's been eager to avoid the spotlight -- going that far out on the line.The term “beauty” is painfully elusive, and throughout the generations, it has been used to define men and women of vastly diverse bodies. Centuries before Barbie and the mid-20th century rise of the slender, small waisted ideal, there were 15th century masters like Peter Paul Rubens, who celebrated softer, rounded curves with his sensually-charged paintings. With Unadorned, German photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten returns to this image, capturing fuller figured models as they embrace their nude bodies despite societal pressures that exclude them from an often oppressive standard of thinness.
Inspired by humanist masters like Titian and Rubens, Fullerton-Batten paints a stunning portrait of self-actualization. Her models, in their nakedness, dwarf the space around them; reclining on tables and lounging on a heap of books, they resemble resplendent deities. Their bodies are foreshortened as they curl and stretch, and their breasts and torsos are exaggerated, seen as objects of desire. As with Titian’s Vanity, jewels are seen reflected in a mirror, admired by a woman whose body we in turn admire.
Unadorned is strewn fruits and flowers, each bursting with color and imagined flavor. Fullerton-Batten’s models occupy this fertile space, and the plant life wilts, as if overcome by the heat of atmosphere and bodies. Like the gods of abundance in Rubens’s Vertumne et Pomone, they lay amongst the ruddy ripeness, in utter harmony with nature. Here, Fullerton-Batten works against the plethora of images that shame fuller figures; as beauty ideals are in continuous flux, we might pause for a moment, look back, and celebrate the vitality of every human body.The Peace in Peril: The Real Cost of the Site C Dam
Christopher Pollon, with photographs by Ben Nelms
Harbour Publishing (2016)
‘THE PEACE IN PERIL’ ON TOUR: OPEN TO PUBLIC Help celebrate the launch of ‘The Peace in Peril’ at these upcoming launch parties! All events are free, and books will be available to purchase. VANCOUVER The Vancouver launch will include remarks by Tyee founding editor David Beers and journalist Ian Gill. For further details, go here. WHERE: The Anza Club, 3 West 8th Ave.
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 17, doors at 7 p.m. SALT SPRING ISLAND WHERE: Salt Spring Island Public Library, 129 McPhillips Ave.
WHEN: Monday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. VICTORIA WHERE: Cenote Lounge, 768 Yates St.
WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. COURTENAY WHERE: Courtenay Public Library, 300 6th St.
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m.
Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners ‘Punch to the Gut’ Musical on Residential Schools Returns to Vancouver Children of God has been shaped by intense audience reactions, says director Corey Payette.
In the next decade, a 60-metre-high wall of compacted earth will stretch more than a kilometre across the main stem of the Peace River, causing the waters behind it to swell into a 93-square-kilometre artificial lake, drowning the best topsoil left in northeast British Columbia. The waters will swallow 50 islands and a valley that is home to farmers, ranchers, trappers and habitat to innumerable creatures big and small.
Over four days in late September 2015, writer Christopher Pollon paddled the 83-kilometre section of the river that will be destroyed by the Site C dam reservoir, accompanied by photojournalist Ben Nelms. Their goal was to witness the very first steps of construction for the $9-billion project, the most expensive infrastructure project in B.C. history. They conclude their trip by touring the same stretch by land, interviewing and photographing the locals who stand to lose everything.
The result of their journey is The Peace in Peril: The Real Cost of the Site C Dam — a book that is equal parts travelogue, history and journalistic exploration. You can read a Tyee interview with Pollon about the book here.
Here’s an excerpt from their Peace odyssey.
Confronting the Peace industrial sacrifice zone
It’s our last night in the Peace country, and we’re spending it in Fort St. John, an oil and gas town under the grip of the worst resource slump in decades. What to do on a Saturday night in a fading boomtown?
We decide to get a first-hand look at the gas fields that sprawl for hundreds of kilometres north of town — the alleged wellspring of B.C.’s future prosperity. We randomly choose a point on the map — a settlement called “Montney” about 25 kilometres north of Fort St. John — named for the vast geological shale gas formation that underlies much of this area. We arrive to little more than an intersection with a boarded up storefront and a few dilapidated houses. We continue north.
It’s a shock to drive into British Columbia’s oil and gas country and find nothing but bucolic farmer’s fields as far as the eye can see. But as we continue north, rural roads give way to fresh logging roads, and before we know it, we are in the midst of the Squirrel gas field, on a site run by a Calgary company called Pengrowth. The well we encounter is an unimpressive structure: a short metal staircase leading up to a drilling platform in the centre of a six-hectare clearcut. It’s unclear whether it is active or abandoned, and the distinction is important. There were at least 10,000 inactive well sites in northeastern British Columbia in 2014, and the situation is much worse in Alberta. In a report submitted to the BC Oil and Gas Commission by the David Suzuki Foundation in late 2015, the current taxpayer cleanup liability from this northeast B.C. legacy alone could be as much as $700 million.
They're Killing the Peace River Valley Now read more
Orphan wells are just part of the wider cost the entire Peace region must pay to be the economic engine of the province. Call it the resource curse: between 1974 and 2010, almost 70 per cent of the Peace River region’s five biggest watersheds, encompassing an area bigger than Croatia, had been altered by land use and ecological fragmentation. Consider that since the first commercial production of natural gas in 1948, 1,100 kilometres of transmission lines have been built, and 45,000 kilometres of roads now criss-cross the region, the latter equal in total distance to seven one-way road trips between Vancouver and Halifax. If we consider the sum of the impacts from all the gas wells, pipelines, clearcuts, coal mines and hydro development, the Peace is not so much an economic engine as an expendable, industrial sacrifice zone.
In March of 2015, the Blueberry River First Nations, whose reserve is just north of Fort St. John, decided enough was enough. They filed a lawsuit in BC Supreme Court, the first lawsuit to zero in on B.C.’s breach of Treaty 8 on the basis of the “sum of destructive industrial impacts of regional development.” (The lawsuit is ongoing.) About four years earlier, the Doig River First Nation, whose traditional territory has been degraded mostly by natural gas extraction, took action of a different kind. The nation unilaterally declared the boundaries of K’ih tsaa?dze — a 90,000 hectare “tribal park” straddling the B.C. and Alberta border about 75 kilometres northeast of Fort St. John.
Such unilateral action has precedents. Logging prompted the Haida Nation to create the Duu Guusd Tribal Park in 1981 on Haida Gwaii, which went on to receive B.C. government recognition as a protected area. In 1984 the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation established a tribal park near Tofino to protect Meares Island from logging, which remains in force today. More recently, the Tsilhqot’in, coming off a legal victory that confirmed the First Nation’s title to a large chunk of its traditional territory, established the 3,000-square-kilometre Dasiqox Tribal Park in fall of 2014; the park included Fish Lake, which up until recently was designated to become tailings dump for an open pit mine.
What is particularly important about Doig River’s desperate action in the Peace is that the nation is a signatory to Treaty 8, and what they have created at K’ih tsaa?dze attempts to implement a way of managing land that closely mirrors the intent of their ancestors at the moment they signed the treaty.
It’s dark as we drive in silence back to Fort St. John and our hotel, which is connected to a casino. Given the province’s high-stakes gambling around Site C and liquefied natural gas, the latter feels like a fitting venue for our last few hours in town. I lose at slots as photographer Ben Nelms hits the card tables, drinking doubles and getting giddy as his winnings mount.
This place is surprisingly dead for a Saturday night. Ben plays on, while a bartender entertains me with tales of Fort St. John woe. Any given month, he says, half a dozen high-end pickup trucks are abandoned in the hotel’s Walmart-sized parking lot by young men who never return. The keys often hang in the ignition. He speculates that drugs, debt or both are to blame. “They just up and leave,” he says.
We get up early the next morning and decide it’s time for us to do the same.
Read a Tyee interview with The Peace in Peril author Christopher Pollon today on The Tyee here.Leave some for the rest of us!
Hey, you can only buy 15 of these.
YOU SHALL NOT PASS up this deal!
1st Place in Derby #378: 25k Cup, Round IV: Video Games, with 152 votes!
Bad bosses
Death Pug: Stop the pug from sneezing all over you until you die!
Vegetarian Zombie: You’re led into a false sense of security. You think, “Oh, this zombie’s a vegetarian; it doesn’t want anything to do with me. But this zombie has opinions so tedious they’re DEADLY.
Thundergoat: His libido is out of control.
Lawrence: Oh man, you don’t wanna deal with Lawrence. He went to law school for a year “back east” and you’re GOING TO HEAR ABOUT IT.
Bad Hat: A bad hat.
Clamshell: You’ve gotta open the package of earbuds before that clock runs out … AND YOU DON’T HAVE ANY SCISSORS.
Hold music: It just won’t ever end!
Leslie Legarms: SHE’S GOT LEGS FOR ARMS ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Hot coffee: Burns your tongue every time.
Back to topAt New York City's Trump Tower on Tuesday, a suspicious package was found in the lobby. The package ended up being a harmless bag of children's toys, but that discovery was not made until after before the building had been evacuated.
Trump's incoming press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted his gratitude to the NYPD following the incident. That was expected. What was not predicted was the strange reaction Spicer's simple message would receive from Mayor Bill de Blasio's office. After Spicer published his tweet, De Blasio's press secretary offered an immature and uncalled-for retort.
No problem. We'll send you the bill. https://t.co/mxbUqzgHds — Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) December 27, 2016
Trump social media director Dan Scavino stepped in to call out Phillip's childish behavior.
I think one thing both sides of this boxing ring can agree on is that no one was hurt.What was supposed to be a fresh beginning to the challenges surrounding the Lake Mille Lacs walleye fishery has degraded into feuding over the same old issues of American Indian treaty rights and mistrust toward state and tribal biologists.
The tensions were thrust to the fore this week with the resignation of the only American Indian tribal member from a state advisory panel, saying it had “devolved into an anti-science, anti-treaty rights forum subsidized by the state.”
The words are those of Jamie Edwards, director of government affairs for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, in his Sept. 23 resignation letter from the Mille Lacs Fisheries Advisory Committee, which was formed a year ago by the Department of Natural Resources at the behest of Gov. Mark Dayton.
Dayton wanted the panel, which replaced a previous advisory group, to provide an open forum where biologists and state stakeholders, tribes with treaty rights to the lake and leaders from the area’s fishing-based tourist economy could chart a path forward while grappling with the central Minnesota lake’s legendary walleye population, which has been in long-term decline.
According to Edwards, the majority of panel members were primarily interested in an agenda that seeks to blame tribal netting for depleting the walleye population.
Read Edwards’ resignation letter
Scientists from Minnesota, the tribes and a blue-ribbon panel of North American walleye experts have concluded that tribal netting, which is allowed under court-upheld treaty law, is not the cause of the walleye’s decline. Rather, a combination of factors relating to improved water quality and clarity are the most likely drivers of the phenomenon, which scientists admit they don’t fully understand.
Nonetheless, the practice of tribal netting during the spring walleye spawning period remains the flashpoint for nontribal members, many of whom remain convinced it’s the cause.
Edwards’ sentiments drew a lengthy response from 15 of the 16 the remaining committee members, who on Monday penned a letter that both disputed Edwards’ accusation and clung to criticism of tribal netting.
“Our members welcomed Mr. Edwards to the Committee and looked forward to his participation in group discussions,” reads the letter, which, like Edwards’ letter, was sent to DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr and Dayton. “We were looking forward to getting the Bands’ perspectives and priorities on a variety of subjects. No one failed to respect the sovereign status of American Indian tribes. We were all aware of the Courts’ decisions that the rights to hunt and fish remain with the Bands.”
However, the letter also defended the idea that tribal netting during the spawn is “culturally offensive” to nontribal members.
“The culture of Minnesota sportsmen, and in particular, Mille Lacs fishermen, has been to protect game fish during their spawning activities,” the letter reads. “This custom has gone on for over 100 years and has been supported by DNR regulations for decades. It is thought that the fish are more vulnerable during that time because they are concentrated in certain areas. It is also believed that disturbing fish at that time limits reproduction and will harm the lake’s future. Whether you agree with those beliefs or not, no one can disagree that they are a part of Minnesota sportsmen’s culture and that many find the Bands’ activities during that time offensive.”
Read the response from the advisory committee
In fact, while protecting natural reproduction is a general philosophy of wildlife management, it’s hardly a universal practice across the continent, including Minnesota. In any given year, in various parts of the state — depending on how the spring has progressed — walleye are often still in some stage of spawning when targeted by anglers during opening weekend in May. The same can be said for bass, perch, crappie, sunfish and potentially northern pike, depending on water temperatures.
Wild turkey are hunted during the spring mating season, and whitetail deer, the state’s most popular game animal, is hunted before, during and after its fall mating season.
Edwards isn’t the first to walk away from the panel with similar accusations against the majority of its members, who include guides, resort owners and local political and civic leaders.
In May, Paul Venturelli, a walleye expert and faculty member at the University of Minnesota, resigned, saying “the fishery needs a people expert more than it needs a fisheries expert.”
Venturelli suggested a conflict-resolution process with a sociologist would be more helpful than his scientific insight, which included coordinating the blue ribbon panel that examined decades of DNR data on the lake and reached the same overall conclusions as the agency.
“The majority opinions of the committee show a community that is frustrated and struggling to adjust to a changing system,” Venturelli wrote in a letter to the committee. “The malignment of the tribal fishery is particularly alarming because it is inconsistent with the evidence and should not be tolerated.”
Read Venturelli’s resignation letter
With Venturelli’s departure, the committee was left without an academic. That role has since been filled by Donn Branstrator, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. With Edwards’ departure, it’s left without tribal representation.
The advisory committee’s letter says remaining committee members would welcome a new tribal representative.According to multiple reports, ISIS claims to have executed American freelance journalist James Wright Foley. Politico’s Blake Hounshell was one the first to report the news on Twitter, saying the militant Islamic group is threatening to kill another reporter in retaliation for U.S. strikes on their forces in Iraq:
Yikes: ISIS claims to have executed American freelance journalist James Foley; threatening to kill Steven Sotloff next. — Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) August 19, 2014
Foley had been missing since November 22, 2012 when he disappeared in Syria.
Mediaite has chosen not to post or link out the video of Foley’s killing, but in the video, entitled “Letter to America,” ISIS terrorists force him to read a letter urging Americans to rise up against his “real killer, the U.S. government.” In addition, Foley says the U.S. airstrikes against ISIS “hammered the final nail into [his] coffin.”
In 2011, Foley spoke to The Boston Globe about being captured in Libya. Watch video below:
Update — Aug 19, 7:40 p.m. ET: National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden delivered the following statement on the Foley video:
“We have seen a video that purports to be the murder of U.S. citizen James Foley by ISIL. The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will provide more information when it is available.”
[Photo via screengrab]
— —
>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comHe may only be 21, but Tom Lever has emerged as a potential Pompey owner.
The News can reveal the Manchester businessman has spent the past fortnight in negotiations to take over the club ahead of Balram Chainrai.
As it stands, Chainrai's company, Portpin, have exchanged ownership contracts with view for completion on September 9.
But Mr Lever has offered 16.2m to the Hong Kong businessman to buy him out before that date.
The entrepreneur, also intends to purchase land around Fratton Park owned by Sacha Gaydamak and Sellar Property Group.
This would allow him to explore existing plans centring on the redevelopment of the stadium.
Administrator Andrew Andronikou was shown a letter detailing Mr Lever's proof of funds 10 days ago.
A team of advisors also held initial meetings with Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson a fortnight ago.
If successful, the entire takeover would total 30m.
Mr Andronikou has revealed the entrepreneur is the only alternative to Chainrai at present.
And Mr Lever and his team are hoping to thrash out an agreement within the next week.
An advisor close to Mr Lever said: 'We have recently arranged a financial agreement with the lenders and submitted proof of funds to this effect to Portsmouth Football Club.
'We are looking at other options put forward to us to allow us to complete sooner, therefore giving us more time before the transfer window closes.'
The potential takeover has moved at breakneck speed.
That represents encouraging news for Pompey fans after Rob Lloyd's faltering attempt, which has so far taken seven months.
Mr Lever brought his proof of funds together in just six days - a stage Mr Lloyd has not even managed to reach.
The News understands Mr Lever met with Mr Chainrai and Portpin partner Levi Kushnir at the Churchill Hotel in London's West End on August 13.
A letter providing proof of funds was presented to Andronikou later that night upon the administrator's request.
Mr Lever and his team held further talks with Mr Chainrai and his lawyer Levi Kushnir within hours of the pair attending the 1-1 draw with Reading on August 14.
Held at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 ahead of the duo leaving to return to Hong Kong, talks are believed to have been positive.
Negotiations have been on-going.
Speaking from Cyprus last night, Mr Andronikou acknowledged Mr Lever's ownership bid.
However, he remained cautious of whether they will be successful.
He said: 'At the moment, Mr Lever and Portpin are the only interested parties.
'However, Portpin remain the preferred option that will take this club a step forwards and the contracts have already been exchanged.
'While we welcome interest from potential buyers, we need to be satisfied.
'As it stands, Mr Lever needs to show some money.
'We have met and, after much debate and debacle, they provided me with a letter showing a bridging loan facility from a sub lender.
'However, there were also 401 conditions attached to it.
'Last week I asked for money to be put into their lawyer's bank account -and we are still waiting for that to happen.
'Once the funds are sitting on the table then we can move on. I have been there too many times.
'There have been lots of interest allegedly with people then not coming up to scratch.
'I don't want that to happen again. I need to see their money before anything else.'
HE MAY BE YOUNG, BUT HE'S ALREADY GOT A FORTUNE
Tom Lever may be aged just 21, yet has already amassed a vast fortune.
Based in Manchester, the entrepreneur has made his money chiefly from development.
His father is David Lever, also heavily involved in development, who was declared bankrupt in July.
But Tom Lever says it is strictly him involved in the takeover at Pompey.
A keen football fan, Pompey represents the investment which interests him most and the potential which accompanies it.
The possibility of building a new stadium is also an attraction as he looks to follow a 10-year plan to resurrect the club's fortunes.
Away from business, Lever featured in an MTV programme in 2007 called Living on the Edge.
It followed the lives of a group of mega-rich teenagers in the affluent town of Alderley Edge in Cheshire.
He still lives in the area, overseeing his thriving business interests.
Lever is now hoping his move to own Pompey can be sealed ahead of the transfer window closing on August 31 as he looks to provide backing.
TIMELINE
Pompey have been without an owner since being put into administration on February 26.
That action was taken by previous owner Balram Chainrai, with UHY Hacker Young appointed as administrators.
However, he has long remained 'Plan B' according to Andrew Andronikou, one of a trio of administrators charged with steering the club forwards.
Over the past eight months, Rob Lloyd has been the sole alternative to Chainrai in terms of seizing ownership.
The Cheshire businessman even met with Blues fans on March 14.
Despite his maintained interest, though, he has struggled to come up with the required proof of funds.
Having now obtained their CVA following the HMRC's failed appeal, Chainrai is in the frame to step up his takeover on September 9 with it being finalised a week later.
Yet that could change with Lever on the scene.Welp, looks like we’re done here. Ezra Klein says those “lost” Lois Lerner emails don’t constitute a real cover-up:
The lost IRS e-mails don’t look like a cover-up: http://t.co/STmobxw1iI — Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) June 23, 2014
Here’s how the Voxsplanation concludes:
However, when one looks at the documentation the IRS provided, no malfeasance appears evident. A long email chain predating the scandal documents Lerner’s computer difficulties and the agency’s failed attempts to restore her emails. Unless new information emerges to cast doubt on this explanation, the dark fears of a cover-up seem unsubstantiated.
Got that? Move along, folks. Nothing to see here!
.@ezraklein weird to base your argument on the timeline and then leave off that the inquiries started right before the e-mails were lost. — AG (@AG_Conservative) June 23, 2014
Vox leaves out key detail of the timeline that refutes their whole argument, then declares there is no cover up: https://t.co/YDu8twyXRX — AG (@AG_Conservative) June 23, 2014
Vox's whole argument about Lerner's e-mails is refuted by 1 fact they coincidently don't mention: http://t.co/F4ovhlfPC7 cc: @ezraklein — AG (@AG_Conservative) June 23, 2014
From The Wall Street Journal, via Ace of Spades HQ:
As to Ms. Lerner’s behavior, consider that House Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp first sent a letter asking if the IRS was engaged in targeting in June, 2011. Ms. Lerner denied it. She engineered a plant in an audience at a tax conference in May 2013 to drop the bombshell news about targeting (maybe hoping nobody would notice?). She has subsequently asserted a Fifth Amendment right to silence in front of the only people actually investigating the affair, Congress. Now we learn that her hard drive supposedly defied modernity and suffered total annihilation about 10 days after the Camp letter arrived.
Seems like a pretty important detail, no? Wonder why Vox would wanna leave that out.
We’ve got a theory: Vox is a hotbed of dishonest hacks.
Nice try, clown. "@ezraklein: The lost IRS e-mails don’t look like a cover-up" — Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) June 23, 2014
https://twitter.com/LBL72/status/481160905967677440
Congrats! You've just won a million middle fingers! RT @ezraklein The lost IRS e-mails don’t look like a cover-up: http://t.co/SXgG2k7ETH — MaxR.S (@Randy_Shannon) June 23, 2014
“@ezraklein: The lost IRS e-mails don’t look like a cover-up" In what universe?? C'mon. — Julie N Smith (@julnilsmith) June 23, 2014
Oh fuck off. RT @ezraklein The lost IRS e-mails don’t look like a cover-up — RBe (@RBPundit) June 23, 2014
|
spoilers for Game of Thrones Episode 5 ahead. You’ve been warned.
The Hodor Dilemma
Last night’s tragic episode of Game of Thrones featured the death of everyone’s favorite giant with a speech impediment. Hodor‘s final sacrifice saved Bran and Meera‘s life. It was a tear-filled goodbye and the end of Hodor piggy-back-rides.
It’s an epic revelation as to the source of Hodor’s unfortunate nom de plume. Why did Wylis lose his ability to speak and start incessantly repeating Hodor? Because Bran warged into him in the past, branding his mind with Meera’s command to “hold the door” against an army of wights. Makes perfect sense!
So Hodor’s disability led to his ultimate sacrifice, which in turn led to his disability, which in turn led to his ultimate sacrifice… uh… wait a second. Bran changed the past, to create the future, that let him change the past, to create the future… Huh? If you’re sensing something isn’t right here, you’re correct.
This is a temporal paradox. This particular brand of time-travel-conundrum is called a causality loop. Here’s how it works in its most basic form: Event A causes Event B, which in turn causes, in some way, Event A. In this way, time forms a kind of loop, like a tangled knot in a piece of thread. Time continues on as normal, but the true source of the events is unknowable.
The Constant
This isn’t the first time the causality loop appeared in pop-culture. This “self-existing” time phenomenon is sometimes called the bootstrap paradox, named after Robert Heinlein’s 1941 time travel story, By His Bootstraps. In this story, a time-traveler passes on the blueprints to creating a time machine to someone, who then copies and creates those same blueprints. Heinlein would continue this causal loop theme in his 1959 story All You Zombies, in which a woman/man becomes his own mother and father (yea, it’s a weird one).
This paradox appears again in Dr. Who (of course), Time Crimes, Interstellar, Star Trek, and Lost. In fact, last night’s episode of Game of Thrones was directed by Jack Bender, the same director who filmed Lost‘s memorable time travel episode, “The Constant.” In this episode, the character Desmond is revealed to be unstuck in time, bouncing back and forth between 1996 and 2004. The time loop is a common trope, and most of the time it remains a paradox.
Hold the Door
Can we make sense of Hodor’s time loop? Maybe.
There are a couple of theories we can apply to Game of Thrones to find the source of the Hodor-dilemma. First, Game of Thrones could exist in a multiverse. If Bran isn’t warging into the past, but instead into an alternate universe, then we can kind of side-step the bootstrap paradox. This episode’s version would be one of many timelines and the loop would have a source, just not in our timeline or universe.
Similarly, if we hold to the theory that messing with the past creates a new timeline, then we can imagine a source-timeline in which Wylis does not suffer from single-word-syndrome. If so, perhaps Wylis still joined Bran north of the Wall, still encountered the White Walkers, and still had to “hold the door.” At which point, perhaps Bran warged into him anyway, causing the past Wylis to become Hodor, thus creating the causal loop and current Game of Thrones timeline we know and love.
Of course, all of this is a form of narrative gymnastics. This is the problem with causal loops. We have to come up with our own explanation.
Here is what I believe, setting aside the messy time travel paradox.
When Wylis was young, he lived through his own death. In his final moments, as Hodor, he lived it again. He faced his fear, not as a warg under Bran’s command, but as Wylis, the stable boy who loved the Starks with all his heart. I believe he knew, in that moment and with sudden clarity, where his circuitous path had led. His sacrifice, the noblest one, was made with courage and the knowledge he had played his part as destined. Hodor died as Wylis, a hero, and no amount of time travel can change that.Looking for curling on TV?
You're at the right place!
2017 - 2018 Season
* All times are EDT (eastern daylight time) unless otherwise stated
** All coverage is subject to change.
* Details of televised games are posted or updated as they become available from broadcasters.
something to add? or comments? email nic@mycurling.com
January 13 to 21, 2018 New Holland Canadian Juniors Shawinigan QC, Canada
Jan 20 @ 1 pm Women's semifinal (on TSN, Canada)
@ 6 pm Men's semifinal (on TSN, Canada)
Jan 21 @ 1 pm Women's final (on TSN, Canada)
@ 6 pm Men's final (on TSN, Canada)
January 16 to 21, 2018 Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling - Meridian Canadian Open Camrose, AB, Canada
Jan 18 @ 2:30 pm Triple knockout (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm Triple knockout (on Sportsnet E/W/P, Canada)
@ 10 pm Triple knockout (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Jan 19 @ 2:30 pm Triple knockout (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm Triple knockout (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 10 pm Triple knockout (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Jan 20 @ noon Women's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
@ 4 pm Men's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
@ 8 pm Men's/Women's semifinals (on Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
Jan 21 @ 12:30 pm Men's final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 4:30 pm Women's final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
January 27 to Feb 4, 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Penticton, BC, Canada
Jan 27 @ 5 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Jan 28 @ noon Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 5 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Jan 29 @ noon Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 5 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Jan 30 @ noon Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 5 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Jan 31 @ noon Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 5 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Feb 1 @ noon Pool play tiebreakers (on TSN, Canada)
@ 5 pm Championship round (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm Championship round (on TSN, Canada)
Feb 2 @ 5 pm Championship round (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm Championship round (on TSN, Canada)
Feb 3 @ noon Championship round tiebreakers (on TSN, Canada)
@ 5 pm Page playoffs (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm Page playoffs (on TSN, Canada)
Feb 4 Semifinal (on TSN, Canada)
Final (on TSN, Canada)
February 9 to 25, 2018 Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang, South Korea
March 3 to 11, 2018 World Juniors Aberdeen, Scotland
March 3 to 11, 2018 Tim Hortons Brier Regina, SK, Canada
Mar 3 @ 3 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 5 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Mar 4 @ 10 am Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 3 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 8 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Mar 5 @ 10 am Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 3 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 8 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Mar 6 @ 10 am Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 3 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 8 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Mar 7 @ 10 am Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 3 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 8 pm Pool play (on TSN, Canada)
Mar 8 @ 10 am Pool play tiebreakers (on TSN, Canada)
@ 3 pm Championship round (on TSN, Canada)
@ 8 pm Championship round (on TSN, Canada)
Mar 9 @ 3 pm Championship round (on TSN, Canada)
@ 8 pm Championship round (on TSN, Canada)
Mar 10 @ 10 am Championship round tiebreakers (on TSN, Canada)
@ 3 pm Page playoffs (on TSN, Canada)
@ 8 pm Page playoffs (on TSN, Canada)
Mar 11 @ 1 pm Semifinal (on TSN, Canada)
@ 8 pm Final (on TSN, Canada)
March 15 to 18, 2018 Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling - Princess Auto Elite 10
March 17 to 25, 2018 Ford World Women's Curling Championship North Bay, ON, Canada
March 19 to 24, 2018 Canadian Seniors
March 29 to April 1, 2018 Canadian Mixed Doubles Leduc, AB, Canada
March 31 to April 8, 2018 World Men's Curling Championship Las Vegas, USA
April 10 to 15, 2018 Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling - Players' Championship Toronto, ON, Canada
April 21 to 28, 2018 World Mixed Doubles Oestersund, Sweden
April 21 to 28, 2018 World Seniors Oestersund, Sweden
April 24 to 29, 2018 Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling - Champions Cup Calgary, AB, Canada
What you may have missed already this season...
August 25 to 27, 2017 Everest Curling Challenge Fredericton, NB, Canada
Fri Aug 25 @ 6:30 pm draw 1 - Jennifer Jones vs Brad Jacobs (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
Sat Aug 26 @ 9 am draw 2 - Victoria Moiseeva vs John Epping (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
@ 1 pm draw 3 - Kevin Koe vs Chelsea Carey (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm draw 4 - Rachel Homan vs Brad Gushue (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
Sun Aug 27 @ 10 am semifinal (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
@ 2 pm semifinal (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm final (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
September 5 to 10, 2017 Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling - Tour Challenge Regina, SK, Canada
Thu Sep 7 @ 2:30 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 10 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Fri Sep 8 @ 2:30 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
@ 10 pm tiebreakers (on Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
Sat Sep 9 @ 1:30 pm women's quarterfinals (on CBC, Canada)
@ 5:30 pm men's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm all semifinals (on Sportsnet & Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
Sun Sep 10 @ 12:30 pm men's final (on CBC, Canada)
@ 4:30 pm women's final (on Sportsnet & Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
October 24 to 29, 2017 Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling - Masters Lloydminster, SK, Canada
Oct 26 @ 2:30 pm Round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm Round robin play (on Sportsnet E/W/P/One, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm Round robin play (on Sportsnet E/O/One, Canada)
Oct 27 @ 2:30 pm Round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm Round robin play (on Sportsnet 360, Canada)
@ 10 pm Tiebreakers (on Sportsnet NOW, Canada)
Oct 28 @ 1 pm Women's quarterfinals (on CBC, Canada)
@ 5 pm Men's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 9 pm Men's/Women's semifinals (on Sportsnet 360, Canada)
Oct 29 @ 1 pm Men's final (on CBC, Canada)
@ 5 pm Women's final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
November 6 to 12, 2017 Home Hardware Road to the Roar Summerside, PEI, Canada
Nov 11 @ 7 am Tiebreakers (on TSN, Canada)
@ 12:30 pm Playoffs (on TSN, Canada)
@ 6 pm Women's qualifier (on TSN, Canada)
Nov 12 @ 8 am Men's qualifier (on TSN, Canada)
@ 1 pm Women's qualifier (on TSN, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm Men's qualifier (on TSN, Canada)
November 12 to 18, 2017 Canadian Mixed Swan river MB, Canada
November 14 to 19, 2017 Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling - Boost National Sault Ste Marie, ON, Canada
Nov 16 @ noon Round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 3:30 pm Round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm Round robin play (on Sportsnet 360, Canada)
Nov 17 @ noon Round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 3:30 pm Round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm Tiebreakers (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Nov 18 @ 1 pm Women's quarterfinals (on CBC, Canada)
@ 5 pm Men's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
@ 9 pm Men's/Women's semifinals (on Sportsnet ONE, Canada)
Nov 19 @ noon Men's final (on CBC, Canada)
@ 4 pm Women's final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
December 2 to 10, 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Ottawa, ON, Canada
Dec 2 @ 2 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
Dec 3 @ 9 am Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
Dec 4 @ 9 am Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
Dec 5 @ 9 am Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
Dec 6 @ 9 am Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
Dec 7 @ 9 am Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
Dec 8 @ 9 am Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Round robin play (on TSN, Canada)
Dec 9 @ 9 am Tiebreakers (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2 pm Women's semifinal (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Men's semifinal (on TSN, Canada)
Dec 10 @ 2 pm Women's final (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Men's final (on TSN, Canada)
January 3 to 7, 2018 Canadian Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials Portage la Prairie, MB, Canada
January 11 to 14, 2018 World Financial Group Continental Cup London, ON, Canada
Jan 11 @ 9:30 am Team competition (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm Mixed doubles (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Team competition (on TSN, Canada)
Jan 12 @ 9:30 am Team competition (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm Mixed doubles (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Team competition (on TSN, Canada)
Jan 13 @ 9:30 am Mixed doubles (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm Team competition (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Team competition (on TSN, Canada)
Jan 14 @ 2:30 pm Skins (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 pm Skins (on TSN, Canada)
What you might have missed last season...
October 25 to 30, 2016 Grand Slam - Masters of Curling Okotoks, AB, Canada
Thu Oct 27 @ 2:30 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
Fri Oct 28 @ 2:30 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm round robin play (online at sportsnet.ca, Canada)
Sat Oct 29 @ 1 pm men's quarterfinals (on CBC, Canada)
@ 5 pm women's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 9 pm men's & women's semis (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
Sun Oct 30 @ 1 pm men's final (on CBC, Canada)
@ 5 pm women's final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
November 8 to 13, 2016 Grand Slam - Tour Challenge Tiers 1 & 2 Cranbrook, BC, Canada
Thu Nov 10 @ 3 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 10 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
Fri Nov 11 @ 3 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 10 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet E, ON, P, Canada)
Sat Nov 12 @ 2 pm women's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6 pm men's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
@ 10 pm men's & women's semis (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Sun Nov 13 @ noon women's final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 3:30 pm men's final (on Sportsnet E, ON, W, Canada)
November 14 to 19, 2016 Canadian Mixed Yarmouth, NS, Canada
apparently not televised
November 21 to 26, 2016 Le Gruyere European Curling Championships Glasgow, Scotland
Mon Nov 21 @ 7 am women - Sweden vs Germany (on TSN5, Canada)
@ 11 am men - Scotland vs Switzerland (on TSN5, Canada)
Tue Nov 22 @ 9 am women - Germany vs Scotland (on TSN5, Canada)
@ 2 pm men - Switzerland vs Sweden (on TSN2, Canada)
Wed Nov 23 @ 7 am men - Switzerland vs Norway (on TSN5, Canada)
Thu Nov 24 @ 2 pm men's semifinal (on TSN2, Canada)
Fri Nov 25 @ 9 am women's semifinal (on TSN3/5, Canada)
@ 2 pm bronze medal (men or women) (on TSN3/5, Canada)
Sat Nov 26 @ 5 am women's final (on TSN3, Canada)
@ 10 am men's final (on TSN3, Canada)
Nov 30 to Dec 4, 2016 Home Hardware Canada Cup Brandon MB, Canada
Wed Nov 30 @ 9:30 am draw #1 (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm draw #2 (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm draw #3 (on TSN2, Canada)
Thu Dec 1 @ 9:30 am draw #4 (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm draw #5 (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm draw #6 (on TSN1/4, Canada)
Fri Dec 2 @ 9:30 am draw #7 (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm draw #8 (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm draw #9 (on TSN1/3, Canada)
Sat Dec 3 @ 2:30 pm women's semifinal (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm men's semifinal (on TSN network, Canada)
Sun Dec 4 @ 2:30 pm women's final (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm men's final (on TSN2, Canada)
December 6 to 11, 2016 Grand Slam - The National Sault Ste Marie, ON, Canada
Thu Dec 8 @ noon round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 7 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
Fri Dec 9 @ noon round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 7 pm round robin play (on Sportsnet E, ON, P, Canada)
Sat Dec 10 @ noon men's quarterfinals (on CBC, Canada)
@ 4 pm women's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm men's & women's semis (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
Sun Dec 11 @ noon men's final (on CBC, Canada)
@ 4 pm women's final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
January 3 to 8, 2017 Grand Slam - Canadian Open North Battleford, SK, Canada
January 12 to 15, 2017 World Financial Group Continental Cup Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.
Thu Jan 12 @ 12 noon team competition (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 4:30 pm mixed doubles (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm team competition (on TSN1/3/4, Canada)
Fri Jan 13 @ 12 noon team competition (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 4:30 pm mixed doubles (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm team competition (on TSN1/4/5, Canada)
Sat Jan 14 @ 12 noon mixed doubles (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 4:30 pm team competition (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm team competition (on TSN network, Canada)
Sun Jan 15 @ 4:30 pm skins (on TSN1/3, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm skins (on TSN1/3/5, Canada)
January 21 to 29, 2017 Canadian Juniors Victoria, BC, Canada
Sat Jan 28 @ 4:30 pm women's semifinal (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 8:30 pm men's semifinal (on TSN network, Canada)
Sun Jan 29 @ 12 noon women's final (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 4:30 pm men's final (on TSN1/3, Canada)
February 3 to 5, 2017 TSN All-Star Curling Skins Game Banff, AB, Canada
Fri Feb 3 @ 8 pm Jones vs Carey (on TSN1/3/5, Canada)
Sat Feb 4 @ 11 am Edin vs Koe (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 3 pm Muirhead vs Sweeting (on TSN1/4/5, Canada)
@ 7 pm Jacobs vs McEwen (on TSN network, Canada)
Sun Feb 5 @ 11 am Final (on TSN network, Canada)
@ 3 pm Final (on TSN network, Canda)
February 8 to 12, 2017 belairdirect British Columbia Men's Championship Abbotsford, BC, Canada
Sat Feb 11 @ 2 pm Playoff (on Shaw TV, Canada)
@ 7 pm Playoff (on Shaw TV, Canada)
Sun Feb 12 @ 11 am Semi-final (on Shaw TV, Canada)
@ 4 pm Final (on Shaw TV, Canada)
February 8 to 12, 2017 Viterra Manitoba Men's Championship Portage la Prairie, MB, Canada
Sun Feb 12 @ 9 am Semi-final (on Sportsnet E/O/W/P, Canada)
@ 3 pm Final (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
February 8 to 12, 2017 Travelers Northern Ontario Men's Championship Fort William CC
FREE live streaming online at http://curlnoca.ca/competitions/men/
and click on LIVE STREAMING
February 16 to 26, 2017 VoIP Defender World Juniors PyeongChang, Korea
select games will be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV
February 18 to 26, 2017 Scotties Tournament of Hearts St. Catharines, ON, Canada
Sat Feb 18 @ 2:30 pm Draw #1 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm Draw #2 (on TSN2, Canada)
Sun Feb 19 @ 9:30 am Draw #3 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm Draw #4 (on TSN 1/4, Canada
@ 7:30 pm Draw #5 (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
Mon Feb 20 @ 2:30 pm Draw #6 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm Draw #7 (on TSN, Canada)
Tue Feb 21 @ 9:30 am Draw #8 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm Draw #9 (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada
@ 7:30 pm Draw #10 (on TSN 1, Canada)
Wed Feb 22 @ 9:30 am Draw #11 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm Draw #12 (on TSN 1/3, Canada
@ 7:30 pm Draw #13 (on TSN, Canada)
Thu Feb 23 @ 9:30 am Draw #14 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm Draw #15 (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada
@ 7:30 pm Draw #16 (on TSN, Canada)
Fri Feb 24 @ 9:30 am Draw #17 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm tiebreaker (on TSN, Canada
@ 7:30 pm Page playoff (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
Sat Feb 25 @ 2:30 pm Page playoff (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm semifinal (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
Sun Feb 26 @ 2:30 pm bronze medal (on TSN 3, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm final (on TSN, Canada)
March 4 to 12, 2017 Tim Hortons Brier St. John's, NL, Canada
Sat Mar 4 @ 1:30 pm Draw #1 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm Draw #2 (on TSN, Canada)
Sun Mar 5 @ 8:30 am Draw #3 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 1:30 pm Draw #4 (on TSN 1/3/5, Canada
@ 6:30 pm Draw #5 (on TSN, Canada)
Mon Mar 6 @ 1:30 pm Draw #6 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm Draw #7 (on TSN 1/4, Canada)
Tue Mar 7 @ 8:30 am Draw #8 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 1:30 pm Draw #9 (on TSN, Canada
@ 6:30 pm Draw #10 (on TSN 1/3/5, Canada)
Wed Mar 8 @ 8:30 am Draw #11 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 1:30 pm Draw #12 (on TSN, Canada
@ 6:30 pm Draw #13 (on TSN, Canada)
Thu Mar 9 @ 8:30 am Draw #14 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 1:30 pm Draw #15 (on TSN 1/3/5, Canada
@ 6:30 pm Draw #16 (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
Fri Mar 10 @ 8:30 am Draw #17 (on TSN, Canada)
@ 1:30 pm tiebreaker (on TSN, Canada
@ 6:30 pm Page playoff (on TSN, Canada)
Sat Mar 11 @ 1:30 pm Page playoff (on TSN, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm semifinal (on TSN, Canada)
Sun Mar 12 @ 1:30 pm bronze medal (on TSN 1/3/5, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm final (on TSN, Canada)
March 16 to 19, 2017 Grand Slam - Princess Auto Elite 10 Port Hawkesbury, NS, Canada
Thu Mar 16 @ 11 am round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 3 pm round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 6:30 pm round robin (on Sportsnet E/W/P, Canada)
Fri Mar 17 @ noon round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 3:30 pm round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 7 pm round robin (on Sportsnet E/O/P, Canada)
Sat Mar 18 @ noon quarterfinals (on Sportsnet One, Canada)
@ 4 pm semifinals (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Sun Mar 19 @ 10 am final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
March 18 to 26, 2017 Ford World Women's Curling Championship Beijing, China
Sat Mar 18 @ 2 am Canada vs China (on TSN, Canada)
Sun Mar 19 @ 2 am Canada vs Russia (on TSN, Canada)
@ 9 pm Canada vs U.S.A. (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
Mon Mar 20 @ 7 am Canada vs Switzerland (on TSN, Canada)
@ 9 pm Canada vs Korea (on TSN 1/3/5, Canada)
Tue Mar 21 @ 7 am Canada vs Scotland (on TSN, Canada)
Wed Mar 22 @ 2 am Canada vs Sweden (on TSN, Canada)
@ 9 pm Canada vs Italy (on TSN, Canada)
Thu Mar 23 @ 2 am Canada vs Denmark (on TSN, Canada)
Fri Mar 24 @ 2 am tiebreaker, if Canada is playing (on TSN, Canada)
@ 7 am Page playoff (on TSN, Canada)
Sat Mar 25 @ 2 am Page playoff (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
@ 7 am semifinal (on TSN, Canada)
@ 10 pm bronze medal, if Canada is playing (on TSN1, Canada)
Sun Mar 26 @ 3 am final (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
March 18 to 25, 2017 Canadian Seniors Fredericton, NB, Canada
April 1 to 9, 2017 Ford World Men's Curling Championships Edmonton, AB, Canada
Sat Apr 1 @ 4 pm Canada vs Switzerland (on TSN 1/3/5, Canada)
Sun Apr 2 @ 11 am Canada vs Russia (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
@ 9 pm Canada vs Sweden (on TSN, Canada)
Mon Apr 3 @ 4 pm Canada vs Scotland (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
@ 9 pm Canada vs U.S.A. (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
Tue Apr 4 @ 4 pm Canada vs China (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
@ 9 pm Canada vs Germany (on TSN 1, Canada)
Wed Apr 5 @ 11 am Canada vs Netherlands (on TSN, Canada)
@ 4 pm Canada vs Japan (on TSN 2, Canada)
Thu Apr 6 @ 11 am Canada vs Italy (on TSN 2, Canada)
@ 9 pm Canada vs Norway (on TSN 2, Canada)
Fri Apr 7 @ 11 am tiebreaker (on TSN 2, Canada)
@ 9 pm Page playoff 1 vs 2 (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
Sat Apr 8 @ 4 pm Page playoff 3 vs 4 (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
@ 9 pm semifinal (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
Sun Apr 9 @ 2 pm bronze medal game (on TSN 3, Canada)
@ 8 pm final (on TSN, Canada)
April 5 to 9, 2017 Canadian Mixed Doubles Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Sat Apr 8 @ 10:30 am Round Robin Draws Pools A & B (livestream on CBC.ca)
@ 1:30 pm Round Robin Draws Pools C & D (livestream on CBC.ca)
@ 10:00 pm Round of 12 (livestream on CBC.ca)
Sun Apr 9 @ 11 am Quarter finals (livestream on CBC.ca)
@ 2 pm Semi finals (livestream on CBC.ca)
@ 5 pm Final (livestream on CBC.ca)
April 11 to 16, 2017 Grand Slam - WestJet Players' Championship Toronto, ON, Canada
Thu Apr 13 @ noon round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 3:30 pm round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 7 pm round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Fri Apr 14 @ noon round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 3:30 pm round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 7 pm round robin (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Sat Apr 15 @ 3 pm men's quarterfinals (to be determined, Canada)
@ 7:30 pm women's quarterfinals (on Sportsnet, Canada)
Sun Apr 16 @ 11 am all semifinals (on Sportsnet, Canada)
@ 3 pm men's final (on CBC, Canada)
@ 7 pm women's final (on Sportsnet, Canada)
April 22 to 29, 2017 World Mixed Doubles Lethbridge, AB, Canada
Wed Apr 26 @ 1:15 pm England vs Canada (on TSN, Canada)
Thu Apr 27 @ 4:30 pm Canada vs USA (on TSN 1/3/4, Canada)
Fri Apr 28 @ 11 am 1/8 Final Session (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
@ 2:30 pm 1/8 Final Session (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
@ 9:30 pm 1/8 Finals Winners (on TSN, Canada)
Sat Apr 29 @ 2 pm A Side Semifinals (on TSN 1/3, Canada)
@ 6 pm Finals (on TSN, Canada)
April 22 to 29, 2017 World Seniors Lethbridge, AB, CanadaAt an army checkpoint on the edge of town, heavy artillery shelling could be heard while a plume of black smoke rose above the outskirts. Automatic gunfire rattled out from nearby fields. Families fled the fighting through a barbed-wire checkpoint with only as much as they could carry. A pro-Russian rebel stands guard at a checkpoint in eastern Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk. Credit:Reuters "It's a mess," sobbed a young woman as she clutched her husband's arm. "It's war." Andrei Bander left with his four-year-old daughter. "We are going. We don't even know where. We will head to Russia though because it's clear we need to leave Ukraine," he said. In support for the Ukrainian forces, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov and Interior Minister Ar |
or an article on Chrome doesn’t require going through the customary process of switching to that app. Gboard allows users to search for an article in Google search, YouTube or a location within the keyboard, while Slash keyboard (free on Android and iOS) offers a few extras such as the option to share Tweets, audio from SoundCloud or Apple Music and articles from New York Times.
Bobble allows users to switch to an app they want to go to from the keyboard and then get back to the earlier app with a single tap.
Switching between apps
Keyboard apps such as Bobble (free on Android, iOS) can help users switch from one app to another without going through the customary process of closing the app and then opening the other app. It shows icons of your most used apps right on the keyboard interface. This allows users to switch to an app they want to go to from the keyboard and then get back to the earlier app with a single tap.
Stay productive
Gboard comes with a feature called the Ink tool. It allows users to draw anything on the keyboard using their finger or a stylus. The drawing or text can then be sent as it is to others through social media apps. Microsoft’s SwiftKey (free on Android and iOS) uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to understand the context of an entire sentence in one go instead of focusing on words separately. This allows it to provide more accurate text predictions and auto correction options to users when they are typing.
In case users are busy or too tired to type, they can use voice commands in Gboard to type an email or message.In the 2010 media landscape, you are nobody if you're not maximizing your brand by messaging across multiple platforms and leveraging your Twitter presence and increasing your virality and Tumblarity and crap like that. So, credit the cretinous, anti-gay misanthropes at the Westboro Baptist Church for getting with the program and extending their brand identity with a new foray into viral song parody. Via Kansas City's The Pitch comes this latest creative semi-stillbirth from Fred Phelps' crew, a parody of Lady GaGa's "Poker Face," reworked as a reminder that the Martian monkey-god they worship hates everything and everybody.
The Westboro Baptist Church sermonizes: "However questionable they may be, Lady Gaga's talents were given to her by God; in return, she defies Him with all she does. This parody puts the truth to her 'Poker Face.'"
The song, which will give you an idea of what Lady Gaga's music would sound like if it were sung by somebody who is both tone-deaf and completely dead inside, features lyrics like: "You got a whorish face, it's a whorish face," and "God hates you." It's a banger!
[LISTEN]
It's like they're caught in a bad romance...with synergy!
[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]Looking for news you can trust?
Subscribe to our free newsletters.
“Tough fucking business.”
Those are the three words director Spike Lee used to explain the studio-led mangling of his latest film, Oldboy (FilmDistrict, 104 minutes).
The movie, which hits theaters on Wednesday, is a remake of Park Chan-wook‘s acclaimed 2003 South Korean revenge film of the same name. Lee’s version stars Josh Brolin as Joe Doucett, an alcoholic ad man and deadbeat father who is mysteriously abducted in 1993. He is held in a privately run detention facility (managed by a warden played by Samuel L. Jackson), where he learns he’s been framed for the rape and murder of his ex-wife. The authorities are hunting him, and his young daughter is placed into foster care. Twenty years later (a passage of time that Lee marks with clips of Clinton, Bush, 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, Obama, and more), Joe is suddenly released, and embarks on a gore-filled mission to find his daughter, make his captors suffer, and discover why he was detained for two decades.
The remake is well-made and features fine performances from Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, and Sharlto Copley (as the billionaire villain); but it lacks the fearlessness and emotional wallop that made the Korean version a modern classic. (Whatever can be said of Lee’s re-imagining, though, it’s worth thanking the heavens that the project fell out of Steven Spielberg‘s hands.) Even if you eschew the inevitable comparisons to the original, it still feels like something is missing from Lee’s rendition—as if something was torn from the film, keeping filmmakers from realizing its potential as a darkly operatic masterpiece.
Turns out, there was something missing: roughly an hour and 20 minutes! In an interview with the New York Times, Lee discusses how studio demands and interference led to the downsizing of a key scene and the original three-hour version as a whole (the run time of the Korean original is two hours). Only a handful of people know what this director’s cut looks like:
The most difficult challenge for Mr. Brolin and Mr. Lee was reinventing the original film’s centerpiece fight sequence: a side-scrolling, ferociously violent hallway battle in which the protagonist slays dozens of enemies, mostly with a hammer, all in one uninterrupted long shot. Not one to back away from a challenge, Mr. Lee said he tripled the length of the fight sequence and expanded the set from one hallway to three parking lot ramps. Because they were aiming to get it in one shot, Mr. Brolin trained for six weeks to memorize the choreography. After seven complete takes, Mr. Brolin has said, he broke down in tears. That scene, however, along with much of Mr. Lee’s initial, three-hour cut, was trimmed by the studio to make the final version’s…run time. “It’s not one shot,” Mr. Lee said. “There’s a cut in it. Shouldn’t be, but there is a cut.” […] Asked to explain why the scene was edited, Mr. Lee shrugged. “Tough business,” he said…Asked once more, he finally elaborated. “Three words.” If Mr. Lee has a signature shot, the third word, placed between “tough” and “business,” is the signature of his film’s co-star Samuel L. Jackson.
(New York Times editors have a strange, well-documented allergy to the word “fuck” and its variants, as you can see.)
The studio’s decisions here are understandable, if frustrating, for film buffs. Studio executives like money, and it’s harder to make money with a three-hour, R-rated revenge flick than it is with a much shorter R-rated revenge flick.
But the question remains: Will we ever get to see Spike Lee’s true vision for Oldboy—restored on DVD in a director’s cut, perhaps? According to a representative for 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Lee’s production company, it’s up in the air. “We don’t know about that at this time,” he tells me. He also could not confirm whether or not the three-hour version even exists anymore, or if the footage had been lost to the cutting room floor. (Lee was unavailable for comment on this story.)
For now, there’s no way of knowing if the (significantly) extended cut is any better than the theatrical one. However, studio execs are well-known for their uncanny ability to royally screw a director’s fine work in the service of mass appeal. Sometimes it’s impossible to tell if a movie is any good until you watch the director’s cut (think: Blade Runner, Once Upon a Time in America, and other classics). For what it’s worth, Brolin himself has acknowledged that he prefers Lee’s initial three-hour picture. As for the version getting a wide release?
“I do have opinions, but it’s better to bite my tongue,” the Oldboy star said of Oldboy.
Anyway, here’s a trailer for the remake:
And here’s one for the original Oldboy:
Click here for more film and TV coverage from Mother Jones.
For more reviews, click here.Chris Avellone is one of the leading developers at Obsidian and he says that the canceled Knights of the Old Republic 3 would have been one of the most interesting releases in the history of the company, putting an end to the trilogy.
He tells Eurogamer that his studio planned to bring Revan, one of the main characters of the first KOTOR, back for the third game while also introducing an entirely new type of Sith Lord for players to battle.
Avellone states, “The idea was that even before the ‘modern day’ Sith came into being in The Old Republic there were even more distant Sith Lords that were considered the true Sith, and the idea that they were still lurking out there in the galaxy waiting for a chance to strike.”
Revan was powerful enough to understand the potential threat and worked to set up a situation where an assault from the ancient Sith could be repulsed by an alliance between the biggest factions in the Star Wars universe.
The team says that Knights of the Old Republic 3 would have continued to have the Ebon Hawk as the base of the player, and companions including HK-47 and T3-M4 would have returned to stand by the player.
Despite the interesting core structure, Obsidian has failed to persuade LucasArts to allocate resources to the project.
Avelloone says, “It felt like we were pitching and pitching and it just wasn’t going anywhere, and at some point people just drew a line and said ‘it’s just not going to happen’, which made us kind of sad, but, OK, if that’s the business, that’s the business.”
At the moment, Obsidian is working on Project Eternity, a classic party- and turn-based role-playing game.
LucasArts has been bought by Disney and is at the moment working with Electronic Arts to create Star Wars games.Opinion Three academics have written an opinion piece in hefty boffinry mag Nature, saying that humanity must reduce carbon emissions hugely or methane belching from the Arctic seabed will do $60 trillion of economic damage. But the latest research suggests that Arctic methane emissions are nothing to do with rising temperatures.
Gail Whiteman (professor of "sustainability, management and climate change"), Chris Hope (an economist) and Peter Wadhams (an oceanologist) present their arguments in the Comment section of Nature, here (pdf). They start off by suggesting that disappearing ice and warmer seas in the Arctic (caused by human carbon emissions, they say) are already causing methane emissions, and that further warming - with associated ice loss - will see these emissions increase hugely.
As methane is a vastly more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, the trio contend that this will mean still more warming and so on in a runaway feedback loop of doom. Using a modified version of the famous 2006 Stern climate economics theory (which was later dubbed "wrong, but for the right reasons") Hope suggests that the result might be economic damage to the tune of $60tn this century - equivalent to one year's gross domestic product for the entire human race.
There are several problems with this, but the first one is the most basic. Whiteman, Hope and Wadhams base their suggestion that current Arctic methane emissions are caused by recent, human-driven warming - and so might be expected to accelerate hugely, perhaps - on published calculations from 2010 and last year. This theorising began when airborne surveys discovered that methane was being emitted from the Arctic at various locations along the Siberian continental shelf in recent times.
Nobody at that time knew how long this had been going on, or what its cause might be. However it was known that a good deal of methane lay stored along the shelf in the form of hydrates, which are only stable at very low temperatures and high pressures. It seemed reasonable to suppose that warming seas in recent times were causing hydrates to break down into gas, which was then bubbling up into the atmosphere: but this was just a guess.
It turns out to be a guess which was wrong, however. Last year a German research vessel set out for the Arctic to find out more about the mysterious seabed methane emissions. Underwater robots were sent down at promising locations, automatic equipment left on earlier expeditions was recovered, and ground truth was established. Because of the lengthy scientific publishing cycle there aren't yet any published papers, but the results were so clear - and so important - that the scientists aboard the ship were happy to reveal them publicly.
A statement from Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung (Centre for Ocean Research, aka GEOMAR), the organisation whose ship was used, revealed the "surprising result" that methane emissions from the Arctic seabed are "no new thing". It went on:
Above all the fear that the gas emanation is a consequence of the current rising sea temperature does not seem to apply.
“The observed gas emanations are probably not caused by human influence," comments Professor Doktor Christian Berndt, the expedition leader. "At numerous emergences we found deposits that might already be hundreds of years old... On any account, the methane sources must be older."
So there you have it. Humans did not cause the Arctic methane emissions, which have been happening for hundreds of years. There's no real reason to believe that they will suddenly accelerate as Wadhams, Hope and Whiteman suggest they might.
But hey - let's suppose for a moment that the three eco-nomists are right, and we're looking at $60tn of economic harm. What should we do?
Our trio of doomsayers write:
It will be difficult — perhaps impossible — to avoid large methane releases in the East Siberian Sea without major reductions in global emissions of CO 2...
Given world population levels there's no way, short of a global holocaust, that we can make major carbon reductions by just using less energy. We'd need to shift mainly to low-carbon power sources to achieve major carbon reductions. Nuclear would work, and has been shown to be quite safe by the Fukushima incident (which is set to cause absolutely no measurable health consequences to anyone from radiation), but everyone's terrified of it and in fact it is being abandoned in some places.
So realistically we're talking about wind power - and there are some people, even quite advanced physicists, who think that the human race might theoretically power itself at some acceptable level using wind turbines. (Though they are engaged in a battle with other physicists, just as advanced, who point out that their assumptions are wildly optimistic - and indeed that extraction of energy from the atmosphere on that scale might damage the climate at least as badly as carbon emissions could.)
But let's say it could work. The thing is, as even we at the Reg can work out - we aren't atmospheric physicists, but we do know what a Watt is - the costs of a human-race-powering windmill system (and associated world-girdling grids and accumulators plus enormously-expanded electric steel, concrete, copper and neodymium production) would be enormously more than $60tn.
So there's still no reason to do it. It'd cost us less to simply let the methane come. And there's no reason to think that will happen, anyway.
DON'T PANIC. ®I have to take issue with Andrew Sullivan’s assertion that the Tea Party movement is “Christianist” at its core.
By “Christianist,” Sullivan means essentially the Religious Right and the idea that the Religious Right’s anti-gay, anti-choice political agenda has played a central in Tea Party activism is ludicrous.
When the movement began last year, the “TEA” in Tea Party stood for “Taxed Enough Already” and was aimed at the bailouts and stimulus measures put in place in an attempt to stabilize our economy.
At first, the Religious Right more or less watched from the sidelines as the fiscal conservative groups like Freedomworks, National Taxpayers Union, Americans For Tax Reform, and The Club for Growth started to institutionalize the Tea Party effort.
Eventually, groups like the American Family Association climbed on board, as did leaders like Ralph Reed, but that was done in order to try and capitalize on the Tea Party success and tie their “Christianist” agenda to the already established Tea Party activism.
The presence of Religious Right fringe figures like Roy Moore and Rick Scarborough at the National Tea Party Convention is more a sign of the power of the Tea Party narrative than it is of Religious Right control or influence over the movement or its agenda.
Perhaps nothing better illustrates the fundamental merging of overall right-wing movement under the banner of the Tea Party than the fact that the Tea Party front-runners at Freedomworks recently partnered with Religious Right powerhouses like the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America despite that fact that, just a few years back, Freedomworks’ founder Dick Armey was calling the socially conservative wing of the movement a bunch of stupid, lazy demagogues.
At the moment, Tea Party activism is the face of the conservative movement and so it is no surprise that Religious Right groups are climbing aboard the bandwagon in an effort to try and utilize it to press their own agenda.
The Tea Party movement does not have a Religious Right agenda at its core, but rather as a component … and that is only because Religious Right groups have set out aligning themselves with the movement in order to co-opt and exploit it.The Web is full of excellent PHP tutorials. PHP exercises? Not so much, although more now than when this site first launched. Choose one from the menu on the left (or down below if you're on mobile), and get started!
How It Works
Come here to test your PHP knowledge by writing scripts as requested. When you are ready, click the button to see the PHP answer script. The answer script output is also available. If you need tutorials, check out one of the PHP tutorial sites listed on the Resources page, then come back and try out what you learned!
The PHP programming exercises progress from the simplest scripts ("Hello world!") to more complex. More difficult requests build on skills included in earlier ones. If you jump ahead and find yourself stuck, go back one or two. Be sure to read the comments in the answer script for some explanation. If you find that a different approach gets the same results, great! Just be sure you understand the PHP syntax the problem was designed to test.In what many are calling the first bipartisan consensus of the Trump administration, democrats and republicans are rallying behind Trump's call to prosecute those involved in Harambe's death. This proposal is part of the restoring law and order initiative that Trump proposed on the campaign trail.
Trump stated: “The zoo is negligible due to not having walls surrounding Harambe large enough to prevent mexicans and muslims, I mean the child from falling into Harambe's corner.”
The trump administration is proposing a new height requirements on all walls in America. This prompted the Black Live Matter movement to suggest that there seem to be more laws safeguarding the shooting of gorillas than people of color. Paskit interviewed Jenkins Seamore a long time neighbor of Harambe and avid Trump Supporter to get his reaction to the Looming Harambe bill.
Jenkins Seamore: “I knew he would make America great again, I just never knew he would take it this far. Harambe was like a brother to me, the first and only friend I had of a different skin color.”
Harambe's death shook America to its core since the death of cecil in 2014. America must place politics aside when crimes against humanity have been committed.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 12, 2017, 3:47 AM GMT / Updated July 12, 2017, 3:47 AM GMT By Tom Costello and Phil Helsel
Last week, the History cable channel revealed a photograph said to possibly show the vanished aviator Amelia Earhart on a dock in the Marshall Islands after she disappeared, possibly clearing up one of the 20th century’s greatest mysteries. On Tuesday, however, a Japanese blogger wrote that the photo was taken two years before she went missing and isn't Earhart.
Now, the History channel says it is conducting an investigation to look into the blogger's claims.
"We will be transparent in our findings," the channel said in a statement Tuesday following the blog post. "Ultimately historical accuracy is most important to us and our viewers."
The channel aired a two-hour special, "Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence," on Sunday using what it said was a hidden and mislabeled photograph in the U.S. National Archives to suggest that Earhart may have survived her attempted round-the-world flight in 1937.
The photo purported to show a woman who resembles Earhart and a man who appears to be her navigator, Fred Noonan, on a dock in the Marshall Islands.
A woman thought by the History Channel to resemble Amelia Earhart, is circled in red at center, and a man who appeared to be her navigator, Fred Noonan, is at left. National Archives
But the Japanese blogger said in post on Tuesday that the same photo appears in a Japanese travel book on the Pacific Islands in 1935 — two years before Earhart and Noonan went missing in July 1937. Japan's national library website also lists the publication date as 1935.
The post said that the original caption of the photo says in Japanese that it was taken in the town of Jabor in Jaluit Atoll, which is in the Marshall Islands. The post says the photo shows a Japanese steam ship that later was used in the search for the pair but that also arrived there sometime in 1935.
According to a translation by NBC News, the caption on the photo mentions Jabor in Japanese as being an exceptionally good port that becomes quite lively when large ships arrive carrying goods from the mainland.
"So we're going to continue to investigate this," History channel investigator Shawn Henry told NBC News. "The accuracy is obviously important. We want to follow the facts where they lead, and we're certainly going to do that."
The photo of people on a dock in the Marshall Islands was discovered in the National Archives. National Archives
Theories have been proposed that Earhart and Noonan crash landed and were captured by the Japanese military, eventually dying in captivity. Some locals have said that they saw Earhart's plane crash land and that they both were captured and taken away.
Gary Tarpinian, executive producer of the History special, has said its investigators believe Earhart was taken by the Japanese to Saipan where she died. The Japanese government has always maintained that it has no documents suggesting Earhart was ever in its custody.
This photo from Japan's national library's website, which appears similar to one from the U.S. National Archives, is listed as being published in 1935. Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937. National Diet Library Digital Collections
Despite the controversy, Henry said, "I think the evidence that we've collected thus far in totality says that Noonan and Earhart landed in the Marshall Islands. I think that that's true."
Earhart was last heard from on July 2, 1937. Earhart was officially declared dead in 1939 after the U.S. government concluded that she crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Her remains were never found.
Earhart was trying to become the first female aviator to circumnavigate the globe when she vanished.Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (R) and the GOP-controlled legislature are struggling to accomplish two goals: They want to repeal the state income tax but need to balance a budget that, despite substantial spending cuts, faces a $700 million shortfall.
It is no easy trick. Their solution: new net short-term revenue increases accompanied by a promise to phase out the state’s income tax. This year’s final budget agreement includes both spending cuts and about $300 billion in new sales and income tax revenue that promise to balance the fiscal year 2014 books. But over the next five years, those new revenues will be overwhelmed by a proposed 20 percent cut in individual income tax rates, setting the stage for annual budget crises.
It isn’t easy to keep track of whether Kansas is cutting taxes or raising them. The agreement backtracks on income and sales tax cuts scheduled to happen this year. Much like the congressional tax debate of 2012, it is all about what baseline you prefer.
Let’s start with the new revenue, which the state projects will boost its coffers by about $365 million in 2014. About $195 million will come from setting the state sales tax rate at 6.15 percent, lower than the current temporary rate of 6.3 percent but above the 5.7 percent scheduled to take effect in July.
The remaining $170 million will come from changes to individual deductions. Itemized deductions, other than charitable contributions, will be trimmed by 30 percent in tax year 2013 and the haircut will gradually increase to 50 percent by 2017. At the same time, lawmakers scaled back a scheduled rise in the standard deduction, further increasing the tax base.
However, the revenue from these base-broadeners, which grow to about $480 million in 2018, will gradually be eaten up by phased-in cuts in the individual income tax rate and a partial restoration of the food sales tax credit (Kansas is one of the few states that taxes groceries).
In 2014, these tax cuts will reduce revenues by about $55 million (for a net tax hike of about $300 million). But by 2018, the revenue gain will disappear: The top income tax rate will drop from 4.9 percent to 3.9 percent, draining $465 million from the state budget while the food tax credit will siphon off another $20 million, leaving a net tax cut of about $5 million.
While the state is cutting taxes over the next five years, it also projects spending growth will slow sharply, averaging just 2.6 percent per year between 2014 and 2018. Even if these forecasts are realized, Kansas’ year-end fund balance will fall below the statutorily required 7.5 percent in fiscal year 2015 and balances will be exhausted by 2018.
The uncertainty will grow after 2018. These rate reductions are just the first step in a planned repeal of both individual and corporate income taxes. After 2018, individual income tax rates are scheduled to be reduced to zero (the pace is tied to a formula based on state revenue growth). Once the individual tax disappears, the state will begin to phase out its corporate income tax.
Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy
But even in 2018, the income tax will generate more than one-third of state tax revenues and the current plan does not explain how that revenue will be made up. Gov. Brownback and the state legislature may expect that their rate cuts will boost the economy and, in turn, revenues will be much higher than projected. But there is no credible evidence that tax cuts pay for themselves. And with the bulk of the state’s budget going to education and health care, spending will very likely exceed projections.
The result: Kansas is setting itself up for a period of ongoing budget crises and uncertainty that seems likely to undermine the attractive environment for business lawmakers are trying to create.The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has revealed that it "mistakenly" accessed a journalist's call records without a warrant in breach of the data-retention legislation.
According to the AFP, there was no "malice" involved in the breach, and there should be no inference that the journalist in question had committed an offence leading to their call records being illegally accessed by the AFP.
"Earlier this week, the AFP self-reported to the Commonwealth Ombudsman that we had breached the Telecommunications Interception Act. The breach... related to an investigator who sought and was provided access to the call records of a journalist without the prior authority of a journalist information warrant," AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said on Friday afternoon.
"No investigational activity has occurred as a result of us being provided with that material. Put simply, this was human error. It should not have occurred, the AFP take this very seriously, and we take full responsibility for a breach in the Act. I also want to say there was no ill will, malice, or bad intent by the officers involved who breached the Act. Quite simply, it was a mistake that should not have happened."
The data involved the records of one phone number calling another phone number, as well as the times, dates, and duration of the phone calls over the period of a week. The data that was accessed by the officer has been destroyed, and as this data was accessed illegally, it cannot have any bearing on the investigation in question, the AFP confirmed.
The journalist in question has not been advised that their metadata was breached, with the AFP adding that it is "extremely rare" that journalists' metadata is needed or accessed for investigations.
As a result of the breach, the AFP said it has tightened its internal practices and procedures, made "significant changes", and enhanced and raised the level of authorisation required to access data of this type, and those who can approve access to data of this type.
It has also increased mandatory training for investigators and officers on their obligations under the Act; however, there will be no action taken against the officer involved in the breach.
In a review of its systems, the AFP said it discovered no further breaches that have occurred; however, the Commonwealth Ombudsman will launch its own audit of the AFP's processes and compliance next Friday.
The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Act 2015, passed by the Australian government in March 2015, came into effect in October 2015 and sees customers' call records, location information, IP addresses, billing information, and other data stored for two years by telecommunications carriers, accessible without a warrant by law-enforcement agencies.
However, then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott agreed, prior to the law's passage, to insert an amendment that will require law-enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant for access to journalists' metadata.
"I have decided that a further amendment be moved that will require agencies to obtain a warrant in order to access a journalist's metadata for the purpose of identifying a source," Abbott said at the time.
"The government does not believe that this is necessary, but is proposing to accept it to expedite the Bill."
The federal government earlier this year finally passed data breach notification laws during its third attempt in February, making it mandatory for Australians to be alerted of their data being inappropriately accessed.Laura Poitras—the Academy and Pulitzer Prize Award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist behind CITIZENFOUR and Risk—wants to know why she was stopped and detained at the U.S. border every time she entered the country between July 2006 and June 2012. EFF is representing Poitras in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit aimed at answering this question. Since we filed the complaint in July 2015, the government has turned over hundreds of pages of highly redacted records, but it has failed to provide us with the particular justification for each withholding—as it is required to do. In March, in a win for transparency, a federal judge called foul and ordered the government to explain with particularity its rationale for withholding each document.
Background
Poitras travels frequently for her work on documentary films. Between July 2006 and June 2012, she was routinely subject to heightened security screenings at airports around the world and stopped and detained at the U.S. border every time she entered the country—despite the fact that she is a law-abiding U.S. citizen. She’s had her laptop, camera, mobile phone, and reporter notebooks seized, and their contents copied. She was also once threatened with handcuffs for taking notes. (The border agents said her pen could be used as a weapon.) No charges were ever brought against her, and she was never given any explanation for why she was continually subjected to such treatment.
In 2014, Poitras sent FOIA requests to multiple federal agencies for any and all records naming or relating to her, including case files, surveillance records, and counterterrorism documents. But the agencies either said they had no records or simply didn’t respond. The FBI, after not responding to Poitras’ request for a year, said in May 2015 that it had located a mere six pages of relevant material but that it was withholding all six because of grand jury secrecy rules.
With EFF’s help, Poitras ultimately filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. In the months following the filing of the lawsuit, the government discovered and released over 1,000 pages of responsive records, some of which were on display as at the Whitney Museum in New York last year as part of Poitras’ Astro Noise exhibit. But most of these records are highly redacted, so while Poitras now has some information about why she stopped, the details remain unclear. And the government failed to provide clear rationale for why withholding the redacted information was justified.
Court to Government: “Try Again”
We argued in a motion for summary judgment filed last fall that the government had failed to meet its burden of justifying its continued withholding of information. In an order issued last month, the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed with us. As the court explained, the government “describes in great detail the government’s general reasons for withholding entire categories of information, but does not connect these generalized justifications to the particular documents that are being withheld in this case in any discernable fashion.” She noted that instead of providing a complete list of “document-specific justifications,” the government provided a list with “only some of the records that the agency has withheld” and even then failed to “explain the reasons that the particular exemption is being asserted with respect to any document[.]”
The court didn’t grant our motion for summary judgment, but it did order the government to go back and try again—i.e., provide both us and the court with a list describing each document redacted or withheld, noting the FOIA exemption(s) that the government thinks apply to the document, and explaining the “particularized reasons that the government believes that the asserted exemption applies to the particular document at issue.”
It’s clear the judge isn’t planning to just rubber stamp the government’s assertions in this case. Forcing the government to justify its vast withholding of documents in this case is a win for transparency. We will post updates on the case as it proceeds and as we continue our fight to shed more light on the government’s unjust and potentially chilling treatment of a journalist.Robert Herman and David Renz presented a study in progress at the 2005 conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). Among the interesting elements of the study was a finding on a question that many of you will have struggled with: Does having influential/connected-to-money individuals on your board translate into greater revenues?
There is, of course, a related question: “Even if it did result in greater revenues, Is it the right way to go?” but that is for later…
Renz and Herman first looked at the 64 organizations in their sample in 1993 and then again in 1999. These human service organizations were sorted into two groups: those that were more dependent on earned income (“commercial organizations”) and those that were more dependent on contributed income (“donative organizations”). When they examined the relative levels of prestige of their boards, they found that the commercial organizations began with fewer influential members than did the donative organizations, but both groups increased the prestige of board members at approximately the same rates. Here is what Renz and Herman reported.
“Contrary to what we expected, those nonprofits with no or only small increases in board prestige had, on average, more gain in total revenue... For the total sample of 44 community-based organizations, those with large increases in prestige averaged total revenue increases of a little more than $642,000; those with no or small increases averaged gains of a little more than $941,000. The same held when we sorted the organizations into “donative”and “commercial”nonprofit organizations. Among the donative organizations, the average gains for the no/small increase in board prestige were almost $912,000 and a little more than $780,000 for those with large increases in board prestige; the respective gains for the commercial nonprofits were $1,010,000 and $469,000. Clearly, increasing board prestige was not instrumental in improving an organization’s financial outcomes.
“Why is change in board prestige for donative nonprofits unrelated to change in total revenues? Are the chief executives and fundraising officers of these particular nonprofits not successful at encouraging their somewhat more prestigious boards to contribute to raising more money? The period during which the data were collected was one of relative prosperity and increasing GDP. Perhaps attracting revenues was easier and boards were less needed as fundraisers? Given the research data we have, we can only speculate.
“One of the likely reasons why increasing prestige had no statistically apparent effect on total revenues is that the sample organizations reflected a fairly narrow range of prestige. The sample comprised community-based human services organizations and did not include the sort of nonprofits that often have the high-prestige boards—organizations such as major museums, symphony orchestras and other major performing arts organizations, hospitals, and universities. Many of the donative nonprofits in our sample did rely substantially on donations. However, it seems that, to the extent that board prestige is important in fundraising, these organizations were relying mostly on some kind of historical legacy from an earlier generation of board prestige.
“Nonetheless, it seems important to recognize that our results do raise the question: Is a strategy of pursuing increased board prestige likely to result in any significant increase in revenues (and thus secure more financial resources for programs)? This is a strategy that continues to be pursued by many nonprofits (indeed, many believe it essential), but our evidence suggests that, for some types of nonprofits, attracting more prestigious board members may not yield the increase in giving that they seek. Perhaps it is important to note, as most prescriptive guides to board development maintain, that smaller and community-based nonprofits should invest their energy in seeking diverse types of board members who can provide skills and community connections and be willing to contribute in line with their resources. We believe these results reinforce the soundness of such advice.
Those wishing to review the study in its entirety should contact Robert Herman.
Robert D. Herman is professor at the L.P. Cookingham Institute of Public Affairs, Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri–Kansas City.
David O. Renz is Beth K. Smith/Missouri Chair of Nonprofit Leadership and Director of the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, at the L.P. Cookingham Institute of Public Affairs, Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri–Kansas City.Anyone with an interest in Roman Britain should have St Albans on top of their list of places to visit. I myself visited St Albans twice and enjoyed it on both occasions. A short |
kind of compensation, even if greatly reduced from potential recoveries in the tort system.
Since 2002, asbestos lawsuits in the U.S. have included the following as defendants: (1) manufacturers of machinery that are alleged to have required asbestos-containing parts to function properly; (2) owners of premises at which asbestos-containing products were installed (which includes virtually anyone who owned a building prior to 1980); (3) banks that financed ships or buildings where asbestos was installed (on the grounds that no rational lender would take a security interest in an asset without studying the risks involved); (4) retailers of asbestos-containing products (including hardware, home improvement and automotive parts stores); (5) corporations that allegedly conspired with asbestos manufacturers to deliberately conceal the dangers of asbestos (e.g., MetLife, a well-known insurance company which worked with Johns-Manville); (6) manufacturers of tools which were used to cut or shape asbestos-containing parts; and (7) manufacturers of respiratory protective equipment.[citation needed]
Defendants in the first category have contested liability on the grounds that nearly all of them either did not ship asbestos-containing parts with their products at all (that is, asbestos was installed only by end users) or did not sell replacement parts for their own products (in cases where the plaintiff was allegedly exposed well after any factory-original asbestos-containing parts would have been replaced), and either way cannot be responsible for toxic third-party parts that they did not manufacture, distribute, or sell. In 2008, the Washington Supreme Court, the first to reach the issue, decided in favor of the defense.[85] On January 12, 2012, the Supreme Court of California also decided in favor of the defense in O'Neil v. Crane Co.[86] This is significant as a 2007 study found that California and Washington were the two most influential state supreme courts in the United States in the period from 1940 to 2005.[87]
In a decision from January 2014, Gray v. Garlock Sealing Technologies had entered into bankruptcy proceedings, and discovery in the case uncovered evidence of fraud [88] that led to a reduction in estimated future liability to a tenth of what was estimated.
Another area of dispute remains the so-called chrysotile-defense. Manufacturers of some products containing only chrysotile fibers claim that these are not as harmful as amphibole-containing products. As 95% of the products used in the United States historically were mostly chrysotile, this claim is widely disputed by health officials and medical professionals.[89] The World Health Organization recognizes that exposure to all types of asbestos fibers, including chrysotile, can cause cancer of the lung, larynx, and ovary, mesothelioma, and asbestosis.[90]
Criminal prosecutions [ edit ]
Adamo Wrecking Company [ edit ]
On February 20, 1973 a federal grand jury in Detroit, Michigan indicted Adamo Wrecking Company ("Adamo") for violating provisions of the Clean Air Act by knowingly causing the emission of asbestos by failure to wet and remove friable asbestos materials from demolitions.[91]
Adamo was one of a number of demolition contractors indicted throughout the country for the alleged violation of the Clean Air Act. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan dismissed the criminal indictment on the ground that it was not an "emission standard," but a "work practice standard," which under the terms of the statute, did not carry criminal liability.[92]
The government appealed and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the trial court, stating that it erred in determining that it had jurisdiction to review the validity of the standard in a criminal proceeding.[93] Adamo's attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court.[94]
On January 10, 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Adamo when it held that the trial court did have jurisdiction to review the standard in a criminal proceeding and also agreed with the trial court that the requirements in the act were "not standards" but "procedures" and therefore the proceedings were properly dismissed.[95][96]
W. R. Grace and Company [ edit ]
A federal grand jury indicted W. R. Grace and Company and seven top executives on February 5, 2005, for its operations of a vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana. The indictment accused Grace of wire fraud, knowing endangerment of residents by concealing air monitoring results, obstruction of justice by interfering with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation, violation of the Clean Air Act, providing asbestos materials to schools and local residents, and conspiracy to release asbestos and cover up health problems from asbestos contamination. The Department of Justice said 1,200 residents had developed asbestos-related diseases and some had died, and there could be many more injuries and deaths.[97][98]
W. R. Grace and Company faced fines of up to $280 million for polluting the town of Libby, Montana. Libby was declared a Superfund disaster area in 2002, and the EPA has spent $54 million in cleanup. Grace was ordered by a court to reimburse the EPA for cleanup costs, but the bankruptcy court must approve any payments.[97]
On June 8, 2006, a federal judge dismissed the conspiracy charge of "knowing endangerment" because some of the defendant officials had left the company before the five-year statute of limitations had begun to run. The wire fraud charge was dropped by prosecutors in March.[when?]
Abatement cases [ edit ]
Asbestos abatement (removal of asbestos) has become a thriving industry in the United States. Strict removal and disposal laws have been enacted to protect the public from airborne asbestos. The Clean Air Act requires that asbestos be wetted during removal and strictly contained, and that workers wear safety gear and masks. The federal government has prosecuted dozens of violations of the act and violations of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) related to the operations. Often these involve contractors who hire undocumented workers without proper training or protection to illegally remove asbestos.[99]
On April 2, 1998, three men were indicted in a conspiracy to use homeless men for illegal asbestos removal from an aging Wisconsin manufacturing plant. Then-US Attorney General Janet Reno said, "Knowingly removing asbestos improperly is criminal. Exploiting the homeless to do this work is cruel."[citation needed]
On December 12, 2004, owners of New York asbestos abatement companies were sentenced to the longest federal jail sentences for environmental crimes in U.S. history, after they were convicted on 18 counts of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act, and actual violations of the Clean Air Act and Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The crimes involved a 10-year scheme to illegally remove asbestos. The RICO counts included obstruction of justice, money laundering, mail fraud and bid rigging, all related to the asbestos cleanup.[100]
On January 11, 2006, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., two of its employees, and a contractor were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that they violated safety standards while removing asbestos from pipes in Lemon Grove, California. The defendants were charged with five counts of conspiracy, violating asbestos work practice standards and making false statements.[citation needed]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]SHENYANG, China, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korea has featured a flight crew of its flag carrier Air Koryo in a 2017 calendar of the communist country, obtained Thursday by Yonhap News Agency, in what is seen as an unprecedented move to revitalize its tourism industry amid international sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile developments.
The calendar published by the state-run the Korea Publications Export and Import Corp. has the cover showing the airline’s two pilots and five flight attendants.
It carries scenes of the cabin crew at work such as arriving at an airport, giving safety instructions and offering in-flight meals, with the August side showing a flight attendant pouring the country’s own brand of beer, Taedonggang.
“It is the first time a North Korean calendar carries photos of female flight attendants, way different from previous calendars that mostly carried bland photos of scenic views and cultural sites,” a source knowledgeable about North Korean affairs said.
The North’s production of the calendar is interpreted as a move to overcome a foreign currency shortage
by drawing more foreign tourists to the country at a time it has faced growing economic sanctions imposed by the international community over its nuclear and missile programs.
The calendar marks as holidays the birthdays of the country’s former leaders — the current leader’s late grandfather, Kim Il-sung, and late father, Kim Jong-il — but not that of current leader Kim Jong-un, which falls on Jan. 8.
The number of North Korean public holidays in the new year totals 71, three days more than this year, according to the calendar.
(Yonhap)Women have been rejecting men for as long as there have been women and men, and some of those men have, also from the beginning, brutalized and even killed the women who rejected them. It is also true that this Yemeni asylum seeker is a product of a culture of violence that mandates the beating of disobedient women (cf. Qur’an 4:34) and tells Muslim men that they can seize non-Muslim women and use them sexually (cf. Qur’an 4:3, 4:24, 23:1-6, 33:50, and 70:30). So it is no surprise that this has happened. There will be much more of this in “diverse” Iceland.
Christine Douglass-Williams and I tried to warn Icelanders of what was to come, and we were uniformly vilified and misrepresented in the Icelandic press, which never bothered to report on what we actually said there. A Muslim leader who confronted us both when we spoke later claimed that the London Bridge jihad attack was “staged.” Then, when I was poisoned by a young Leftist Icelander, police didn’t bother to question the principal suspect (whose identity and location I was able to discover almost immediately) until 19 days after the incident, and have made no arrests in the case. Meanwhile, I’ve filed an ethics complaint against Hjalti Már Björnsson, the Icelandic doctor who treated me for apparently letting his Leftist politics get in the way of his Hippocratic oath, failing to inform me about what was found in my system or take adequate steps in treatment, and, in the opinion of several medical experts, failing to perform some standard procedures, leaving me severely physically vulnerable in a number of ways that I should not have been.
Meanwhile, Christine Douglass-Williams is in danger of losing her position in the Canadian government because of the warning she gave to Icelanders.
Clearly there are many people in Iceland and elsewhere who consider foes of jihad terror and Sharia oppression a far greater threat than jihad terror and Sharia oppression. So Iceland has the Iceland it has chosen. And it will have a great deal more of it in the near future.
“Family of Hagamelur murder victim say suspect, a Yemeni asylum seeker, had stalked her,” Iceland Magazine, September 29, 2017:Turkey For Beginners
It was great revolutionary branding. A beautiful young woman, wearing a Turkish star and crescent teeshirt, was holding up a matching flag, blowing in the evening wind. Her eyes were focused on something afar, as though preoccupied with higher thoughts – of the good of the nation, perhaps. Three women stood to her right. One sported a similarly coordinated Turkey-branded teeshirt and headband, while two others, likely ethnic Germans, appeared captivated – one by the flag, the other by the proceedings.
The second Occupy Gezi solidarity demonstration to take place in Germany’s capital city in as many days, Berlin’s Kotbusser Tor intersection was swamped with protestors. “Three to five thousand,” said my friend Matt, a British journalist, who had originally alerted me to the event. Using my pocket camera’s panorama function, I attempted to capture the breadth of the crowd that had gathered on Kotbusser Tor’s southeastern corner.
For a movement that had been tagged with pejoratives such as capulcular (“riff-raff,” in Turkish) and “extremists,” by their conservative Prime Minister, Recept Tayyip Erdogan, this was a surprisingly middle class-looking, well-dressed lot. Not a dreadlocked anarchist, nor a hijab in sight. What was especially noteworthy, was the extremely heavy presence of women. As per the lead photo, from what I could see, secular young and middle-aged women constituted at least half of the protestors in attendance. At least amongst those in my immediate vision.
As a seasoned demo goer, the gender balance was especially striking. Like punk gigs, in my experience, political protests, particularly of this nature, tend to be heavily dominated by men. Especially in recent years, at the anti-austerity protests I’ve attended, in several different European cities, as well as in the United Kingdom. There’s always a high testosterone count in the air, which is oftentimes so thick, you can cut it with a knife. The vibe, as it were, was entirely different here. Charged, for sure. But not a hint of violence.
The revolutionary face put forward by the protestors, however, was male. That of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to be precise, the founder of modern Turkey. Though best known for his initiation of European-style secularism in the country, Ataturk was also a supporter of women’s suffrage, granting women the right to vote in 1934. Though power in the country remained largely held by men, 18 women were voted into parliament the following year. That sort of breakthrough is not easily forgotten, particularly in light of Erdogan’s recent attempts to reinstate headscarves in public spaces, such as universities, following their constitutional banning, in places of work, by the late Ataturk.
Though no authority on Turkish history or culture, even a superficial familiarity, at political events like these, can yield all sorts of interesting questions about the country. Just the sort, I fear, that I have not immediately encountered in coverage of the protests that I’ve read. Still, living in a heavily Turkish part of the city (the neighboring borough of Neukolln) and hailing from an Israeli family that once lived under Ottoman rule in Palestine (my paternal grandparents and great-grandparents) I feel somewhat close to it all, however nationally removed. One cannot help but feel sympathy towards my neighbors’ political struggles. Especially when they’re so obviously distressed.
– Joel Schalit. Photographs courtesy of the author.Aviation News Special NBAA Edition
It’s the most wonderful time of the year – and I’m not talking about the holidays. We hope you were able to make it to NBAA 2015. Here is a quick recap of some of the news that you may have missed during the event. For this special edition of the Weekly Wrap-up, we have categorized the news shorts since there is so much to cover. Let’s get started.
Key Announcements
JSSI – Three new services were announced by JSSI: An all-inclusive tip-to-tail coverage called JSS1 (Jss One), JSSI Asset Monitoring Platform for lenders, and JSSI Parts which hopes to offer parts at lower prices.
Textron Aviation – A new aircraft was announced by Textron Aviation called the Citation Hemisphere. The aircraft will have a range of 4,500nm and a larger cabin than the Latitude and Longitude. The aircraft is expected to make its first flight in 2019.
Interesting Emerging Technology
PT6 Autothrottles – Autothrottles for the PT6 have been developed by Innovative Solutions & Support. The autothrottles will be clutch-less – a significant restriction for PT6 powered aircraft with small throttle quadrants. Estimates for a PC-12 installations are under $100K.
Wing Morphing – Winglet producer API announced a joint venture with FlexSys to market the technology branded FlexFoil. The wing morphing tech will offer improved fuel economy. During NASA proof of concept testing, the technology allowed its Gulfstream GIII test plane to wing morph to equivalent flap settings ranging from -9 to 40 degrees. The wing will be able to also twist and change camber.
Supersonic – The supersonic jet concept by Aerion is not new. However the probability it will get off the ground has increased with Flexjet’s order for 20, a deal valued at $2.4 billion. Aerion is expected to start the development of the aircraft mid-2016 with a first flight planned for 2021 and entry to service in 2023. The aircraft is projected to cost $120 million.
Regulation & Policy
EASA TCAS II 7.1 – The requirement to have TCAS II Change 7.1 when operating in EASA airspace begins December 1.
ATC Privatization – Ed Bolen encourages NBAA members to block airline’s push towards ATC privatization. The concern is that the system will be funded by user fees and lack congressional oversight.
Aircraft Certification Updates
Dassault Falcon 8X – A green 8X was on display at the NBAA static display before heading to Little Rock for completion. The aircraft is poised to enter service in the second half of 2016.
Dassault Falcon 5X – Delays with engine manufacturer Snecma has pushed back the aircraft’s first flight to the beginning of 2016.
Eclipse 550 – One Aviation received European (EASA) Certification on November 17th. The aircraft is priced at $2.995 million and deliveries are expected to begin in January 2016.
Gulfstream G500 – Gulfstream’s test aircraft T1 traveled to Las Vegas for NBAA from Savanna in 4h36m. T1’s mission will test flight performance and controls. The aircraft is expected to be certified in 2017.
HondaJet – Nearing certification, the HondaJet is expected to enter service in December of this year. Final function and reliability certification testing is expected to end this week.
Pilatus PC-24 – Expected to be certified in 2017. The second aircraft (P02) prototype made its first flight Nov 16th and will be used extensively during the certification process. P01 made 100 flights and racked up 150 hours.
State of the Industry
Honeywell Forecast – 9,200 new aircraft are expected to be delivered over the next 10 years. These aircraft deliveries represent a 3% – 5% decline in last year’s forecast. North America will lead anticipated demand for purchasing followed by Europe. BRIC countries are expected to have the lowest demand after losing momentum.
Pre-Owned Sales – According to AMSTAT, the business jet market plateaued in Q3 with 2.5% of the active fleet turning over (down from 2.7% last year). Midsized sales performed the best with 3% turnover followed by light jets, large cabin and turboprops coming in last.
Growth & Retirement – JetNet forecasts the world business jet fleet to grow by 33% over the next decade to near 27K by 2024. 3K are expected to retire in the same period.
US Leads Growth – Gama Aviation observed that the US was the key driver of industry growth between 2010 – 2014. 47% of all new bizav deliveries went to US customers during the period (52% of mid to large size jets). The US accounts for close to 50% of all of the world’s bizjets.
Aviation Recruiting – has seen an increase according to Aviation Search Group. Aviation search assignments were up 38% over the previous year.
—
5280 Aviation is a Denver based team of aviation experts specializing in aircraft sales and consulting. Weekly, 5280 Aviation brings you a curated list of aviation news stories that you may have missed. We keep our finger on the pulse of the industry so you don’t have to. Visit aircraft-sales.com and learn more about our services and how we will help you.
TweetGuests: Carol Kane Carol Kane Guests: Chris Fairbanks Chris Fairbanks
New to Bullseye? Subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or with your favorite podcatcher to make sure you automatically get the newest episode every week.
Photo: Jesse Thorn
Carol Kane on her childhood, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and auditioning
Carol Kane is a veteran actress. She began her career in 1971 and landed some pretty heavy roles - one of her first films was in the Mike Nichols drama Carnal Knowledge. Later on, she'd work on other classics like Annie Hall and Dog Day Afternoon. She was even nominated for a best actress Oscar for her part in the 1975 film Hester Street.
She eventually found her home doing comedy, something she never expected she would do growing up. She appeared on Taxi as Simpka, the wife of Andy Kaufman's character on the show. She was in the Muppet Movie, The Princess Bride, Scrooged, and so many others. Her current project is Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt where she plays Lilian, Kimmy's landlord.
She and Jesse talk about her childhood, and the special school she went to that allowed actors time to audition. They also talk about many of her projects over her expansive career- The Princess Bride, Taxi, and of course Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Plus, she tells Jesse that after all of these years, she still gets nervous auditioning.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt season 3 in it's entirety is on Netflix now!
If you liked this, let someone know! Click here to share this segment.
Chris Fairbanks live at MaxFunCon
Chris Fairbanks is a standup comedian, he's appeared on Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Comedy Central. Alongside April Richardson, he also hosts the tv show Almost Genius on TruTV. His standup is really unique. It is kind of improvised, really surreal, and contains lots of quick two line jokes.
Last year, we were lucky enough to host Chris at MaxFunCon, which is an annual gathering in the woods organized by Maximum Fun, and we've got a bit of his set from that show for you this week!
Check out Chris' album Fairbanks! which was released in 2010 and is an absolute classic. You can also still get tickets to MaxFunCon East which is happening this September in Pennsylvania.
If you liked this, let someone know! Click here to share this segment.
The Outshot: The Larry Sanders Show
Jesse tells us about the HBO metasitcom from the late 90's, The Larry Sanders Show.
If you liked this, let someone know! Click here to share this segment.Healthy Life
10 Surprising Health Facts With regular studies published on health and fitness, it can be difficult to keep up with all of the information out there. Some of the findings repeat health advice that’s been around for years, but others are a little more shocking. Take a look at these 10 health facts that might surprise you.
realbuzz team
With regular studies published on health and fitness, it can be difficult to keep up with all of the information out there. Some of the findings repeat health advice that’s been around for years, but others are a little more shocking. Take a look at these 10 health facts that might surprise you.
1 Drinking coffee can prevent depression
We hear a lot about the negative effects of caffeine on our health, but it turns out that caffeine has its good points too. Research from the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who drank a minimum of four cups of coffee per day could lower their risk of depression by 20 per cent. Earlier research also found that females who drank two or more cups per day were less likely to commit suicide.
2 Chewing gum makes you more alert
If your suffering from a mid-afternoon slump or can’t seem to concentrate in the morning, then try chewing some gum to make you feel awake. Coventry University researchers found that chewing mint flavoured gum dramatically reduced feelings of tiredness. Another study on the subject found that chewing gum can improve overall test scores and memory by 35 per cent, relieve stress and reduce anxiety levels.
3 Sitting at a desk can increase death risk by almost 50 per cent
Office workers beware, as research from the University of Sydney found that office workers who sit for longer than 10 hours a day at their desk had a 48 per cent increase in risk of death, in comparison to people who sat for less than four hours a day. To counteract this health risk, try to introduce five minutes of activity every hour and make sure you take regular breaks away from your workstation. Simple changes like taking the stairs instead of the lift will also make a positive difference to your health.
4 ATM machines and public toilets are equally dirty
Withdrawing money from a cash machine is something may of us do regularly, but how many of us give our hands a wash after using them? Cleanliness tests carried out in Britain found that ATM machines were as dirty as the toilets. Specialists investigated swabs taken from the cash machine keyboards and from public toilets nearby and found both samples had the same bacteria known to lead to sickness.
5 If you’re an optimist, it could help you live longer
According to a study from Duke University Medical Center, heart patients who were more optimistic about their treatment, actually lived longer than those who were more pessimistic in their mindsets. Also, according to findings of a study published in the European Heart Journal, people who are optimistic have less chance of suffering from heart disease.
6 Smell an apple to prevent claustrophobia
An apple a day can do more than just keep the doctor away, it can also help with claustrophobia. Apparently smelling a green apple will relieve the stress associated with confined spaces, according to research from the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation. Sniffing a green apple can also prevent headaches and migraines and some homeowners even use the scent to make their houses seem bigger to potential buyers.
7 If you’re tired… exercise
After a long day at work, going to the gym is probably the last thing on your list of priorities but research has found that exercising actually gives you more energy. A study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that levels of fatigue and depression improved after a 30-minute session of moderate intensity exercise. This is because exercise improves your cardiovascular health which means that more blood and oxygen flow around the body, therefore giving you more energy.
8 Sit-ups won’t give you a flat stomach
Many people fall into the trap of thinking that they can achieve a flat stomach by doing crunches. But the truth is, endless amounts of crunches won’t give you the stomach of your dreams - as the exercise only works your abs, not your core muscles. One study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found carrying out six weeks of abdominal exercises alone was not enough to reduce abdominal fat.
9 Handwriting things can help your memory
Research from Indiana University found that in order to remember something, you should handwrite notes, rather than type them. Writing is thought to boost your memory as note taking by hand requires different cognitive processes than typing. For example, if in a lecture you are writing notes, you have to listen carefully to what the speaker has said as it is impossible to write down every word. Therefore through this process, you are listening, digesting and summarising the information more effectively than someone who is just typing words into a laptop.
10 To cool down, drink something hot
It might sound counterproductive, but if you want to cool down, then drink something hot. According to a study from the University of Ottawa’s school of Human Kinetics, as the drink is hotter than your body temperature, it triggers a sweat response in the body that more than compensates for the increase. So although it might initially make you feel hotter, a hot drink will cause you to sweat more and therefore the body effectively cools itself quicker.As you may know, you can upload a picture to paypal.com. Until recently this picture was pretty useless, but now it is displayed on you paypal public page.
Paypal.me is a public page linked to your Paypal account that offers an easy way to receive/send money. For instance mine is there. If I need to send some money to one of my friends, I go to its page, choose the amount and submit. You can use this page as a convenient way to accept donations.
There are two different websites, paypal.me and paypal.com. On paypal.me your are able to manage a reduced list of settings for your page such as the picture displayed, the background color,... On paypal.com you are able to manage your personal information such as your address, phone number,... but also your profile picture. The same picture is used in both places.
Using BURP I ran a quick test on paypal.me to check if there was any CSRF vulnerabilities. Nothing. I decided to also check on paypal.com without much hope. I found out that when removing or editing the CSRF token (http header in that case) there was no error and the profile picture was updated. I tried a real world scenario using the basic HTML page.
<iframe style="display:none" name="csrf-frame"></iframe> <form method='POST' action='https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/settings/photo' target="csrf-frame" id="csrf-form"> <input type='hidden' name='photo' value='data:image/jpeg;base64,[base 64 encoded image here]'> </form> <script>document.getElementById("csrf-form").submit()</script>
Thanks to some missing headers such as X-Frame-Options: DENY it was possible to transparently submit the form without redirection.
The result was an error 500 due to a missing header X-Requested-With:XMLHttpRequest. Even if this header is not a good protection against CSRF, it is hard to exploit (besides some genius). Fortunately, despite the error, the picture was still updated.
Using this vulnerability it was possible to update the profile picture of a paypal.me user without consent after him/her following your link.
The bug has been fixed and a $750 bounty has been paid.
I made a quick video for the Paypal team, it brings nothing but nonetheless I put it here.June 12, 2006
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 234)
John Baez
Today I'd like to talk about the math of music - including torsors, orbifolds, and maybe even Mathieu groups. But first, some movies of the n-body problem:
1) Cris Moore, The 3-body (and n-body) problem, http://www.santafe.edu/~moore/gallery.html
In 1993 Cris Moore discovered solutions of the gravitational n-body problem where the particles' paths lie in a plane and trace out braids in spacetime! I spoke about these in "week181".
More recently, Moore and Michael Nauenberg have found solutions with cubic symmetry and vanishing angular momentum, and made movies of these:
For the mathematical details, try this:
2) Cristopher Moore and Michael Nauenberg, New periodic orbits for the n-body problem, available at math.DS/0511219.
Next, math and music.
Some of you have been in this situation. A stranger at a party asks what you do. You reluctantly admit you're a mathematician, expecting one of the standard responses: "Oh! I hate math!" or "Oh! I was pretty good at math until...."
But instead, after a strained moment they say: "Oh! Do you play an instrument too? Isn't music really mathematical?"
I guess it's like meeting a Martian and asking them if they like Arizona: an attempt to humanize something alien and threatening. You may not have much in common, but at least you can chat about red rocks.
Of course there is something mathematical about music, and lots of mathematicians play music. I rarely think about music in a mathematical way. But I know they have something in common: the transcendent beauty of pure form.
Indeed, in the Middle Ages, music was part of a "quadrivium" of mathematical arts: arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These were studied after the "trivium" of grammar, rhetoric and logic. This is why mathematicians scorn a result as "trivial" when it's easy to see using straightforward logic. So when a result seems more profound, they should call it "quadrivial".
Try saying it sometime: "Cool! That's quadrivial!" It might catch on.
There are also modern applications of math to music theory. I had never heard of "neo-Riemannian theory" until Tom Fiore explained it to me while I was visiting Chicago. Tom is a postdoc who works on categorified algebraic theories, double categories and the like - but he's also into music theory:
3) Thomas M. Fiore, Music and mathematics, available at http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~fiore/1/music.html
4) Thomas M. Fiore and Ramon Satyendra, Generalized contextual groups, Music Theory Online 11 (2005), available at http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~fiore/1/music.html
The first of these is a very nice gentle introduction, suitable both for musicians who don't know group theory and mathematicians who don't know a triad from a tritone!
When Tom first mentioned "neo-Riemannian theory", I thought this was some bizarre application of differential geometry to music. But no - we're not talking about the 19th-century mathematician Bernhard Riemann, we're talking about the 19th-century music theorist Hugo Riemann!
Based on the work on Euler - yes, the Euler - Hugo Riemann introduced diagrams called "tone nets" to study the network of relations between similar chords. You can see his original setup here:
5) Joe Monzo, Tonnetz: the tonal lattice invented by Riemann, Tonalsoft: the Encyclopedia of Microtonal Music Theory, http://www.tonalsoft.com/enc/t/tonnetz.aspx
6) Paul Dysart, Tonnetz: musics, harmony and donuts, http://members2.boo.net/~knuth/
Apparently Riemann's ideas have caught on in a big way. Monzo says that "use of lattices is endemic on internet tuning lists", as if they were some sort of infectious disease.
Dysart seems more gung-ho about it all. The "donuts" he mentions arise when you curl up tone nets by identifying notes that differ by an octave. He has some nice pictures of them!
In neo-Riemannian theory, people like Lewin and Hyer started extending Riemann's ideas by using group theory to systematize operations on chords. The best easy introduction to this is Fiore's paper "Music and mathematics". Here you can read about math lurking in the music of Elvis and the Beatles! Or, if you're more of a highbrow sort, see what he has to say about Hindemith and Liszt's "Transcendental Etudes". And if you like doughnuts and music, you'll love the section where he explains how Beethoven's Ninth traces out a systematic path in a torus-shaped tone net! This amazing fact was discovered by Cohn, Douthett, and Steinbach.
(If I weren't so darn honest, I'd add that Liszt wrote the "Transcendental Etudes" as a sequel to his popular "Algebraic Etudes", and explain how Mozart's "eine kleine Nachtmusik" tours a tone net shaped like a Klein bottle. But alas....)
Let me explain a bit about group theory and music - just enough to reach something really cool Tom told me.
If you're a musician, you'll know the notes in an octave go like this, climbing up:
C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B
until you're back to C. If you're a mathematician, you might be happier to call these notes
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
and say that we're working in the group of integers mod 12, otherwise known as Z/12. Let's be mathematicians today.
The group Z/12 has been an intrinsic feature of Western music ever since pianos were built to have "equal temperament" tuning, which makes all the notes equally spaced in a certain logarithmic sense: each note vibrates at a frequency of 21/12 times the note directly below it.
Only 7 of the 12 notes are used in any major or minor key - for example, C,D,E,F,G,A,B is C major and A,B,C,D,E,F,G is A minor. So, as long as Western composers stuck to writing pieces in a single fixed key, the Z/12 symmetry was "spontaneously broken" by their choice of key, only visible in the freedom to change keys.
But, as composers gradually started changing keys ever more frequently within a given piece, the inherent Z/12 symmetry became more visible. In the late 1800s this manifested itself in trend called "chromaticism". Roughly speaking, music is "chromatic" when it freely uses all 12 notes, but still within the context of an - often changing - key. I guess Wagner and Richard Strauss are often mentioned as pinnacles of chromaticism.
Chromaticism then led to full-fledged "twelve-tone music" starting with Schoenberg in the early 1900s. This is music that fully exploits the Z/12 symmetry and doesn't seek to privilege a certain 7-element subset of notes defining a key. People found Schoenberg's music disturbing and dissonant at the time, but I find it very beautiful.
Now comes the really exciting thing Tom told me: two other symmetry groups lurking in music, and a relationship between them.
First, the transposition-inversion group. This acts as permutations of the set Z/12. It's generated by two especially nice permutations. The first is "transposition". This raises each note a step:
x |→ x + 1
Musicians would call this a half-step, just like physicists measure spin in multiples of 1/2, but we're being mathematicians! The second is "inversion". This turns notes upside down:
x |→ -x
The relevance of this to music is a bit less obvious: composers like Bach and Schoenberg used it explicitly, but we'll see it playing a subtler role, relating major and minor chords.
The transposition-inversion group has 24 elements. Mathematicians call it the 24-element "dihedral group", since it consists of the symmetries of a regular 12-sided polygon where you're allowed to rotate the polygon (transposition) and also flip it over (inversion). I hope you see that this geometrical picture is just a way of visualizing the 12 notes.
So, the transposition-inversion group obviously on the 12 |
Forget golden orbs; we might just be in for crystal skulls. [Mexico National Institute of Anthropology and History via Discovery News]A steady hum of construction work echos twenty-four seven across 298 acres in Inglewood these days. From which, a grand new stadium will eventually be erected for the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers.
Nearly 50 miles away in Thousand Oaks, a different sort of job site is buzzing.
Going all the way back to the day the Rams parted ways with head coach Jeff Fisher, the club has gotten busy rebuilding itself. If not entirely from the ground up, certainly a slew of major renovations encompassing everything from philosophy to schemes to the way they are coached.
And now, finally, the very sort of players they seek to carry out new head coach Sean McVay’s vision.
One week into that phase of the renovation, the Rams have added some key new pieces that, at least on paper, make them a better team right now than when they concluded the 2016 season a little over two months ago.
Coming off a 4-12 season, that might not be saying much. But if the goal is to get better, the Rams appear to be accomplishing their objectives with the additions of left tackle Andrew Whitworth, wide receiver Robert Woods, cornerback Kayvon Webster and defensive end Connor Barwin.
Up ahead is the draft, where the Rams are armed with eight picks in a pool deep in wide receivers, safeties and defensive linemen. And while the draft appears shallow at offensive line — an area the Rams are still tinkering — there figures to be some day one starters available when their first pick turn comes up at the 37th spot overall.
It’s still relatively early in the offseason, and between the second week of free agency, the draft, and post-draft roster tinkering time is on the Rams side to address even more areas of need.
With that in mind, here is a look at what the Rams have done so far and the work they still need to do.
Best move
It’s impossible to qualify just how important the signing of veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth is for the Rams. Suffice to say, though, his impact will be felt on various different levels.
From creating peace of mind for young quarterback Jared Goff, immediately improving the narrative of the Rams beleaguered offensive line to being the catalyst that gets Todd Gurley back on track, Whitworth’s influence has the potential to be every bit as big as his 6-foot-7, 335-pound frame.
Faced with addressing their single most important need, the Rams were able to tap into the best option available in Whitworth, long regarded as one of the top players at his position.
And in spite of his 35-year-old age, he’s shown no signs of letting up.
The impact Whitworth will have on the offensive line could create a far-reaching ripple affect that benefits every phase of the Rams offense.
“The first thing I have to do is do my job well and hopefully that can impact and influence throughout my group,” Whitworth said. “I know some of those guys and I think a lot of some of them. I think that from the guys that I do know, I look forward to getting the chance to know the rest of them and know them better — kind of know who they are as a player and how I can help.”
Don’t sleep on
Back in the day a highly productive edge rush linebacker in the Rams’ Eagle 3-4 defense was forced to make a position change to a three-point 4-3 defensive end.
Ironically it was then-Rams defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher who made dominant outside linebacker Kevin Greene switch positions to defensive end, where he was woefully misplaced. The result was a dramatic fall off in production and an eventual break up with the Rams. Greene resurfaced in Pittsburgh, where he immediately got back on track by moving back to outside linebacker and producing a handful of dominant seasons that ultimately earned him induction into the Hall of Fame.
No one is mistaking new Rams edge rusher Connor Barwin with Greene, but there are similarities to their stories that can’t be overlooked. Much like Fisher did with Greene, Eagles defensive coordinator Jeff Schwartz asked Barwin to move from 3-4 outsize linebacker to a 4-3 defensive end last year.
The result was a major dip in pass rush production, as Barwin slumped to five sacks last year after notching 14.5 in his 2014 Pro Bowl season and 31.5 overall from 2013 to 2016.
With the Rams, Barwin will return back to his more comfortable outside linebacker role in Wade Phillips’ 3-4 defensive scheme. The pair have a working relationship — Phillips coached Barwin in Houston — and there is every reason to believe Barwin can reclaim his previous pass rush prowess, much like Greene did moving from the Rams to the Steelers back in the day.
A work in progress
If you watched the Rams last year, their lack of perimeter play-makers was glaring. The signing of former USC star Robert Woods, who spent his first four NFL seasons in Buffalo, won’t immediately fix that but it’s a start.
Woods is a precise pass route runner, which is a perfect fit in McVay’s timing-based passing game. And that will make him a big-time friend to Goff, a rhythm passer who can have confidence Woods will be in the right spot and the right time when he delivers a pass.
Woods won’t take the top off a defense, but he can consistently help move the chains. He’s also a willing, effective blocker which will also help Gurley in the running game.
Missed out
The Rams had a good plan in place chasing Bills restricted free agent center Ryan Groy, who started seven games last year under new Rams offensive line coach Aaron Kromer and helped the Bills average 177 yards rushing. Unfortunately the Bills were onto it, and immediately matched the two-year offer sheet. That means it’s back to the drawing board for a new starting center to replace Tim Barnes, who was released last year. The Rams hope to reel a center in in free agency or via a trade, but if not, they may have to turn to the draft and that’s always dicey uncovering a day one starter at such a demanding position.
Now what?
First and foremost, the Rams need a new center. Among the possibilities are veterans Nick Mangold, Broncos restricted free agent Matt Paradis and Redskins free agent John Sullivan.
But they also need a safety that better fits Phillips defensive scheme — an assignment the Rams don’t appear confident T.J. McDonald can handle.
The draft is deep in safeties, and by addressing left tackle and wide receiver the Rams have some flexibility to look to that position with the 37th pick overall. Some names to keep an eye on are Alabama’s Eddie Jackson and Texas A&M’s Justin Evans.
More urgent, though, is getting Goff more perimeter play-makers, making a wide receiver like East Carolina’s Zay Jones such an intriguing possibility.After collecting nearly $13,000 in KickStarter funding in July of 2013 to port the iOS children’s game Revolution 60 to PC and Mac, Giant Spacekat, an amateur game development studio operated by Frank Wu and his partner Brianna, has yet to release either the game, clear explanations for its many delays, or any substantive information relating to its development or date of intended release. Individual backer comments, inquires, and refund requests have been repeatedly ignored or neglected on the KickStarter platform which, despite ten eclipsed deadlines, has seen only three creator updates since July of 2014. Backers are instead instructed to follow Giant Spacekat via social media for updates and information.
The studio’s official Twitter account (@GiantSpacekat) is itself inactive, publishing a single tweet related to Revolution 60’s release since late 2014. The studio’s office account (@GSXoffice) also appears derelict, having penned no tweets of any kind since mid-2015. The official website of Revolution 60 lists the PC launch date as October 2015, but has received no further updates in the many months since this date was eclipsed.
Backer dissatisfaction and general inquiries addressed to the public personal accounts of Giant Spacekat employees Frank (@thefrankwu) or Brianna Wu (@spacekatgal) are often met with aggression or otherwise labeled harassment, resulting in either a block or public ostracism of the commenter’s account.
Revolution 60 and its Kickstarter campaign received considerable promotion in 2013 by David Hinkle (@davehinkle) of Engadget, Tim McDonald (@TimTheHat) of PC Invasion, Rob Lefebvre (@roblef) of Cult of Mac, James Trauben of PixelatedGeek, and Sean Humphreys (@seanhumphreys2) of VideoGamesUncovered. No updates concerning the game, its botched port to PC, or the apparent swindling of nearly $13,000 in KickStarter funding have since been published or amended to these articles and promotions.
Share this: Email
LinkedIn
Facebook
Reddit
Twitter
Google
More
Pocket
Tumblr
Pinterest
Print
Comments
commentsSYDNEY, Australia, November 14, 2014 (ENS) – The IUCN’s Green List of Protected Areas was introduced to the world today at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Sydney. Held once every 10 years by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the World Parks Congress gathers thousands of delegates from around the world to strategize on protection of the planet’s vanishing pristine areas.
Protected areas in Australia, South Korea, China, Italy, France, Spain, Kenya and Colombia were unveiled as the first to be listed at the official announcement as part of the innovative Green List of Protected Areas project developed by the IUCN.
The Green List parallels the IUCN’s authoritative Red List of Threatened Species as a resource for planetary protection.
The IUCN says the Green List of Protected Areas is the only global standard of good practice for protected areas.
The first 23 sites have been selected from among 50 candidates put forward by the eight countries as part of the first phase of the Green List.
“The IUCN Green List will define success for protected areas,” said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General at the launch. “It is about recognizing those sites that successfully respond to the challenges of the 21st century and contribute to the wellbeing of people and nature.
“The sites have been evaluated against a set of demanding criteria, including the quality of protection of natural values. They should demonstrate fair and transparent sharing of the costs and benefits of conservation, effective management and long-lasting conservation outcomes. These criteria are tailored and measured according to the challenges and opportunities faced in each country,” said Marton-Lefèvre.
“The Green List will help the global protected area community ensure that protected areas have real conservation impacts that benefit people, economy and the environment,” said James Hardcastle, manager of the IUCN Green List of Protected Areas.
In Australia, three reserves managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service have been accepted to the IUCN Green List: Arakwal National Park, Cape Byron State Conservation Area, and Montague Island Nature Reserve.
“One of the successful candidates, the Cape Byron State Conservation Area/Arakwal National Park in Australia, has been ‘green listed’ for its engagement with the local community. The Aboriginal Arakwal traditional owners were instrumental in establishing the National Park in 2001 and are fully involved in its daily management,” said Hardcastle.
In Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy, pastoral ranching is allowed within the protected area. Its management runs a community cattle ranching programme providing monitoring, protection and livestock health services, ensuring protection for both wildlife and cattle and a safe haven and rich pastures for local herders.
In France, the Cerbère-Banyuls Natural Marine Reserve has seen a successful recovery of marine species and habitats since it was established to protect fragile marine habitats in 1974. A guided underwater educational safari is one of the most popular visitor drawcards on this stretch of the Côte Vermeille, at the foothills of the Pyrenees.
In China, six flagship protected areas have achieved the IUCN Green List standard, including the Mount Huangshan World Heritage Area, the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve – home to a thriving population of giant panda – and the Eastern Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve.
In Spain, the management of Sierra Nevada National Park successfully balances the conservation of a fragile montane ecosystem and rich cultural heritage with a dynamic tourism industry.
Another green-listed site, the Gorgona National Park in Colombia, protects an outstanding example of the country’s rich marine and coastal biodiversity, with a collaborative management system in place that engages local fishers in nature conservation.
Julia Miranda, director of National Parks of Colombia, said, “The IUCN Green List of Protected Areas will set the benchmark for success in Colombia and hopefully for the whole region. We will use the standard to motivate our staff and managers but also to encourage our government, business and community partners to work with us to help achieve success to the benefit of all.”
The “Protected Planet” report released by the UN Environment Programme at the Congress finds that the world is on track to meet a 2020 target on the expansion of protected areas, but more work is needed to ensure areas of importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services are prioritized for protection under equitably managed conditions.
“Protected areas not only provide us with a vital ecological safety net but also play a vital economic role through the valuable ecosystem services they provide, from supplying water and timber, to sustaining tourism,” said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
“As we work toward a comprehensive climate agreement, with the next meeting shortly taking place in Lima, and shape the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, it is crucial to expand protected areas in a targeted manner-thus supporting efforts to tackle climate change, and protecting biodiversity and the ecosystem services that sustain all of us,” said Steiner.
“This report shows that the will to do so is present,” he said. “We now need to build support and funding to ensure protected areas are effectively and equitably managed and cover enough important sites for biodiversity and ecosystem services-including marine protected areas.”
On Friday morning, participants attended three introductory plenaries on the thematic areas of the Congress: parks, people and planet.
Participants then attended the opening sessions of the eight streams on: reaching conservation goals; responding to climate change; improving health and well-being; supporting human life; reconciling development challenges; enhancing diversity and quality of governance; respecting indigenous and traditional knowledge and culture; and inspiring a new generation.
In the evening the World Leaders’ Dialogue focused on money matters and the value of parks.
Conservationists gathered at the IUCN 2014 World Parks Congress need to “think big and act fast” in the effort to maintain and expand protected areas that safeguard wildlife, ecosystems, and the services they provide to animals and people alike, Dr. James Watson of the Wildlife Conservation Society told the delegates.
WCS manages all of New York City’s zoos and aquaria and conducts research and conservation initiatives around the world. Watson, director of WCS’s Climate Change Program, outlined the successes, challenges, and need for a larger conservation vision for the world’s protected area networks in his keynote address for the Opening Parallel Plenary of the Congress’s Parks session.
“We are in the midst of a one-in-a-hundred-million-year extinction crisis, we are causing it, and while we are trying, things are getting worse by the year,” warned Watson.
“We need social, financial, and political buy-in,” he said, “and, at the very least, the various levels of government and industry to be neutral to conservation, and at best actively supporting conservation.”
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2014. All rights reserved.O.co Coliseum prepares for the Athletics’ LGBT Pride Night.
The Athletics had an LGBT Pride event Wednesday night, and the night was peppered with love for many people that haven’t always felt comfortable at the ballpark.
Opera Singer Breanna Sinclaire, the first trans singer accepted into the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s master’s program according to the San Francisco Chronicle, sang the anthem. According to Major League Baseball, she was also the first trans singer to perform the anthem.
MLB ambassador of inclusion Billy Bean was in the building, and was part of the impetus for the event, as the news of this event came out after he addressed the Athletics in Spring Training.
Sean Doolittle’s partner Eireann Dolan helped improve the event, as she not only offered to buy back tickets from disgruntled ticketholders with a heartfelt and funny letter, but also started a GoFundMe to help pay for even more donated tickets to members of Our Space, AIDS Project East Bay and Frameline, a nonprofit LGBTQ cinema foundation.
It seemed like a good time to ask the ballplayers willing to comment about the issue at hand: is baseball ready for an openly gay player, and what obstacles might they face when it happens? Even with a few “no comments,” the opinions given all had their own unique angle, and showed that even a ready country and sport will not make the first openly gay player’s professional life easy.
Athletics pitcher Sonny Gray: “I don’t think it would be a problem with pretty much anyone. I don’t think it would be a problem at all. I’m not really sure what problems they’d face, I’ve never really thought about it. I’m sure it will happen sooner than later, and I think that when that times comes, it’ll be completely fine with everyone.”
Athletics outfielder Sam Fuld: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that baseball’s ready. I just think we’re ready, especially now that there’s been a little bit of movement in basketball and football, since Jason Collins and Michael Sam — at least to some degree — paved the way for a major leaguer to come out. If there’s any clubhouse in any part of the country that’s ready for it, this is it. The Bay Area is certainly a progressive place. Inevitably there is going to be some backlash. Not necessarily from inside the clubhouse, but outside. I think you can equate it to some degree with Jackie Robinson, and the pioneering that he did. Certainly a different dynamic, but there are a lot of parallels. If a player were to come out, he’d certainly get heckled, and I’m sure that would be a challenge. Inevitably, whether it happens tomorrow or five years from now, it’s going to be challenging for the player. But for that player, it would probably be worth it in the long run. And in the short run — you hear people talk about what a relief it is to come out and be comfortable with themselves. They’d probably be willing to deal with the negative commotion that comes with it.”
Athletics outfielder Josh Reddick: “It’s tough to say. You never know until it actually happens. I don’t want to say we are and say we aren’t at the same time, but I don’t know how guys will act in certain situations. It’s just something we have to wait for to see when it happens. A lot of guys are so used to not dealing with it, and not even really thinking about it. Not saying all of us are homophobes by any means, it’s just never know how it’s going taken by certain guys, what guys are not going to want to change in front of them, because you never know how comfortable they are going to be in that perspective. It’s not like we’d treat him any different in here or out there; he’s still your teammate, and that’s what you gotta focus on.”
Padres pitcher Tyson Ross: “I think this country as a whole is evolved from where we were a long time ago — events like this. I don’t think it really matters. People are people, baseball players are baseball players. I come from a pretty diverse place, growing up in the Bay Area, but I think it’s about letting the best players play. That’s what it’s about.”
Padres outfielder Justin Upton: “Baseball is a sport that’s America’s game. As far as being American, you can do what you want to do and be who you want to be. It’s one of those things where, any time you’re the first person to do anything, there’s going to be a lot of media, a lot of things going on, and those are things that the person would have to handle in that position. But baseball is America’s game and that’s why we live in this country and enjoy these freedoms. If you can hack it, you can play.”
Retired outfielder Billy Bean: “Today is a perfect win for this organization and for baseball. Nobody is expecting them to be experts or to understand fully the magnitude of having a transgender person sing the national anthem… Whether the players are ready to let it scratch the surface of their consciousness, I think the bigger, more important point is that fans and the community see what the A’s stand for, and it’s going to have a lasting impression on a lot of people that aren’t going to have the chance to say thank you today… It’s just a simple message of acceptance and embracing our differences. The beauty is that today, we have one thing in common: we all love baseball. There are a lot kids, all types, especially in the LGBT community, where an environment like this was a source of great pain and fear because they did not feel that they could be themselves.
“When you’re playing pickup basketball in the park, three or five on each side, they don’t know each other when they get there, but if you become one group and you work together and you win, then you get to keep playing and playing, and there’s a fairness to that… For me, knowing what it felt like even on the field, when I just buried my secret deeper and deeper, even then I was afraid to tell my own family. I chose to leave baseball before I had the talk with my own parents. My mom said it was harder for them to accept that I wasn’t a baseball player than it was for them to accept that I was gay because they love that so much. It was like a knife in my heart because at that time I’d been out of baseball for two years and I didn’t realize that me walking away took that away from my family.
“That’s the core of the message when I do talk to players. It’s not about changing the way they think, or their religion, it’s really about the wonderful opportunity and privilege it is to be a baseball player, and all the wonderful things that go with that. And now that baseball is supportive of the message of inclusion for every type of diversity that wants to come through the turnstiles, or hopefully work for a team someday, I don’t think they find it such a huge obstacle to get past. I think they see the simplicity of that.”
Thanks to Nathaly Morga for the header image.Will Grayon, Will Grayson, is the story of two teenagers both named Will Grayson and the long list of coincidences that ends with their random meeting in an adult video store (where neither of them are actually shopping). in the text version, the two Wills are distinguished in several ways: The first Will the one written by John Green and narrated by Nick Podehl chimes in for the odd-numbered chapters and gets his name capitalized, while the second, written by David Levithan and read by MacLeod Andrews, takes over the even-numbered chapters and goes by the more idiosyncratic will grayson (all lowercase). Since both characters are written in first person, it’s up to Podehl and Andrews to make the distinction clear in the audio version, and they do it well: Podehl’s Will is a teen who’s made a point of not getting too involved with anything or anyone, and the narrator balances the guarded tones of Will’s speaking voice with the less-controlled run of his thoughts, while Andrews gives his will a fast-paced, sarcastic tone that matches the character’s typical teenage cynicism.
While the story builds to the chance meeting between the Wills, the narrators take on a lineup of secondary characters: parents, girlfriends, boyfriends, and one large boy named Tiny Cooper who ties them all together. Podehl has more to work with in his chapters, bringing Will, Tiny, and their friends to life; much of Andrews’ time is spent reading online chats and back and forth dialogue that will prefaces with “me:” and “her:” or “him:” so he has fewer opportunities to develop those voices. But both narrators infuse their readings with the emotions, attitudes, and sentiments that will be familiar to anyone who knows (or was) a teenager. Blythe CopelandNo drink drivers found during road policing operation
Full description:
MEDIA RELEASE - CENTRAL DISTRICT
23 December 2011
No drink drivers found during road policing operation
Over 2500 drivers were stopped during a major policing operation in Central District this evening (Friday, 23 December) and not one was found to be over the drink drive limit.
Operation Waka Ora took place on State Highway 1 between 3pm and 6.30pm at Ohakea with around 30 police officers stopping and breath-screening all drivers.
Checks were also made for vehicle safety faults and Plunket was on hand to check that all children were safely restrained.
A total of 2553 drivers were stopped. Alcohol was detected on 12 drivers but breath screening test showed that none of them were over the legal limit.
One driver was dealt with for driving while forbidden and his car was impounded for 28 days.
Officer in Charge of the Central District Highway Patrol, Senior Sergeant Kris Burbery said: "We are delighted with the results. This was a great opportunity to reinforce the road safety message, with the official holiday period commencing at 4pm today and the fact that we tested that many people and did not find anyone breaching the drink-drive laws shows that the drivers are taking notice of the road safety messages."
Bottles of water and packs of road safety advice were handed out to drivers.
45 infringement notices and 1 Traffic Offence notice were issued for various offences including expired warrants of fitness's, drivers licensing offences and various vehicle defects.
Central District Highway patrol officers were supported by the Central District Traffic Alcohol Group (Booze Bus) and the Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit (CVIU).
"This was also a great opportunity to work with several key road safety partners such as ACC, St John Ambulance, Road Safety Coordinators, Plunket and Higgins Contractors"
Senior Sergeant Burbery said: "Drivers were again very positive regarding the actions of Police during this operation and responsive to the messages we were passing on, with many thanking the staff for trying to keep the roads safe."
Numerous road safety operations will continue throughout the holiday period and beyond, so all motorists are reminded that they could be stopped at any time. All drivers stopped by police will be breath-tested.
"It is important that drivers remember that road safety is everyone's responsibility and we want every journey to be a safe journey".
"Please do not forget between 23 December and 4 January the tolerance for exceeding the speed limit will be reduced to 4 km/h, remember the speed limit is that - a limit, it is not a target"
To stay safe this Christmas:
• The simplest message is, if you drink - DON'T DRIVE.
• One person's limit is not another's. On different days at different times, depending on tiredness, stress levels, nutrition and other factors, a limit will change.
• Remember there is now a zero alcohol limit for drivers under the age of 20. The only safe option is not to drive.
• If your nominated sober driver drinks alcohol make alternative transport arrangements. Never get into a vehicle when you know the driver has been drinking.
• Keep your speed down. Drive to the conditions
• Ensure you and all of your passengers are properly restrained.
• If you're driving put your phone down. No phone call is that important.
General road safety advice if you are taking a trip over the holidays:
• Have your car serviced or at least do some basic maintenance checks - oil, water, wiper blades and tyres.
• Map out your route.
• Check the weather and anticipated road conditions.
• Have a full tank of fuel and on a long trip work out in advance where you intend to re-fuel. Remember not all service stations are open 24hrs.
• Don't just re-fuel your vehicle. Take regular rest breaks. New Zealand has a great cafe coffee culture so make the most of it. Keep bottled water in the vehicle to ensure you stay hydrated.
• Make sure there is plenty to keep children occupied. Bored and restless children are a distraction and can stress a driver.
• Keep an emergency pack to hand with water, snacks, warm clothing and a first aid kit in case of a breakdown. If you have a mobile phone make sure it is fully charged for an emergency but remember it is now against the law to use it while driving.
If you know of someone who is a danger on our roads call the police. Alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or submit information online via www.crimestoppers-nz.org
ENDS
© Scoop MediaRichard Roose (or Rouse; died 1531) was a cook to John Fisher, bishop of Rochester. He was executed for having attempted to poison the bishop, in the course of which he actually poisoned several other members of the household.[1][2] In response to the crime a statute was specially enacted resulting in his execution by being publicly boiled to death in a cauldron. The first to suffer under this judicial proceeding in English law, which was soon repealed, his case retains a particular notoriety.
The crime and the punishment [ edit ]
According to Richard Hall (one of Fisher's earliest biographers), Richard Roose came into the Bishop's kitchen and put poison into the gruel which was prepared for the bishop's dinner. When the bishop was called in to his dinner, he had no appetite. Instead, his guests and servants ate the poisoned meal. "One Gentleman, namd Mr. Bennet Carwen, and an old Widow, died sodainly, and the rest never recovered their healths till their dying day".[3][4]
The bishop having made a complaint, Roose was soon apprehended, and after being severely tortured on the Rack admitted to adding what he believed were laxatives to the meal as a "jest." No one believed him.[5]
Ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote a slightly different version of the story to his master, Charles V, the nephew of Catherine of Aragon: "They say that the cook, having been immediately arrested... confessed at once that he had actually put into the broth some powders, which he had been given to understand would only make his fellow servants very sick without endangering their lives or doing them any harm. I have not yet been able to understand who it was who gave the cook such advice, nor for what purpose."[6]
Henry VIII decided that Roose should be condemned by attainder without a trial.[7] This was an unusual measure, since attainder was used for criminals who were at large.[8] (Roose had already been arrested.) The Parliament of England passed "An Acte for Poysoning," showing that the king had determined that wilful murder by means of poison should be accounted High Treason "because that in manner no persone can lyve in suertye out of daunger of death by that meane yf practyse therof shulde not be exchued" (even though the victim was not the Crown or its representative). By the authority of parliament the statute decreed that Richard Roose should be "boyled to deathe" as punishment for this crime,[9] an example of ex post facto law.
Execution [ edit ]
Roose was boiled to death at Smithfield on April 5, 1531. According to an eyewitness, "He roared mighty loud, and divers women who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away half dead; and other men and women did not seem frightened by the boiling alive, but would prefer to see the headsman at his work."[10]
This yere was a coke boylyd in a cauderne in Smythfeld for he wolde a powsyned the bishop of Rochester Fycher with dyvers of hys servanttes, and he was lockyd in a chayne and pullyd up and downe with a gybbyt at dyvers tymes tyll he was dede. Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London, 1531[11]
Rumours circulated that it was the King who had arranged for the poisoning of Fisher, in order to silence Fisher's criticism of the King's attempts to divorce Queen Catherine, and of his attacks on the church.[12] Henry Clifford wrote:
From the time that Queen Catharine was defended so stoutly and learnedly by the Bishop of Rochester [ Anne Boleyn ] did seek by all means his destruction. One Richard Rice, a cook, was suborned to poison him, and he knew no other way to do it than to poison the common pot, which was for the whole household of the bishop. It chanced that that day according to his custom the bishop came not to dine in the parlour, but most of his family that dined there were poisoned and died thereof. Rice the cook being discovered did confess it and was publicly put to death for it.--The Life of Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria[13]
Repeal [ edit ]
The statute was repealed in the first year of King Edward VI (1547) by a new statute "An Acte for the Repeale of certaine Statutes concerninge Treasons, Felonyes, etc." This recognized that many extreme measures had been enacted in King Henry's time which were then deemed necessary, but which were unsuited to the new climate of the present monarch's rule.[14]
In popular culture [ edit ]
The story of Richard Roose and his fate has many threads, combining as it does the elements of the cook as poisoner, the mystery of the conspiracy leading to the crime, the sensational nature of the punishment, the legal process and precedent, all in the context of the relationship of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and the political environment of the English Reformation. It gave rise to speculation and popular interest in its own time and remains a recurrent theme in serious historical discussion, in popular history and historical fiction, as well as in speculative fiction, historical fantasy, chambers of horrors, ghoulish tours of London and innumerable blogspots.
S.J. Weinreich (editor and translator), Pedro de Ribadeneyra’s 'Ecclesiastical History of the Schism of the Kingdom of England': A Spanish Jesuit’s History of the English Reformation (BRILL, 2017), p. 209. (Google)
(BRILL, 2017), p. 209. (Google) J.A. Paris and J.S.M. Fonblanque, Medical Jurisprudence, 3 Vols (W. Phillips, London 1823), II, p. 128. (Google)
, 3 Vols (W. Phillips, London 1823), II, p. 128. (Google) A. Bellany, The Politics of Court Scandal in Early Modern England: News Culture and the Overbury Affair, 1603-1660 (Cambridge University Press 2007), p. 144. (Google)
Various recent treatments of the subject include:The appointment was confirmed today by F1’s new CEO Chase Carey – who takes over the helm of the sport from Bernie Ecclestone.
Carey also confirmed that Sean Bratches will take on a similar role on the commercial side.
Brawn has been an advisor to Liberty during its takeover phase, and has now been appointed to a key fulltime role upon the completion of its deal.
“It’s fantastic to be returning to the world of Formula 1,” said Brawn. “I’ve enjoyed consulting with Liberty Media these last few months and I’m looking forward to working with Chase, Sean and the rest of the Formula 1 team to help the evolution of the sport.
“We have an almost unprecedented opportunity to work together with the teams and promoters for a better F1 for them and, most importantly, for the fans.”
Carey added: “I am delighted to welcome Ross back to Formula 1. In his 40 years in the sport, he’s brought his magic touch to every team with which he has worked, has almost unparalleled technical knowledge, experience and relationships, and I have already benefitted greatly from his advice and expertise.
“I am thrilled Sean is joining Formula 1. Sean was a driving force in building ESPN into one of the world's leading sports franchises. His expertise and experience in sales, marketing, digital media, and distribution will be invaluable as we grow Formula 1.
“I look forward to working with Ross and Sean, as well as key current executives including Duncan Llowarch, our CFO, and Sacha Woodward Hill, our General Counsel, the FIA, Bernie and Liberty as we work together to make Formula 1 the best it can be for the teams, promoters and fans for years to come.”An update on the state of the sea ice is in order. After beginning my usual boring sea ice post, I ran across the NSIDC news story on sea ice. You know the unbiased scientific review of the conditions of sea ice globally. I’m pissed off now that they would post this kind of rubbish. Previously, I’ve been complimentary of the NSIDC, but this story is way over the top. It reads like a Joe Romm post more than a scientific one. It’s a prayer to the gods of AGW, a worship at the altar of funding and a blatant attempt to leave layman’s heads full of global warming cobwebs.
I’ll leave the Jaxa graph up below and the first three graphs including the original wording here. This was written before I read the NSIDC article so think of it as a reminder of how unexciting sea ice updates usually are.
Jaxa has the Arctic ice anomaly over the last several months lower than the last 8 years.
From the cryosphere page using the NSIDC data. I’ve replicated this plot enough times here that I don’t worry much about it anymore.
This June was actually the second lowest arctic ice extent anomaly on record and we’re told from the NSIDC that it was the lowest June ever measured.
The NSIDC didn’t post any other months on their main page but conveniently allowed selection of the Antarctic June months on the same link.
It seems we have a record June in the Antarctic as well.
What is amazing is the story that the NSIDC told. I don’t know who writes for the NSIDC, but the bias is incredible. Not only do they fail to recognize the record HIGH ice in the Antarctic they do everything to cover it up from laymen. They don’t even mention |
applying a nutrient mist to the root section", and in it he coined the word 'aeroponics' to describe that process. In 2008, root researcher and craftsman Ezekiel Golan described and secured a patent for a process which allows the roots of some aeroponically grown woody plants to lengthen and thicken while still remaining flexible. At lengths of perhaps 6 metres (20 ft) or more, the soft roots can be formed into pre-determined shapes which will continue thickening after the shapes are formed and as they continue to grow.[12][21] Newer techniques and applications, such as eco-architecture, may allow architects to design, grow, and form large permanent structures, such as homes, by shaping aeroponically grown plants and their roots.[14]
Instant tree shaping [ edit ]
Arborsculpture bench by How to grow a chair and Arborsculpture by Richard Reames created using the techniques as described in his booksand
Instant tree shaping[12][22] starts with mature trees,[23] :53 perhaps 6–12 ft. (2–3.6 m) long[13]:196 and 3-4in (7.6–10 cm) in trunk diameter,[13]:172 which are bent and woven into the desired design [23] :53 and held until cast.[24][25] Understanding a tree's fluid dynamics is important to achieving the desired result.[2][17]:69
Bending is sometimes used to achieve a design.[17] If a plant's tissue is bent at too sharp an angle it may break, which can be mostly avoided by un-localizing the bend. This is achieved by making small bends along the curve of the tree. Bends are then held in place for several years until their form is permanently cast.[17]:80 The tree's rate of growth determines the time necessary to overcome its resistance to the initial bending.[13]:178 The work of bending and securing in this way might be accomplished in an hour or perhaps in an afternoon depending on the design.[22]
Ring barking is sometimes employed to help balance a design by slowing the growth of too-vigorous branches or stopping the growth of inopportunely placed branches, using different degrees of ring barking, from simple scoring to complete removal of a 3/8"-wide (1 cm) band of bark.[17]:57, 69
Creasing is folding trees such as willow and poplar over upon themselves, creating a right angle. This method is more radical than bending.[13]:80
With this method it is possible to perform initial bending and grafting on a project in an hour, as with Peace in Cherry by Richard Reames,[13]:193[17]:56–57 removing supports in as little as a year and following up with minimal pruning thereafter.[26]
Gradual tree shaping [ edit ]
"Grownup furniture" by Chris Cattle created using a gradual tree shaping method
Gradual tree shaping starts with designing and framing.[22][27][28][29] These are fundamental to the success of the piece.[28][29] Once these are set up, young seedlings or saplings[15]:4 3–12 in. (7.6–30.5 cm) long[28][29] are planted.
The training starts with young seedlings, saplings or the stems of trees when they are very young,[15] :4 which are gradually shaped while the tree is growing to form the desired shape.[9] There is a small area just behind the growing tip that forms the final shape.[27][30] The shaping zone,[27][30] it is the shaping of this area requires day to day or weekly guiding of the new growth. The growth is guided along predetermined design pathways;[23] this may be a wooden jig [9] or complex wire design.[16]
With this method the time frame is longer than the other methods. A chair design might take 8 to 10 years to reach maturity[23][31] Some of Axel Erlandson trees's took as long as 40 years to assume their finished shapes.[32]
Common techniques [ edit ]
Framing [ edit ]
Framing may be used for various purposes and might consist of any one or a combination of several materials, such as timber, steel, hollowed out trees,[6] complex wire designs,[16] wooden jigs,[9] or the tree itself, living [13]:178 or dead.[33]:58 It can be used in many project designs to support grafted joints until the grafts are well-established. Some processes might employ framing to hold a shape created by bending or fletching mature trees until the tissues have overcome their resistance to the initial bending and grown enough annual rings to cast the design permanently.[13] Others might use framing to support and shape the growth of young saplings [23][30][34] until they are strong enough to maintain an intended shape without support.[30] Still other approaches might employ frames to guide the roots of aeroponically grown trees into desired shapes.
Grafting [ edit ]
Grafting is a commonly employed technique that exploits the natural biological process of inosculation. A branch or plant is cut and a piece of another plant is added and held in place. Various types of grafting all share the goal of encouraging the tissues of one plant to fuse with those of another.
Grafting is applied to create permanent connections and joints.[23] In some cases, trees are grafted while they are growing, [35] while in other cases, mature trees may be intertwined and the stems of two or more trees are then grafted together to create chairs, ladders, and other fanciful sculptures.[36]
Pruning [ edit ]
Pruning can be used to balance a design by controlling and directing growth into a desired shape.[30][33]:70 [34] Pruning above a leaf node can steer plant growth in the direction of the natural placement of that leaf bud.[13] Pruning may also be used to keep a design free of unwanted branches and to reduce canopy size.[30][34] Pruning is sometimes the only technique used to craft a project. Deciduous trees are mainly pruned in winter,[33]:137 while they are dormant above-ground, although sometimes it is necessary to prune them during the growing season. Trees repeatedly subjected to hard pruning may experience stunted growth, and some trees may not survive this treatment.
Structure [ edit ]
Living grown structures have a number of structural mechanical advantages over those constructed of lumber[citation needed] and are more resistant to decay. While there are some decay organisms that can rot live wood from the outside, and though living trees can carry decayed and decaying heartwood inside them; in general, living trees decay from the inside out and dead wood decays from the outside in.[37] Living wood tissue, particularly sapwood, wields a very potent defense against decay from either direction, known as compartmentalization. This protection applies to living trees only and varies among species.
Growing structures is not as easy as it would seem.[38] Quick growing willows have been used to grow building structures, they provide support or protection.[38] A young group of German architects are in the process of such a structure and they are continually monitored and checked.[38] Once the trees are of age to be able to take on load-bearing weight they are tested for stability and strength by a structural engineer.[38] Once this is approved the supporting framework is removed.[38] Projects are limited to the trees' weight loading ability and growth.[38] This is being studied and the load capacity will be proved by testing on prototypes.[39]
Design options [ edit ]
Becky's Mirror by Pooktre by Pooktre
Designs may include abstract, symbolic, or functional elements. Some shapes crafted and grown are purely artistic; perhaps cubes, circles, or letters of an alphabet, while other designs might yield any of a wide variety of useful shapes, such as clothes hangers,[40] laundry and wastepaper bins,[40] ladders,[41] furniture,[36] tools, and tool handles. Eye-catching structures such as living fences and jungle gyms[41] can also be grown, and even large architectural designs such as live archways, domes,[36] gazebos,[41] tunnels, and theoretically entire homes[14] are possible with careful planning, planting, and culturing over time.[11] The Human Ecology Design team (H.E.D.) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is designing homes that can be grown from native trees in a variety of climates.[42]
Suitable trees are installed according to design specifications and then cultured over time into intended structures. Some designs may use only living, growing wood to form the structures, while others might also incorporate inclusions [22][30] such as glass, mirror, steel and stone, any of which might be used either as either structural or aesthetic elements.[30] Inclusions can be positioned in a project as it is grown and, depending on the design, may either be removed when no longer needed for support or left in place to become fixed inclusions in the growing tissue.[33]:117
Chronology of notable practitioners [ edit ]
War-Khasi people [ edit ]
The ancient War-Khasi people of India worked with the aerial roots of native banyan fig trees, adapting them to create footbridges over watercourses. Modern people of the Cherrapunjee region carry on this traditional building craft. Roots selected for bridge spans are supported and guided in darkness as they are being formed, by threading long, thin, supple banyan roots through tubes made from hollowed-out trunks of woody grasses. Preferred species for the tubes are either bamboo or areca palm, or 'kwai' in Khasi, which they cultivate for areca nuts. The Khasi incorporate aerial roots from overhanging trees to form support spans and safety handrails. Some bridges can carry fifty or more people at once. At least one example, over the Umshiang stream, is a double-decker bridge. They can take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional and are expected to last up to 600 years.[8][43]
John Krubsack [ edit ]
John Krubsack was an American banker and farmer from Embarrass, Wisconsin. He shaped and grafted the first known grown chair, harvesting it in 1914. He lived from 1858 to 1941. He had studied tree grafting and become a skilled found-wood furniture crafter.[44] The idea first came to him to grow his own chair during a weekend wood-hunting excursion with his son.
He started box elder seeds in 1903, selecting and planting either 28[44] or 32[45] of the saplings in a carefully designed pattern in the spring of 1907.[44] In the spring of 1908, the trees had grown to six feet tall and he began training them along a trellis, grafting the branches at critical points to form the parts of his chair.[44] In 1913, he cut all the trees except those forming the legs, which he left to grow and increase in diameter for another year, before harvesting and drying the chair in 1914; eleven years after he started the box elder seeds.[44] Dubbed The Chair that Lived; it is the only known tree shaping that John Krubsack did.[44][45] The chair is on permanent display in a Plexiglas case at the entrance of Noritage Furniture; the furniture manufacturing business now owned by Krubsack's descendants, Steve and Dennis Krubsack.[13]
Axel Erlandson [ edit ]
Axel Erlandson was a Swedish American farmer who started training trees as a hobby on his farm in Hilmar, California, in 1925. He was inspired by observing a natural sycamore inosculation in his hedgerow.[3] In 1945, he moved his family and the best of his trees from Hilmar to Scotts Valley, California, and in 1947,[13] opened an horticultural attraction called the Tree Circus.
Erlandson lived from 1884 to 1964; training more than 70 trees during his lifetime. He considered his methods trade secrets and when asked how he made his trees do this, he would only reply, "I talk to them."[15] His work appeared in the column of Ripley's Believe It or Not! twelve times.[46] 24 trees from his original garden have survived transplanting to their permanent home at Gilroy Gardens in Gilroy, California. His Telephone Booth Tree is on permanent display at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland[42] and his Birch Loop tree is on permanent display at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz, California. Both of these are preserved dead specimens.
Arthur Wiechula [ edit ]
19th-century sketch by Arthur Wiechula of inosculated branches
Arthur Wiechula was a German landscape engineer who lived from 1868 to 1941. In 1926, he published Wachsende Häuser aus lebenden Bäumen entstehend (Developing Houses from Living Trees) in German.[26][47] In it, he gave detailed illustrated descriptions of houses grown from trees and described simple building techniques involving guided grafting together of live branches; including a system of v-shaped lateral cuts used to bend and curve individual trunks and branches in the direction of a design, with reaction wood soon closing the wounds to hold the curves.[48] He proposed growing wood so that it constituted walls during growth, thereby enabling the use of young wood for building.[48] Weichula never built a living home, but he grew a 394' wall of Canadian poplars to help keep the snow off of a section of train tracks.[26]
Dan Ladd [ edit ]
Dan Ladd is a Northampton, Massachusetts based American artist who works with trees and gourds. He began experimenting with glass, china, and metal inclusions in trees in 1977 in Vermont and started planting trees for Extreme Nature in 1978.[49] He became inspired by inosculation he noticed in nature and by the growth of tree trunks around man-made objects such as fences and idle farm equipment.[49] He shapes and grafts trees, including their fruits and their roots, into architectural and geometric forms.[49] Ladd calls human-initiated inosculation 'pleaching' and calls his own work 'tree sculpture'.[49] Ladd binds a variety of objects to trees, for live wood to grow around and be incorporated, including teacups, bicycle wheels, headstones, steel spheres, water piping, and electrical conduit.[49] He guides roots into shapes, such as stairs, using above-ground wooden and concrete forms and even shapes woody, hard-shelled Lagenaria gourds by allowing them to grow into detailed molds.[50][51] A current project at the DeCordova and Dana Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts incorporates eleven American Liberty Elm trees grafted next to each other to form a long hillside stair banister. Another of his installations, Three Arches, consists of three pairs of 14-foot sycamore trees, which he grafted into arches to frame different city views, at Frank Curto Park in Pittsburgh.[42][52]
Nirandr Boonnetr [ edit ]
Nirandr Boonnetr is a Thai furniture designer and crafter. He became inspired as a child, both by a photograph of some unusually twisted coconut palms in southern Thailand and by a living fallen tree he noticed, which had grown new branches along its trunk, forming a kind of canopied bridge.[13] His hobby began in 1980 because of his concern the Thailand forests are being ravaged by woodcarvers to the point that one day the industry would eventually carve itself out of existence.[53] He began his first piece, a guava chair, around 1983.[13] Originally intended as something for his children to climb and play on, the piece evolved into a living tree chair.[13]:91 In fifteen years he created six pieces of "living furniture",[53] including five chairs and a table. The Bangkok Post dubbed him the father of Living Furniture.[13][54] Shortly thereafter, he presented a chair as a gift to her Royal Highness, Princess Sirindhorn. Nirandr Boonnetr has written a detailed, step-by-step booklet of instructions hoping his hobby of living furniture will spread to other countries.[53] One of his chairs was exhibited in the Growing Village pavilion at the World's Fair Expo 2005 in Nagakute, Aichi, Japan.
Peter Cook and Becky Northey [ edit ]
People trees, by Pooktre, by Pooktre
Peter Cook and Becky Northey are Australian artists who live in South East Queensland. Peter Cook became inspired to grow a chair in 1987, after visiting three fig trees in a remote corner of his property.[55][56] He started the next day, with 7 willow cuttings.[56] In 1988, he planted a wattle intended for harvest as a potted plant stand.[55] Becky Northey moved to Peter's property in 1995 and the two formed Pooktre.[57]
Their methods involve guiding a tree's growth along predetermined wired design pathways over a period of time.[12][31] They shape growing trees both for living outdoor art and for intentional harvest. They most often use Myrobalan Plum for shaping.[16] Examples of their functional artwork include a growing garden table, a harvested coffee table, hat stands, mirrors, and a gemstone neck piece.
Peter and Becky exhibited eight of their creations, including two people trees. in the Growing Village pavilion at the World's Fair Expo 2005 in Nagakute, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.[58] Their work was published in the annual book series, Ripley's Believe It or Not.[59]
Richard Reames [ edit ]
Richard Reames is an American nurseryman and author based in Williams, Oregon, where he owns and manages a nursery, and design studio collectively named Arborsmith Studios.[60][61] He was inspired by the works of Axel Erlandson,[13]:150[17]:16[62] and began sculpting trees in 1991[63] or 1992.[33] He began his first experimental grown chairs [17]:57 in the spring of 1993.[17]:85
In 1995, Reames wrote and published his first book, How to Grow a Chair: The Art of Tree Trunk Topiary. In it, he coined the word arborsculpture.[17] In 2005, he published his second book, Arborsculpture: Solutions for a Small Planet.[13] He has lectured in Australia [64] and gives live demonstrations of bending and weaving a chair at garden shows, fairs and folk art festivals around America.[65]
Christopher Cattle [ edit ]
Christopher Cattle's grown stool in sycamore
Christopher Cattle is a retired furniture design professor from England.[66] He started his first planting of furniture in 1996.[9] According to Cattle, he developed an idea to train and graft trees to grow into shapes, which came to him in the late 1970s,[67] in response to questions from students asking how to build furniture using less energy.[66] Using various species of trees and wooden jigs to shape them,[28] he has grown 15 three-legged stools to completion.[citation needed]
Cattle has multiple plantings in at least four different locations in England. He participates in woodland and craft shows in England and at the Big Tent at Falkland Palace in Scotland. He exhibited his grown stools at the World's Fair Expo 2005 in the Growing Village pavilion at Nagakute, Japan.[66]
He aims to encourage as many people as possible to grow their own furniture,[42][67] and envisions that, "One day, furniture factories could be replaced by furniture orchards."[42] Cattle calls his works grown up furniture and grown stools,[66][68] but also refers to them as grown furniture, calling them "the result of mature thinking."[66]
Mr. Wu [ edit ]
Mr. Wu is a Chinese pensioner who designs and crafts furniture in Shenyang, Liaoning, China.[69][70] He has patented his technique of growing wooden chairs and as of 2005, had designed, grown, and harvested one chair, in 2004, and had six more growing in his garden.[70] Wu uses young elm trees,[71] which he says are pliant and do not break easily.[70] He also says that it takes him about five years to grow a tree chair.[69]
Related practices [ edit ]
Other artistic horticultural practices such as bonsai, espalier, and topiary share some elements and a common heritage, though a number of distinctions may be identified.
Bonsai [ edit ]
Bonsai is the art of growing trees in small containers. Bonsai uses techniques such as pruning, root reduction, and shaping branches and roots to produce small trees that mimic full-sized mature trees. Bonsai is not intended for production of food, but instead mainly for contemplation by viewers, like most fine art.[72][73]
Espalier [ edit ]
Espalier is the art and horticultural practice of training tree branches onto ornamental shapes along a frame for ascetic and fruit production by grafting, shaping and pruning the branches so that they grow flat, frequently in formal patterns, against a structure such as a wall, fence, or trellis.[74] The practice is commonly used to accelerate and increase production in fruit-bearing trees and also to decorate flat exterior walls while conserving space.[74]
Pleaching [ edit ]
Pleaching is a technique of weaving the branches of trees into a hedge commonly, deciduous trees are planted in lines, then pleached to form a flat plane on clear stems above the ground level. Branches are woven together and lightly tied.[75] Branches in close contact may grow together, due to a natural phenomenon called inosculation, a natural graft. Pleach also means weaving of thin, whippy stems of trees to form a basketry affect.[76]
Topiary [ edit ]
Topiary is the horticultural practice of shaping live trees, by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees and shrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes,[77] often geometric or fanciful. The hedge is a simple form of topiary used to create boundaries, walls or screens. Topiary always involves regular shearing and shaping of foliage to maintain the shape.
Plantings for the future [ edit ]
The Fab Tree Hab [ edit ]
Fab Tree Hab 3D render
Three MIT designers – Mitchell Joachim, Lara Greden and Javier Arbona – created a concept of a living tree house which nourishes its inhabitants and merges with its environment.[78] The project of Fab Tree Hab is expected to take a minimum of five years to grow the home.[79] The plans are for the interior to be lined with clay and plastered to keep the weather outside and to look normal. The exterior is to be all natural.[79]
The Patient Gardener [ edit ]
A Swedish architectural firm VisionDivision took part in a week-long workshop at the Italian university Politecnico di Milano[1] with the students. The result was an 80-year plan [80] of a living cherry tree dome in an hourglass shape and grown furniture. Framing for the dome, table and a lawn chair were built. Ten Japanese cherry trees were planted in a diameter of eight-meter circle. Four of these trees are to be living staircases to a future top level. The stair trees will have their branches grafted into each other to form the rungs.[1][80] VisionDivision's architects helped the students and instructors to create an easy maintenance plan for future gardeners of the university.[80]
Baubotanik Tower [ edit ]
Ferdinand Ludwig designed this tower as part of his doctoral thesis with the help of Prof. Dr. Speck. "Speck become the botanical co-supervisor" said Ferdinand. Growing at the University of Stuttgart is a three-storey tower of living white willows (Salix alba). This nine-meter-tall construction is almost fully grown, with a base area of around eight square meters.[11] [39] :86
The framing is made up of mainly steel scaffolding which is supporting the growing trees, while keeping them to the correct form. They started with 400 white willow (Salix alba) grown in baskets on multiple levels with one row of willows planted into the ground. Once the trees were two meters tall, they were planted at the different levels of the tower. These plants are then trained to the design.[11][39]
The root system of the bottom level of willows needs to develop large enough to support the willows on the above levels, so that the scaffold becomes obsolete and then it and the watering and fertilising baskets can be removed altogether.[39] :86
The trees are grafted together with the objective of all the different plants eventually becoming a single organism. The overall aim is to have a living structure with the strength to support itself and to carry a working load. Ferdinand predicts the tower will be stable enough to support itself in five to ten years.[39] Ferdinand does state "However, these are only estimates."[11]
Alternative names [ edit ]
The practice of shaping living trees has several names. Practitioners may have their own name for their techniques, so a standard name for the various practices has not emerged.[58] Richard Reames calls the practice "arborsculpture";[63][81][82] Dan Ladd calls his work "tree sculpture";[49] Nirandr Boonnetr's work is called "living furniture";[54] Christopher Cattle calls his works "grown up furniture" and "grown stools";[66] while Peter Cook and Becky Northey call their work "Pooktre".[83][84]
The following names are also encountered:
In fiction and art [ edit ]
In 1516, Jean Perréal painted an allegorical image,[63] La complainte de nature à l'alchimiste errant, (The Lament of Nature to the Wandering Alchemist), in which a winged figure with arms crossed, representing nature, sits on a tree stump with a fire burning in its base, conversing with an alchemist in an ankle-length coat, standing outside of his stone-laid shoreline laboratory. Live resprouting shoots emerge from either side of the tree stump seat to form a fancifully twined and inosculated two-story-tall chair back.[90][91][92]
In 1758, Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg published Earths in the Universe, in which he wrote of visiting another planet where the residents dwelled in living groves of trees, whose growth they had planned and directed from a very young stage into living quarters and sanctuaries.[81][93]
In the late 19th century, Styrian Christian mystic and visionary Jakob Lorber published The Household of God. In it, he wrote about the wisdom of planting trees in a circle, because once grown together, the ring of trees would be a much better house than could be built.[81][94]By George Friedman
In my "Net Assessment of the World," I argued that four major segments of the European and Asian landmass were in crisis: Europe, Russia, the Middle East (from the Levant to Iran) and China. Each crisis was different; each was at a different stage of development. Collectively the crises threatened to destabilize the Eurasian landmass, the Eastern Hemisphere, and potentially generate a global crisis. They do not have to merge into a single crisis to be dangerous. Four simultaneous crises in the center of humanity's geopolitical gravity would be destabilizing by itself. However, if they began to merge and interact, the risks would multiply. Containing each crisis by itself would be a daunting task. Managing crises that were interlocked would press the limits of manageability and even push beyond.
These four crises are already interacting to some extent. The crisis of the European Union intersects with the parallel issue of Ukraine and Europe's relation to Russia. The crisis in the Middle East intersects with the European concern over managing immigration as well as balancing relations with Europe's Muslim community. The Russians have been involved in Syria, and appear to have played a significant role in the recent negotiations with Iran. In addition there is a potential intersection in Chechnya and Dagestan. The Russians and Chinese have been advancing discussions about military and economic cooperation. None of these interactions threaten to break down regional boundaries. Indeed, none are particularly serious. Nor is some sort of inter-regional crisis unimaginable.
Sitting at the center of these crisis zones is a country that until a few years ago maintained a policy of having no problems with its neighbors. Today, however, Turkey's entire periphery is on fire. There is fighting in Syria and Iraq to the south, fighting to the north in Ukraine and an increasingly tense situation in the Black Sea. To the west, Greece is in deep crisis (along with the EU) and is a historic antagonist of Turkey. The Mediterranean has quieted down, but the Cyprus situation has not been fully resolved and tension with Israel has subsided but not disappeared. Anywhere Turkey looks there are problems. As important, there are three regions of Eurasia that Turkey touches: Europe, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.
I have argued two things in the past. The first was that Turkey was an emerging regional power that would ultimately be the major power in its locale. The second was that this is a region that, ever since the decline and fall of the Ottomans in the first quarter of the 20th century, has been kept stable by outside powers. The decision of the United States to take a secondary role after the destabilization that began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq has left a vacuum Turkey will eventually be forced to fill. But Turkey is not ready to fill that vacuum. That has created a situation in which there is a balancing of power underway, particularly among Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
A Proximate Danger
The most violent and the most immediate crisis for Ankara is the area stretching from the Mediterranean to Iran, and from Turkey to Yemen. The main problem for Turkey is that Syria and Iraq have become contiguous battlegrounds featuring a range of forces, including Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish elements. These battles take place in a cauldron formed by four regional powers: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey. This quadrangle emerged logically from the mayhem caught between them.
Each major power has differing strategic interests. Iran's primary interest is the survival of the establishment and in assuring that an aggressive Sunni polity does not arise in Iraq to replicate the situation Tehran faced with Saddam Hussein. Iran's strategy is to support anti-Sunni forces in the region. This support ranges from bolstering Hezbollah in Lebanon, propping up the minority Alawite establishment in Syria led — for the moment — by Bashar al Assad, and assisting the Iraqi army, itself controlled by Shiites and Iraq's Shiite militias. The United States sees Iran as aligned with American interests for the moment, since both countries oppose the Islamic State and Tehran is important when it comes to containing the militant group. The reality on the ground has made this the most important issue between Iran and the United States, which frames the recent accord on nuclear weapons.
Saudi Arabia sees Iran as its primary enemy. Riyadh also views the Islamic State as a threat but at the same time fears that an Iraq and Syria dominated by Iran could present an existential threat to the House of Saud. The Saudis consider events in Yemen from a similar perspective. Also in this context, Riyadh perceives a common interest with Israel in containing Iranian militant proxies as well as the Islamic State. Who exactly the Saudis are supporting in Syria and Iraq is somewhat murky, but the kingdom has no choice but to play a tactical and opportunistic game.
The Israelis are in a similar position to the Saudis. They oppose the Iranians, but their main concern must be to make certain that the Hashemites in Jordan don't lose control of the country, opening the door to an Islamic State move on the Jordan River. Jordan appears stable for the moment and Israel and the Saudis see this as a main point of their collaboration. In the meantime, Israel is playing a wait-and-see game with Syria. Al Assad is no friend to the Israelis, but a weak al Assad is better than a strong Islamic State rule. The current situation in Syria suits Israel because a civil war limits immediate threats. But the conflict is itself out of control and the risk is that someone will win. Israel must favor al Assad and that aligns them on some level with Iran, even as Israel works with Sunni players like Saudi Arabia to contain Iranian militant proxies. Ironies abound.
It is in this context that the Turks have refused to make a clear commitment, either to traditional allies in the West or to the new potential allies that are yet emerging. Partly this is because no one's commitments — except the Iranians' — are clear and irrevocable, and partly because the Turks don't have to commit unless they want to. They are deeply opposed to the al Assad regime in Syria, and logic would have it that they are supporting the Islamic State, which also opposes the Syrian regime. As I have said before, there are endless rumors in the region that the Turks are favoring and aiding the Islamic State. These are rumors that Turkey has responded to by visibly and seriously cracking down on the Islamic State in recent weeks with significant border activity and widespread raids. The Turks know that the militants, no matter what the currently confrontational relationship might be, could transition from being a primarily Arab platform to being a threat to Turkey. There are some who say that the Turks see the Islamic State as creating the justification for a Turkish intervention in Syria. The weakness of this argument is that there has been ample justification that Ankara has declined, even as its posture toward the Islamic State becomes more aggressive.
This shows in Turkey's complex relations with the United States, still formally its major ally. In 2003 the Turks refused to allow U.S. forces to invade Iraq from Turkey. Since then the relationship with the United States has been complex and troubled. The Turks have made U.S. assistance in defeating al Assad a condition for extensive cooperation in Syria. Washington, concerned about an Islamic State government in Syria, and with little confidence in the non-Islamic State militancy as a long-term alternative, has refused to accept this. Therefore, while the Turks are now allowing some use of the NATO air base at Incirlik for operations against the Islamic State, they have not made a general commitment. Nor have they cooperated comprehensively with Sunni Saudi Arabia.
The Turkish problem is this: There are no low-risk moves. While Ankara has a large army on paper, it is untried in battle outside of Turkey's 30-year insurgency in its southeast. Turkey has also observed the outcome of U.S. conventional forces intervening in the region and doesn't want to run the same risk. There are domestic considerations as well. Turkey is divided between secular and Islamist factions. The secularists suspect the Islamists of being secretly aligned with radical Islam — and are the source of many of the rumors floating about. The ruling Sunni-dominated Justice and Development Party, better known by its Turkish acronym, AKP, was seriously weakened in the last election. Its ability to launch the only attack it wants — an attack to topple al Assad — would appear to be a religious war to the secularists and would not be welcomed by the party's base, setting in motion rifts that could bring down the AKP. An attack on the Sunnis, however radical, complicates relations with the rebel factions in northern Syria that Turkey is already sponsoring. It also would risk the backlash of reviving anti-Turkish feelings in an adjacent Arab country that remembers Turkish rule only a century ago.
Therefore Turkey, while incrementally changing — as evidenced by the recent accord to allow U.S. Predator drones to fly from Incirlik — is constrained if not paralyzed. From a strategic point of view, there appears to be more risk than reward. Its position resembles Israel's: watch, wait and hopefully avoid needing to do anything. From the political point of view, there is no firm base of support for either intervening directly or providing support for American airstrikes.
The problem is that the worst-case scenario for Turkey is the creation of an independent Kurdish republic in Syria or Iraq. That would risk lighting a touchpaper among Kurds in southeastern Turkey, and regardless of current agreements, could destabilize everything. This is the one thing that would force Turkey's hand. However, the United States has historically had some measure of influence among the Kurds in Iraq and also in Syria. While this influence can be overstated, and while Washington is dependent on the Kurdish peshmerga militias for ground support as it battles the Islamic State from the air, it is an important factor. If the situation grew out of control, Ankara would expect the United States to control the situation. If Washington could and would, the price would be Turkish support for U.S. operations in the region. The Turks would have to pay that price or risk intervention. That is the lever that would get Ankara involved.
Added Complications
The Turks are far less entangled in the Russian crisis than in the Middle East, but they are still involved, and potentially in a way that can pyramid. There are three dimensions to this. The first is the Black Sea and Turkey's role in it. The second is the Bosporus and the third is allowing the United States to operate from its air base in Incirlik in the event of increased Russian military involvement in Ukraine.
The crisis in Ukraine necessarily involves the Black Sea. Crimea's Sevastopol is a Russian Base on the Black Sea. In this potential conflict, the Black Sea becomes a vital theater of operations. First, in any movement westward by the Russians, the Black Sea is their right flank. Second, the Black Sea is a vital corridor for trade by the Russians, and an attempt by its enemies to shut down that corridor would have to be addressed by Russian naval forces. Finally, the U.S./NATO strategy in addressing the Ukrainian crisis has been to increase cooperation with Romania. Romania is on the Black Sea and the United States has indicated that it intends to work with Bucharest in strengthening its Black Sea capabilities. Therefore, events in the Black Sea can rapidly escalate under certain circumstances, posing threats to Turkish interests that Ankara cannot ignore.
The Black Sea issue is compounded by the question of the Bosporus, which is a narrow strait that, along with the Dardanelles, connects the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. The Bosporus is the only passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. For the Russians, this is a critical trade route and the only means for Russian ships passing into the Mediterranean. In the event of a conflict, the United States and NATO would likely want to send naval forces into the Black Sea to support operations around its perimeter.
Under the Montreux Convention, an agreement signed in 1936, the Bosporus is under Turkish |
Bigg \downarrow }v.}
Note the top-left corner entry with the rather large magnitude. This is the DC coefficient (also called the constant component), which defines the basic hue for the entire block. The remaining 63 coefficients are the AC coefficients (also called the alternating components).[24] The advantage of the DCT is its tendency to aggregate most of the signal in one corner of the result, as may be seen above. The quantization step to follow accentuates this effect while simultaneously reducing the overall size of the DCT coefficients, resulting in a signal that is easy to compress efficiently in the entropy stage.
The DCT temporarily increases the bit-depth of the data, since the DCT coefficients of an 8-bit/component image take up to 11 or more bits (depending on fidelity of the DCT calculation) to store. This may force the codec to temporarily use 16-bit numbers to hold these coefficients, doubling the size of the image representation at this point; these values are typically reduced back to 8-bit values by the quantization step. The temporary increase in size at this stage is not a performance concern for most JPEG implementations, since typically only a very small part of the image is stored in full DCT form at any given time during the image encoding or decoding process.
Quantization [ edit ]
The human eye is good at seeing small differences in brightness over a relatively large area, but not so good at distinguishing the exact strength of a high frequency brightness variation. This allows one to greatly reduce the amount of information in the high frequency components. This is done by simply dividing each component in the frequency domain by a constant for that component, and then rounding to the nearest integer. This rounding operation is the only lossy operation in the whole process (other than chroma subsampling) if the DCT computation is performed with sufficiently high precision. As a result of this, it is typically the case that many of the higher frequency components are rounded to zero, and many of the rest become small positive or negative numbers, which take many fewer bits to represent.
The elements in the quantization matrix control the compression ratio, with larger values producing greater compression. A typical quantization matrix (for a quality of 50% as specified in the original JPEG Standard), is as follows:
Q = [ 16 11 10 16 24 40 51 61 12 12 14 19 26 58 60 55 14 13 16 24 40 57 69 56 14 17 22 29 51 87 80 62 18 22 37 56 68 109 103 77 24 35 55 64 81 104 113 92 49 64 78 87 103 121 120 101 72 92 95 98 112 100 103 99 ]. {\displaystyle Q={\begin{bmatrix}16&11&10&16&24&40&51&61\\12&12&14&19&26&58&60&55\\14&13&16&24&40&57&69&56\\14&17&22&29&51&87&80&62\\18&22&37&56&68&109&103&77\\24&35&55&64&81&104&113&92\\49&64&78&87&103&121&120&101\\72&92&95&98&112&100&103&99\end{bmatrix}}.}
The quantized DCT coefficients are computed with
B j, k = r o u n d ( G j, k Q j, k ) for j = 0, 1, 2, …, 7 ; k = 0, 1, 2, …, 7 {\displaystyle B_{j,k}=\mathrm {round} \left({\frac {G_{j,k}}{Q_{j,k}}}\right){\mbox{ for }}j=0,1,2,\ldots,7;k=0,1,2,\ldots,7}
where G {\displaystyle G} is the unquantized DCT coefficients; Q {\displaystyle Q} is the quantization matrix above; and B {\displaystyle B} is the quantized DCT coefficients.
Using this quantization matrix with the DCT coefficient matrix from above results in:
Left: a final image is built up from a series of basis functions. Right: each of the DCT basis functions that comprise the image, and the corresponding weighting coefficient. Middle: the basis function, after multiplication by the coefficient: this component is added to the final image. For clarity, the 8×8 macroblock in this example is magnified by 10x using bilinear interpolation.
B = [ − 26 − 3 − 6 2 2 − 1 0 0 0 − 2 − 4 1 1 0 0 0 − 3 1 5 − 1 − 1 0 0 0 − 3 1 2 − 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ]. {\displaystyle B=\left[{\begin{array}{rrrrrrrr}-26&-3&-6&2&2&-1&0&0\\0&-2&-4&1&1&0&0&0\\-3&1&5&-1&-1&0&0&0\\-3&1&2&-1&0&0&0&0\\1&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\end{array}}\right].}
For example, using −415 (the DC coefficient) and rounding to the nearest integer
r o u n d ( − 415.37 16 ) = r o u n d ( − 25.96 ) = − 26. {\displaystyle \mathrm {round} \left({\frac {-415.37}{16}}\right)=\mathrm {round} \left(-25.96\right)=-26.}
Notice that most of the higher-frequency elements of the sub-block (i.e., those with an x or y spatial frequency greater than 4) are compressed into zero values.
Entropy coding [ edit ]
Zigzag ordering of JPEG image components
Entropy coding is a special form of lossless data compression. It involves arranging the image components in a "zigzag" order employing run-length encoding (RLE) algorithm that groups similar frequencies together, inserting length coding zeros, and then using Huffman coding on what is left.
The JPEG standard also allows, but does not require, decoders to support the use of arithmetic coding, which is mathematically superior to Huffman coding. However, this feature has rarely been used, as it was historically covered by patents requiring royalty-bearing licenses, and because it is slower to encode and decode compared to Huffman coding. Arithmetic coding typically makes files about 5–7% smaller.
The previous quantized DC coefficient is used to predict the current quantized DC coefficient. The difference between the two is encoded rather than the actual value. The encoding of the 63 quantized AC coefficients does not use such prediction differencing.
The zigzag sequence for the above quantized coefficients are shown below. (The format shown is just for ease of understanding/viewing.)
−26 −3 0 −3 −2 −6 2 −4 1 −3 1 1 5 1 2 −1 1 −1 2 0 0 0 0 0 −1 −1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
If the i-th block is represented by B i {\displaystyle B_{i}} and positions within each block are represented by ( p, q ) {\displaystyle (p,q)} where p = 0, 1,..., 7 {\displaystyle p=0,1,...,7} and q = 0, 1,..., 7 {\displaystyle q=0,1,...,7}, then any coefficient in the DCT image can be represented as B i ( p, q ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(p,q)}. Thus, in the above scheme, the order of encoding pixels (for the i-th block) is B i ( 0, 0 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(0,0)}, B i ( 0, 1 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(0,1)}, B i ( 1, 0 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(1,0)}, B i ( 2, 0 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(2,0)}, B i ( 1, 1 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(1,1)}, B i ( 0, 2 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(0,2)}, B i ( 0, 3 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(0,3)}, B i ( 1, 2 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(1,2)} and so on.
Baseline sequential JPEG encoding and decoding processes JPEG encoding and decoding processes
This encoding mode is called baseline sequential encoding. Baseline JPEG also supports progressive encoding. While sequential encoding encodes coefficients of a single block at a time (in a zigzag manner), progressive encoding encodes similar-positioned batch of coefficients of all blocks in one go (called a scan), followed by the next batch of coefficients of all blocks, and so on. For example, if the image is divided into N 8×8 blocks B 0, B 1, B 2,..., B n − 1 {\displaystyle B_{0},B_{1},B_{2},...,B_{n-1}}, then a 3-scan progressive encoding encodes DC component, B i ( 0, 0 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(0,0)} for all blocks, i.e., for all i = 0, 1, 2,..., N − 1 {\displaystyle i=0,1,2,...,N-1}, in first scan. This is followed by the second scan which encoding a few more components (assuming four more components, they are B i ( 0, 1 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(0,1)} to B i ( 1, 1 ) {\displaystyle B_{i}(1,1)}, still in a zigzag manner) coefficients of all blocks (so the sequence is: B 0 ( 0, 1 ), B 0 ( 1, 0 ), B 0 ( 2, 0 ), B 0 ( 1, 1 ), B 1 ( 0, 1 ), B 1 ( 1, 0 ),..., B N ( 2, 0 ), B N ( 1, 1 ) {\displaystyle B_{0}(0,1),B_{0}(1,0),B_{0}(2,0),B_{0}(1,1),B_{1}(0,1),B_{1}(1,0),...,B_{N}(2,0),B_{N}(1,1)} ), followed by all the remained coefficients of all blocks in the last scan.
Once all similar-positioned coefficients have been encoded, the next position to be encoded is the one occurring next in the zigzag traversal as indicated in the figure above. It has been found that baseline progressive JPEG encoding usually gives better compression as compared to baseline sequential JPEG due to the ability to use different Huffman tables (see below) tailored for different frequencies on each "scan" or "pass" (which includes similar-positioned coefficients), though the difference is not too large.
In the rest of the article, it is assumed that the coefficient pattern generated is due to sequential mode.
In order to encode the above generated coefficient pattern, JPEG uses Huffman encoding. The JPEG standard provides general-purpose Huffman tables; encoders may also choose to generate Huffman tables optimized for the actual frequency distributions in images being encoded.
The process of encoding the zig-zag quantized data begins with a run-length encoding explained below, where:
x is the non-zero, quantized AC coefficient.
is the non-zero, quantized AC coefficient. RUNLENGTH is the number of zeroes that came before this non-zero AC coefficient.
is the number of zeroes that came before this non-zero AC coefficient. SIZE is the number of bits required to represent x.
is the number of bits required to represent. AMPLITUDE is the bit-representation of x.
The run-length encoding works by examining each non-zero AC coefficient x and determining how many zeroes came before the previous AC coefficient. With this information, two symbols are created:
Symbol 1 Symbol 2 (RUNLENGTH, SIZE) (AMPLITUDE)
Both RUNLENGTH and SIZE rest on the same byte, meaning that each only contains four bits of information. The higher bits deal with the number of zeroes, while the lower bits denote the number of bits necessary to encode the value of x.
This has the immediate implication of Symbol 1 being only able store information regarding the first 15 zeroes preceding the non-zero AC coefficient. However, JPEG defines two special Huffman code words. One is for ending the sequence prematurely when the remaining coefficients are zero (called "End-of-Block" or "EOB"), and another when the run of zeroes goes beyond 15 before reaching a non-zero AC coefficient. In such a case where 16 zeroes are encountered before a given non-zero AC coefficient, Symbol 1 is encoded "specially" as: (15, 0)(0).
The overall process continues until "EOB" – denoted by (0, 0) – is reached.
With this in mind, the sequence from earlier becomes:
(0, 2)(-3);(1, 2)(-3);(0, 1)(-2);(0, 2)(-6);(0, 1)(2);(0, 1)(-4);(0, 1)(1);(0, 2)(-3);(0, 1)(1);(0, 1)(1); (0, 2)(5);(0, 1)(1);(0, 1)(2);(0, 1)(-1);(0, 1)(1);(0, 1)(-1);(0, 1)(2);(5, 1)(-1);(0, 1)(-1);(0, 0);
(The first value in the matrix, −26, is the DC coefficient; it is not encoded the same way. See above.)
From here, frequency calculations are made based on occurrences of the coefficients. In our example block, most of the quantized coefficients are small numbers that are not preceded immediately by a zero coefficient. These more-frequent cases will be represented by shorter code words.
Compression ratio and artifacts [ edit ]
This image shows the pixels that are different between a non-compressed image and the same image JPEG compressed with a quality setting of 50. Darker means a larger difference. Note especially the changes occurring near sharp edges and having a block-like shape.
The original image
The compressed 8×8 squares are visible in the scaled-up picture, together with other visual artifacts of the lossy compression
The resulting compression ratio can be varied according to need by being more or less aggressive in the divisors used in the quantization phase. Ten to one compression usually results in an image that cannot be distinguished by eye from the original. A compression ratio of 100:1 is usually possible, but will look distinctly artifacted compared to the original. The appropriate level of compression depends on the use to which the image will be put.
Those who use the World Wide Web may be familiar with the irregularities known as compression artifacts that appear in JPEG images, which may take the form of noise around contrasting edges (especially curves and corners), or "blocky" images. These are due to the quantization step of the JPEG algorithm. They are especially noticeable around sharp corners between contrasting colors (text is a good example, as it contains many such corners). The analogous artifacts in MPEG video are referred to as mosquito noise, as the resulting "edge busyness" and spurious dots, which change over time, resemble mosquitoes swarming around the object.[25][26]
These artifacts can be reduced by choosing a lower level of compression; they may be completely avoided by saving an image using a lossless file format, though this will result in a larger file size. The images created with ray-tracing programs have noticeable blocky shapes on the terrain. Certain low-intensity compression artifacts might be acceptable when simply viewing the images, but can be emphasized if the image is subsequently processed, usually resulting in unacceptable quality. Consider the example below, demonstrating the effect of lossy compression on an edge detection processing step.
Some programs allow the user to vary the amount by which individual blocks are compressed. Stronger compression is applied to areas of the image that show fewer artifacts. This way it is possible to manually reduce JPEG file size with less loss of quality.
Since the quantization stage always results in a loss of information, JPEG standard is always a lossy compression codec. (Information is lost both in quantizing and rounding of the floating-point numbers.) Even if the quantization matrix is a matrix of ones, information will still be lost in the rounding step.
Decoding [ edit ]
Decoding to display the image consists of doing all the above in reverse.
Taking the DCT coefficient matrix (after adding the difference of the DC coefficient back in)
[ − 26 − 3 − 6 2 2 − 1 0 0 0 − 2 − 4 1 1 0 0 0 − 3 1 5 − 1 − 1 0 0 0 − 3 1 2 − 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ] {\displaystyle \left[{\begin{array}{rrrrrrrr}-26&-3&-6&2&2&-1&0&0\\0&-2&-4&1&1&0&0&0\\-3&1&5&-1&-1&0&0&0\\-3&1&2&-1&0&0&0&0\\1&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\end{array}}\right]}
and taking the entry-for-entry product with the quantization matrix from above results in
[ − 416 − 33 − 60 32 48 − 40 0 0 0 − 24 − 56 19 26 0 0 0 − 42 13 80 − 24 − 40 0 0 0 − 42 17 44 − 29 0 0 0 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ] {\displaystyle \left[{\begin{array}{rrrrrrrr}-416&-33&-60&32&48&-40&0&0\\0&-24&-56&19&26&0&0&0\\-42&13&80&-24&-40&0&0&0\\-42&17&44&-29&0&0&0&0\\18&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\\0&0&0&0&0&0&0&0\end{array}}\right]}
which closely resembles the original DCT coefficient matrix for the top-left portion.
The next step is to take the two-dimensional inverse DCT (a 2D type-III DCT), which is given by:
f x, y = 1 4 ∑ u = 0 7 ∑ v = 0 7 α ( u ) α ( v ) F u, v cos [ ( 2 x + 1 ) u π 16 ] cos [ ( 2 y + 1 ) v π 16 ] {\displaystyle f_{x,y}={\frac {1}{4}}\sum _{u=0}^{7}\sum _{v=0}^{7}\alpha (u)\alpha (v)F_{u,v}\cos \left[{\frac {(2x+1)u\pi }{16}}\right]\cos \left[{\frac {(2y+1)v\pi }{16}}\right]}
where
x {\displaystyle \ x} 0 ≤ x < 8 {\displaystyle \ 0\leq x<8}
y {\displaystyle \ y} 0 ≤ y < 8 {\displaystyle \ 0\leq y<8}
α ( u ) {\displaystyle \ \alpha (u)} 0 ≤ u < 8 {\displaystyle \ 0\leq u<8}
F u, v {\displaystyle \ F_{u,v}} ( u, v ). {\displaystyle \ (u,v).}
f x, y {\displaystyle \ f_{x,y}} ( x, y ) {\displaystyle \ (x,y)}
Rounding the output to integer values (since the original had integer values) results in an image with values (still shifted down by 128)
Slight differences are noticeable between the original (top) and decompressed image (bottom), which is most readily seen in the bottom-left corner.
[ − 66 − 63 − 71 − 68 − 56 − 65 − 68 − 46 − 71 − 73 − 72 − 46 − 20 − 41 − 66 − 57 − 70 − 78 − 68 − 17 20 − 14 − 61 − 63 − 63 − 73 − 62 − 8 27 − 14 − 60 − 58 − 58 − 65 − 61 − 27 − 6 − 40 − 68 − 50 − 57 − 57 − 64 − 58 − 48 − 66 − 72 − 47 − 53 − 46 − 61 − 74 − 65 − 63 − 62 − 45 − 47 − 34 − 53 − 74 − 60 − 47 − 47 − 41 ] {\displaystyle \left[{\begin{array}{rrrrrrrr}-66&-63&-71&-68&-56&-65&-68&-46\\-71&-73&-72&-46&-20&-41&-66&-57\\-70&-78&-68&-17&20&-14&-61&-63\\-63&-73&-62&-8&27&-14&-60&-58\\-58&-65&-61&-27&-6&-40&-68&-50\\-57&-57&-64&-58&-48&-66&-72&-47\\-53&-46&-61&-74&-65&-63&-62&-45\\-47&-34&-53&-74&-60&-47&-47&-41\end{array}}\right]}
and adding 128 to each entry
[ 62 65 57 60 72 63 60 82 57 55 56 82 108 87 62 71 58 50 60 111 148 114 67 65 65 55 66 120 155 114 68 70 70 63 67 101 122 88 60 78 71 71 64 70 80 62 56 81 75 82 67 54 63 65 66 83 81 94 75 54 68 81 81 87 ]. {\displaystyle \left[{\begin{array}{rrrrrrrr}62&65&57&60&72&63&60&82\\57&55&56&82&108&87&62&71\\58&50&60&111&148&114&67&65\\65&55&66&120&155&114&68&70\\70&63&67&101&122&88&60&78\\71&71&64&70&80&62&56&81\\75&82&67&54&63&65&66&83\\81&94&75&54&68&81&81&87\end{array}}\right].}
This is the decompressed subimage. In general, the decompression process may produce values outside the original input range of [ 0, 255 ] {\displaystyle [0,255]}. If this occurs, the decoder needs to clip the output values so as to keep them within that range to prevent overflow when storing the decompressed image with the original bit depth.
The decompressed subimage can be compared to the original subimage (also see images to the right) by taking the difference (original − uncompressed) results in the following error values:
[ − 10 − 10 4 6 − 2 − 2 4 − 9 6 4 − 1 8 1 − 2 7 1 4 9 8 2 − 4 − 10 − 1 8 − 2 3 5 2 − 1 − 8 2 − 1 − 3 − 2 1 3 4 0 8 − 8 8 − 6 − 4 − 0 − 3 6 2 − 6 10 − 11 − 3 5 − 8 − 4 − 1 − 0 6 − 15 − 6 14 − 3 − 5 − 3 7 ] {\displaystyle \left[{\begin{array}{rrrrrrrr}-10&-10&4&6&-2&-2&4&-9\\6&4&-1&8&1&-2&7&1\\4&9&8&2&-4&-10&-1&8\\-2&3&5&2&-1&-8&2&-1\\-3&-2&1&3&4&0&8&-8\\8&-6&-4&-0&-3&6&2&-6\\10&-11&-3&5&-8&-4&-1&-0\\6&-15&-6&14&-3&-5&-3&7\end{array}}\right]}
with an average absolute error of about 5 values per pixels (i.e., 1 64 ∑ x = 0 7 ∑ y = 0 7 | e ( x, y ) | = 4.8750 {\displaystyle {\frac {1}{64}}\sum _{x=0}^{7}\sum _{y=0}^{7}|e(x,y)|=4.8750} ).
The error is most noticeable in the bottom-left corner where the bottom-left pixel becomes darker than the pixel to its immediate right.
Required precision [ edit ]
The encoding description in the JPEG standard does not fix the precision needed for the output compressed image. However, the JPEG standard (and the similar MPEG standards) includes some precision requirements for the decoding, including all parts of the decoding process (variable length decoding, inverse DCT, dequantization, renormalization of outputs); the output from the reference algorithm must not exceed:
a maximum of one bit of difference for each pixel component
low mean square error over each 8×8-pixel block
very low mean error over each 8×8-pixel block
very low mean square error over the whole image
extremely low mean error over the whole image
These assertions are tested on a large set of randomized input images, to handle the worst cases. The former IEEE 1180–1990 standard contained some similar precision requirements. The precision has a consequence on the implementation of decoders, and it is critical because some encoding processes (notably used for encoding sequences of images like MPEG) need to be able to construct, on the encoder side, a reference decoded image. In order to support 8-bit precision per pixel component output, dequantization and inverse DCT transforms are typically implemented with at least 14-bit precision in optimized decoders.
Effects of JPEG compression [ edit ]
JPEG compression artifacts blend well into photographs with detailed non-uniform textures, allowing higher compression ratios. Notice how a higher compression ratio first affects the high-frequency textures in the upper-left corner of the image, and how the contrasting lines become more fuzzy. The very high compression ratio severely affects the quality of the image, although the overall colors and image form are still recognizable. However, the precision of colors suffer less (for a human eye) than the precision of contours (based on luminance). This justifies the fact that images should be first transformed in a color model separating the luminance from the chromatic information, before subsampling the chromatic planes (which may also use lower quality quantization) in order to preserve the precision of the luminance plane with more information bits.
Sample photographs [ edit ]
Visual impact of a jpeg compression on Photoshop on a picture of 4480x4480 pixels
For information, the uncompressed 24-bit RGB bitmap image below (73,242 pixels) would require 219,726 bytes (excluding all other information headers). The filesizes indicated below include the internal JPEG information headers and some metadata. For highest quality images (Q=100), about 8.25 bits per color pixel is required. On grayscale images, a minimum of 6.5 bits per pixel is enough (a comparable Q=100 quality color information requires about 25% more encoded bits). The highest quality image below (Q=100) is encoded at nine bits per color pixel, the medium quality image (Q=25) uses one bit per color pixel. For most applications, the quality factor should not go below 0.75 bit per pixel (Q=12.5), as demonstrated by the low quality image. The image at lowest quality uses only 0.13 bit per pixel, and displays very poor color. This is useful when the image will be displayed in a significantly scaled-down size. A method for creating better quantization matrices for a given image quality using PSNR instead of the Q factor is described in Minguillón & Pujol (2001).[27]
Note: The above images are not IEEE / CCIR / EBU test images, and the encoder settings are not specified or available. Image Quality Size (bytes) Compression ratio Comment Highest quality (Q = 100) 81,447 2.7:1 Extremely minor artifacts High quality (Q = 50) 14,679 15:1 Initial signs of subimage artifacts Medium quality (Q = 25) 9,407 23:1 Stronger artifacts; loss of high frequency information Low quality (Q = 10) 4,787 46:1 Severe high frequency loss leads to obvious artifacts on subimage boundaries ("macroblocking") Lowest quality (Q = 1) 1,523 144:1 Extreme loss of color and detail; the leaves are nearly unrecognizable.
The medium quality photo uses only 4.3% of the storage space required for the uncompressed image, but has little noticeable loss of detail or visible artifacts. However, once a certain threshold of compression is passed, compressed images show increasingly visible defects. See the article on rate–distortion theory for a mathematical explanation of this threshold effect. A particular limitation of JPEG in this regard is its non-overlapped 8×8 block transform structure. More modern designs such as JPEG 2000 and JPEG XR exhibit a more graceful degradation of quality as the bit usage decreases – by using transforms with a larger spatial extent for the lower frequency coefficients and by using overlapping transform basis functions.
Lossless further compression [ edit ]
From 2004 to 2008, new research emerged on ways to further compress the data contained in JPEG images without modifying the represented image.[28][29][30][31] This has applications in scenarios where the original image is only available in JPEG format, and its size needs to be reduced for archiving or transmission. Standard general-purpose compression tools cannot significantly compress JPEG files.
Typically, such schemes take advantage of improvements to the naive scheme for coding DCT coefficients, which fails to take into account:
Correlations between magnitudes of adjacent coefficients in the same block;
Correlations between magnitudes of the same coefficient in adjacent blocks;
Correlations between magnitudes of the same coefficient/block in different channels;
The DC coefficients when taken together resemble a downscale version of the original image multiplied by a scaling factor. Well-known schemes for lossless coding of continuous-tone images can be applied, achieving somewhat better compression than the Huffman coded DPCM used in JPEG.
Some standard but rarely used options already exist in JPEG to improve the efficiency of coding DCT coefficients: the arithmetic coding option, and the progressive coding option (which produces lower bitrates because values for each coefficient are coded independently, and each coefficient has a significantly different distribution). Modern methods have improved on these techniques by reordering coefficients to group coefficients of larger magnitude together;[28] using adjacent coefficients and blocks to predict new coefficient values;[30] dividing blocks or coefficients up among a small number of independently coded models based on their statistics and adjacent values;[29][30] and most recently, by decoding blocks, predicting subsequent blocks in the spatial domain, and then encoding these to generate predictions for DCT coefficients.[31]
Typically, such methods can compress existing JPEG files between 15 and 25 percent, and for JPEGs compressed at low-quality settings, can produce improvements of up to 65%.[30][31]
A freely available tool called packJPG[32] is based on the 2007 paper "Improved Redundancy Reduction for JPEG Files."
Derived formats for stereoscopic 3D [ edit ]
JPEG Stereoscopic [ edit ]
An example of a stereoscopic.JPS file
JPS is a stereoscopic JPEG image used for creating 3D effects from 2D images. It contains two static images, one for the left eye and one for the right eye; encoded as two side-by-side images in a single JPG file. JPEG Stereoscopic (JPS, extension.jps) is a JPEG-based format for stereoscopic images.[33][34] It has a range of configurations stored in the JPEG APP3 marker field, but usually contains one image of double width, representing two images of identical size in cross-eyed (i.e. left frame on the right half of the image and vice versa) side-by-side arrangement. This file format can be viewed as a JPEG without any special software, or can be processed for rendering in other modes.
JPEG Multi-Picture Format [ edit ]
JPEG Multi-Picture Format (MPO, extension.mpo) is a JPEG-based format for storing multiple images in a single file. It contains two or more JPEG files concatenated together.[35][36] It also defines a JPEG APP2 marker segment for image description. Various devices use it to store 3D images, such as Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W1, HTC Evo 3D, JVC GY-HMZ1U AVCHD/MVC extension camcorder, Nintendo 3DS, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20, DMC-TZ30, DMC-TZ60, DMC-TS4 (FT4), and Sony DSC-HX7V. Other devices use it to store "preview images" that can be displayed on a TV.
In the last few years, due to the growing use of stereoscopic images, much effort has been spent by the scientific community to develop algorithms for stereoscopic image compression.[37][38]
Patent issues [ edit ]
In 2002, Forgent Networks asserted that it owned and would enforce patent rights on the JPEG technology, arising from a patent that had been filed on October 27, 1986, and granted on October 6, 1987 (U.S. Patent 4,698,672). The announcement created a furor reminiscent of Unisys' attempts to assert its rights over the GIF image compression standard.
The JPEG committee investigated the patent claims in 2002 and were of the opinion that they were invalidated by prior art.[39] Others also concluded that Forgent did not have a patent that covered JPEG.[40] Nevertheless, between 2002 and 2004 Forgent was able to obtain about US$105 million by licensing their patent to some 30 companies. In April 2004, Forgent sued 31 other |
in Virginia, that was most likely someone connected with the Byrd Machine.
With the shift to Southern Republicanism that began in the South in the 1970’s, the game has changed. But not all that much. Congressional re-districting (in which the inmates decide who is going to run the asylum) has resulted in Virginia having Congressional races for what are clearly “safe seats,” that is, seats drawn by the incumbents, of the incumbents, and for the incumbents. So the general election decision is made in the primaries. Unless there is an unexpected lightning strike, that is simply going to happen. It is the next thing to being disenfranchised.
But by voting for David Brat in the Seventh District Republican primary, we Democrats, independents, and Libertarians can make a big difference in American politics. It is your right to cast that vote. It is an “open” primary and it doesn’t preclude anyone from voting anyway they wish in November. It may be the only way to empower those who want to make a statement about the dysfunctional Congress and “politics as usual.”
From what I know of Dave Brat, he is a good, honest, and honorable man. And from what I know of Eric Cantor, I can say only that he ran a truly dishonorable campaign against me back in 2002. He ducked debates, slandered me in slick mailings, questioned my patriotism and even mocked my Southern heritage. He simply cannot be taken at his word. You can call that “sour grapes” if you want to, but I am just telling it the way it was, and surely is. I can tell you that you will likely hear the same thing from his other former opponents, both Republican and Democrat.
Under Cantor’s Majority Leadership, the Congress has sunk to its lowest public standing in history. Our nation has lost faith in our most important institutions. This is not a laughing matter. It is a national crisis. Eric Cantor should not be rewarded with another term.
Every 7th District voter, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and Independent can take an historic action on Tuesday, June 10th. A vote for David Brat will be heard not just throughout Washington, D.C. but around the world.
Ben Jones
Washington, VirginiaIn Buddhism the problem of the real you is better solved by understanding what is not you. Philosophically speaking, this way of looking at yourself is the via negativa. This can be easily illustrated.
If we imagine that we are a radio signal, trying to find ourselves in a radio would be terribly confusing and difficult since we would believe that we are the tuner or the speaker or the antenna and so on.
Further imagine that other radios are telling us there is no such thing as a radio signal. They declare: “You are the sum of the radio with all of its parts.” Now let’s imagine as a radio we start to learn about an enlightened radio called the Buddha. In his discourses the Buddha continually harps on the fact that the radio is not us (anattâ/anatman). He lists all the parts of the radio then says of each part like the antenna, this radio part is not me.
I think this signal/radio analogy is very pertinent. If one bothers to read the bulk of the Buddha’s discourses, the Buddha is always telling his followers that their psychophysical body, which he calls the Five Aggregates (form, sensation, perception, discrimination, consciousness [R.C. Childers’ trans.]) should not be mistaken for their self. In other words, aggregates are not-the-self or in Pali, anattâ. In light of this, those who insist that the Buddha denied the self are completely wrong.
Getting back to the problem of trying to find the real you it becomes almost an impossible task if we strongly desire to identify our self with our physical body since our body is subject to aging and constant change, not to mention degrees of pain. By the same token, it is absurd to insist there is no self or you. It changes nothing. But it does change things if we learn to detach from our strong desire to identify our self with the psychophysical body. In this reflection, we have to learn to see our self as being more like a radio signal which is tuned into a particular body, partaking of its life; that after this body’s death will link with still another body otherwise called, ‘rebirth’.NFL.com reports the Denver Broncos have offered safety Charles Woodson a contract, but will likely need to up the offer. Next week, Woodson is planning to visit Oakland, where he spent the first eight years of his career.
I would be surprised if the Raiders engage in a bidding war. They have not done so this offseason as they have begun to rebuild their roster.
They are giving players short, inexpensive deals. Trying to win a bidding war for a 36-year-old player doesn’t seem like it would fit the plan of G.M. Reggie McKenzie. But if Oakland thinks Woodson can help on the field and in the locker room, perhaps McKenzie will change course. Denver is still considered by many league observers as a favorite to land the future hall of famer.Compact Disc Protection
Here’s a computer artifact you don’t see very often these days: a CD caddy. Many early CD-ROM drives (released roughly 1985 – 1993) required the use of CD caddies, which were designed to protect CD-ROM discs from dust and rough handling. With a CD inside, they look a lot like a bigger version of a 3.5″ floppy disk, albeit with a clear window on one side.
When I ran across this caddy in my collection recently, it made me think a little deeper about why engineers invented them in the first place. Why were CD caddies so common at one point, I wondered, and why are they virtually extinct today?
I have decided that it all boils down to the price and preciousness of commercial CD-ROM discs.
The Land Before CD Burners
When manufacturers first introduced CD-ROM drives in the mid-1980s, CD-ROM titles were very expensive and nearly impossible to copy.
The earliest discs typically held the equivalent of dozens of volumes of printed books, such as an encyclopedia or a comprehensive medical reference. At that time, printed references were still big business, and publishers didn’t want to cannibalize print sales with a relatively cheap, easy to produce, and easy to distribute computer data disc. That factor, when combined with low competition and low demand, kept CD-ROM prices high. For example, a copy of the all-text (this is pre-multimedia) Grolier’s Academic American Encyclopedia on a single CD-ROM sold for $199 in 1986 (that’s $360.99 when adjusted for inflation).
If you bought a $361 CD-ROM disc today, and you had no way to back it up, copy it, or download the equivalent data from the Internet, you’d probably want to put it in a CD caddy too.
Compare that price with the average music CD, which cost about $15 in 1986 (about $30.79 in today’s dollars). If you scratched your Bruce Springsteen CD, it wasn’t that much of a financial outlay to replace it, which would explain the lack of caddies in music CD players.
The Demise of the CD Caddy
The CD caddy carried with it two major drawbacks that led to its downfall: cost and inconvenience. To protect all your CD-ROM discs, as intended, you had to buy a caddy for each disc, which added significant ownership cost at a time when caddies sold for over $10 a piece. Exactly because of this, people tended to buy only a few CD caddies and swap their discs out between them. Inserting and removing a disc from a caddy was a tedious operation that actually increased disc handling time, thus negating the protective benefits of the caddy to begin with.
As CD-ROM titles began to drop to the under $100-per-disc mark (very early 1990s), tray-loading CD-ROM drives emerged that did not require caddies. They were convenient and easy to use. When paired with continually dropping CD-ROM disc prices, caddy-using drives became rare by the mid-1990s, and almost completely extinct by the time CD burners went mainstream in the late 1990s. By that time, the preciousness of your average factory-pressed CD-ROM disc had dropped dramatically.
Not all CD-ROM and optical media titles are cheaper today than they were in the past. After all, Adobe Photoshop on DVD-ROM costs over $1,000. But the Photoshop disc itself doesn’t mean that much when you can rip it in a few minutes to a hard disk, dupe it to a blank DVD, or find the program online if necessary. The program doesn’t even run off the disc as most CD-ROM titles once did, so we just install the program to a hard drive and set the disc aside.
Another Reason for the CD Caddy?
While CD-ROM disc prices most likely explain the rise and fall of CD caddies, they may not tell the complete story. There could be legal (say, patent) or mechanical reasons why manufacturers went with caddy-load over tray-load techniques in early CD-ROM drives, although I have no evidence to support those theories at present. (One of the earliest CD-ROM drives used a top loading paradigm, by the way.)
For example, perhaps early CD-ROM drives could be made smaller or more cheaply if they used caddy-load mechanisms. Or maybe the caddies allowed early drives to read discs faster than 1X speed. To find out, we’d have to talk to an engineer who designed CD-ROM drives, and that’s a bit beyond the scope of a Retro Scan of the Week.
If anyone out there designed or worked on CD-ROM drives professionally, I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
Discussion Topic of the Week: When did you get your first CD-ROM drive (for a personal computer)? What were some of the first CD-ROM titles you owned?Corporate bond defaults have just crossed an ominous milestone.
Fully 100 companies have defaulted on debt, 50 percent more than for the same period in 2015 and the highest level since 2009, according to S&P Global Ratings.
Low oil and commodity prices, along with financial market volatility in the United States and abroad, have been the primary problems for the bond market this year. While the actual ratio of distressed issues is on the decline, the level of defaults has climbed.
While the defaults have been weighted heavily to the energy sector, analysts at S&P said there's no guarantee things will stay that way.
"Over the past year, we have seen a strong increase in both the number and percentage of defaults in the energy and natural resources sector," the agency said in a note. "So far, there has been little spillover effect into other sectors, but we are not ruling this out in the coming quarters."
The distressed level declined to 17.1 percent in June, the fourth consecutive monthly drop. Of the 300 issues categorized as distressed, 22 percent came from the energy sector.
Multiyear highs in defaults have failed to dampen investor appetite for corporate debt.
Trading volumes are up 33 percent for investment-grade bonds and 22 percent for high yield, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Flows have been strong as well, with fixed-income funds pulling in $7.95 billion last week, the highest level since February 2015, BofAML also reported.
Last Thursday, the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade exchange-traded fund pulled in nearly $1.1 billion, the biggest single-day inflow ever for a corporate bond fund.Monday, June 23
By Lisa Soignier of Independence, Missouri, USA
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.
—James 3:17 NRSV
My grandmother loved taking her family to summer church camps. When I was a little girl she and my grandfather took me and my two young uncles to a reunion (family camp).
The two adults rode in the cab of the truck, and the children rode on a bench in the back. It was raining. A big plastic tarp was tied over the truck bed to keep us dry. Today’s law would consider this method of transportation unsafe. As I got older, transportation got a little safer.
One year my grandmother drove a large motor home to camp and took 10 grandchildren. It was comical to see so many children emerging from the vehicle—like off-loading the ark.
My own mother continued this tradition, plus seatbelts. This past summer four generations from our family attended reunion at Bald Knob, Arkansas.
Attending reunions affects our family’s involvement in church in a big way. The children learn from an early age that they are an important part of our faith community. They become familiar with reading scripture, offering prayers, ministering with music, and receiving the offering for worship services. They are enthusiastic to serve the Lord. They minister with their presence, as only children can do.
May our children continue to lead the way. May Christ’s mission be our mission, and their mission.
Prayer for Peace God of wisdom, may we be as children—peaceable, gentle, without hypocrisy. May we follow them to share the good fruits of Christ’s Mission.
Spiritual Practice: Listening to Children Sit in your quiet place and center your heart and mind on God’s presence. Spend several minutes asking God to bring into your awareness the names and images of children in your life. You may see their faces or hear their voices as you receive these impressions.
Listen deeply to the unique gifts and needs of the children who come to mind. Offer a prayer of blessing for each child and the needs you sense. If you feel led, you also may want to write a note or card and give a message of affirmation and love to each child.
Peace Covenant Today, God, I will send an e-mail or letter to a child who has touched my life.
AdvertisementsIn addition to the announcement of expanded calendars for both the Asian Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup there was a further set of highly significant announcements around a new and much more formal partnership between the Asian Le Mans Series (and Sprint Cup) and the GT Asia organisation.
The two organisations have already had an informal agreement to avoid calendar clashes, this one of the major factors that damaged the Asian Le Mans Series when it was relaunched some years ago.
The new agreement moves beyond that to add co-operation on Scrutineering and Balance of Performance.
A number of collaborative incentives are also involved:
The winner of the 2016/17 Asian LMS GT class will receive a free entry into GT Asia for 2017.
The winner of the 2017 GT Asia will receive a free entry into the 2017/2018 Asian Le Mans Series GT class.
The two partners have also agreed to establish the Michelin GT Asia Challenge.
Whilst retaining completely separate Championships the new Challenge combines the Asian LMS GT classification with the GT3 results of GT Asia.
The Challenge will see:
– An overall teams and drivers classification (for full season entrants in both series), and…
– Prize money (to be announced) for the top three teams
In addition the ACO have agreed to award the winning team in the new Challenge an entry for the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours in the LM GTE AM class.
Reaction from organisers and teams in due course.Published: - Aug 11, 2017
Violence has taken its toll on peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers
Stephen O'Brien, the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, said, in a brief statement, that the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) had deteriorated to the point that "the early warning signs of a genocide" are there. So far, according to O’Brien, 180,000 people have had to leave their homes because of the violence. In total, there are now more than half a million people displaced in the country and half of the population is dependent on foreign food aid. “There is a risk that the humanitarian emergency will continue to worsen”, the politician affirmed.
O’Brien stated it was time to authorize an increase in troops and police serving in the U.N. peacekeeping force in the CAR, known as MINUSCA, to enable the mission to “deliver on its critical protection mandate”. The United Nation’s peacekeeping chief, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, affirmed he was considering sending a request to the United Nations Security Council for more troops for MINUSCA. Alexandre Sarr, head of the refugees’ agency UNHCR in Meiganga, across the border in Cameroon, confirmed that more than 6,800 people had arrived from CAR since July 10.
O'Brien said he was horrified by a visit he made to a Catholic church in the southern town of Bangassou where 2,000 Muslims took refuge while being surrounded by Christian fighters who are threatening to kill them.
Doctors Without Borders released a statement in which it claims that “the hospitals are no longer places of safety, and all armed personnel must not enter health facilities, and all groups must facilitate the evacuation of all sick and injured persons to medical facilities for medical care”.
The violence stems from deeper divisions created during the 2012-2013 crisis in which Seleka militants, from the country's northeast, overthrew the government of then-President Gen. Francois Bozize (allegedly with backing from some regional states). The chaos helped unleash violence and ethnic cleansing, forcing France to intervene with the help of African allies, including Chad, to halt the bloodshed. Since then, the Central African Republic has moved to a democratically elected government, while implementing profound state control over the vast, isolated country.
These events sparked some of the bloodiest sectarian violence in the country's history; mainly Christian armed groups sought revenge. Christians, who account for about 80 percent of the population, organized vigilant units dubbed "Anti-balaka", a reference to the machetes used by the Muslim rebels. The proliferation of militant splinter groups with competing aims attests to this instability, complicating the ability of the U.N. mission and that of the Central African Republic's government to ensure order.
Nine MINUSCA peacekeepers have been killed this year, alarming authorities since it seems as if the country is sliding back to the bloodletting that exploded back in 2013 following the overthrow of Bozize; said organization and its mandate are only authorized in the African nation until November 15th. Only 24 percent of the $497 million dollars requested have been given to the mission of Central African Republic. O'Brien noted that the lack of funding humanitarian operations will likely exacerbate the situation.
Latin American Post | Carlos Eduardo Gómez Avella
Copy edited by Susana CicchettoMiami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton was presented with the Hank Aaron award at the World Series on Wednesday.
This is the second time in Stanton's career that he has taken home this great honor. The award is given to the top hitter in each league and Stanton separated himself from the competition in 2017. Fans as well as select members of the media took part in the voting process for the award.
In what was possibly his final season in Miami, Stanton set multiple franchise records. Stanton compiled 59 home runs, to go along with 132 runs batted in. The All-Star chased down baseball history until the final day of the season. Even though he failed to reach 60 home runs, Stanton still cemented himself into the history books.
With new ownership in place and a possible payroll purge on the way, Stanton's days in Miami may be numbered. The organization has not provided many details on plans for the roster, but it could be difficult to retain Stanton. The Marlins had a payroll that eclipsed $100 million in 2017 and that number would soar even higher without some cost-cutting maneuvers.
This may be just the first award that Stanton takes home this off-season. The Most Valuable Player award is usually given to a player on a playoff team, but it is not always the case. Stanton's eye-popping statistics could be enough to get him the honor, despite Miami's losing record. It would be the first MVP award in franchise history if Stanton is named the winner.
Miami's roster plans should begin to become evident following the conclusion of the World Series. At only 27, Stanton should have plenty of more history ahead of him. It remains to be seen if any of those big moments will come in Miami.The sequel to Square-Enix’s “Bravely Default” now has a concrete release date in Japan – the 23rd of April, 2015. The company also provided a look at the RPG’s fancy collectors edition, which will be out on the same day for 14,800 yen exclusively on Square-Enix’s “e-Store”. This pack includes a figure of Bravely Default heroine Agnes, a mini soundtrack, a copy of “U’s Journal”, rubber strap of Magnolia and the book BRAVELY DEFAULT 200 Years Later: ~ Vestal of Wind: Edea Oblige ~. Alternatively, if you don’t want to spend that much, the standard game will set you back 5,980 yen. Additionally, there are several retailer-specific preorder bonuses for the game, although these are limited to in-game weapons. We’re still holding out for an English release of the game to be announced, but even if it does make it over it’s hard to imagine Square-Enix or Nintendo releasing such a lavish special edition.
Source
Share this: Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Tumblr
Google
More
Email
Print
LinkedIn
Pinterest
PocketThe Washington Post is behaving in a rather Nixonian fashion, refusing to openly admit that its hit piece on Mitt Romney in high school yesterday contained serious errors that seem to reveal malevolent intentions. The coverup -- quietly altering the text in the online version, but not admitting error there, or publishing a formal correction -- may be worse than the crime, in classic "-gate" fashion.
How can Romney's old pal Stu White tell the Washington Post that he has "long been bothered by the Lauber incident" - and then later admit to ABC News that he was "not present for the prank" and "was not aware of it until this year when he was contacted by the Washington Post"? This is curious. The Washington Post story reports: "I always enjoyed his pranks," said Stu White, a popular friend of Romney's who went on to a career as a public school teacher and has long been bothered by the Lauber incident." But ABC News, says: "White was not present for the prank, in which Romney is said to have forcefully cut a student's long hair and was not aware of it until this year when he was contacted by the Washington Post." (Emphasis mine.)
What are we to make of this?
Moreover, as Ben Shapiro explains:
But it gets worse. Tonight, Christine Lauber, John Lauber's sister, said that she didn't know anything about the bullying incident. More importantly, she said that the story had factual inaccuracies. Betsy Lauber, another of John's sisters, told ABC News, "The family of John Lauber is releasing a statement saying the portrayal of John is factually incorrect and we are aggrieved that he would be used to further a political agenda. There will be no more comments from the family." Said Christine, "If he were alive today, he would be furious [about the story]." Jason Horowitz, the reporter on the Post story, did speak to both sisters and quoted them in the story - but apparently still botched the facts. The Post piece implies that the Romney incident was somehow the beginning of the end for Lauber: Sometime in the mid-1990s, David Seed noticed a familiar face at the end of a bar at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. "Hey, you're John Lauber," Seed recalled saying at the start of a brief conversation. Seed, also among those who witnessed the Romney-led incident, had gone on to a career as a teacher and principal. Now he had something to get off his chest. "I'm sorry that I didn't do more to help in the situation," he said. Lauber paused, then responded, "It was horrible." He went on to explain how frightened he was during the incident, and acknowledged to Seed, "It's something I have thought about a lot since then." Lauber died in 2004, according to his three sisters.
Even worse for the Post, the Lauber family now is aggrieved over exploiting John for political purposes.
Update: Susan Swift of Big Journalism discovered that David Murray of Automobile Magazine has an article in the June 2012 edition about Romney's youth, interviewed some of the same people, and painted a very different picture. Read the whole thing.
There is further evidence that a disinformation campaign is underway:
After nearly 50 years, Stu White only heard of the Lauber incident a few weeks before the Post contacted him for his impressions of it. Yet "investigative journalist" Jason Horowitz does not ask the basic journalistic question of "who" told Stu White of the incident--and "why" suddenly now, after 50 years. Does WaPo just dismiss this as miraculous coincidence? Isn't that perhaps the most crucial element to the Post story--the question of why Obama's epic same-sex marriage announcement seemed to have been timed so precisely with someone tipping off Stu White after 50 years, and with the Post's publication of its gay-bullying hit piece on Romney? White's anonymous informant and the Post's piece seem hardly coincidental. To summarize: two current articles based on interviews with some of the same former classmates. But they present two differing and largely inconsistent portraits, with Horowitz's Washington Post either failing to investigate, or deliberately omitting, crucial and relevant information revealed by Murray in Automobile Magazine about Romney's character in high school. It would seem that the Post's investigative journalism standards leave much to be desired.
It is a matter of no small public concern what sort of operation was put in place to warm up an informant for a contemplated major story in the national media. Somebody was putting this together.
The Post timed publication of this long investigation into Romeny's high school days to coincide with President Obama's sudden "evolution" on gay marriage (which has alreasdy generated millions of dollars for his campaign) and implicitly paint a picture of Romney as a homophobic bully. Coincidentally, the Obama administration has a propaganda campaign targeting bullying of homosexuals. Needless to say, the Post has never bothered to investigate Barack Obama's high school days, which included self-admitted drug use and physical bullying of a girl, in the five years he has been a presidential candidate and president.
This effort by the Post seems to be part of an organized disinformation campaign, implanting false information in millions of minds, that will remain influential even if the true facts come out. Following publication of the phony Post expose, the three broadcast networks featured the story on their nightly newscasts, and other media joined the fray, empahsizingn the contrast to Obama, who cares about gays, and Romney, who purportedly beat them up as a thuggish youngster. See David Corn's allegation that it was an assault, for an example of how to develop the phony meme.
Political bias may be the sole reason why the Post seems to have signed up for lead role in a disinformation campaign, but I am skeptical. Cynic that I am, I see a once proud newspaper caught in a financial crisis that threatens its very survival. The circulation and ad revenue of the Post are collapsing even faster than at most other major newspapers.
I see a management and ownership that is reeling after being forcefully reminded that the Chicago-style regime can inflict mortal damage on the financial life raft on which the journalistic enterprise floats. Ryan Chittum explains the background in the Columbia Journalism Review:
The Washington Post Company's dismal quarterly earnings release last week was received with something of a shrug-more of the same. But the report is worse than the reaction suggests and raises fundamental questions about the Post's strategy, not just for the newspaper, but for the whole company. If you hadn't heard, the Washington Post Company is basically a for-profit college/SAT-prep firm that sidelines as a cable-TV provider and newspaper publisher. The augustWashington Post (I'll italicize Post here when referring to the newspaper and won't when referring to its parent) contributed just 15 percent to its namesake company's revenue in the first quarter but was a $23 million drag on the bottom line. Kaplan, the Post's education division, is the company's cash cow, and a few years ago looked like the newspaper's savior. But its revenue has fallen sharply over the last year and a half since for-profit schools, very much including Kaplan's, came under pressure for predatory practices. Its sales tumbled 14 percent from 2010 to 2011 and dropped another 11 percent in the first quarter. Its deteriorating prospects spells more trouble for the Post's newspaper division, whose very bad first quarter included not only that $23 million loss but also a 7 percent decline in revenue. Crucially, its digital ad revenue-the paper's main hope for the future-went into reverse and hit negative 8 percent. It's just the latest in a long line of bad results. The Post's newspaper division (which includes Slate) has posted losses in thirteen of the last fifteen quarters, a trail of red ink that has led to cumulative losses of $412 million over the period. Its revenue has declined in twenty of the last twenty-two quarters and last year it brought in fully one-third less-$314 million-than it did at its peak in 2006. Layoffs have reduced the Post's newsroom to a little more than half its peak size. Despite this, the company continues to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. The Post is disgorging the cash, as JW Mason calls it, to investors and depriving its businesses of resources.
The "pressure" Kaplan is coming under has its origins in the Obama administration's FTC, which is attacking the private for profit universities that supply unwanted competition for the Obama administration's big donors in academia. The Washington Post Company's largest shareholder is Berkshire Hathaway, controlled by none other than Obama ally Warren Buffet (he stepped down from the company's board of directors last year, just as the company came under federal pressure).
Just last week, a notorious secret meeting took place at the Washington Post, that was first exposed by industry trade publication Ad Week:
Washington Post staffers are buzzing about a secret meeting between some 10 big-name Post journalists including Dana Priest, David Finkel and Carol Leonnig, and Steve Hills, the president and gm of the newspaper. The April 17 meeting was highly unusual for two reasons-the executive editor, Marcus Brauchli, wasn't present, and the participants agreed not to talk about it. They approached Bradley Graham, a former Postreporter (no relation to Post Co. chairman Don Graham) and Hills friend, who agreed to host the get-together at his Bethesda, MD, mansion. Graham said the journalists were "just interested in knowing him better. Steve isn't as known to them as Marcus or other folks in the newsroom."... Over sandwiches around the dining room table, the journalists expressed concern about the loss of newsroom resources. Accounts of the evening that are making the rounds suggest it was hardly comforting to their journalistic souls. Hills was said to have shocked with remarks that awards "don't matter," urged more traffic-driving slideshows over original Post photos, and compared the Post to Ohio's Dayton Daily News, a paper with one-fifth the circulation of the 508,000-circ Post.
The story set off a huge amount of buzz in the media world. It sounds as though the realization is setting in that things cannot continues as before, and desperate journalistic measures may be required.
The Washington Post must reveal how it is that the story was sourced. Were they handed opposition research? How did the item get on its agenda, when reportage about Obama's childhood was avoided? And how did the reporter come to so badly mischaracterize a source? How did the timing of the story come about? Who first contacted Stu White? What organization and what money were behind this coordination operation?
And why did the Washington Post sign on for a lead role?
This smells terrible.Ranch hand for legislator wanted in fatal beating Ranch hand for Texas Rep. Flores wanted in fatal beating
McALLEN — A ranch worker hired by a Texas lawmaker is a suspected illegal immigrant now wanted in the fatal beating of a young Hispanic man, authorities said Monday.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said Froylen Casares, 24, is suspected of using a bat to beat another man to death on the ranch early Monday. Casares, a Honduran, remained at large Monday afternoon.
"It was a very bloody, very bloody, very gruesome crime scene," Trevino said in a story for Monday's online edition of The Monitor in McAllen.
Authorities declined to name the dead man, who was killed in a shed next to horse stables on the ranch.
Casares was employed at a ranch owned by state Rep. Kino Flores, who said he hired the man without checking his immigration status.
"He was preppy. He looked the part. No indication. He fit in extremely well, he had family members here," Flores, D-Palmview, told the newspaper. "It just looks bad in general. I certainly don't want to go around challenging people's status."
Flores said he did not know the victim.
Casares' immigration status and whether Flores broke the law by hiring him would have to be investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trevino said.
"I will make our documents, our case available to them," the sheriff said.
An ICE spokeswoman declined to comment Monday night, saying the agency has not reviewed the case and has not been asked to assist.
"If they call us in to determine the immigration status we will," spokeswoman Nina Pruneda told the newspaper.In recent years, government assessments have raised concerns about the nation's science workforce. Writing in an article for BioScience, Gregory T. Rushton and a team of researchers looked for clues in the National Center for Education Statistics' Schools and Staffing Surveys from 1987 through 2007. These results, combined with those from prior studies, reveal some patterns with serious implications for the future of science pedagogy.
One of the authors' findings was that "biology dominates the science discipline within STEM education." According to the analysis, "in 2007, 44% of science main teaching assignments were occupied by biology educators, more than twice the percentage of educators in chemistry." Moreover, the biology education workforce increased 50% between 1987 and 2007, a result, according to the authors, of biology's position as a gateway to science education in high schools. Over the same period, the female proportion of the workforce increased from 39% to 61%, a greater percentage than in other science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
Less favorable for biology education was the finding that instructors were the "most likely among all science teachers to teach outside of their discipline as part of their workload." Moreover, the authors report, the diversity of degree tracks that might be categorized as "biology" could lead to some biology instructors' teaching subjects that fit poorly with their capabilities, despite a nominal match with their education.
Compounding the problems, "between 1990 and 2007, the proportion of teachers in their 40s with 21-25 years of experience decreased 20%, and teachers in their 50s with more than 26 years of experience fell 27%." This declining trend in teaching experience, which results in part from greater numbers of older teachers entering the workforce after previous careers, may lead to instructors for whom "the biologist identity may be stronger than that of teacher," Rushton and his colleagues write.
The authors support alternatives to the typical calls for more stringent certification and targeted professional development. In their view, it would be better to match curricula to existing expertise. They propose a model in which "instead of offering a static, predetermined slate of science courses at each school, district, or county, the curriculum is chosen largely as a function of the expertise of those teachers who they employ."
###
BioScience, published monthly by Oxford Journals, is the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS). BioScience is a forum for integrating the life sciences that publishes commentary and peer-reviewed articles. The journal has been published since 1964. AIBS is a meta-level organization for professional scientific societies and organizations that are involved with biology. It represents nearly 160 member societies and organizations. Follow BioScience on Twitter @BioScienceAIBS.
Oxford Journals is a division of Oxford University Press. Oxford Journals publishes well over 300 academic and research journals covering a broad range of subject areas, two-thirds of which are published in collaboration with learned societies and other international organizations. The division been publishing journals for more than a century, and as part of the world's oldest and largest university press, has more than 500 years of publishing expertise behind it. Follow Oxford Journals on Twitter @OxfordJournalsSignificance We present the first, to our knowledge, estimate of global sea-level (GSL) change over the last ∼3,000 years that is based upon statistical synthesis of a global database of regional sea-level reconstructions. GSL varied by ∼±8 cm over the pre-Industrial Common Era, with a notable decline over 1000–1400 CE coinciding with ∼0.2 °C of global cooling. The 20th century rise was extremely likely faster than during any of the 27 previous centuries. Semiempirical modeling indicates that, without global warming, GSL in the 20th century very likely would have risen by between −3 cm and +7 cm, rather than the ∼14 cm observed. Semiempirical 21st century projections largely reconcile differences between Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections and semiempirical models.
Abstract We assess the relationship between temperature and global sea-level (GSL) variability over the Common Era through a statistical metaanalysis of proxy relative sea-level reconstructions and tide-gauge data. GSL rose at 0.1 ± 0.1 mm/y (2σ) over 0–700 CE. A GSL fall of 0.2 ± 0.2 mm/y over 1000–1400 CE is associated with ∼0.2 °C global mean cooling. A significant GSL acceleration began in the 19th century and yielded a 20th century rise that is extremely likely (probability P ≥ 0.95 ) faster than during any of the previous 27 centuries. A semiempirical model calibrated against the GSL reconstruction indicates that, in the absence of anthropogenic climate change, it is extremely likely ( P = 0.95 ) that 20th century GSL would have risen by less than 51% of the observed 13.8 ± 1.5 cm. The new semiempirical model largely reconciles previous differences between semiempirical |
with an impact factor higher than 15 (ref. 2).
In many cases, researchers and evaluators still exert balanced judgement. Yet the abuse of research metrics has become too widespread to ignore.
We therefore present the Leiden Manifesto, named after the conference at which it crystallized (see http://sti2014.cwts.nl). Its ten principles are not news to scientometricians, although none of us would be able to recite them in their entirety because codification has been lacking until now. Luminaries in the field, such as Eugene Garfield (founder of the ISI), are on record stating some of these principles3, 4. But they are not in the room when evaluators report back to university administrators who are not expert in the relevant methodology. Scientists searching for literature with which to contest an evaluation find the material scattered in what are, to them, obscure journals to which they lack access.
We offer this distillation of best practice in metrics-based research assessment so that researchers can hold evaluators to account, and evaluators can hold their indicators to account.
Data Source: Thomson Reuters Web of Science; Analysis: D.H., L.W.
Ten principles
1) Quantitative evaluation should support qualitative, expert assessment. Quantitative metrics can challenge bias tendencies in peer review and facilitate deliberation. This should strengthen peer review, because making judgements about colleagues is difficult without a range of relevant information. However, assessors must not be tempted to cede decision-making to the numbers. Indicators must not substitute for informed judgement. Everyone retains responsibility for their assessments.
2) Measure performance against the research missions of the institution, group or researcher. Programme goals should be stated at the start, and the indicators used to evaluate performance should relate clearly to those goals. The choice of indicators, and the ways in which they are used, should take into account the wider socio-economic and cultural contexts. Scientists have diverse research missions. Research that advances the frontiers of academic knowledge differs from research that is focused on delivering solutions to societal problems. Review may be based on merits relevant to policy, industry or the public rather than on academic ideas of excellence. No single evaluation model applies to all contexts.
3) Protect excellence in locally relevant research. In many parts of the world, research excellence is equated with English-language publication. Spanish law, for example, states the desirability of Spanish scholars publishing in high-impact journals. The impact factor is calculated for journals indexed in the US-based and still mostly English-language Web of Science. These biases are particularly problematic in the social sciences and humanities, in which research is more regionally and nationally engaged. Many other fields have a national or regional dimension — for instance, HIV epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa.
This pluralism and societal relevance tends to be suppressed to create papers of interest to the gatekeepers of high impact: English-language journals. The Spanish sociologists that are highly cited in the Web of Science have worked on abstract models or study US data. Lost is the specificity of sociologists in high-impact Spanish-language papers: topics such as local labour law, family health care for the elderly or immigrant employment5. Metrics built on high-quality non-English literature would serve to identify and reward excellence in locally relevant research.
4) Keep data collection and analytical processes open, transparent and simple. The construction of the databases required for evaluation should follow clearly stated rules, set before the research has been completed. This was common practice among the academic and commercial groups that built bibliometric evaluation methodology over several decades. Those groups referenced protocols published in the peer-reviewed literature. This transparency enabled scrutiny. For example, in 2010, public debate on the technical properties of an important indicator used by one of our groups (the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands) led to a revision in the calculation of this indicator6. Recent commercial entrants should be held to the same standards; no one should accept a black-box evaluation machine.
Simplicity is a virtue in an indicator because it enhances transparency. But simplistic metrics can distort the record (see principle 7). Evaluators must strive for balance — simple indicators true to the complexity of the research process.
“Simplicity is a virtue in an indicator because it enhances transparency.”
5) Allow those evaluated to verify data and analysis. To ensure data quality, all researchers included in bibliometric studies should be able to check that their outputs have been correctly identified. Everyone directing and managing evaluation processes should assure data accuracy, through self-verification or third-party audit. Universities could implement this in their research information systems and it should be a guiding principle in the selection of providers of these systems. Accurate, high-quality data take time and money to collate and process. Budget for it.
6) Account for variation by field in publication and citation practices. Best practice is to select a suite of possible indicators and allow fields to choose among them. A few years ago, a European group of historians received a relatively low rating in a national peer-review assessment because they wrote books rather than articles in journals indexed by the Web of Science. The historians had the misfortune to be part of a psychology department. Historians and social scientists require books and national-language literature to be included in their publication counts; computer scientists require conference papers be counted.
Citation rates vary by field: top-ranked journals in mathematics have impact factors of around 3; top-ranked journals in cell biology have impact factors of about 30. Normalized indicators are required, and the most robust normalization method is based on percentiles: each paper is weighted on the basis of the percentile to which it belongs in the citation distribution of its field (the top 1%, 10% or 20%, for example). A single highly cited publication slightly improves the position of a university in a ranking that is based on percentile indicators, but may propel the university from the middle to the top of a ranking built on citation averages7.
7) Base assessment of individual researchers on a qualitative judgement of their portfolio. The older you are, the higher your h-index, even in the absence of new papers. The h-index varies by field: life scientists top out at 200; physicists at 100 and social scientists at 20–30 (ref. 8). It is database dependent: there are researchers in computer science who have an h-index of around 10 in the Web of Science but of 20–30 in Google Scholar9. Reading and judging a researcher's work is much more appropriate than relying on one number. Even when comparing large numbers of researchers, an approach that considers more information about an individual's expertise, experience, activities and influence is best.
8) Avoid misplaced concreteness and false precision. Science and technology indicators are prone to conceptual ambiguity and uncertainty and require strong assumptions that are not universally accepted. The meaning of citation counts, for example, has long been debated. Thus, best practice uses multiple indicators to provide a more robust and pluralistic picture. If uncertainty and error can be quantified, for instance using error bars, this information should accompany published indicator values. If this is not possible, indicator producers should at least avoid false precision. For example, the journal impact factor is published to three decimal places to avoid ties. However, given the conceptual ambiguity and random variability of citation counts, it makes no sense to distinguish between journals on the basis of very small impact factor differences. Avoid false precision: only one decimal is warranted.
9) Recognize the systemic effects of assessment and indicators. Indicators change the system through the incentives they establish. These effects should be anticipated. This means that a suite of indicators is always preferable — a single one will invite gaming and goal displacement (in which the measurement becomes the goal). For example, in the 1990s, Australia funded university research using a formula based largely on the number of papers published by an institute. Universities could calculate the 'value' of a paper in a refereed journal; in 2000, it was Aus$800 (around US$480 in 2000) in research funding. Predictably, the number of papers published by Australian researchers went up, but they were in less-cited journals, suggesting that article quality fell10.
10) Scrutinize indicators regularly and update them. Research missions and the goals of assessment shift and the research system itself co-evolves. Once-useful metrics become inadequate; new ones emerge. Indicator systems have to be reviewed and perhaps modified. Realizing the effects of its simplistic formula, Australia in 2010 introduced its more complex Excellence in Research for Australia initiative, which emphasizes quality.
Next steps
Abiding by these ten principles, research evaluation can play an important part in the development of science and its interactions with society. Research metrics can provide crucial information that would be difficult to gather or understand by means of individual expertise. But this quantitative information must not be allowed to morph from an instrument into the goal.
The best decisions are taken by combining robust statistics with sensitivity to the aim and nature of the research that is evaluated. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence are needed; each is objective in its own way. Decision-making about science must be based on high-quality processes that are informed by the highest quality data.Dear Reader,
Since Her Highness has taken an interest in education, we’ve found a number of works of Hedgehog Art through the ages to share to aid the much neglected field of Hedgehog art education. There is no story in this post per se, other than the magnificent story of hedgehog art, a story well worth telling.
We begin with this less well known Botticelli work, Birth of a Hedgehog. A beautiful and sublime work of art, and a true milestone in Renaissance Hedgehog art:
Next we have another Renaissance hedgehog art history milestone by Michelangelo. Sadly, the Vatican rejected Michelangelo’s first hedgehog-based design for the Sistine Chapel:
Grant Wood’s American Hegehog Gothic is less well known than his more popular painting, but this remarkable piece is truly iconic in hedgehog art and culture:
Leutze’s Hedgehog Crossing the Delaware is a high point of 1850s art – stirring imagery, truly remarkable artistic composition:
When Hedgehog With a Pearl Earring went to auction in 1947, it was widely considered by experts as a forgery of Vermeer done by the notorious Van Meegeren. Thanks to painstaking research by Princess Pricklepants, the provenance of this piece has been authoritatively traced back to Vermeer, and it’s now a favorite piece in Her Highness’ collection. A true Dutch master-work:
Magritte’s Le Fils de l’Herrison is difficult to explain, but here it is:
Edward Hopper’s Nighthogs was recently discovered in museum archives of the Art Institute of Chicago among works willed by Hopper to the museum that were lost in storage vaults. It’s very exciting to see this remarkable discovery come to light.
Norman Rockwell’s love of hedgehogs is not well known. He made this painting as a cover for the Saturday Evening Post in 1958. At the time, featuring an African on the cover in the diner was a brave move by Mr. Rockwell, but unfortunately the theme was too controversial and was ultimately not accepted until it was reworked.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this overview of various high points of hedgehog art and hope you may have learned something as well. There are many other works that we will likely share on Facebook and Twitter over time, and you can find awesome shirts here:
http://urchinwear.net/product-category/shirts/hedgehog-art/
Now there is a book available here: https://www.createspace.com/6456156
and also available on amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Hedgehog-Through-Ages-Steven-Bach/dp/1539641880/
Stay tuned for our next episode: Princess Pricklepants and the Mystery of Monkey Voters (working title)
Next: Princess Pricklepants and More Hedgehog Art Through the AgesAmerica's Racial and Ethnic Divides One Nation, Indivisible: Is It History?
In Los Angeles, demographers see "white flight" beyond the suburbs and into rural areas.
(By Todd Bigelow for The Washington Post)
First in a series of occasional articles By William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 22, 1998; Page A1 At the beginning of this century, as steamers poured into American ports, their steerages filled with European immigrants, a Jew from England named Israel Zangwill penned a play whose story line has long been forgotten, but whose central theme has not. His production was entitled "The Melting Pot" and its message still holds a tremendous power on the national imagination the promise that all immigrants can be transformed into Americans, a new alloy forged in a crucible of democracy, freedom and civic responsibility. In 1908, when the play opened in Washington, the United States was in the middle of absorbing the largest influx of immigrants in its history Irish and Germans, followed by Italians and East Europeans, Catholics and Jews some 18 million new citizens between 1890 and 1920. Today, the United States is experiencing its second great wave of immigration, a movement of people that has profound implications for a society that by tradition pays homage to its immigrant roots at the same time it confronts complex and deeply ingrained ethnic and racial divisions. The immigrants of today come not from Europe but overwhelmingly from the still developing world of Asia and Latin America. The are driving a demographic shift so rapid that within the lifetimes of today's teenagers, no one ethnic group including whites of European descent will comprise a majority of the nation's population.
This shift, according to social historians, demographers and others studying the trends, will severely test the premise of the fabled melting pot, the idea, so central to national identity, that this country can transform people of every color and background into "one America." Just as possible, they say, is that the nation will continue to fracture into many separate, disconnected communities with no shared sense of commonality or purpose. Or perhaps it will evolve into something in between, a pluralistic society that will hold on to some core ideas about citizenship and capitalism, but with little meaningful interaction among groups. The demographic changes raise other questions about political and economic power. Will that power, now held disproportionately by whites, be shared in the new America? What will happen when Hispanics overtake blacks as the nation's single largest minority? "I do not think that most Americans really understand the historic changes happening before their very eyes," said Peter Salins, an immigration scholar who is provost of the State Universities of New York. "What are we going to become? Who are we? How do the newcomers fit in and how do the natives handle it this is the great unknown." This is the first of a series of articles examining the effects of the new demographics on American life. Over the next few months, other reports will focus on the impact on politics, jobs, and social institutions. Fear of strangers, of course, is nothing new in American history. The last great immigration wave produced a bitter backlash, epitomized by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the return, in the 1920s, of the Ku Klux Klan, which not only targeted blacks, but Catholics, Jews and immigrants as well. But despite this strife, many historians argue that there was a greater consensus in the past on what it meant to be an American, a yearning for a common language and culture, and a desire encouraged, if not coerced by members of the dominant white Protestant culture to assimilate. Today, they say, there is more emphasis on preserving one's ethnic identity, of finding ways to highlight and defend one's cultural roots. Difficult to Measure More often than not, the neighborhoods where Americans live, the politicians and propositions they vote for, the cultures they immerse themselves in, the friends and spouses they have, the churches and schools they attend, and the way they view themselves are defined by ethnicity. The question is whether, in the midst of such change, there is also enough glue to hold Americans together.
Black community activist Nathaniel J. Wilcox in Miami says, "Hispanics don't want some of the power, they want all the power."
(By Todd Bigelow for The Washington Post)
"As we become more and more diverse, there is all this potential to make that reality work for us," said Angela Oh, a Korean American activist who emerged as a powerful voice for Asian immigrants after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. "But yet, you witness this persistance of segregation, the fragmentation, all these fights over resources, this finger-pointing. You would have to be blind not to see it." It is a phenomenon sometimes difficult to measure, but not observe. Houses of worship remain, as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. described it three decades ago, among the most segregated institutions in America, not just by race but also ethnicity. At high school cafeterias, the second and third generation children of immigrants clump together in cliques defined by where their parents or grandparents were born. There are television sitcoms, talk shows and movies that are considered black or white, Latino or Asian. At a place like the law school of the University of California at Los Angeles, which has about 1,000 students, there are separate student associations for blacks, Latinos and Asians with their own law review journals. It almost goes without saying that today's new arrivals are a source of vitality and energy, especially in the big cities to which many are attracted. Diversity, almost everyone agrees, is good; choice is good; exposure to different cultures and ideas is good. But many scholars worry about the loss of community and shared sense of reality among Americans, what Todd Gitlin, a professor of culture and communications at New York University, calls "the twilight of common dreams." The concern is echoed by many on both the left and right, and of all ethnicities, but no one seems to know exactly what to do about it. Academics who examine the census data and probe for meaning in the numbers already speak of a new "demographic balkanization," not only of residential segregation, forced or chosen but also a powerful preference to see ourselves through a racial prism, wary of others, and, in many instances, hostile. At a recent school board meeting in East Palo Alto, Calif., police had to break up a fight between Latinos and blacks, who were arguing over the merits and expense of bilingual education in a school district that has shifted over the last few years from majority African American to majority Hispanic. One parent told reporters that if the Hispanics wanted to learn Spanish they should stay in Mexico. The demographic shifts are smudging the old lines demarcating two historical, often distinct societies, one black and one white. Reshaped by three decades of rapidly rising immigration, the national story is now far more complicated. Whites currently account for 74 percent of the population, blacks 12 percent, Hispanics 10 percent and Asians 3 percent. Yet according to data and predictions generated by the U.S. Census Bureau and social scientists poring over the numbers, Hispanics will likely surpass blacks early in the next century. And by the year 2050, demographers predict, Hispanics will account for 25 percent of the population, blacks 14 percent, Asians 8 percent, with whites hovering somewhere around 53 percent. As early as next year, whites no longer will be the majority in California; in Hawaii and New Mexico this is already the case. Soon after, Nevada, Texas, Maryland and New Jersey are also predicted to become "majority minority" states, entities where no one ethnic group remains the majority.
Korean American activist Angela Oh says, "This persistence of segregation... you would have to be blind not to see it."
(By Todd Bigelow
for The Washington Post)
Effects of 1965 Law The overwhelming majority of immigrants come from Asia and Latin America Mexico, the Central American countries, the Philippines, Korea, and Southeast Asia. What triggered this great transformation was a change to immigration law in 1965, when Congress made family reunification the primary criteria for admittance. That new policy, a response to charges that the law favored white Europeans, allowed immigrants already in the United States to bring over their relatives, who in turn could bring over more relatives. As a result, America has been absorbing as many as 1 million newcomers a year, to the point that now almost 1 in every 10 residents is foreign born. These numbers, relative to the overall population, were slightly higher at the beginning of this century, but the current immigration wave is in many ways very different, and its context inexorably altered, from the last great wave. This time around tensions are sharpened by the changing profile of those who are entering America's borders. Not only are their racial and ethnic backgrounds more varied than in decades past, their place in a modern postindustrial economy has also been recast. The newly arrived today can be roughly divided into two camps: those with college degrees and highly specialized skills, and those with almost no education or job training. Some 12 percent of immigrants have graduate degrees, compared to 8 percent of native Americans. But more than one-third of the immigrants have no high school diploma, double the rate for those born in the United States. Before 1970, immigrants were actually doing better than natives overall, as measured by education, rate of homeownership and average incomes. But those arriving after 1970, are younger, more likely to be underemployed and live below the poverty level. As a group, they are doing worse than natives. About 6 percent of new arrivals receive some form of welfare, double the rate for U.S.-born citizens. Among some newcomers Cambodians and Salvadorans, for example the numbers are even higher. With large numbers of immigrants arriving from Latin America, and segregating in barrios, there is also evidence of lingering language problems. Consider that in Miami, three-quarters of residents speak a language other than English at home and 67 percent of those say they are not fluent in English. In New York City, 4 of every 10 residents speak a language other than English at home, and of these, half said they do not speak English well. It is clear that not all of America is experiencing the impact of immigration equally. Although even small midwestern cities have seen sharp changes in their racial and ethnic mix in the past two decades, most immigrants continue to cluster into a handful of large, mostly coastal metropolitan areas: Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Houston. They are home to more than a quarter of the total U.S. population and more than 60 percent of all foreign-born residents. But as the immigrants arrive, many American-born citizens pour out of these cities in search of new homes in more homogeneous locales. New York and Los Angeles each lost more than 1 million native-born residents between 1990 and 1995, even as their populations increased by roughly the same numbers with immigrants. To oversimplify, said University of Michigan demographer William Frey, "For every Mexican who comes to Los Angeles, a white native-born leaves." Most of the people leaving the big cities are white and they tend to working class. This is an entirely new kind of "white flight," whereby whites are not just fleeing the city centers for the suburbs but also are leaving the region, and often the state. "The Ozzies and Harriets of the 1990s are skipping the suburbs of the big cities and moving to more homogeneous, mostly white smaller towns and smaller cities and rural areas," Frey said. They're headed to Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Austin and Orlando, as well as smaller cities in Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and Washington. Frey and other demographers believe the domestic migrants black and white are being "pushed" out, at least in part, by competition with immigrants for jobs and neighborhoods, political clout and lifestyle. Frey sees in this pattern "the emergence of separate Americas, one white and middle-aged, less urban and another intensely urban, young, multicultural and multiethnic. One America will care deeply about English as the official language and about preserving Social Security. The other will care about things like retaining affirmative action and bilingual education."
This century's huge wave of immigrants is attracted to large metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, above.
(By Todd Bigelow for The Washington Post)
Ethnic Segregation Even within gateway cities that give the outward appearance of being multicultural, there are sharp lines of ethnic segregation. When describing the ethnic diversity of a bellwether megacity such as Los Angeles, many residents speak soaringly of the great mosaic of many peoples. But the social scientists who look at the hard census data see something more complex. James P. Allen, a cultural geographer at California State University-Northridge, suggests that while Los Angeles, as seen from an airplane, is a tremendously mixed society, on the ground, racial homogeneity and segregation are common. This is not a new phenomenon; there have always been immigrant neighborhoods. Ben Franklin, an early proponent of making English the "official language," worried about close-knit German communities. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y) described the lingering clannishness of Irish and other immigrant populations in New York in "Beyond the Melting Pot," a benchmark work from the 1960s that he wrote with Nathan Glazer. But the persistance of ethnic enclaves and identification does not appear to be going away, and may not in a country that is now home to not a few distinct ethnic groups, but to dozens. Hispanics in Los Angeles, to take the dominant group in the nation's second largest city, are more segregated residentially in 1990 than they were 10 or 20 years ago, the census tracts show. Moreover, it is possible that what mixing of groups that does occur is only a temporary phenomenon as one ethnic group supplants another in the neighborhood. If there is deep-seated ethnic segregation, it clearly extends to the American workplace. In many cities, researchers find sustained "ethnic niches" in the labor market. Because jobs are often a matter of whom one knows, the niches were enduring and remarkably resistant to outsiders. In California, for example, Mexican immigrants are employed overwhelmingly as gardeners and domestics, in apparel and furniture manufacturing, and as cooks and food preparers. Koreans open small businesses. Filipinos become nurses and medical technicians. African Americans work in government jobs, an important niche that is increasingly being challenged by Hispanics who want in. UCLA's Roger Waldinger and others have pointed to the creation, in cities of high immigration, of "dual economies." For the affluent, which includes a disproportionate number of whites, the large labor pool provides them with a ready supply of gardeners, maids and nannies. For businesses in need of cheap manpower, the same is true. Yet there are fewer "transitional" jobs the blue-collar work that helped Italian and Irish immigrants move up the economic ladder to help newcomers or their children on their way to the jobs requiring advanced technical or professional skills that now dominate the upper tier of the economy. A Rung at a Time Traditionally, immigration scholars have seen the phenomenon of assimilation as a relentless economic progression. The hard-working new arrivals struggle along with a new language and at low-paying jobs in order for their sons and daughters to climb the economic ladder, each generation advancing a rung. There are many cases where this is true. More recently, there is evidence to suggest that economic movement is erratic and that some groups particularly in high immigration cities can get "stuck." Among African Americans, for instance, there emerges two distinct patterns. The black middle class is doing demonstrably better in income, home ownership rates, education than it was when the demographic transformation (and the civil rights movement) began three decades ago. But for African Americans at the bottom, research indicates that immigration, particularly of Latinos with limited education, has increased joblessness, and frustration. In Miami, where Cuban immigrants dominate the political landscape, tensions are high between Hispanics and blacks, said Nathaniel J. Wilcox, a community activist there. "The perception in the black community, the reality, is that Hispanics don't want some of the power, they want all the power," Wilcox said. "At least when we were going through this with the whites during the Jim Crow era, at least they'd hire us. But Hispanics won't allow African Americans to even compete. They have this feeling that their community is the only community that counts." Yet many Hispanics too find themselves in an economic "mobility trap." While the new immigrants are willing to work in low-end jobs, their sons and daughters, growing up in the barrios but exposed to the relentless consumerism of popular culture, have greater expectations, but are disadvantaged because of their impoverished settings, particularly the overwhelmed inner-city schools most immigrant children attend. "One doubts that a truck-driving future will satisfy today's servants and assemblers. And this scenario gets a good deal more pessimistic if the region's economy fails to deliver or simply throws up more bad jobs," writes Waldinger, a professor of sociology and director of center for regional policy studies at the University of California-Los Angeles. Though there are calls to revive efforts to encourage "Americanization" of the newcomers, many researchers now express doubt that the old assimilation model works. For one thing, there is less of a dominant mainstream to enter. Instead, there are a dozen streams, despite the best efforts by the dominant white society to lump groups together by ethnicity. It is a particularly American phenomenon, many say, to label citizens by their ethnicity. When a person lived in El Salvador, for example, he or she saw themselves as a nationality. When they arrive in the United States, they become Hispanic or Latino. So too with Asians. Koreans and Cambodians find little in common, but when they arrive here they become "Asian," and are counted and courted, encouraged or discriminated against as such. "My family has had trouble understanding that we are now Asians, and not Koreans, or people from Korea or Korean Americans, or just plain Americans," said Arthur Lee, who owns a dry cleaning store in Los Angeles. "Sometimes, we laugh about it. Oh, the Asian students are so smart! The Asians have no interest in politics! Whatever. But we don't know what people are talking about. Who are the Asians?" Many immigrant parents say that while they want their children to advance economically in their new country, they do not want them to become "too American." A common concern among Haitians in South Florida is that their children will adopt the attitudes of the inner city's underclass. Vietnamese parents in New Orleans often try to keep their children immersed in their ethnic enclave and try not to let them assimilate too fast. Hyphenated Americans One study of the children of immigrants, conducted six years ago among young Haitians, Cubans, West Indians, Mexican and Vietnamese in South Florida and Southern California, suggests the parents are not alone in their concerns. Asked by researchers Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbauthow how they identified themselves, most chose categories of hyphenated Americans. Few choose "American" as their identity. Then there was this asked if they believe the United States in the best country in the world, most of the youngsters answered: no. © Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company Back to the topEvery week we publish a fresh IntelliJ IDEA 16 EAP. Today’s build, among bugfixes that address issues you reported, brings a few improvements to Git integration and IntelliJ IDEA heart, the code editor.
Move elements right and left
We already have a way to move code statements up and down: Ctrl + Shift + Up/Down (Cmd + Shift + Up/Down for OS X.) They come in handy when you’re rearranging code statements. Sometimes, however, it might be useful to move them left or right (when you’re, for example, changing the order of attributes of an XML element, method parameters, or elements in an array initializer).
To make it possible we’ve added two new actions: Alt + Ctrl + Shift + Left/Right (Alt + Cmd + Shift + Left/Right for OS X).
UPDATE: The Action has been renamed to Move Element Left/Right.
VCS integration
Two new actions to help you work with Git branches, available via the Branches popup: Checkout with Rebase and Rename.
The Checkout with Rebase action is useful if you don’t want to waste your time on extra files synchronization and compilation when you do two operations: Checkout and then Rebase.
If you do an interactive rebase via the VCS → Git → Rebase main menu, IntelliJ IDEA now automatically stashes and unstashes local changes and assists with resolving conflicts.
The experience of applying patches has also been improved: you can now recover from the patches that could not be applied because of conflicts.
We hope you’ll find all these enhancements useful. Share your impressions and concerns in the EAP discussion forum, and reports bugs our issue tracker.
Kotlin
This EAP comes with bundled preview build of Kotlin 1.0 Release Candidate. If you use Kotlin in Maven or Gradle projects you need to setup Kotlin EAP Maven repository in your project, see Kotlin Early Access Preview for details.
Develop with pleasure!Oliveros King Havano Black Knight Mace
Being a Nicaraguan puro, and having the name “Mace” (like the pepper spray, right?), I expected a peppery, flavor bomb of a cigar. As it would turn out, “Mace” is referring to the medieval weapon instead–a crushing implement of pain.
Statistics
CotM: October 2012
Chosen by: cmich
cmich
Shape: Box-Press Parejo
Size: 6 x 60
Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Color: Maduro
Strength: Full
Price Paid: $2.20
Smoke Date: 6/29/2013
6/29/2013
Age: 6 weeks
Accessories Used
Cuban Crafters Perfect Cutter (Silver & Carbon Fiber), Bugatti B-2002 lighter with “pyramid” double-flame torch, Handmade English walnut ashtray made by wedgewoodrings.
Pairing
The end of my bottle of Flor de Cana Centenario Gold 18 year old Nicaraguan rum with one hexagonal ice cube, served in a Sagaform rocking whiskey glass.
Appearance/Nose
The wrapper was dark and oily and beautiful with a decent amount of tooth. The cigar had two bands. The top band was wider, with an extremely ornate design in different shades of gold and brown. The foot band is more simple, in tri-tones of gold, black, and white. The box press was very “square” on this cigar (rather than rectangular). The nose was of plain tobacco and a hint of coffee.
Construction
The double cap was perfectly straight, and there only appeared to be one large vein. The cigar did feel a bit spongy when pressed, leading me to expect a fast burn and a loose draw. The gray/black ash was good for about an inch at a time.
Cold Draw
The draw was tighter than I expected from the lightness and sponginess of the stick. The taste was of hay.
Smoking
First third
After lighting, the initial puff tasted of plain tobacco, with a note of burnt coffee. Retrohale intensified the burnt flavor and stale hay. Surprisingly, the draw remained firm after lighting. A bit of a valley appeared in the burn line on the band-facing side right from the start.
Though the burnt flavor dissipated after the first couple puffs, I was not able to tease out any flavors other than tobacco and coffee for the first inch. The draw did open up to medium before the first third was finished.
After a while, a slight sweetness began to emerge, but it was unpleasant, like flat cola or spoiled fruit. Despite all my efforts of rotating, the canoeing burn continued. There was no spice. The flavor remained flat for the whole first third.
Second third
Moving into the second third, an earthy taste came through. This was the first interesting flavor put out by the cigar. I hoped it wouldn’t be the last.
The burn finally evened out too. The hay flavor went away, leaving just the earthy flavor, rancid fruit, and some plain coffee, with nothing additional in the retrohale. There was still nothing good about the flavor this cigar.
Occasionally, the burnt flavor crept back in to let me know I was smoking too fast. (Really, I was just trying to get done with this thing already. If I wasn’t doing a review, I would have given up by now, but for the sake of the CotM project, I’m being a trooper.)
Final third
No noticeable change in the final third. The rum is incredibly smooth, and doesn’t do as good a job as I would like at washing away the taste of the Black Knight Mace. I should have used cheap tequila instead–maybe bathtub gin.
Notes
Draw: Medium
Medium
Body: Medium
Medium
Primary Flavors: Burnt coffee, dirt
Burnt coffee, dirt
Smoke Output: Low-Medium
Low-Medium
Smoke Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Overall
Well, this is one of the worst cigars I’ve ever smoked. It was garbage the whole way through. I might have only “disliked” it if it were a smaller vitola, but 6 x 60 is a lot to smoke when it’s lousy tobacco. Figuring I might have gotten a bum stick, I lit up a second one (I got a these in a 5-pack) and had the same experience. Dog rocket. Not recommended. Blargh.
RatingPhoto: Digital Trends
Next Tuesday’s hearing in the legal battle between the FBI and Apple just got a little more dramatic.
On late Wednesday evening, prosecutors were granted an evidentiary hearing, meaning that the legal arguments will be preceded by witnesses and live testimony. Specifically, the FBI has requested to interrogate Eric Neuenschwander, Apple’s head of product security and privacy, and the attorney who initially worked with the FBI in its investigation of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone — both of whom previously provided written testimony to the court.
The case revolves around a single iPhone 5C, used by Syed Rizwan Farook, who, along with his wife, killed 14 people at a Christmas party in December. The FBI has requested that Apple help unlock Farook’s phone by creating a new mobile operating system. The company characterizes such help as a “backdoor,” potentially leading to much greater government access to other encrypted communications. The dispute has drawn stark battle lines between law enforcement and the tech industry, sparking a fierce debate over how much sacrifice of privacy is necessary for public safety.
Apple’s lawyers say they hope that when the trial starts, unreleased portions of the testimony by Neuenschwander and his colleague will be put on the record. The request for an evidentiary hearing this late in the process is unusual, lawyers say, and may indicate that the government is “uncomfortable” with its legal grounds. Apple did not say whether they would ask to examine the two FBI agents |
played this game a few times already, offering "secret" releases as pre-orders that turned out be early demos and outtakes pressed to vinyl. But for its follow-up to 2013's immediately catchy and warm The Distance Is So Big, Lemuria decided its next secret release would be Recreational Hate, the band's new album. Some fans got copies yesterday, with more expected to arrive this week.
For the rest of us who slept on the pre-order, here's an opportunity to catch up. Before the album comes out digitally this Friday, take a listen to "Sliver Of Change." It is quintessentially Lemuria, with hooks that fit like fuzzy mittens and vocal lines traded between guitarist Sheena Ozzella and drummer Alex Kerns: "I see a sliver of change, a pin dot of rearranging / Everything, everything stays the same," Ozzella sings, sounding more self-assured than ever. But where Lemuria took hard lefts with its hooks before, delicately complex acoustic guitar and droning organ flutter and flit here in an arrangement that responds to the song's lyrical restlessness with care.
Recreational Hate comes out digitally Dec. 15 via Turbo Worldwide, with a vinyl repress for retail in February. You can read the letter included with fans' copies of the album below:Michael Brown and Eric Garner were far from the only people who died during confrontations with police in 2014. And a new project aims to make the others known with a collection of names and stories of over 1,000 individuals.
The Carry Their Names database, in the words of the creators, is an “unbiased” look at all of those who died in an incident with police. The project’s website includes the name, age, and photo of all the victims as well as a link to a media source describing their story.
“We tried our hardest to use photos that were provided for obituaries or media as opposed to mug shots,” Kate DiBattista of Carry Their Names said in an email. “As for photos that mislead who the individual may have been, again we tried our hardest to not use those photos if others are available.”
Carry Their Names also breaks the names down into different categories to differentiate the reasons and circumstances that resulted in the victim’s police confrontations. Most victims fall into more than one category, such as killed by an off-duty police officer, suicidal, or veteran.
The largest category is “Struggling with mental stability,” which includes 24 percent of the total fatalities. They define this category as “those who struggle with mental illness or addiction as well as any who were acting distinctly out of character during the incident.”
There are also a startling number of fatalities—125—that came as a result of what Carry Their Names calls a “welfare check,” or a police call to investigate the wellbeing of the person who was killed. Welfare checks include “those who needed either medical or psychiatric help” but “were not committing a crime at the time of police involvement.”
Of the 1,108 killed, 45 were innocent bystanders. In total, just under 7 percent of those who died were women while 93 percent were men.
The site’s creators are asking people to come forward with any information the 4 percent of victims who are unidentified and are also seeking donations to make it a more robust resource.
“Ultimately we wanted to create something that was totally unbiased, just present the facts to the public,” said DiBattista, “and we would love the funding to continue this project.”
Photos via Carrytheirnames.com | Remix by Jason ReedDate: 1860
Catalog #: 67880M Accession #: 246404
Credit: Armed Forces History, Division of History of Technology, National Museum of American History
Maker
New Haven Arms Company (Manufacturer)
In 1855, the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company was formed and Oliver Winchester bought stock in the company. The next year, the offices were moved to New Haven, Connecticut and the name was changed to New Haven Arms Company. The Henry rifle was patented in 1860. In 1866 Oliver Winchester bought control of New Haven Arms Company and changed the name to Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
Dimensions / Weight
Dimensions: 8" H x 43.5" W x 1.25" D
Physical Description
Henry Rifle, serial number 6,.44 caliber, forged steel, wooden stock, engraved gold mounting with floral design and engraved cartouche Lincoln/ President/U.S.A." on right side. Top of barrel is stamped Henrys Patent Oct. 16, 1860/Manufactured New Haven Arms Company New Haven, Ct.
Specific History
This gold mounted, engraved Henry rifle was presented to Abraham Lincoln in an effort to obtain his influence in their purchase for the war effort. This rifle was awarded the National Rifle Association Collectors Society Gold Medal as an outstanding historical firearm.
General History
The Henry, the first practical, lever action, repeating rifle, is the immediate forerunner of the famous Winchester rifles. About 14,000 were made between 1860 and 1866 by the New Haven Arms Company. Only about 1,731 Henry rifles were purchased by the Ordnance Department between 1862 and 1865. A number of units in the West purchased them at their own expense. It was especially popular in the border states of Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Indiana. The 1st Maine and 1st District of Columbia cavalry regiments are known to have been issued Henry rifles.At this moment, on the White House’s official website for petitioning the government, the only thing as popular as legalizing marijuana and separating church from state is a petition to “Direct the Patent Office to Cease Issuing Software Patents.”
There are lots of good reasons to end the practice of patenting software, including the fact that software patents are primarily a vehicle for transferring wealth from the innovators who create it to patent trolls whose sole “product” is litigation. (Software patents are also sometimes used by big companies to take their rivals down a peg or two, in what seems like an effort to pile up so many cross-licensing fees that they all cancel each other out.)
Anyway, if you agree that this madness must stop, you’d better get yourself over to WhiteHouse.gov, because as of the last time I reloaded that site, the petition still needed 531 more signatures in order to merit an official response.
Unfortunately, that “official response”—a written statement—is about all anyone can expect from this effort. It seems that even though the U.S. Constitution provides an avenue for citizens to petition their government, it says nothing about how the government should handle those petitions.
Hopefully someone’s at least posting them over the water cooler, so administration decision-makers can get a sense of how those other branches of the government are failing to address one of the technology industry’s most pressing issues.FILE - In this April 12, 2012 file photo, Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson speaks at a news conference for the Sands Cotai Central in Macau. Casino giant Las Vegas Sands Corp. picked Madrid over Barcelona for a multi-billion dollar Spainish gambling resort project dubbed "EuroVegas." The Spanish capital, the country's largest city, emerged as the company's best choice for the development, Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson said in a statement released late Friday, Sept. 7, 2012 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
WASHINGTON -- Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson vowed to spend as much as $100 million to defeat President Barack Obama and help the GOP take control of Congress. According to two GOP fundraisers with close ties to the Las Vegas billionaire, he made good on that promise -- and then some. Adelson ultimately upped the ante, spending closer to a previously unreported $150 million, the fundraisers said.
Adelson, a fierce critic of Obama’s foreign and domestic policies, has said that his humongous spending was spurred chiefly by his fear that a second Obama term would bring "vilification of people that were against him." As that second term begins, Adelson's international casino empire faces a rough road, with two federal criminal investigations into his business.
This coming week, Adelson plans to visit Washington, according to three separate GOP sources familiar with his travel schedule. While here, he’s arranged Hill meetings with at least one House GOP leader in which he is expected to discuss key issues, including possible changes to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the anti-bribery law that undergirds one federal probe into his casino network, according to a Republican attorney with knowledge of his plans.
During the election, Adelson told Politico that the Justice Department investigation, and the way he felt treated by prosecutors, was a primary motivation for his investment in Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and other GOP candidates. He put his money where his mouth was. The two GOP fundraisers, both with strong ties to Adelson, said that the casino mogul dished out close to $150 million, including between $30 million and $40 million to the Karl Rove-founded Crossroads GPS and at least $15 million to grassroots efforts with financial links to Charles and David Koch. Among other major beneficiaries of Adelson’s largess were the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which received almost $5 million from Adelson, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, which got the bulk of its $6.5 million budget from him, the fundraisers said.
All of these are non-profit groups, which -- unlike the super PACs that raked in $54 million in funds from Adelson and his wife -- are not currently required to disclose their donors. Adelson’s public spending spree, larger than any other donor's in the last election, was made possible by two high court rulings in early 2010 that allowed corporations, unions and individuals to write unlimited checks to outside groups for political ads and other activities backing candidates
The two fundraisers who provided information to The Huffington Post represented separate groups that each received seven-figure checks this year from Adelson. The fundraisers learned details of Adelson’s spending plans about a month prior to the election: one heard of them in a talk with the casino owner himself, while the other didn’t indicate if his information came from Adelson or a top aide to the billionaire. Both requested anonymity to protect their ties to Adelson and because they were not authorized to speak publicly about his giving.
Adelson’s hefty support for Rove’s GPS made sense, said a third fundraiser who knows both men, because of their long-standing links. Adelson forged good ties with Rove after he served as deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush and this year they bonded further. Rove spent much of the last night of the Republican National Convention hanging out in a skybox suite with Adelson and other politicos and friends, and Rove also provided the casino mogul occasional advice on potential donations -- at least once undercutting another group seeking Adelson funding, said the two GOP fundraisers.
Rove, who also provided advice in 2008 to the Adelson-backed dark money group Freedom’s Watch, was just one of several GOP politicos with shadow party links that Adelson schmoozed and brainstormed with in Tampa. Long known as a hands-on donor who likes to immerse himself in details, Adelson had a crowded convention schedule. For instance, he spent time one afternoon meeting with leaders of several groups that he’d either already helped, or was considering writing more big checks to for their electoral drives.
Among the political heavies Adelson met with that afternoon were Sean Noble, a leading operative for the Koch brothers, and Carl Forti, a key political strategist for both Crossroads GPS and its affiliate American Crossroads. Forti is also a strategist for pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future, which received $20 million from Adelson and his wife Miriam, an Israeli-born doctor.
Earlier in the year, Adelson indicated at different times that he planned to spend about $100 million or “as much as it takes” to defeat Obama and help Republicans in Congressional races. Adelson’s personal wealth has been pegged at $20.5 billion by Forbes, making him one of the world’s richest men and enabling him to open his checkbook wide without worrying much about his bottom line.
Adelson’s largess appeared to have an impact on Romney’s campaign strategy. After Adelson publicly suggested that Romney sometimes waffled in his stances and wasn’t as ideologically consistent as his original pick, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, he and Romney met in late May in Las Vegas. Shortly afterwards, the casino owner’s first $10 million donation to Romney’s allied super PAC arrived.
Not long after their meeting, Romney restated his support for one of Adelson’s top priorities -- his fervent backing of Israel’s conservative government and his opposition to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Romney’s first foreign trip after his meeting with Adelson included a late July visit to Israel, which included a Jerusalem fundraiser that Adelson famously attended.
Now after what was largely a disappointing election for Adelson, his Las Vegas Sands casino empire could be facing heightened legal and political headaches. His sprawling operations are still mired in two wide-ranging federal criminal probes. Neither probe is said to be focused on Adelson’s conduct.
The Sands did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this piece.
In one inquiry, federal officials are looking into potential money laundering by two shady high rollers at his Las Vegas casinos. Settlement talks with Justice officials were under way in late October, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The money laundering investigation, led by the U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, is probing whether the casino broke the law by failing to report to the government millions of dollars of potentially laundered funds that two gamblers transferred to its casinos.
One of the two gamblers, Ausaf Umar Siddiqui, is being probed about over $100 million of his transactions through the casinos. Separately, he was arrested in 2009 and pleaded guilty to accepting illegal kickbacks in his job as an executive with Fry’s Electronics in California. He is now serving a six-year jail term.
The other big gambler in the probe is Zhenil Ye Gon, a Chinese-born Mexican-based businessman, who reportedly transferred $85 million to Sands casinos several years ago. Ye Gon was indicted in 2007 for dealing in illegal drugs, but the charges were dismissed in 2009.
Meanwhile, another inquiry by Justice and the SEC has been under way for about two years. It involves allegations that Adelson’s lucrative casinos on the Chinese island of Macau may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to Chinese officials to expand its operations there. The lion’s share of Sands' corporate revenues now come from Macau, the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, and a Singapore casino.
Among the payments that Justice has been probing are $700,000 that went to a local attorney, Leonel Alves, who was hired by the Sands Chinese subsidiary while he was a government legislator in Macau. The Justice probe apparently grew out of a wrongful termination lawsuit by Steven Jacobs, the former president of the Sands operation in Macau who has been cooperating with Justice.
Jacobs' suit alleged that he was fired after numerous clashes with Adelson over "Adelson’s illegal demands." Adelson has flatly rejected Jacobs’ allegations and has said that "none of what he says is true and he can't prove it."Child of Light was an intriguing release from Ubisoft, utilising the UbiArt engine that originated with Rayman Origins and delivering a detailed, and rather popular, download gaming experience. It appeared to be a success, with some physical releases also making it to market, and placed well on the Wii U eShop's own charts.
We're rather pleased about recent comments from Ubisofts Patrick Plourde, as a result. According to the tweet below, there are some "very cool projects in process set in the Child of Light universe".
Fans of Child of Light: There are very cool projects in process set in the Child of Light universe. More News soon. Stay tuned! #excited April 12, 2015
It's no surprise, as Ubisoft Montreal's role-playing game was revealed to be "profitable enough" before Christmas last year, after the game was well received from both critics and fans. "It's not as profitable as Assassin's Creed is profitable, but it's profitable enough that we would have been able to fund a sequel"
Child of Light's stunning artwork and original battle system was said to be down to Plourde's work on Far Cry 3. "I didn't want to make Far Cry 3, but they said, Pat, if you do that and help build that brand, we're going to give you a free shot at the game you want." Ubisoft were also so impressed with the team's efforts that they were installed as one of the core teams of Ubisoft Montreal.
Obviously, with Child of Light being such a fan favourite, questions for its alleged sequel have flooded the internet. Will Nintendo fans get to see its release? Let us know in the comment section below if you'd like to see a Child of Light sequel come to Nintendo consoles.My entire adult life has been driven by my deep concern and commitment to Israel’s security and survival. As soon as I was elected to Congress, I sought and obtained a seat on the Middle East subcommittee. I quickly became one of Israel’s strongest supporters and was a central participant in most of the most important pro-Israel legislation during my time in Congress.
After I left Congress, I joined the board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. One article of faith, which in my view remains of enormous importance to Israel, is the necessity of maintaining bipartisan support in the United States.
My analysis of the Iran deal is predicated on what I strongly believe is best for both the United States and Israel, and the overwhelming weight of credible expert opinion concludes that it would be a terrible mistake for both of our countries for Congress to reject this deal. The suggested alternatives seriously increase grave risks to America and to Israel.
Unfortunately today, I believe my friends in AIPAC and some of my friends in Israel have made a regrettable rush to judgment in immediately opposing the Iran agreement and doing so in ways likely to cause long-term harm to Israel, especially in terms of Israel’s vital need for bipartisan support in the United States. And despite the loud and heavily funded campaign being waged against the deal, respected Israeli national security and intelligence experts are increasingly supporting the deal.
Among the more prominent of these Israeli is Ami Ayalon, a former navy commander and former director of the Shin Bet, who said, “When it comes to Iran’s nuclear capability, this [deal] is the best option…when negotiations began, Iran was two months away from acquiring enough material for a [nuclear] bomb. Now it will be 12 months.”
Israelis, he said, “are failing to distinguish between reducing Iran’s nuclear capability and Iran being the biggest devil in the Middle East.”
Another expert, Uzi Even, physics professor at Tel Aviv University and a scientist at the Dimona facility, said, “The deal was written by nuclear experts and blocks every path I know to the bomb. The Iranians may be celebrating, but they have swallowed a very bitter pill, more so than they would like to let on.”
Under this agreement, Iran has to drastically reduce its stockpiles of uranium; is cut off from plutonium by disabling its Arak facility; its underground Fordow facility is converted into an international research center; and unprecedented intrusive inspections have been imposed. Additionally, a highly creative snapback mechanism will snap sanctions back if the Iranians cheat — put into place because of fears that getting the U.N. Security Council to reinstate sanctions would easily be blocked by any permanent member, likely Russia and/or China. Under the provision, sanctions automatically would go back into effect unless the Security Council votes to override it — which the U.S. can veto.
With this deal, we gain unprecedented, around-the-clock monitoring of Iran’s key nuclear facilities and the most comprehensive and intrusive inspection and verification regime ever negotiated. Without a deal, those inspections will not exist and we will lose the ability to closely monitor Iran’s program and detect covert nuclear weapons development.
With this deal, Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium will be reduced by 98 percent and capped at that level for 15 years. Iran will also be required to get rid of its 20 percent enriched uranium, which is most of the way to bomb material. Without this deal, Iran could expand its existing stockpile of enriched uranium.
With this deal, Iran will not produce any weapons grade plutonium. Without this deal, Iran could produce enough weapons-grade plutonium each year for one or two nuclear weapons.
The accord is the one path that provides a peaceful means of resolving the major threat of Iran’s achieving a nuclear weapon and will enhance the security of Israel and the world. Without this deal, the risk of war in the Middle East dramatically increases as well as the real risk of nuclear proliferation.
Plus as nuclear expert Jim Walsh, who directs the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s security studies program, stated, “Some of the provisions extend 25 years, some for 15, and some are obligations Iran will have forever, for perpetuity.” Iran cannot be allowed to cheat and all options continue to be on the table to ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons. We retain a wide range of military and economic options to deal with bad Iranian behavior as well as the closest of security and intelligence cooperation with Israel and our other friends in the region.
The accord blocks all potential paths to an Iranian bomb, with unprecedented intrusive inspections, which the most eminent nuclear physicists, scientists and policy experts say provides the means of verifying compliance, with a real snap back provision. Killing the deal would isolate the United States and Israel from our own friends and allies, providing the world with the perception that it is the U.S., as a result largely of Israel’s lobbying, that has rejected diplomacy, leaving Iran without the pressure of meaningful sanctions and without any constraints on its nuclear program.
A vastly safer, more secure, route for Israel and for America is the approval of this agreement.Share this...
If we can believe Spiegel, it looks like the German political-climate blitz, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, aimed at isolating and humiliating the United States, particularly President Donald Trump, appears to have run aground.
The Paris Climate Accord may be having its D-Day.
Image cropped from Spiegel here
According to the online English version of Der Spiegel, “The German chancellor had been hoping to isolate Donald Trump on climate issues at the upcoming G-20 summit in Hamburg“, but a number of longtime US allies have decided that the overall relationship with America is more important than the flakey, UN-manufactured “climate crisis”.
Merkel’s international defeat
Spiegel writes that Merkel led the charge to try to get 19 countries of the G20 to turn against America and “make Trump a bogeyman of world history. A score of 19:1“.
Japan, in part due to obvious North Korean factors, is also hardly ready to upset its longstanding crucial Pacific ally.
No sooner did Merkel launch her climate anti-Trump campaign at the G7 summit did it begin to crumble, first because of pragmatism out of Canada, and then Great Britain. Merkel was not able get the six other countries of the G7 to make a statement against Trump. Spiegel sums up: “Climate policy is great, but when it comes to national interests, it is secondary.”
What’s left of the G7 attempt to isolate Trump is a lonely gaggle of Germany, Italy and France.
Spiegel summarizes it is “a defeat for Merkel” when it comes to climate policy and international leadership.
No mention of “climate” in G20 draft statements
Concerning the G20 meeting in Hamburg in July, there are already signs that the climate issue will also be secondary there as well. Spiegel writes how several drafts for joint statements have circulated and: “There isn’t a single mention of the climate in the document.”
Now that Merkel realizes her strategy to isolate Trump is not working, Spiegel writes that German government officials are now “eager to avoid turning the climate statement into an instrument of power politics” and that Merkel will likely to “retreat” to a role of mediator.
But it’s an election year and the race to bash and “to stand up to” Trump is as intense as ever. In polls Merkel’s CDU/CSU party currently holds a huge lead over the crumbling SPD socialist party, led by Martin Schulz. Merkel probably could even afford softening her anti-Trump stance.
Germany CO2 emissions reductions an embarrassment
Another factor that Spiegel did not bring up is that Germany’s climate charges against America in fact look ridiculous. How can anyone take Germany seriously on leadership in climate protection? This is a country that has not cut back its greenhouse gas emissions in 8 years and will completely miss its 40% reductions target by 2020.
Moreover, led by the Merkel government, Germany has massively slashed subsidies on green energies and the Chancellor’s pledge to put a million electric cars on the road by 2020 remains light years away.
Germany preaching America on cutting greenhouse gases is nothing short of a bad joke.Getty Images Washington And The World We’ve Seen This Movie Before. In Russia. Washington is starting to look a bit too much like Moscow for comfort.
Eugene Rumer is director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Conventional wisdom holds that the present situation in Washington is unprecedented. The hyperpartisanship, the dysfunctional administration, the accusations of conflicts of interests, the embattled and erratic White House and the president’s reliance on a small circle of trusted insiders, first and foremost his family, have stunned Washington and much of the country and the world. But veteran Russia-watchers have seen this before. They remember Russia in the 1990s.
The president, Boris Yeltsin, a charismatic figure often unable to control his impulses, was a prisoner of the Kremlin, or his out-of-town residence near Moscow. A heavy drinker, he was frequently reported to be unable to perform the duties of his office. He ended up relying on a small group of advisers who became known in Moscow as the "family.” At the center of it was his immediate family, who controlled access to him and his flow of information. First daughter Tatyana was his chief adviser and gatekeeper. Yeltsin’s press spokesman, Valentin Yumashev, who later married Tatyana and became Yeltsin’s chief of staff, was another key figure in the “family.” At one time or another, members of the “family” were reported to be under investigation by various Russian law enforcement agencies on suspicion of corruption. None ever went to trial, but allegations of corruption and ethical violations by those closest to Yeltsin became virtually an everyday feature of Russian political life, and in 1999 Yeltsin sacked the man in charge of the investigation.
Story Continued Below
The cabinet of ministers led by the prime minister was nominally in charge of the economy. However, real economic power was concentrated in the hands of seven bankers who had used their ties to the Kremlin to amass vast fortunes in the course of the privatization campaign. Together they were reported to control as much as half of the Russian economy. They also controlled major media outlets and used them liberally to promote their business interests, to attack each other, or to support or undercut the Kremlin, depending on whether its policies fit their preferences. Fake news proliferated as a weapon in political and business struggles. When circumstances warranted, some of these oligarchs became government officials and were rewarded for their service—usually not very long—with tax breaks or other benefits for their businesses.
The legislature—the Duma—was rendered dysfunctional by a combination of partisan politics and a new Russian constitution that greatly enhanced the power of the presidency. After the fall of the Soviet Union, competitive elections greatly increased the role of money in political campaigns in an environment marked by few established rules of conduct and legal norms. As a result, many deputies and parliamentary factions became beholden to big money interests. With the Duma unable to legislate, the Kremlin ruled the country by presidential decrees—executive orders—often rumored to be the handiwork of the “family.”
The courts, nominally independent, never really recovered from the blow they suffered during the October 1993 constitutional crisis, when Yeltsin shut down the Constitutional Court and used military force to disband the Supreme Soviet, the Duma’s predecessor. Lacking a tradition of judicial independence, the courts in Russia have never acquired the role of a full-fledged third branch of the Russian government, and in a Kremlin-dominated system slipped into irrelevance.
With Moscow consumed by palace intrigue, the rest of the country could not, would not wait for the “family” to act. Regional governors took matters in their own hands. None followed Chechnya’s lead to fight a war of independence, but some, such as Tatarstan’s leader, Mintimer Shaymiyev, or Kalmykia’s Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, turned their provinces into virtual fiefdoms largely outside of Moscow’s control.
Economic ruin, shattered confidence and political dysfunction were the country’s inheritance at the end of the Yeltsin decade. Russians were sick, depressed and humiliated. Western media declared boldly that “Russia is finished.”
Then along came Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer handpicked by the “family,” a reliable successor to Yeltsin who would protect its interests. He promised to make Russia great again and promptly restarted the “small victorious war” in Chechnya to boost the country’s sagging morale. He warned the oligarchs to stay out of politics; those who did not went to prison or exile. He reined in the media. He put the governors in their place. He kept his word to the “family” and protected it, but moved it aside and replaced it with his own clan—the “siloviki”—drawn mostly from the intelligence community and law enforcement.
Throughout the tumult of ‘90s Russia, the thought that something like that could happen in the United States was far from the minds of Russia-watchers or Americans in general. The conventional wisdom held that this country’s institutions were strong, its democracy, its economy, its medicine, its education, its military were the envy of the world. The United States is not like the Soviet Union or Russia. But everything there changed rapidly and with no warning, and nobody had expected or predicted it. After a decade of turmoil, Russians welcomed Putin as the strong leader they hoped would save their country from itself.Police have shot and killed at least 385 people nationwide during the first five months of 2015, or more than two people per day, according to an extensive analysis by the Washington Post published on Saturday.
The Post found that African Americans are killed at disproportionate rates, with black people killed at three times the rate of their white counterparts and other minorities when adjusting for overall population. And the vast majority of all victims — 365 out of 385 — were men.
In most of the shootings, the victim was typically armed with a deadly weapon, such as a gun or knife. Nearly 13 percent of shooting victims were unarmed, while more than 3 percent had a toy gun at the time of the shooting.
A separate count released on Monday by the Guardian — which, unlike the Post, looked at all killings, not just shootings — found 464 people have been killed by police so far this year, 102 of whom were unarmed. The Guardian estimated that roughly two-thirds of unarmed victims killed by police were minorities, compared with nearly half of all victims and less than 38 percent of the general population.
The Post estimated that roughly half the shootings were during police responses to domestic disturbances or other complex social situations, such as a homeless person behaving erratically or a boyfriend threatening violence. The other half were during responses to non-domestic crimes, including robberies, or routine police activity, like serving warrants. Beyond race, victims had some other factors in common: most were poor and had a history with law enforcement over small-time crimes. Many were mentally ill or emotionally troubled. Some were fleeing when police shot and killed them.
Some of the shootings were legally justified, including a few cases in which cops killed armed assailants who were threatening the lives of others. Police only have to reasonably perceive a deadly threat to open fire, based on two Supreme Court rulings from the 1980s.
But for critics and reformers, the question isn't necessarily what's legal or justifiable — but what's preventable.
"We have to get beyond what is legal and start focusing on what is preventable. Most are preventable," Ronald Davis, a former police chief who heads the US Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, told the Post. Police "need to stop chasing down suspects, hopping fences, and landing on top of someone with a gun," he added. "When they do that, they have no choice but to shoot."
Federal data on police shootings is incomplete
The Washington Post and the Guardian's daily tallies are more than twice the average count reported to federal databases by police departments around the country, confirming warnings from public officials that the federal data is incomplete. A previous study by RTI International for the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) concluded that the two prevailing federal databases each capture less than half of all killings by police.
Currently, the federal government gathers police shooting data through the BJS's Arrest-Related Deaths (ARD) and the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), but both databases have problems. ARD collects data on police-caused homicides through state reporting coordinators, but the methods of collecting data can greatly vary from state to state, often depend on differing access to technology, and sometimes don't directly involve police departments or coroner's offices. SHR relies on reports submitted by police agencies, but these reports are voluntary — and some states, like Florida, don't participate.
The Post and the Guardian's counts falls roughly in line with counts conducted by others. KilledByPolice.net, for example, has tracked 474 police killings since the beginning of the year — but the group's count, like the Guardian's, includes all deaths caused by police, while the Post's only includes shootings.
"The troubling reality is that we lack the ability right now to comprehensively track the number of incidents"
Several police killings in the past year have led to nationwide protests over racial disparities in police killings. In Baltimore, six police officers were indicted for 28 criminal charges for the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. In North Charleston, South Carolina, Michael Slager was charged with murder and fired from the police department after shooting Walter Scott, who was fleeing and unarmed at the time. In Ferguson, Darren Wilson killed unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. In New York City, NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo killed Eric Garner by putting the unarmed 43-year-old black man in a chokehold.
For critics of law enforcement, the incomplete data is just another way it's difficult to hold police accountable. Without complete and accurate statistics, it's impossible to evaluate the extent of racial disparities in police killings, and how the US truly compares to other countries in deaths to law enforcement.
The Obama administration has acknowledged the problem, pushing to collect better data from police departments around the country. The FBI plans to try to collect better data on crimes and homicides, which could include police killings, according to USA Today's Kevin Johnson.
"The troubling reality is that we lack the ability right now to comprehensively track the number of incidents of either uses of force directed at police officers or uses of force by police," former US Attorney General Eric Holder said in January. "This strikes many — including me — as unacceptable."The Obama administration is looking to crack down on glaring holes in the security of cell phones.
In letters to the country's major cell phone manufacturers and wireless networks, the Federal Trade Commission and the FCC said they want to better understand how phones get security updates.
The regulators said they are "concerned" about how quickly cell phone updates are issued once a bug is found. They were also worried about the fact that some people are left out of updates.
"Consumers may be left unprotected, for long periods of time or even indefinitely, by any delays in patching vulnerabilities once they are discovered," the FCC and FTC said in a joint statement. "There are significant delays in delivering patches to actual devices -- and older devices may never be patched."
Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOGL), in addition to Samsung, Microsoft (MSFT), HTC, Motorola, LG and BlackBerry, received letters of inquiry from the FTC. Meanwhile, the FCC sent letters to Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, along with smaller carriers U.S. Cellular and TracFone.
Bugs are a fact of life. No matter how careful companies are when creating their software, there are always going to be a way for hackers to get in. That's why apps frequently push out updates: so that hackers can't take advantage of major vulnerabilities.
But operating systems are more difficult to update than apps. They need to be thoroughly tested -- a mistake could turn someone's phone into a brick. And they need to be coordinated with the various wireless companies, so that the carriers can prepare for millions of people to upgrade simultaneously.
That complicated process has led to slow upgrades for millions of smartphone customers, sometimes long after a vulnerability has been exposed.
Related: Android phones can be hacked with a simple text
Though Apple tends to have a better reputation for security than Google, it is notoriously slow at delivering security patches to customers. Its updates come much faster than Android updates, but they're often missing crucial bug fixes.
For example, Apple failed to fix a major vulnerability that allows hackers to break into nearby iPhones using the AirDrop feature. The bug had been around since iOS 8 and wasn't fixed until Apple released iOS 9.1.
A spokesman for Apple declined comment.
Android's vulnerabilities are potentially worse than the iPhone's. And Google is largely powerless to fix Android's problems, because each Android smartphone manufacturer has to release its own special update that plays nicely with its modified version of the operating system.
About 30% of Android phones currently in use don't receive any security patches, according to Google.
That's a huge problem when bugs like the nasty "Stagefright" vulnerability exist. Stagefright affects nearly 1 billion Android devices around the world, giving attackers the ability to get inside practically any Android phone without the owner knowing it.
The good news is that there are no known attacks that have taken advantage of Stagefright -- or most other smartphone vulnerabilities. Google said.
But regulators are right to be concerned. Just because a bug hasn't been exploited doesn't mean it won't be.
The PC industry shows there can be a better way. For instance, Microsoft continued to support Windows XP 13 years after it debuted with weekly security fixes. Meanwhile, there are some one-year old smartphones that no longer receive updates, including serious security patches.
There are technical issues that make the weekly security patches of PCs difficult to achieve on smartphones, including bandwidth constraints and carrier relationships.
But it's a problem worth solving: the current state of affairs is making us all less safe.
Editor's Note: The headline on this article has been changed from an earlier version to better reflect the |
Rubio said "This election is about the essence of America, about all of us who feel out of place in our own country." That feeling was so powerful that even the young bilingual son of immigrants who everyone said represented the future of the GOP tried to channel it, even if his appeal was supposed to be precisely that he didn't feel out of place in our changing country.
The voters who feel that way have been cajoled, courted, and complimented by the Republican candidates. Some of what those candidates have proposed may already have slipped from your memory—like back in August, when many of them (including Trump and Cruz) rushed to say they'd like to amend the Constitution to eliminate birthright citizenship—but rest assured, Latino voters haven't forgotten.
According to many analyses, the Republicans will need somewhere between 40 percent and 50 percent of Latino votes to assemble a national majority. In other words, they'll need to not just do better than Romney or McCain did among America's largest minority group, but much better. And we've still got a couple of months of pandering to the GOP base left before their nomination is settled. Is there anyone who thinks that once they start shaking that Etch A Sketch for the general election, the image they've painted up until now is going to disappear?ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (Reuters) - A 29-year old man who said he was God crashed a truck through the glass doors of a Maryland television news station building on Tuesday and barricaded himself inside before being arrested hours later, police and witnesses said.
A Baltimore county firefighter officer walks out the broken door at the entrance of the WMAR-TV station in Towson, Maryland May 13, 2014. REUTERS/Jose Magana
The man banged on the doors of WMAR-TV in Towson, just outside of Baltimore, asking to be let inside shortly before noon. When he was refused, he crashed a truck into the lobby and made his way to the second floor, police said.
“He was ranting and raving incoherent statements. From the beginning, it was clear we were dealing with a very disturbed individual,” Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson said at a press conference.
Police said the suspect had a golf club when officers arrested him without incident in a second floor editing room around 4:40 p.m. He had been watching television news coverage of the incident.
“He was watching different channels, watching you report this story as the incident unfolded,” Johnson told reporters.
Johnson said the suspect, while uninjured, would be taken for further medical evaluation. Criminal charges were expected to be filed later, he said.
Police said 55 people were evacuated from the building, while one safely remained in the basement during the incident.
Baltimore County Police said the vehicle was stolen Tuesday morning after being left unattended and belonged to a State Highway Administration subcontractor.
Maryland landscaping company Ashton Manor Environmental said in a statement one of its work vehicles was stolen, and believe it was used in the crash.
Brian Kuebler, a reporter at the station, said on Twitter the suspect rammed the building three times with the truck.
He “tried to get in (the) building screaming ‘LET ME IN!’ and said he was God,” according to Kuebler’s Twitter post.Hungry Brain Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 4,412
Re: Are Jewish People White? Quote: FourthReich Originally Posted by You are right. Jews are Semites. They are not White.
Jews do follow a program analogous to biological mimicry. They like to look like their host population so they marry off their daughters to the males of the host population. The offspring, having Jewish mothers, are therefore Jews and over succeeding generations look more and more like the host population. Not only that, they have the names, manners, and customs of their fathers -- all the better to infiltrate the host population.
Nevertheless, DNA studies have shown that Jews in diverse countries have more in common genetically with Jews in other countries than they do with the host populations no matter how much they resemble the host.
The term "anti-Semite" was invented as a smear term applied to those who criticize Jews.
Suppose, for example, Ben Netanyahu has all the outward physical characteristics of a white person. Does it really matter? Those identifying themselves as Jewish non-the-less consider themselves a breed apart, and their interests don't at all align themselves with our interests. So, their physical appearance is a moot point, as they have a "separate self-identity" apart from whites.
I have wondered this: what if the US Census Bureau re-did the race category, and included an option called "Middle Eastern". I'd like to ask the Jews using this board whether they'd check either the "White" box or the "Middle Eastern" box. I live around Arabs, and a census worker told me how she went round and round for 15 minutes or so while an Arab pondered which group he belonged to, finding non of them satisfactory. Finally he settled on "white," but if you ever asked an Arab if he were white, he'd certainly answer "no". Even though the stereotypical Jew is a hook-nosed, dark-skinned, beady-eyed man with dark curly hair, I have seen many (especially in New York City) with blue eyes. It seems as if there must have been a lot of mixing over the 2000 years or so that Whites and Jews have been living side-by-side, like you said.Suppose, for example, Ben Netanyahu has all the outward physical characteristics of a white person. Does it really matter? Those identifying themselves as Jewish non-the-less consider themselves a breed apart, and their interests don't at all align themselves with our interests. So, their physical appearance is a moot point, as they have a "separate self-identity" apart from whites.I have wondered this: what if the US Census Bureau re-did the race category, and included an option called "Middle Eastern". I'd like to ask the Jews using this board whether they'd check either the "White" box or the "Middle Eastern" box. I live around Arabs, and a census worker told me how she went round and round for 15 minutes or so while an Arab pondered which group he belonged to, finding non of them satisfactory. Finally he settled on "white," but if you ever asked an Arab if he were white, he'd certainly answer "no".CORVALLIS, Ore. - The largest and most comprehensive study yet done on the effect of biofuel production from West Coast forests has concluded that an emphasis on bioenergy would increase carbon dioxide emissions from these forests at least 14 percent, if the efficiency of such operations is optimal.
The findings are contrary to assumptions and some previous studies that suggest biofuels from this source would be carbon-neutral or even reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In this research, that wasn't true in any scenario.
The study was published today in Nature Climate Change, by scientists from the College of Forestry at Oregon State University and other institutions in Germany and France. It was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.
During the past four years, the study examined 80 forest types in 19 eco-regions in Oregon, Washington and California, ranging from temperate rainforests to semi-arid woodlands. It included both public and private lands and different forest management approaches.
"On the West Coast, we found that projected forest biomass removal and use for bioenergy in any form will release more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than current forest management practices," said Tara Hudiburg, a doctoral candidate at OSU and lead author on the study.
"Most people assume that wood bioenergy will be carbon-neutral, because the forest re-grows and there's also the chance of protecting forests from carbon emissions due to wildfire," Hudiburg said. "However, our research showed that the emissions from these activities proved to be more than the savings."
The only exception to this, the researchers said, was if forests in high fire-risk zones become weakened due to insect outbreaks or drought, which impairs their growth and carbon sequestration, as well as setting the stage for major fires. It's possible some thinning for bioenergy production might result in lower emissions in such cases if several specific criteria are met, they said.
"Until now there have been a lot of misconceptions about impacts of forest thinning, fire prevention and biofuels production as it relates to carbon emissions from forests," said Beverly Law, a professor in the OSU Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society and co-author of this study.
"If our ultimate goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, producing bioenergy from forests will be counterproductive," Law said. "Some of these forest management practices may also have negative impacts on soils, biodiversity and habitat. These issues have not been thought out very fully."
The study examined thousands of forest plots with detailed data and observations, considering 27 parameters, including the role of forest fire, emissions savings from bioenergy use, wood product substitution, insect infestations, forest thinning, energy and processes needed to produce biofuels, and many others.
It looked at four basic scenarios: "business as usual"; forest management primarily for fire prevention purposes; additional levels of harvest to prevent fire but also make such operations more economically feasible; and significant bioenergy production while contributing to fire reduction.
Compared to "business as usual" or current forest management approaches, all of the other approaches increased carbon emissions, the study found. Under the most optimal levels of efficiency, management just for fire prevention increased it 2 percent; for better economic return, 6 percent; and for higher bioenergy production, 14 percent.
"However, we don't believe that an optimal efficiency of production is actually possible in real-world conditions," Hudiburg said. "With levels of efficiency that are more realistic, we project that the use of these forests for high bioenergy production would increase carbon emissions 17 percent from their current level."
About 98 percent of the forests in this region are now estimated to be a carbon sink, meaning that even with existing management approaches they sequester more carbon than they release to the atmosphere.
Plans for greenhouse gas reduction call for up to 10 percent lower emissions by 2020, and forest-derived fuels are now seen as a carbon-neutral solution to reducing energy emissions, the researchers note. However, this study suggests that increases in harvest volume on the West Coast, for any reason, will instead result in average increases in emissions above current levels.
Forests capture a large portion of the carbon emitted worldwide, and some of this carbon is stored in pools such as wood and soil that can last hundreds to thousands of years, the scientists said.
"Energy policy implemented without full carbon accounting and an understanding of the underlying processes risks increasing rather than decreasing emissions," the researchers wrote in their report.
###The questions have confounded admission officials at women’s colleges in recent years.
Should transgender women be allowed to apply? If so, how far along into the gender transition process must an applicant be to be recognized as a woman?
After a year of soul searching, Smith College this weekend became the latest of the prestigious women’s colleges to come around to a sensible conclusion. Starting this fall, transgender women may apply. All they have to do is note on the application form that they are women. Students who enroll as women and later come out as transgender men will be welcome to stay at Smith.
Image Calliope Wong Credit Jessica Hill/Associated Press
“We had lots of really wonderful and interesting discussions,” Kathleen McCartney, the president of Smith College, said in an interview. “We came to the collective decision that trans women are women and belong at Smith.” Smith, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, became the seventh well-known women’s college in recent months to have revised its admission policies in order to welcome transgender women. Others, including Barnard College in Manhattan, are considering similar changes.
Smith’s evolution on the issue was closely watched because of its highly publicized refusal in 2013 to consider the application of Calliope Wong, a transgender woman. Ms. Wong wrote about her ordeal on a Tumblr page titled Transwomen @ Smith. Because Ms. Wong had not had gender reassignment surgery, she was unable to change the gender on her birth certificate in Connecticut, which is contemplating allowing transgender people to update the records regardless of whether they have had surgery.KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee held its Orange Carpet Day event Saturday and the Vols once again were able to attract a number of the nation’s elite prospects.
The headliners included 2016 commit Jarrett Guarantano, 2016 five-star running back Tavien Feaster, 2016 five-star receiver Kyle Davis and 2016 in-state star Joejuan Williams, among others.
The biggest news from the group listed came from Feaster, the nation’s top ranked all-purpose back, according to 247Sports. A U.S. Army All-American Game selection for 2016, Feaster has been committed to Clemson since February but told Volquest ($) he would be re-evaluating his recruitment after the visit to Tennessee’s campus. While Feaster is from South Carolina, his home is close enough to Knoxville that the travel time to campus is similar to the one to Death Valley.
Article continues below...
Possibly the biggest recruit in attendance was 247Sports Composite 2017 five-star quarterback Hunter Johnson. Johnson recently earned his five-star status, and sources say the Tennessee coaching staff strongly believes he is the nation’s top prospect for 2017.
If Johnson lives up to the hype, he could change the landscape of the SEC. The Tennessee coaching staff feels it has as strong a chance at landing Johnson as Notre Dame or Florida State, the schools said to be his favorites.
Johnson was shown Tennessee’s new virtual reality system, similar to this one described in great detail by FOX Sports’ Bruce Feldman, and came away blown away by the technology. Ole Miss is the only other school in the SEC to currently have access to the virtual-reality tech.
Tennessee has video engineers currently developing new and unique ways to utilize the technology that no other school in the nation has the capability or knowledge of at this point. In an interesting note, coaches said that a number of teams have attempted to hire away these engineers to bring the technology to their school, only to be turned down.
The virtual-reality system and innovations the Tennessee team creates could be the elements that push the Vols past the rest of the country in Johnson’s recruitment.
Tennessee’s recruiting headquarters is known as "The Bullpen." Have you wondered how prospects come to be on the Vols’ radar?
The team has seven desks set up for recruiting evaluators in The Bullpen, where employees watch film around the clock: via YouTube, via submissions, various Internet sites, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Once a member of the team identifies a player with some potential, he reports this to the manager of The Bullpen. If the manager agrees the prospect is worth an in-depth look, he passes it to the coaching staff.
Butch Jones and his staff have been able to pinpoint high-caliber players that may not have made the national radar.
One question on the minds of many Tennessee fans: How do the freshmen on the defensive line look?
Expectations are sky high, thanks in large part to the incredible recruiting haul: elite prospects Shy Tuttle, Kahlil McKenzie and Kyle Phillips are all expected to play this season on the heels of Derek Barnett’s impact last season.
The coaching staff sees great potential in their freshmen up front but believes enthusiasm for outstanding results should be curbed in year one. After all, these young players will be at a huge disadvantage in terms of strength and conditioning, not to mention experience and understanding of college offenses and their own defensive system.
The best line from the coaching staff in regards to their approach on coaching these freshmen this season? One coach said he’ll tell his players, "You see that man in front of you? Go beat his (expletive) ass."Photo
The French advertising giant Publicis Groupe said on Monday that it had agreed to pay $3.7 billion in cash for Sapient, a marketing and consulting company based in Boston, as it seeks to become a stronger digital competitor against Internet powerhouses like Google and Facebook.
Publicis, based in Paris, will pay $25 a share for Sapient, 44 percent above its closing price on Friday, the companies said in a joint statement. They said they had agreed to build a joint platform called Publicis.Sapient focusing “exclusively on digital transformation and the dynamics of an always-on world across marketing, omni-channel commerce, consulting and technology.”
The boards of both companies have unanimously recommended the deal.
The announcement came less than six months after the collapse of the proposed merger of Publicis with Omnicom, a $35 billion deal that would have created the world’s largest advertising agency, surpassing WPP. Combining the two large companies presented a host of tax and legal complications, as well as cultural differences, that proved too difficult to overcome.
The context for both deals is the fact that companies like Yahoo, Google and Facebook are revolutionizing the advertising business, gobbling up an ever-greater chunk of digital spending. The overwhelming information advantage the Internet companies have on consumer browsing habits has helped them in the growing online ad market, even as the traditional media that the agencies long depended on lose their sparkle.
The traditional advertising companies and global tech giants are fighting over an increasingly large online market.
“Sapient was the largest independent digital ad agency left in the marketplace,” said Claudio Aspesi, a media analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “There is very little left for competitors to catch up with Publicis on digital. They were certainly the leader already, and more markedly so after this deal.”
Sapient, a Nasdaq-traded company founded in 1990, is in the business of providing corporations with consulting and support services, including in the fields of finance, retail, technology, energy and government. That includes viral marketing campaigns, smartphone applications and websites for companies like Coca-Cola, Audi and Target.
Sapient had revenue of about $1.4 billion in the first six months of the year. Publicis had 2013 revenue of just under 7 billion euros, or about $8.7 billion.
Maurice Lévy, chairman and chief executive of Publicis, described Sapient in the statement as “a one-of-a-kind company born in the technology space with strengths in marketing, communications, consulting and omni-channel commerce.”
Publicis currently generates around 40 percent of its revenue from its digital operations, according to Ian Whittaker, an analyst at Liberum Capital in London.
But Publicis’s gains in digital advertising have come at a price. Before the latest deal, Mr. Lévy had spent about $3.4 billion since 2007 snapping up digital properties. That includes $530 million for Razorfish, a pioneering Web ad company, in 2009. The Sapient deal will consume most of the $4 billion that Mr. Lévy said last year Publicis was setting aside for acquisitions.
Publicis shares closed down 2.26 percent, or $1.25, to $54.02 in trading in Paris, having fallen almost 5 percent earlier in the day. Shares of Sapient jumped 42 percent, or $7.28, to $$24.60.
Sapient’s chief executive and co-chairman, Alan J. Herrick, is to lead the Publicis.Sapient business. Jerry A. Greenberg, Sapient’s other co-chairman, would join Publicis’s supervisory board.
The deal, first reported late Sunday by The Wall Street Journal, is expected to close before March 31, the executives said, and is contingent on antitrust and other regulatory clearances.
David Jolly reported from Paris and Mark Scott from London.Tutorial: How to build a multi-sensor device using a RaspberryPI and Phidgets
Everything wired up
In this tutorial, we will turn a RaspberryPI into a multi-sensor device that connects to Velisphere allowing to track and analyze sensor data. In a later tutorial, we will expand on this setup by adding a relay than can be controlled via Velisphere rules. But let’s concentrate on building the sensor device first.
By the way, I will soon add a few screen shots to make things more intuitive for you!
Find the complete code here: https://github.com/thomeudt/VelisphereClientSDK/tree/master/DemoRaspberryPiSensor
What you need
Skills
You should be reasonably familiar with the JAVA programming language and the Eclipse IDE.
You will find this tutorial easier to follow if you have already managed to get a Raspberry Pi setup, including installing a Linux operating system on the SD card. Some basic Linux skills are helpful, too.
Hardware
1x Raspberry Pi, while either version 1 or version 2 should work, we have tested this tutorial with version 2 only
The RaspberryPi needs to have internet connectivity, either via Ethernet (just plug in the cable) or WiFi (WiFi dongle required).
1x Phidgets Interface Kit 8/8/8
1x Phidgets Precision Light Sensor
1x Phidgets Touch Sensor
1x Phidgets Force Sensor
1x Phidgets Rotation Sensor 360°
1x Powered USB 2.0 hub (sufficient to provide power for both the Raspberry Pi
and the Interface Kit. The USB ports on the Raspberry Pi do not provide
sufficient power for the interface kit!
3x USB cables, one each connecting the Raspberry PI and the interface kit with the USB hub for power supply, and one connecting the interface kit with the Raspberry Pi for connectivity.
Please refer to the manuals provided for the Raspberry Pi, your USB hub, and the interface kit to determine which type of USB cable will be required.
Software
On your Developer Machine (PC, Mac, etc.):
Eclipse Standard IDE for you to build the JAVA client application that will then be deployed to the Raspberry Pi. The tutorial has been written for Eclipse “Luna” (Version 4.4), but other recent releases such as Mars or Kepler will also work. There might be slight differences to the UI though, therefore the tutorial might not be 100% accurate for these releases.
Eclipse requires a supported Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Please refer to the Eclipse documentation for further details.
On the Raspberry Pi
Your Raspberry Pi should be running a Linux distribution. I am using Arch Linux ARM as it currently is the only distribution that I managed to get Docker to run on the Raspberry Pi and I need this for other purposes.
If you prefer Raspbian or Ubuntu, stick with those, they should work equally well for the purposes of this tutorial.
A working Java Runtime Environment, Oracle Java and OpenJDK will both do the job. Java 7 is tested, newer versions should also work.
If not already installed, on Ubuntu/Debian systems, you may install OpenJDK using the following command:
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jre
For other distributions, please refer to the respective documentation.
Physical Setup
Getting the Raspberry Pi to work with the Phidgets Interface Kit and the connected sensors, a bit of pre-work is required. I recommend that you follow the free tutorial provided here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Getting-Started-with-Phidgets-on-the-Raspberry-Pi/?ALLSTEPS
Make sure you connect the four sensors to the analog ports on your Phidgets Interface Kit, as we will be using these four ports later in the tutorial.
The assignments used in this tutorial are as follows:
Rotation Sensor: Port 1
Force Sensor: Port 5
Light Sensor: Port 6
Touch Sensor: Port 7
Writing the Client Application in Java
Setting up your project in Eclipse
On your developer machine, launch the Eclipse IDE. When asked, you can choose either to create a new workspace for your project, or use an existing one.
When Eclipse is started up, create a new project
FILE > NEW > JAVA PROJECT
In the dialog box, enter
PiDemo
in the PROJECT NAME field, leave all other options in their default settings and hit FINISH. The new project PiDemo should now show up in the package explorer on the left side of your Eclipse window.
Creating the VeliSphere Configuration File
We now need to create the default Velisphere configuration file, which we will later use to store information required to authenticate your RaspberryPi in the Velisphere network as well as to validate messages your RaspberryPi will receive from the network.
To do so, right-click on the newly create “PiDemo” project and select NEW > FILE in the context menu.
In the new file dialog, please enter the following file name in the field “File name:”
velisphere_config.xml
and hit the FINISH button.
An empty file velisphere_config.xml will be created and opened on the right hand side of the screen.
Copy the following XML snippet into the newly created file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE properties SYSTEM "http://java.sun.com/dtd/properties.dtd"> <properties> <comment>This file contains Velisphere authentication information. Do not overwrite!</comment> <entry key="Secret Key"></entry> <entry key="Endpoint ID"></entry> <entry key="Endpoint Class ID">33492b88-3626-416c-86c3-90221a849da2</entry> <entry key="isProvisioned">false</entry> </properties>
and hit the SAVE (floppy disk) button in Eclipse.
Let’s have a look at this file. In essence, it is an XML file that specifies four different keys:
Secret Key
The secret key that your Raspberry Pi will use for checking the authenticity of an incoming message (i.e. to verify whether the message has truly been sent by the Velisphere system) and which will also be used to allow the Velisphere system to check whether it was truly your device that sent an outgoing message.
The principle used by Velisphere is based on the HMAC (Keyed hash message authentication code) concept:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash-based_message_authentication_code
The secret key will be provided by the Velisphere server during the provisioning process and automatically be stored in the configuration file.
Endpoint ID
The endpoint ID is a unique identifier that identifies your Raspberry Pi, it will also be assigned by the Velisphere server during provisioning.
Endpoint Class ID
The endpoint class ID defines which kind of endpoint your RaspberryPI is, so that the system has a clear description of the capabilities of this device.
Think of it as follows (Germans like car analogies):
Endpoint Class > “Raspberry Pi with Phidgets”
> Car Analogy: “2016 Volkswagen Passat Sedan SE”
Endpoint > “Thorsten’s Raspberry Pi with Phidgets”
> Car Analogy: “VIN WVWZZZZZxyz123456”
Within the Velisphere System, multiple endpoints of the same endpoint class can exist. Any given endpoint is, in other words, the implementation of an endpoint class. The endpoint class describes the characteristics, the “properties” of and endpoint.
For this reason, the endpoint class ID needs to be provided to Velisphere when sending the provisioning request and therefore needs to be provided via the XML file before sending the provisioning request.
The endpoint class for this tutorial is
33492b88-3626-416c-86c3-90221a849da2
IsProvisioned Flag
Before provisioning a device for the first time (or re-provisioning a device that was previously provisioned), the isProvisioned-Flag needs to be set to “false”. We will later read this flag to determine on startup whether to send a provisioning request or continue with regular boot.
Adding the VeliSphere SDK library
Next, we need to download the Velisphere Software Development Kit JAR file and add it to the JAVA build bath of our newly created repository.
To download the file, go to
https://github.com/thomeudt/VelisphereClientSDK/releases
Under the “Downloads” section, you will find a file called VelisphereMilkSDK.jar (In case you wonder about the dairy content – all Velisphere components are codenamed around products you need to produce chai late, and milk certainly qualifies for that…)
Switch back to Eclipse and make a right click on you newly created project “PiDemo”, select Build Path > and Configure Build Path….
Select the Libraries tab and click on Add external JARs… on the right side of the dialog box
In the JAR selection dialog box, navigate to the location in which you stored the downloaded VelisphereMilkSDK.jar. Select this file and click OK. The JAR selection dialog closes, then hit OK again to close the Java Build Path dialog.
We can now use routines from the SDK JAR file to build our client, which saves a lot of time.
Adding the Phidgets libarary
In order to be able to read data from sensors connected to the Phidgets interface kit, we also need to add the Phidgets Java library file to our build path. Download the respective file phidget21.jar from the phidget web site and add it in the same was as you added VelisphereMilkSDK.jar.
Adding GeoLite for geographical approximation
Velisphere provides you with functionality to track location data of your devices and perform further analysis on this data. As the Raspberry Pi does not include a GPS receiver for precise location data, we will approximate the device position based on its IP address, using GeoLite provided by MaxMind.
The required library geoip-api-1.2.15.jar can be downloaded from www.maxmind.com, and needs to be added to the build path following again steps 9-11.
Creating the Java Package
Next, we will create a new Java package in which we will store the code that we are about to create. For the purpose of this tutorial, we are using the following package name, but you are certainly free to use whatever name you like (we suggest you stick to Java naming conventions):
com.velisphere.demo.rpiSensors
Right click again on the “PiDemo” project and select New > and Package.
In the New Java Package dialog box, leave the default setting for the source folder (should be PiDemo/src) and enter the package name as above:
com.velisphere.demo.rpiSensors
Within the newly created package, which will show up in the Eclipse Package Explorer after expanding the src folder, we need to create four Java classes that contain all of the code we need.
Three classes are the basic requirements for any Velisphere client implementation, but are always to be adapted specifically for the endpoint we are developing for.
In our case these are:
PiSensorsMain.java
Main class that will handle startup:
PiEventListener.java
An implementation of the com.velisphere.milk.interfaces.EventListener which is used to respond to incoming messages
PreDeployment.java
A class to trigger initial deployment of the device:
In addition, we will use two classes that provide additional functionality:
PhidgetMonitoringEngine.java
A class that will listen to sensor value changes on the Interface kit and sends them, via AMQP, to the Velisphere message broker.
In order to create these classes, please repeat the following steps for each class, using the respective class name:
Right click on the package com.velisphere.demo.rpiSensors you created before, and select NEW > CLASS
In the New Java Class dialog box, enter the name of the class you are creating (see above), without the “.java” extension. Leave all other options in heir default settings.
Hit the FINISH button to create the class
Coding the PreDeployment Class
After having created all four empty classes, it is time to create the code. We will start with the most simple class, the pre-deployment class, PreDeployment. In Eclipse file explorer, double click on the class, which will open the (mostly) empty class:
package com.velisphere.demo.rpiSensors; public class PreDeployment { }
Add the following code to the PreDeployment class:
package com.velisphere.demo.rpiSensors; import com.velisphere.milk.restClient.ProvisioningClient; public class PreDeployment { public static void initiateDeployment() { System.setProperty("jsse.enableSNIExtension", "false"); String provisioningID = ProvisioningClient.macProvisioning(); System.out.println("[IN] Provisioning request successfully submitted."); System.out.println("[IN] Go to www.velisphere.com, log in with your user name and start the provisioning wizard to complete."); System.out.println("[IN] Your Device ID is: " + provisioningID); } }
This class calls the ProvisioningClient.macProvisioning static method that comes with the Velisphere Client SDK. This class files a provisioning request with Velisphere, using the MAC address of the network interface as the unique identifier.
There are other methods available for filing provisioning requests using the ProvisioningClient class, we will discuss these in later tutorials.
Calling the MAC provisioning method returns a string value that is the MAC address of the device, we print them to the console so that the user can use this identifier to finalize the provisioning, using the provisioning wizard provided by velisphere.com
Hit the “save” button in Eclipse to save your code.
Coding the Event Listener
Next, we will create the code for the PiEventListener class. It will have to look as follows:
package com.velisphere.demo.rpiSensors; import java.util.HashMap; import com.velisphere.milk.amqpClient.AmqpClient; import com.velisphere.milk.configuration.ConfigData; import com.velisphere.milk.interfaces.EventListener; public class PiEventListener implements EventListener { @Override public void requestIsAlive(AmqpClient amqpClient) { System.out.println(" [IN] IsAlive Requested..."); HashMap<String, String> messageHash = new HashMap<String, String>(); messageHash.put("setState", "REACHABLE"); try { amqpClient.sendHashTable(messageHash, ConfigData.epid, "CTL"); } catch (Exception e) { // TODO Do something meaningful for error handling e.printStackTrace(); } } @Override public void requestAllProperties(AmqpClient amqpClient) { System.out.println(" [IN] AllProperties requested and discarded as not supported by PiSensor"); } @Override public void newInboundMessage(AmqpClient amqpClient, String message) { System.out.println(" [IN] New Inbound Message, but no action implemented yet by PiSensor"); } }
As already mentioned, this class implements the EventListener interface of the SDK, which takes care of responding to incoming messages.
The interface describes three methods we need to implement:
requestIsAlive
This method is triggered when the client receives a request asking if it is stil “alive”, similar to the PING command you might be familiar with. We respond with setting the state of the endpoint as “reachable”
requestAllProperties
This method is triggered when the client receives a request asking it to submit the current values of all sensors. We disregard this for the time being and leave the implementation for the next tutorial.
NewInboundMessage
This method is called when a new inbound message (other than the two above) is received. It provides the JSON message as a parameter so that the endpoint can be programmed to respond to it. We disregard this for the time being and leave the implementation for the next tutorial.
Please note the @Override annotation for each of these method, indicating that the method implements the abstract method inherited from the EventListener interface.
Coding the Monitoring Engine
Next, we will create the code for the PhidgetMonitoringEngine class. This is the class that reads data from the sensors connected to the interface kit and submits data to Velisphere on change of a sensor value.
This is the most complex class of our project and requires the import of several classes from the phidget and velisphere SDK libraries, as well as several other libraries provided with the JRE.
package com.velisphere.demo.rpiSensors; import java.io.BufferedReader; import java.io.File; import java.io.IOException; import java.io.InputStreamReader; import java.net.URL; import java.util.HashMap; import com.maxmind.geoip.Location; import com.maxmind.geoip.LookupService; import com.maxmind.geoip.regionName; import com.phidgets.InterfaceKitPhidget; import com.phidgets.Phidget; import com.phidgets.PhidgetException; import com.phidgets.event.AttachEvent; import com.phidgets.event.AttachListener; import com.phidgets.event.DetachEvent; import com.phidgets.event.DetachListener; import com.phidgets.event.ErrorEvent; import com.phidgets.event.ErrorListener; import com.phidgets.event.InputChangeEvent; import com.phidgets.event.InputChangeListener; import com.phidgets.event.OutputChangeEvent; import com.phidgets.event.OutputChangeListener; import com.phidgets.event.SensorChangeEvent; import com.phidgets.event.SensorChangeListener; import com.velisphere.milk.amqpClient.AmqpClient; import com.velisphere.milk.configuration.ConfigData; public class PhidgetMonitoringEngine { private static final String touchSensorID = "f3b93c91-dee0-4609-ac1c-100dd00e060a"; private static final String lightSensorID = "67f6edfa-3413-41a7-ab16-e9ed72136696"; private static final String pressureSensorID = "72d3bbef-1f8e-4d8c-a838-ea119ef98592"; private static final String dialKnobID = "ac4bd814-3a65-42f8-b5ad-75e71e63640b"; private static final String locationID = "24c1ea6d-c2c5-420d-9743-f718e221e07d"; private AmqpClient amqpClient; public PhidgetMonitoringEngine(AmqpClient amqpClient) { this.amqpClient = amqpClient; } public void startMonitoring() throws PhidgetException, IOException { System.out.println(Phidget.getLibraryVersion()); final InterfaceKitPhidget ik = new InterfaceKitPhidget(); ik.addAttachListener(new AttachListener() { public void attached(AttachEvent ae) { System.out.println("attachment of " + ae); } }); ik.addDetachListener(new DetachListener() { public void detached(DetachEvent ae) { System.out.println("detachment of " + ae); } }); ik.addErrorListener(new ErrorListener() { public void error(ErrorEvent ee) { System.out.println("error event for " + ee); } }); ik.addInputChangeListener(new InputChangeListener() { public void inputChanged(InputChangeEvent oe) { System.out.println(oe); } }); ik.addOutputChangeListener(new OutputChangeListener() { public void outputChanged(OutputChangeEvent oe) { System.out.println(oe); } }); ik.addSensorChangeListener(new SensorChangeListener() { public void sensorChanged(SensorChangeEvent se) { System.out.println(se); System.out.println("[IN] Value change triggered on Sensor "+se.getIndex() +". New Value:" + se.getValue()); try { // create HashMap HashMap<String, String> messageHash = new HashMap<String, String>(); // Sensor Data messageHash.put(touchSensorID, String.valueOf(ik.getSensorValue(6))); messageHash.put(lightSensorID, String.valueOf(ik.getSensorValue(7))); messageHash.put |
O'Hara-Smith Singers") to tracks such as "All Things Must Pass" and "Awaiting on You All".[43] In addition, while continuing to rehearse at Hurtwood Edge,[21] all four band members participated in London sessions for Dr. John's album The Sun, Moon & Herbs (1971).[41]
UK summer tour [ edit ]
Early in the summer of 1970, Clapton asked former Apple Records employee Chris O'Dell to find accommodation for Whitlock, Gordon and Radle in central London, telling O'Dell that they were "going bonkers" out in the Surrey countryside.[44] The band then moved into a two-storey flat at 33 Thurloe Place,[45] close to South Kensington tube station.[46] The flat also served as a meeting place for Clapton and Boyd,[47] who found herself flattered by Clapton's attention in light of her husband's infidelities[48] and his preoccupation with Eastern spirituality.[49] In his autobiography, Clapton wrote that he was both inspired and "tormented" by his feelings for Boyd, which he channelled into his music, beginning with a UK tour by Derek and the Dominos.[50]
For three weeks from 1 August,[21] the group performed in clubs and other small venues in Britain,[51] where Clapton chose to play anonymously, still weary from the fame that he felt had plagued Cream and Blind Faith.[52] Admission for the shows was set at £1, and clauses in the contract with each venue stipulated that Clapton's name was not to be used as a crowd-puller. Shapiro writes that the band had "made great strides" since the Lyceum concert;[21] their set list included "Tell the Truth",[53] covers of Billy Myles' "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", and songs such as "Bottle of Red Wine" and "Don't Know Why",[7] both from the Eric Clapton album.[54] Clapton has said of this UK tour, "no one knew who we were, and I loved it. I loved the fact that we were this little quartet, playing in obscure places, sometimes to audiences of no more than fifty or sixty people."[50]
Layla sessions [ edit ]
The band flew to Miami, Florida, on 23 August 1970 to begin recording with Atlantic Records producer Tom Dowd.[8] Until early September,[4] sessions took place at Criteria Studios for what became the double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.[8] Most of the material, particularly the track "Layla", was inspired by Clapton's unrequited love for Boyd.[13][14] After Clapton and Whitlock's initial experimentation with heroin while recording All Things Must Pass,[20] the band's time in Miami was marked by all four members' excessive use of hard drugs.[55] According to Clapton, "We were staying in this hotel on the beach, and whatever drug you wanted, you could get it at the newsstand. The girl would just take your orders."[48]
The first few days of the Layla sessions were unproductive.[48][56] On 26 August, Dowd, who was also producing the Allman Brothers Band's album Idlewild South, took the Dominos to an Allman Brothers concert, where Clapton, already a fan of the Nashville-born guitarist, first heard Duane Allman play in person.[56][57] After Clapton invited the whole band back to Criteria that night,[58] he and Allman formed an instant bond that provided the catalyst for the Layla album.[59][60] Over ten recording dates,[48][61] Allman contributed to most of the tracks on the album,[14] in between his commitments to the Allman Brothers Band. Only three songs – "I Looked Away", "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Keep on Growing" – were recorded without his participation. The band remade "Tell the Truth" during the sessions and subsequently attempted to have the Spector-produced single cancelled.[62] In the United States, Atco Records released the original version of "Tell the Truth" backed with "Roll It Over" in September, but soon withdrew the single.[58]
Clapton has described Allman as "the musical brother that I never had, but wished I did".[60] Allman's slide guitar playing elevated the album's blues covers,[14] which included "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (by Jimmy Cox), "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" (the Billy Myles song, originally recorded by Freddie King) and "Key to the Highway" (Big Bill Broonzy).[57][63] Clapton invited him to become a member of Derek and the Dominos,[14] but Allman demurred, choosing to remain loyal to his own band.[13][60] According to Whitlock, however, Allman was "a hired gun" and an "unnecessary" addition; Whitlock added, "He played with us twice, and it was not good both times he played, because he was not a fluid player... He could play parts, but he couldn’t sing with his guitar."[15] The jams from Allman's first night at Criteria with the Dominos were issued on the second CD of The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition in 1990.[64]
The album's best-known track, "Layla", was compiled from recordings from two separate sessions. The main, guitar-oriented section was taped on 9 September, after the band had recorded their version of Hendrix's "Little Wing"; the closing section was added several weeks later, after Clapton had decided that the song lacked a suitable ending. The answer was an elegiac piano piece composed by Gordon (and an uncredited Rita Coolidge)[7] and played by the drummer, with Whitlock providing a second piano part to cover Gordon's relative inexperience on the instrument.[48] During the Layla sessions, Gordon had been writing and playing songs for an intended solo album when, by chance, Clapton first heard the piano piece. According to Clapton's recollection, in return for continuing to use the Dominos' studio time for his own project, Gordon agreed to have the segment used as the ending for "Layla".[13]
October–December 1970 live shows [ edit ]
Eric Clapton, Carl Radle, and Duane Allman live at the Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, one of the two shows in which Allman appeared
After the recording of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, the four-piece Derek and the Dominos returned to the UK to continue touring there before heading back to America to start the US tour on 15 October. Allman performed two shows with the group near the end of the US tour, at Curtis Hixon Hall, in Tampa, Florida, on 1 December, at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, New York, the following night.[65]
Whitlock recalled of their drug consumption during the tour: "We didn't have little bits of anything. There were no grams around, let's just put it like that. Tom couldn't believe it, the way we had these big bags laying out everywhere. I'm almost ashamed to tell it, but it's the truth. It was scary, what we were doing, but we were just young and dumb and didn't know. Cocaine and heroin, that's all and Johnny Walker."[66] In 1973, a live double album, titled In Concert, was released, culled from the band's October 1970 shows at the Fillmore East in New York City. Six of the recordings from that album were digitally remastered and expanded with additional material from the same shows to become Live at the Fillmore, released in 1994.[67]
Album release [ edit ]
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was issued in November 1970. According to Shapiro, relative to the band and Dowd's high expectations, it was a "critical and commercial flop".[68] Clapton similarly describes Layla as having "died a death" on release.[69] Although it received favourable reviews in Rolling Stone and The Village Voice, the album missed the top ten in the United States and failed to chart at all in the United Kingdom, until a reissue on CD resulted in a one-week stay at number 68 in 2011. It garnered little attention,[70] partly as a result of a lack of promotion by Polydor, and partly due to the public's ignorance of Clapton's presence in the band.[68] Dowd said that he "felt it was the best album I'd been involved with since The Genius of Ray Charles" and was disappointed at the lack of acclaim it initially received.[70]
"Layla" was included on The History of Eric Clapton in 1972, and Atlantic issued the song as a single in July that year.[68] It became a hit, reaching number 10 in America and number 7 in Britain.[71] The success of the title track in 1972 led to a reappraisal of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. It has since received widespread critical acclaim and has been ranked among the best albums of all time by VH1 (at number 89).[72] and Rolling Stone (number 115).[73] Layla is considered one of Clapton's most outstanding achievements.[1]
Johnny Cash Show appearance [ edit ]
The band appeared on the The Johnny Cash Show, in their only television appearance. Filmed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, and broadcast on 6 January 1971, the band performed It's Too Late and then joined Cash and Carl Perkins to play Perkins' "Matchbox."[citation needed]
Tragedy and dissolution [ edit ]
Tragedy and misfortune dogged the group throughout and following its brief career. In September 1970, Clapton was devastated by the death of his friend and professional rival Jimi Hendrix; having just recorded a version of "Little Wing" in Miami, the Dominos included the track on Layla as a tribute to Hendrix. In October 1971, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. Clapton later wrote in his autobiography that he and Allman had been inseparable during the sessions at Criteria.[74] In addition, Clapton took the lukewarm critical and commercial reception to Layla personally, which accelerated his spiral into drug addiction and depression.[75] In 1985 when talking about the band, Clapton said:
We were a make-believe band. We were all hiding inside it. Derek and the Dominos – the whole thing. So it couldn't last. I had to come out and admit that I was being me. I mean, being Derek was a cover for the fact that I was trying to steal someone else's wife. That was one of the reasons for doing it, so that I could write the song, and even use another name for Pattie. So Derek and Layla – it wasn't real at all.[76]
Bobby Whitlock in 1972
In February 1971, Radle and Gordon participated in sessions, produced by Spector and Harrison, for a planned solo album by Ronnie Spector.[77] Later that year, the Dominos disbanded acrimoniously in London, just before they could complete their second LP. In a subsequent interview with music critic Robert Palmer, Clapton said the second album "broke down halfway through because of the paranoia and tension. And the band just dissolved."[70] After the dissolution, Clapton turned away from touring and recording to nurse an intense heroin addiction.[78][79] This three-year career hiatus was interrupted only by his participation in Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh shows in August 1971, along with a large cast of musicians, including Leon Russell, Keltner and Radle;[80] a guest appearance at Russell's December 1971 show at London's Rainbow Theatre;[81] and his own Rainbow Concert, in January 1973. The latter event was organised by Pete Townshend of the Who to help Clapton kick his drug habit and build momentum for his return.[82][83] Whitlock signed with the US record label ABC-Dunhill, for which he recorded the albums Bobby Whitlock and Raw Velvet. Both albums were released in 1972 and included contributions from all the Dominos (recorded in early 1971), along with Harrison, the Bramletts, Keltner, and the former Delaney & Bonnie horn section.
Following Clapton's return as a solo artist in 1974, he and Radle worked together until 1979, when Clapton abruptly dismissed him from his band. Radle died in June 1980 of complications from a kidney infection[84] associated with alcohol and drug use.[85] Whitlock and Clapton did not work together again until 2000, when they performed on Jools Holland's BBC show Later... with Jools Holland. In 1983, Gordon, an undiagnosed schizophrenic at the time, killed his mother with a hammer during a psychotic episode. He was confined to a mental institution in 1984,[86] where he remains today.[87] Recordings from the 1971 sessions for the band's cancelled second album were included on Clapton's four-CD/cassette box set Crossroads, released in 1988.[70]
Band members [ edit ]
Official line-up
Occasional members
Discography [ edit ]
Pre-album single
"Tell The Truth" / "Roll It Over" (September 1970)
Recorded during the sessions for George Harrison's 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass; produced by Phil Spector but pulled by Clapton, stating it didn't reflect their sound. "Tell the Truth" was later re-recorded for the band's debut album, but "Roll It Over" was only performed live. Harrison and Dave Mason contributed guitar to "Roll It Over".[39] Both tracks were included on the 2011 reissue of Layla.
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Debut album recorded during September 1970, released on 9 November.
In 1990 a new mix was released as The Layla Sessions: 20th Anniversary Edition with unreleased tracks and jams.
with unreleased tracks and jams. The original version was reissued in 2011 as the 40th Anniversary Edition with other unreleased tracks.
Other songs recorded during Layla sessions
"Got to Get Better in a Little While" (wasn't completed but was played live. The 40th deluxe edition of Layla features a version with the missing vocals recorded by Whitlock in 2010 mixed into the original take. The incomplete version was released on Clapton's Crossroads box set.)
features a version with the missing vocals recorded by Whitlock in 2010 mixed into the original take. The incomplete version was released on Clapton's box set.) "Mean Old World" (T-Bone Walker cover, released on Crossroads, The Layla Sessions and the 40th deluxe edition).
, and the 40th deluxe edition). "(When Things Go Wrong) It Hurts Me Too" and "Tender Love" (Short jams officially released on The Layla Sessions ).
). various untitled jams (five were released on The Layla Sessions).
Live recordings
In Concert (1973).
(1973). Live At The Fillmore (1994).
(1994). live recordings of the concerts at the Fillmore East on 23 and 24 October 1970 were released on those two live albums (some of the recordings are present on both albums).
live at the Johnny Cash Show[88] on 5 November 1970.
The band's performance aired on 5 November 1970. This is the only video of a performance by the band. It was officially released as part of the deluxe edition of the reissue of their debut album.
Sessions for the second album, Olympic Studios, April and May 1971
All available in bootlegs.[89] Some were officially released on the Crossroads box set and the Layla album's 40th anniversary deluxe edition.
"Gold Devils Roads" (recorded at Clapton's home in March, features vocals by Gordon's wife, Renée Armand)
"One More Chance" (officially released)
"Mean Old Frisco" (officially released)
"High"
"Snake Lake Blues" (officially released)
"Evil" (Willie Dixon cover, officially released)
"Son of Apache"
"Moody Jam"
"Chocolate"
"I’ve Been All Day"
"Got to Get Better in a Little While" (new jam version, officially released)
"Sick at Heart"
"Is My Love"
"It’s Hard to Find A Friend", "Will I See You Again" and "Yes, I Love You" (Jim Gordon original songs)
Citations [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has made a career out of writing anti-Thanksgiving diatribes. And today, in Salon, he continues his own holiday tradition by bashing Americans for being "hypocrites" and authors of an Indian "holocaust."
"Thanksgiving is for sociopaths," he writes. In this case, I would offer the opinion that it takes one to know one.
In other words: Don’t many of us feel just a bit uncomfortable with a holiday that is defined by obligatory family gatherings that often cover up unresolved strife and/or apathy; thoughtless overeating simply because so much food is available; spectacle sports that have become painfully close to Roman gladiator contests; and relentless consumption that often involves buying stuff that many people don’t really want and no one really needs? Of course not everyone in the United States has access to all these markers of affluence, but these Thanksgiving Day routines are more the norm than aberration. These reflections are not confined to one day; we live in this corrosive culture 365 days a year. For me, much of what is considered “normal” in the United States isn’t very appealing. I think we eat too much cheap food, are spectators to too much cheap entertainment, and buy too much stuff (some of it cheap and some expensive, but all costly to the larger living world). And many people struggle with family dynamics that are stuck in unresolved pathologies which quietly coerce people into ignoring problems for the sake of family “harmony.” I have long felt that at the heart of Thanksgiving is a denial of reality and an exercise in numbing ourselves, individually and as a culture. I am not claiming that everyone’s celebration of Thanksgiving is defined by these negatives; individual experiences vary widely, of course. But the alienation I’m describing is not hard to understand, and not limited to a few surly people on the margins. And whatever one’s personal relationship to the holiday, the political question remains: Why is it “normal” in the United States to celebrate a holiday that is based on a profound distortion of history? That kind of inquiry should lead us to related questions. Why is it “normal” to embrace the hierarchy and wealth inequality of corporate capitalism, even though most of us claim to hold moral and/or theological principles that are rooted in the centrality of human dignity, equality, and solidarity? How compatible is capitalism with the values that are essential to a decent human community? Why is it “normal” to assert that we are the world’s most advanced democracy, without acknowledging that the concentration of wealth in the U.S. economy has left most of the population outside of the formal political process? Are capitalism and democracy compatible? Why is it “normal” to express concern about environmental issues without ever questioning an economic system that is obsessed with the very growth that is undermining the integrity of the ecosystems on which are own lives depend? Is capitalism compatible with a sustainable human presence on the planet?
Using Thanksgiving to criticize capitalism isn't unique but it is revealing of just how warped Mr. Jensen's worldview has become. His hatred of Thanksgiving is grounded in his belief in the native American "holocaust" perpetrated by the European "invasion" of America.
He wrote in 2006:Share. Along with a panel for Into the Badlands. Along with a panel for Into the Badlands.
AMC have announced their San Diego Comic-Con panel schedule, revealing that not only will The Walking Dead once more be present, but the new spinoff, Fear The Walking Dead, will also be coming to SDCC. Also announced is a panel for Into the Badlands, AMC's upcoming martial arts series, which will be moderated by our own Roth Cornet!
All three shows are bringing nearly their entire casts, along with producers from the respective series. Here's how the panels break down...
The Walking Dead
Panelists: Stars Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Danai Gurira, Melissa McBride, Chandler Riggs, Michael Cudlitz, Lennie James and Sonequa Martin-Green, along with Executive Producer and Showrunner Scott M. Gimple, Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer Robert Kirkman, Executive Producer, Director and Special Effects Make-up Supervisor Greg Nicotero and Executive Producer David Alpert.
Moderator: "Talking Dead" host Chris Hardwick
When: Panel from 12:00-1:00pm, on Friday, July 10, Hall H
Autograph session from 10:00-11:00am on Friday, July 10, Booth #4237
Fear The Walking Dead
Panelists: Stars Kim Dickens, Cliff Curtis, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Frank Dillane, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Lorenzo James Henrie, Ruben Blades and Mercedes Mason, along with Executive Producer and Showrunner David Erickson, Executive Producers Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, Greg Nicotero and Dave Alpert.
Moderator: "Talking Dead" host Chris Hardwick
When: Panel from 1:00-2:00pm on Friday, July 10, Hall H
Autograph session at 1:00-2:00pm on Saturday, July 11, Hilton Gaslamp Starlight Terrace
Into the Badlands
Panelists: Stars Daniel Wu, Marton Csokas, Aramis Knight, Emily Beecham and Orla Brady as well as Creators, Showrunners and Executive Producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, Executive Producer and Director David Dobkin and Executive Producer and Fight Director Stephen Fung.
Moderator: IGN Editor Roth Cornet
When: Panel from 10:30-11:30am, on Saturday, July 11, Room 5AB
Stay tuned to IGN TV for further Comic-Con coverage, and keep an eye out for our panel recaps!
Exit Theatre Mode
Anthony Couto is a writer for IGN. If you’d like to discuss the DC Multiverse or Star Trek, chat with him on Twitter at @AnthCouto.2018 The MAiZE Corn Maze Design
Let's Celebrate Superheroes! Superman, Wonder Woman, Military, Police, Firemen & anyone else that you consider as a superhero in your life!
MAiZE News and Conditions
Sun, Oct 28th, 9:30am - Due to the high probabilities of rain coming into the area today when we would be opened, we will be closed today. We have a handful of large pumpkins left. If you want them, they are half price - call us at 937-604-1609.
Watch on Facebook. We will run a contest starting tomorrow to give away our Pumpkin Smash prizes. These prizes are a pair of OSU vs Nebraska football tickets, a pair of Blue Jackets tickets and...
From Smart Oil - $25 Marathon Gift Cards (qty 2)
From WCOL - 4 packs of COSI tickets (qty 3), $25 gift card to Rusty Bucket, $25 gift card to Skyline Chili, $25 gift cards to Woodys Wing House (qty 2) & $25 gift cards to Frisch's (qty 2).
Thanks to all of our visitors this year! We appreciate your business! We're already looking forward to next year and better weather!
If you want to see the slow motion video of dropping the 400+ lb pumpkin on our old farm truck, go to http://m.youtube.co m/watch?v=Q-tZuaw34A0
Want to purchase your tickets prior to coming to the farm?
A Member of The MAiZE FamilyThough cats typically avoid water at all costs, the felines of De Poezenboot, “The Cat Boat,” seem perfectly at home on their floating sanctuary.
De Poezenboot is an animal sanctuary floating on a canal in Amsterdam. It was founded by Henriette van Weelde in 1966 as a home for stray, sick, and abandoned felines, and has since grown into an official charity.
The house boat accommodates up to 50 cats at once, 14 of which are permanent residents. Human visitors are welcome on the vessel as well. Many come to choose a cat for adoption, but tourists are also welcome to drop in and scratch a kitty behind the ears.
As it is a charity, the boat sanctuary stays afloat thanks to donations left by visitors. All the money raised goes toward helping as many Amsterdam cats as possible. The Cat Boat Foundation pays for neutering of cats whose owners cannot afford veterinary care, as well as strays. Volunteers take care of the cats, some of whom are adopted by visitors. The cats are believed to readjust to life on land perfectly well in their new homes.PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Roster Features Gravity Rush's Kat? By Pete Haas Random Article Blend PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. A screen-cap of the official Battle Royale website suggests that Kat from Gravity Rush will be in the cross-over beat'em up game.
Gravity Rush was a PlayStation Vita exclusive released earlier this summer. The action RPG starred Kat, am amnesia with the power to control gravity. In the game, she uses this ability to walk on walls, soar through the air, and land some pretty devastating dropkicks.
Many of the cast members for Battle Royale have been around since the days of the PSOne or PS2. It's cool that SuperBot is mixing in some newer faces from less established franchises. Hopefully players' experiences with Kat will inspire them to check out Rush.
Pretty much every rumor related to Battle Royale characters thus far has turned out to be true. I'm willing to believe this one's legit as well. We'll see what SuperBot says, though.
(Picture via Another week, another possible leaked character for. A screen-cap of the officialwebsite suggests that Kat fromwill be in the cross-over beat'em up game.was a PlayStation Vita exclusive released earlier this summer. The action RPG starred Kat, am amnesia with the power to control gravity. In the game, she uses this ability to walk on walls, soar through the air, and land some pretty devastating dropkicks.Many of the cast members forhave been around since the days of the PSOne or PS2. It's cool that SuperBot is mixing in some newer faces from less established franchises. Hopefully players' experiences with Kat will inspire them to check outPretty much every rumor related tocharacters thus far has turned out to be true. I'm willing to believe this one's legit as well. We'll see what SuperBot says, though.(Picture via AGB Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topIn early October, 22 state and federal judges hailing from Honolulu to Albany got a crash course in scientific literacy and economics. The three-day symposium was billed as a way to help the judges better scrutinize evidence used to defend government regulations.
But the all-expenses-paid event hosted by George Mason University’s Law & Economics Center in Arlington, Virginia, served another purpose: it was the first of several seminars designed to promote “skepticism” of scientific evidence among likely candidates for the 140-plus federal judgeships Donald Trump will fill over the next four years.
The lone science instructor was Louis Anthony Cox Jr, a risk analyst with deep industry ties whose recent appointment as chair of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s clean air scientific advisory committee drew condemnation in public-health circles. Since 1988, Cox has consulted for the American Petroleum Institute, a lobby group that spent millions to dispute the cancer-causing properties of benzene, an ingredient in gasoline, and is now working to question the science on smog-causing ozone. He’s also testified on behalf of the chemical industry and done research for the tobacco giant Philip Morris.
For a $4,000 honorarium, Cox delivered two closed-door lectures at George Mason: “a primer on the scientific method” followed by a session aimed at “understanding what science can and cannot do”. Included in his presentation were slides urging judges to be wary of EPA science on fine particles – a pollutant he has been researching for API.
The symposium included a dinner at Capitol Hill’s upscale Charlie Palmer Steak, whose website says it “moves the political power meetings out of the back room and into private dining spaces”. Events such as the symposium are one way big oil is trying to impart free-market values to judges and attorneys general as the industry gears up for legal battles on multiple fronts.
Based in George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School, the Law & Economics Center espouses a free-market approach to policy. A 2013 investigation by the Center for Public Integrity found that the libertarian thinktank hosted more judicial conferences than any other university program in the country, fueled by conservative and big-business donors. Over the past two years, roughly $4.5m of $18.6m in contributions to the Law & Economics Center came from oil and gas interests, including Koch Industries, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and API, which represents more than 650 corporations.
The center claims to have trained more than 5,000 state and federal judges, including three sitting supreme court justices. Almost 1,000 state attorneys general and their staff attorneys have attended its programs. Its advisory board includes three judges on the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, widely considered the country’s second-most-powerful court and, often, the final arbiter for federal administrative law cases.
In a White House riven by discord and staff departures, judicial appointments have been a bright spot. Senate Republicans have embraced the chance to fill a glut of vacancies, helping Trump install more conservative judges and potentially transform the legal landscape for decades to come. Once confirmed, a federal judge can serve for life, presiding over an average of 500 to 600 cases a year.
Timeline Big oil and the US government Show Hide
Standard Oil broken up Standard Oil’s monopoly is broken up by the US supreme court. The trust which had been set up by John D Rockefeller in 1882, had gained control of nearly 90% of US oil production. Oil industry gets close to government during war The US joins the first world war and supplies allied forces with oil. President Woodrow Wilson appoints multiple oil executives to war-effort committees and nationalises the railways. API created Brought together by the war, oil executives form a trade body, the American Petroleum Institute (API) in 1919. Ten years later, another trade association, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) is formed to represent smaller companies. Second world war starts During the second world war, the US government worked closely with the oil industry, putting a federal investigation into its monopolistic practices on hold. A peacetime version of a wartime committee becomes the National Petroleum Council, an advisory committee that exists today.
Global warming warning API hosts renowned nuclear physicist Edward Teller at a conference at Columbia University, where he warns of impending global warming. President Johnson warns of global warning Lyndon B Johnson is the first US president to publicly acknowledge climate change, calling it a serious global threat during a speech. CO2 warning Scientists at the Stanford Research Institute deliver reports to API, warning of global warming induced by CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. EPA created President Nixon signs an executive order creating the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). CO2 research by Exxon starts Exxon starts an internal climate research programme on carbon dioxide. Ozone standards weakened The EPA relaxes the standard for ozone, which contributes to smog. The move angers environmentalists and industry alike. API sues the agency. Nasa scientist gives evidence Nasa scientist James E Hansen testifies before Congress that the planet is warming because of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from fossil fuels. Kyoto Protocol signed The Kyoto protocol treaty is signed. Countries pledge to reduce greenhouse gases and recognise the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and is likely caused by fossil fuel emissions. Paris accord signed Some 195 countries back the Paris climate agreement, pledging efforts to reduce emissions and curb global warming. Trump announces US exit from Paris President Trump announces the US exit from the Paris climate agreement, citing industry-hired economists that call the accord a bad deal for US businesses. Supporting the move is Scott Pruitt, a climate-change sceptic, who Trump appointed to head the EPA.
A Washington trade group with 300-plus employees, API has spent more than $40m to lobby Congress since 2013. But the courts have also been a focal point for API, which has spent the better part of a century helping the oil and gas industry pivot from being a prime antitrust target to being a proactive litigation force. The institute, along with other free-market trade groups, has routinely injected itself into cases in an attempt to shape policy or stall government initiatives. API officials did not grant interview requests from the Center for Public Integrity.
With a new era of environmental deregulation under way, issues ranging from the Obama administration’s clean power plan to offshore drilling in the Arctic are landing in the courts for final say. The stakes are enormous for the industry, which is simultaneously confronting a wave of lawsuits that seek billions of dollars in damages for climate-change impacts. Among the defendants are API members such as ExxonMobil.
Unlike government and the public, industry can afford to wait. “In many of these matters, litigation goes on decades and decades,” said Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. “Time is on industry’s side.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Louis Anthony “Tony” Cox Jr. Illustration: Robert G Fresson
Decades of legal wrangling
In 1940, API faced a lawsuit so expansive that three pages of the complaint simply listed defendants – all 379 of them.
United States of America v American Petroleum Institute et al alleged wide-scale collusion and price-fixing by 22 major oil companies and their 300-plus affiliates, which controlled a total of $9bn in assets (the equivalent of $160 billion today).
The case never made it to trial. It was neutered early on by 11 oil executives working closely with the White House to ensure an allied victory in World War II.
After languishing in the courts for years, the lawsuit was dismissed in 1951 by the justice department, which found it to be a logistical nightmare. Gone, too, was the government’s interest in dissolving API as a monopolistic tool of industry. This year, API wriggled out of public scrutiny once more. In yet another potentially landmark case, lawyers suing the US government for inaction on climate change tried to compel the institute to turn over decades of internal records. API had joined the case to help defend the government but dropped out rather than reveal what it knew about global warming and when.
“They’re a highly sophisticated, integrated political operation,” said Bob Brulle, an environmental sociologist at Drexel University. API’s effectiveness, Brulle said, lay in its partnerships with like-minded groups such as the American Chemistry Council, the National Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce – amplifying its message “in a very directed, coordinated way”. In 2016, the institute absorbed its only real competitor, America’s Natural Gas Alliance.
On 30 November 1999, representatives of more than 20 lobby groups met at the institute’s Washington DC headquarters to muster opposition to an EPA plan to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
Leading that meeting was the API lobbyist Phil Cooney, who in 2001 had become head of environmental policy for George W Bush’s White House, where he altered federal reports to sow doubt on climate change. Under Bush, the EPA retreated from its earlier position, claiming it didn’t have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases after all. Cooney could not be located for comment.
The issue came to a head in 2003, when 12 states sued the EPA to force its hand. Coming to the agency’s defense was the CO2 Litigation Group, a newly formed coalition of 14 trade associations – including API. The coalition represented a spectrum of fossil-fuel companies, which argued that the EPA had “oversimplified” and overstated the certainty of climate change’s effects.
The case, Massachusetts v EPA, was decided in the states’ favor by the US supreme court in 2007. But the matter continued to be tied up in the courts and the EPA bureaucracy, and it wasn’t until 2011 that the agency finally began regulating greenhouse gases. This gave rise to Obama’s 2015 clean power plan, which targeted carbon dioxide emissions and became mired in litigation before the Trump administration marked it for extinction.
‘What we want is a plan’
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Climate expert and activist James Hansen and his granddaughter Sophie Kivlehan. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The back-and-forth of politics can be dispiriting. For that reason, James Hansen has staked his family’s future – and the planet’s – on the courts. His granddaughter, Sophie Kivlehan, is one of 21 child and teenage plaintiffs in Juliana v United States, a 2015 lawsuit that faults the government for failing to address climate change over half a century.
“What we want is a plan – just for the government to have a plan,” said Hansen, a former Nasa scientist who now directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University and is acting as a scientific expert in the case. Last year, industry groups including API became parties to the case.
It was Hansen’s congressional testimony as director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the sweltering summer of 1988 that elevated global warming from simmering concern to boiling reality. With “99%” certainty, Hansen explained that the trend was a side effect of fossil-fuel combustion that would worsen without swift action. Months later, a group that would come to include 170 scientists from 25 countries united to confront what it called “the greatest global environmental challenge facing mankind”.
When Hansen returned to Capitol Hill in 1989, he found his testimony heavily edited by the White House Office of Management and Budget under President George HW Bush. The office softened his conclusions, tacked on a paragraph qualifying his findings and otherwise stirred uncertainty about human causes of climate change.
‘We were just playing a game of Whac-a-Mole’
While many have focused on what, and when, companies such as ExxonMobil knew about climate change, Julia Olson – a |
sale at the exhibition, including art prints and books.
Photo Spot
With the Fairy Tail photo spot, you can step into the world of Fairy Tail yourself! Why not take a photo to commemorate the event?
About Fairy Tail
Fairy Tail by Hiro Mashima is an internationally adored manga about cute girl wizard Lucy, who wants to join the Fairy Tail, a club for the most powerful wizards. But instead her ambitions land her in the clutches of a gang of unsavory pirates led by a devious magician. Her only hope is Natsu, a strange boy she happens to meet on her travels. Natsu’s not your typical hero—he gets motion sickness, eats like a pig, and his best friend is a talking cat. With friends like this, is Lucy better off with her enemies? For more information, please visit the official website: https://kodanshacomics.com/series/fairy-tail/
About Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. is the organiser for “The World of Fairy Tail” Art Exhibition at HYPER JAPAN Christmas 2017. Established in Tokyo, Japan in 1876, they offer a wide variety of printing processes in the areas of Information Communications, Lifestyle and Industrial Supplies, and Electronics. Aside from printing and producing books and magazines, DNP also offers services in marketing, promotions, and with offices and manufacturing sites across the world, the globalisation of publishing businesses. For more information, please visit the official website: http://www.dnp.co.jp/eng/
In Cooperation with:
Kodansha Ltd.
http://www.kodansha.co.jp/upload/pr.kodansha.co.jp/files/e.pdf
Kodansha Europe Ltd.
http://www.kodansha.eu/
Kodansha Comics
https://kodanshacomics.com/
or Call 08444 53 9048!!Last weekend we commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 Americans and began our generational War on Terrorism. Amid the sad recollections and promises to win this war—the longest in American history—there’s a widespread sense that the struggle isn’t going well.
There’s good reason for that feeling. President Obama’s diffident, pseudo-war against the Islamic State is stalled, with top generals in retirement now admitting that this White House’s efforts against jihadism in its homeland are strategically deluded and militarily hopeless.
Hillary Clinton has promised more of the same failed policies, which show no sign of defeating the Islamic State, the evil ISIS, in anything faster than geologic time. For his part, Donald Trump’s aggressive talk of “crushing” the Islamic State with quick and decisive victories can be safely dismissed as just that—talk. In reality, there is no military option available short of large-scale use of nuclear weapons, which would kill tens of millions of innocents, to annihilate ISIS in the Middle East.
Even then, inflicting nuclear Armageddon on Iraq and Syria—which is something no American president seeking to avoid war crimes and genocide charges can do—would achieve little in terms of mitigating the threat of jihadism inside the West today. A high percentage of the terror plots that are uncovered across the Western world, from Europe to North America to Australia, involve homegrown jihadists, native-born citizens and residents of Western countries. Even if ISIS disappeared from the Middle East tomorrow, the West would still be facing jihadist plots at home for years to come.
The good news is that Western intelligence and security agencies, led by the United States, have grown highly adept since 9/11 at detecting and deterring domestic jihadism. Reforms to our Intelligence Community have helped, while intelligence sharing across the West has never been better. Although America has recently had terrible attacks—namely last December’s San Bernardino atrocity and the Orlando massacre in June—since September 2001, we’ve experienced nothing on the scale of last November’s mass-casualty attack in Paris, a well-planned ISIS operation which killed 130 innocents.
This isn’t just luck. American intelligence, led by the National Security Agency, has become very proficient at tracking would-be terrorists in the ether—in emails, social media, and online chatrooms where haters with fantasies of murderous mayhem congregate—and using that technical espionage to tip-off our own FBI and partner security agencies around the world of something ugly brewing.
Indeed, the NSA-FBI counterterrorism team has become so skilled at deterring jihadism inside the United States that the main complaint of do-gooders and apologists for extremism is that Federal authorities are “creating” terrorism in order to stop it. Keep in mind that these are the very same activists who would be howling that NSA and the FBI are “useless” if we get a Paris-sized atrocity on our soil.
Now, however, the SpyWar waged against terrorists in the ether is changing, and not to the West’s benefit. Although it’s normal for the enemy to learn from his mistakes, the changes to jihadist tradecraft that we’re witnessing of late are alarming and unprecedented. A new report in The Wall Street Journal brings to light what spies across the West have been privately fretting about over the last year.
Alarmingly, ISIS terrorists have begun to demonstrate a never-before-seen level of sophistication in communications security and encryption. We’ve known for some time that ISIS has cadres of skilled counterintelligence professionals, some of them holdovers from Saddam Hussein’s nasty secret police, but this new emphasis on security is a major problem for the West.
Over the last 12 months, ISIS fighters in Europe have demonstrated a clear learning curve in communications security and encryption.
The report notes that ISIS killers communicated hardly at all in the weeks before the Paris attacks, meaning that Western intelligence had nothing to detect. And that’s just the beginning of the problem:
The extremist group’s communications, once commonly conducted on phones and social media accounts easily tracked by authorities, have evolved into a mix of encrypted chat-app messages over WhatsApp and Telegram, face-to-face meetings, written notes, stretches of silence and misdirection. These techniques helped protect attackers from Western intelligence agencies by leaving few electronic clues in a sea of intercepted data.
This emphasis on rapidly improving clandestine tradecraft, particularly in pre-attack communications, is terrifying Western security services, since it bluntly means that we will disrupt fewer atrocities “left of boom” as the counterterrorism pros like to say. “More civilians will die, it’s that simple,” explained a Western European security official who specializes in countering jihadism at home.
Over the last 12 months, ISIS fighters in Europe have demonstrated a clear learning curve in communications security and encryption. They stay offline and keep phones away unless they’re really needed—and even then they’re relying on harder-to-track technologies and encrypted apps that make it increasingly difficult for European security agencies to keep tabs on them.
The timing for this could not be worse. In Germany, domestic intelligence has just admitted that the number of potential violent jihadists in the country is at least 520—that is, a good-sized battalion—some of whom belong to ISIS “hit teams” that have been dispatched to the country to cause mayhem. Worse, Paris now concedes that as many as 15,000 people in France, a high percentage of them citizens, are on the radar of the police and intelligence services for their ties to Islamic radicalism. “There will be new attacks, there will be innocent victims,” admitted France’s interior minister. After jihadist atrocities like the Bastille Day truck massacre in Nice which killed 86, this is a prospect to fill France with dread.
The decreasing inability of European security agencies to detect and deter jihadists is therefore a matter of great urgency. And it will only get worse. European spy services are already heavily dependent on American technical assistance to track down terrorists. After the Paris attacks, which turned out to have deep Belgian connections, Brussels turned to NSA for help in finding the jihadists hiding in their country. Since NSA is the best in the world at this, they delivered as promised—but will they continue to be able to?
This is not idle speculation, rather a matter of life and death. Since 9/11, NSA has been the backbone of the Western intelligence alliance against terrorism. Its signals intelligence is responsible for the strong majority of successful counterterrorism operations in the West. More than three-quarters of the time, NSA or one of its close partner Anglosphere spy partners like Britain’s GCHQ, develops a lead on a terror cell which is passed to the FBI and others for action which crushes that cell before it kills. If NSA loses the ability to do this, innocent people in many countries will die.
Unfortunately, there’s mounting evidence that NSA’s edge over the terrorists is waning. It’s impossible not to notice that jihadist emphasis on communications security and encryption, which is now gaining ground, began in 2013. That, of course, is when Edward Snowden, an NSA IT contractor, stole something like 1.7 million classified documents from his employer, shared them with outsiders, then defected to Moscow.
This was the greatest intelligence compromise in world history, and countless NSA documents and PowerPoint presentations detailing exactly how the agency does its top secret business have wound up on the internet. And ISIS has clearly been reading them and learning. “Snowden got them smart about how we find them, there’s no doubt about it,” stated a veteran Pentagon counterterrorism official who’s watched jihadists learn better tradecraft with mounting dread.
It’s time for some clarity. Our ability to comprehensively defeat ISIS in the Middle East, unless we’re willing to subdue Iraq and Syria with far greater manpower and brutality then we’ve committed to Iraq and Afghanistan combined since late 2001, is nonexistent. There is therefore no military solution to the jihadist problem, no matter what TV “experts” tell you.
No Western military has strategically defeated a major Islamic insurgency since the early 1930s, over 80 years ago, when Fascist Italy pacified Libya. Mussolini did this by killing vast numbers of Libyan civilians in horrible ways—including with concentration camps and chemical bombs. No Western leader, not even Donald Trump, can get away with this in the 21st century. The sooner we accept this strategic reality, the sooner we can down to work on what we can do to defeat jihadism.
What does work is successful intelligence operations to detect and neutralize terrorists before they kill in our countries. We can inflict losses on ISIS in the Middle East, and we will with airpower particularly, but the mission the West must not fail at is protecting our citizens at home. As long as the Western intelligence alliance, led by NSA, maintains its technological edge over the jihadists, we can win the War on Terror slowly, through gradual attrition.
However, our precious edge in the SpyWar is waning fast. We are no longer winning. We’re about to hear a great deal of unwarranted praise of Ed Snowden thanks to the hagiographic movie about him by Oliver Stone that’s to be released this week. Don’t be fooled. Snowden is no hero. In truth, he and his journalist helpers have aided terrorists in important ways. Snowden and his co-conspirators have blood on their hands—and perhaps much more blood soon thanks to their aid to the genocidal maniacs of ISIS.
John Schindler is a security expert and former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer. A specialist in espionage and terrorism, he’s also been a Navy officer and a War College professor. He’s published four books and is on Twitter at @20committee.At Sikh Temple, Leader Attacked Gunman; Died Trying To Protect Others
As happened after last month's shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo., we're starting to hear stories of courage and sacrifice about victims of another mass shooting.
This time they're about those who died Sunday at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., where authorities say a gunman killed six people and injured three others before being stopped by police. The suspect, since said by sources to be named Wade Michael Page, was shot and killed by an officer.
This morning, Amar Deep Kaleka said on Milwaukee's TMJ4-TV that he's been told his father died doing his best "to protect the temple, his family, his wife and all his friends."
Police have told him, Kaleka said, that Satwant Singh Kaleka "attacked the intruder or the shooter in the lobby [of the temple] after gunshots were fired." The elder Kaleka used a knife, authorities have told the son. Blood trails, said Amar Deep Kaleka, indicate that the gunman was "slowed... enough so that other people could get to safety."
"It's... exactly who he was," Amar Deep Kaleka said. "There was no way on God's green earth that he would allow" the gunman to attack those at the temple without being challenged.
Satwant Singh Kaleka was the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin's president and one of its founders. He "brought everyone together. He just wanted to make a good temple, a good community," temple member Lahwinder Singh tells Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel.
Also among those killed, according to the newspaper, was Parkash Singh, one of the temple's priests. Those who knew him, writes the Journal Sentinel, say Parkash Singh embodied the last words that end Sikh prayers — "we wish peace and joy to all the people in the world."Blessie Gotingco's murder trial could have been jeopardised by the publication of an online work.
The trial of the man accused of killing Auckland woman Blessie Gotingco has resumed as usual in the High Court at Auckland, despite the court having to seek the taking-down of an article about the case written by a court registrar.
An investigation has begun into the actions of the registrar who penned the piece, which appeared on an overseas news website.
In a statement, Higher Courts general manager Paula Tesoriero said the Ministry of Justice was taking the matter very seriously and it was being investigated.
Rules for working with the media were covered in a staff code of conduct which allowed only authorised members of staff to to speak on behalf of the Ministry, she said.
"We have informed the Chief High Court Judge and we are contacting the website to discuss the removal of the story."
Tesoriero said she couldn't comment further because it was an "employment matter".
At the beginning of the trial last week Justice Timothy Brewer reminded the jury panel not to do independent research online but if the piece has been inadvertently seen by a juror, it could have led to the abandonment of the trial.
The trial resumed on Tuesday morning with no mention in court of the incident.
The trial of the murder accused began a week ago and is expected to last at least another week.
The prosecution has so far called more than 25 witnesses and the defence is expected to begin calling their own witnesses in the coming days.
The defendant has interim name suppression to protect his right to a fair trial, but his image is allowed to be published.Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division has unveiled the Ranger Rover Sentinel prior to its public debut at the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) Show in London, U.K
Land Rover
The VR8-level armored SUV Range Rover Sentinel is based on the Land Rover‘s Autobiography model, and as any other luxurious vehicle comes with the hefty price tag of $450,000. Available to order from the beginning of September 2015, it is the first high-end armored car that was fully developed by Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations, (SVO) hand built at its Oxford Road facility, providing the highest levels of protection an SUV can offer against a wide variety of attacks.
The VR8 level certification that Range Rover Sentinel has passed, means that the car is the superman in the automotive world. It can withstand 7.62 mm high-velocity, armor piercing incendiary bullets and it is also offering lateral protection for 15 kg TNT blasts and defense against the DM51 grenade explosions from above the roof and beneath the floor. There is a a six-piece armored passenger cell made from super high strength steel cell and multi-laminated armor privacy glass of optical quality, providing both perfect clarity for the driver and a bullet protection. The suspension system has been modified in order to cope with the 650kg of weight, carried due to revised Dynamic Stability Control and Ride Stability Control systems. The Range Rover Sentinel has an additional back-up battery, a split charging system, the self-sealing fuel tank, the anti-tamper exhaust system and others.
An elegant vehicle, the Range Rover Sentinel is riding on 20-inch alloy wheels with heavy-duty run-flat tires. Provided the main doors will be blocked, there is an emergency escape system which is located behind the rear seats, allowing the driver and passenger to exit in an emergency situation.
The Range Rover Sentinel draws its strength from the 3.0-liter V6 supercharged engine, which outputs 340 PS and is paired to a revised 8-speed ZF gearbox. Power is sent to all four wheels via a standard 4WD system with Terrain Response. 380mm front and 365mm rear ventilated disc brakes, both with high-density pads, ensure impressive stopping power when needed.When I first heard that children could make their own bouncy balls, I thought it was too good to be true! The best part is that they’re so easy to make. A simple recipe translates to a day of summer fun.
The balls will flatten out after sitting for a while, but storing them in small plastic containers and then rolling them between your palms again will help the super bouncy balls regain their shape. Keep on bouncing!
Laura Novobilsky lives in Maryland and is the proud but exhausted mother of three. She loves to find ways to come together with her kids through crafts, projects, activities and outings. Her favorite activities are easy and inexpensive, yet fun and enjoyable for everyone. Laura shares the many things she has done with and for her children on her blog, Come Together Kids.Senator Ted Cruz was attacked by a mob of Republicans on Monday for getting embarrassed by former acting attorney general, Sally Yates, during a senate hearing earlier in the day.
On Sunday evening, while Cruz was going over his notes for the hearing, he received a skype video call from President Trump and several Republicans. Some of the Republicans on the call were Vice President Pence, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, and Kevin Brady.
On the call the President made it very clear that he wants Yates to look like, “a dumb bitch, who doesn’t know shit.” Ryan told Cruz that it is important that we win this because the party is getting a lot of heat for the proposed Healthcare bill, and if Cruz look smart during Yates’ hearing, the Republicans will get some momentum again.
Cruz told the group that he understood what is at stake and he is ready to “eat her ass.” Everyone paused in surprise of the phrase the Senator used. Cruz then said, “Come on guys, you know what I mean,” which was followed by everyone laughing at Cruz. To not make Cruz feel all alone the President said on the call that he wouldn’t mind eating her ass too.
The last to speak was Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy told Cruz that if he didn’t knock it out the park during the hearing that, he will get his ass kicked badly. Cruz asked what he meant by that, and McCarthy pulled out a pair of brass knuckles which had engraved, “lying” on the right pair, and “Ted” on the left pair.
McCarthy told Cruz that this hearing is so important to them that these types of measures have to be made.
“Are you fucking kidding me? This isn’t UFC, this is a damn hearing,” Cruz said. McCarthy told Ted to make sure he brings his A game because this cannot go badly. The President agreed with McCarthy and told Cruz that he expects him to do terrific.
The President ended the call. Cruz knew that he has to be extra sharp so he didn’t sleep all night, instead he rewrote his statement to Yates to ensure he will make her look dumb.
Unfortunately, Cruz’s efforts didn’t work out the way he hoped.
On Monday morning the Republicans as well as the rest of America witnessed Ted Cruz get embarassed by Sally Yates (See Video).
As soon at the hearing ended, Cruz knew he was in big trouble. McCarthy who was in the crowd during the hearing, held up his right fist with the custom brass knuckles on it.
Cruz gathered his things quickly and ran out of the building. When he got to his car in the garage he didn’t have his keys with him. As he turned around to run back and grab them, McCarthy was standing right there in the shadow and slowly emerged with his car keys.
“Forgot something Ted?” McCarthy asked Cruz. Cruz said, “yeah those are the keys to my Tesla.”
From all corners of the garage house around 15 Republicans walked up and surrounded Cruz. McCarthy told Cruz, “At least you are buying American, but electric cars are not what the Republican party stands for, neither is getting our asses handed to us by Sally Fucking Yates!”
“I’M SORRY, I DIDN’T GET ENOUGH SLEEP LAST NIGHT, PLEASE DON’T HURT ME,” said Cruz.
McCarthy and the other 15 Republicans didn’t care to hear Cruz’s excuses, and they went ahead and beat him up badly.
Paul Ryan put Cruz in a full nelson as the other 14 took shots at Cruz’s body with McCarthy’s brass knuckles.
After the beating, with Cruz’s back to the ground, McCarthy pulled out his penis and urinated on Cruz’s face, and told Cruz, “that’s from the President.”
AdvertisementsSo, I have these random trains of thoughts sometimes. They go like this: I wonder about the universe, about evolution and life out there, wonder if someone else is looking back while I'm staring up into the night sky. Is there intelligent life out there? Is life merely an inevitable consequence of the laws of thermodynamics, serving the ever increasing entropy?
What about artificial evolution? Did no-one ever continue Thomas Ray’s mind-blowing work he started with Tierra. What’s the state of digital evolution and life in a computer? Is self-reproduction enough? Are computer viruses in this weird state of being not really alive but not really dead either as biological viruses are? Are people still writing those viruses anyways? I am learning so much about Node.js right now, but I never heard about a virus infecting Node.js apps.
… quick googling for Node.js virus...
Nope. Nothing. Zero.
Just,.. why did no-one ever wrote a Node.js virus?
Um.. Maybe.. I should try to write a Node.js virus?CLOSE Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette spoke with reporters Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017, about the Larry Nassar investigation. Justin A. Hinkley/Lansing State Journal
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announces 22 new charges against Larry Nassar Feb. 22, 2017, in the Attorney General's office. Flanking the AG are (from l.) MSU Police Chief and Director Jim Dunlap, and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Angela Povilaitis. (Photo: MATTHEW DAE SMITH | for the Lansing State Journal)
LANSING – Former Michigan State University doctor and admitted sexual predator Larry Nassar "fooled everyone around him" and no one at the university was aware of his crimes until news articles published in 2016, a university lawyer told Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.
Early this week, Schuette asked MSU to provide the findings of an internal review run by former federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. The university responded on Wednesday and Schuette on Friday made public what a spokeswoman said was "all correspondence" on the matter.
Related: Larry Nassar sentenced to 60 years in federal child pornography case
More: MSU responds to Schuette, AG won't say if he'll investigate Nassar response
More: Like Schuette, U.S. attorney won't say if he'll investigate MSU over Nassar
Schuette's office still is reviewing the letter and determining next steps, spokeswoman Andrea Bitely said Friday. Schuette on Wednesday refused to say whether he would independently investigate MSU.
The disclosure of Fitzgerald's letter came as a growing number of people called for an independent investigation into MSU's handling of allegations against Nassar, including Gretchen Whitmer, a former lawmaker and prosecutor who could face Schuette in next year's race for Michigan governor.
Nassar, 54, was sentenced on Thursday to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges. He faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced next month on sex assault charges in Ingham and Eaton counties.
At least seven women or girls say they raised concerns about Nassar's actions to coaches, trainers, police or university officials between 1997 and 2015, the State Journal reported this summer. More than 140 women or girls have accused Nassar of assaulting them, according to federal lawsuits.
(A portion of the letter:)
LSJ investigation: Larry Nassar and a career filled with ‘silenced’ voices
However, "Nassar fooled everyone around him — patients, friends, colleagues, and fellow doctors at MSU," Fitzgerald, who is on MSU's defense team in the federal lawsuits, told Schuette. "While many in the community today wish that they had identified Nassar as a predator, we believe the evidence in this case will show that no one else at MSU knew that Nassar engaged in criminal behavior."
If MSU had information that any of its employees "knowingly assisted or concealed" Nassar's crimes, "we would have reported such evidence to law enforcement promptly," Fitzgerald told Schuette.
He did not provide Schuette's office with any investigative report because he said none existed.
Fitzgerald offered to brief Schuette's office and other law enforcement agencies on their internal review "pursuant to a procedure which does not waive any applicable privileges in civil litigation."
(Portion of the letter - read the entire letter at the bottom:)
The university has said that MSU police and the FBI reviewed whether any MSU employees broke laws related to Nassar and turned findings over to the U.S. Attorney's Office. On Thursday, Andrew Birge, acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, refused to answer reporters' questions about that report.
That's not good enough, Whitmer told reporters in a conference call on Friday. She said it's "an inherent conflict of interest" for an agency to investigate itself. MSU Police Chief Jim Dunlap reports directly to MSU President Lou Anna Simon.
"Until the State Police conducts an independent investigation on all of the state laws that are implicated … I don't believe any of the victims will have confidence that we've got all the facts, much less that the appropriate action has been taken," Whitmer said.
"To our knowledge, we have not been asked to do any such investigation," State Police spokeswoman Lori Dougovito told the State Journal on Friday. If the Attorney General's Office or a prosecutor made such a request, "then certainly we would have that conversation and investigate if that's where the conversation led."
Asked if the State Police could launch its own investigation, Dougovito said the agency typically doesn't unilaterally launch investigations where other police agencies have jurisdiction.
Whitmer, a former lawmaker from Ingham County who has said publicly she is a survivor of sexual assault, served six months as Ingham County's prosecutor after longtime prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III was charged with prostitution-related crimes.
As prosecutor, she worked to approve search warrants related to the Nassar investigation but was otherwise not involved. Schuette's office had jurisdiction because Nassar's crimes crossed county and state boundaries, she said. She told reporters she didn't call for an investigation of MSU while in the prosecutor's office because they were trying to nab Nassar, but "now we're beyond the criminal charges."
Whitmer is running for governor as a Democrat. Schuette is running as a Republican and also said this week he'd not asked MSU for information earlier because prosecuting Nassar was "a mammoth task."
Whitmer said she'd met this week with some of Nassar's accusers.
Several of those women at Thursday news conferences repeated calls for an independent investigation of MSU.
In his Wednesday letter to Schuette, Fitzgerald accused the attorneys representing those women of using "baseless allegations of criminal conduct and a cover-up to mount a campaign to force MSU to divulge information publicly so that they can continue to try their case in the press."
Other people have called for more accountability in the Nassar case. Pat Miles, the former U.S. attorney running as a Democrat to replace Schuette in the Attorney General's Office, said in a Thursday news release that "the Attorney General must ensure that all responsible for this crime are brought to justice so the survivors and their families can begin to heal."
Read the full letter here:
Read or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/2BTJObHIn the lead image above, for example, the color pink represents my levels of anxiety. According to the supercomputer, my anxiousness was 81 percent, which I can't refute given my unfortunate history of anxiety attacks. Watson also found me to be 88 percent "open," something I definitely agree with since I consider myself quite a transparent and honest individual. When you think about it, it's both impressive and scary that an AI could (sort of) figure me out in just a few minutes, and inside a photo booth of all places. But, somehow, I feel at peace with that, especially since the portrait looks pretty damn good.
If you're in NYC and want to experience it yourself, the Watson cognitive photo booth will be at the Hidden Portraits exhibit at the Cadillac House in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. As for the rest of you, IBM says it plans to bring it to more places in the future, while an online experience that uses your computer's webcam will also be available in the coming days. The company says this is just another way for people to interact with Watson and see its potential across more serious industries and businesses, including education and the medical field.Duck Dynasty returned to A&E last night for its fifth season, and the ratings are down following controversy over Phil Robertson's anti-gay remarks, EW reports:
Wednesday night’s Duck Dynasty season 5 premiere had 8.5 million viewers. That’s huge for a cable reality show, but down 28 percent from its record-setting fourth season debut in August (11.8 million). It’s also slightly down from the show’s third season premiere in February last year (8.6 million). A&E notes the number up slightly from the fourth season finale on Oct. 23 (though obviously it’s standard to compare premieres to premieres).
Robertson was placed on a short hiatus following the remarks and got a scolding from A&E and a few sponsors, but didn't end up losing a single one for his statements in GQ, in which he said homosexual sinners were going to hell like terrorists, prostitutes, and drunks.Proton Breeze-M launches with Sirius FM-6
Liftoff! A Proton Briz M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrone in Kazakhstan. Today's launch saw the Sirius FM 6 satellite delivered to orbit. Photo Credit ILS
Jason Rhian
Coming off the heels of a very tumultuous period, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos sent a Proton Breeze-M rocket aloft at 2:08 p.m. EDT (18:08 p.m.GMT) Friday, Oct. 25 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Launch Pad 39. Today’s flight served to bolster confidence in the Proton launch vehicle after the July 2, 2013 launch of a Proton rocket which saw the launch vehicle spin around, break apart and slam into the steppes of Kazakhstan, culminating in a massive fireball, the dressing down of then-head of Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his replacement by Former Deputy Defense Minister Oleg Ostapenko.
The accident was very embarrassing and the root cause of the failure served to provide the Russian Space Agency with another black eye. A report on RT.com includes the following statement by the deputy head of Roscosmos:
The deputy head of Russia’s space agency Roskosmos Aleksandr Lopatin says, “The failure occurred due to loss of stabilization and fishtailing due to abnormal functioning of an angular velocity sensor.” He added that it had probably been installed upside down.
httpv://youtu.be/rMwOgp0YExc
Video courtesy of ILS / Spacevidsnet
Due to this problem, the rocket’s onboard guidance computer was unable to correct the Proton’s trajectory and under the extreme stress of the spiral the launch vehicle was undergoing, it broke apart before plunging into the ground and exploding. The total flight lasted only about 30 seconds and marked the seventh Proton failure.
The July disaster saw the loss of not one, but three Russian GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System) satellites – the Russian equivalent of GPS.
The launch of Sirius FM-6 was pushed back from the original liftoff date of August 14. This was done to give investigators time to review the cause of the July 2 failure and to implement any needed changes.
ILS describes the separated spacecraft as having a mass of 13, 234 pounds (6,003 kilograms).
Today’s launch was not the first post-accident Proton launch. On September 29, the Proton launch vehicle returned to service with the delivery of the Astra 2E satellite to geosynchronous orbit. It had been scheduled to launch on Oct. 20, but was postponed for at least 24 hours due to issues with the satellite ground station network required for the launch and early orbital operations of the Sirius FM-6 spacecraft.
Welcome to The Spaceflight Group! Be sure to follow us on Facebook: The Spaceflight Group as well as on Twitter at: @SpaceflightGrpA 16-year-old Union High School student has been charged with distributing pictures of a teacher from the teacher's cellphone, according to the Union Public Safely Department. The teenager is charged with computer crimes and aggravated voyeurism, police said. Teacher Leigh Anne Arthur said she left her phone on her desk Monday while she was patrolling a hallway in the Career and Technology Center at Union County High School during a class change.To watch Arthur's interview and read her story, click HERE.She said the 16-year-old boy took her phone and used his own phone to take pictures of an image on Arthur’s phone of her in a sexy pose. Arthur told investigators she took the picture to send to her husband for Valentine’s Day. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed that the pictures that the teen took from the phone were stored in his phone in a pass code-protected file that contained other pictures that were sexual in nature. To read release from superintendent that blames Arthur for incident, click hereThousands of students and others have signed an online petition pushing for Arthur to be reinstated.“After being escorted off of school property, we (the students) are left to believe that she has been forced to, or given little choice but to resign. Mrs. Arthur has not only shown tremendous dedication to her students, but also the mechatronics program itself, often reaching out to local businesses and colleges to get materials that would not normally be available for the class," students said.The teenager is in the Department of Juvenile Justice Center in Columbia. Arthur has said that she isn't sure she would want her job back.
A 16-year-old Union High School student has been charged with distributing pictures of a teacher from the teacher's cellphone, according to the Union Public Safely Department.
The teenager is charged with computer crimes and aggravated voyeurism, police said.
Advertisement
Teacher Leigh Anne Arthur said she left her phone on her desk Monday while she was patrolling a hallway in the Career and Technology Center at Union County High School during a class change.
To watch Arthur's interview and read her story, click HERE.
She said the 16-year-old boy took her phone and used his own phone to take pictures of an image on Arthur’s phone of her in a sexy pose. Arthur told investigators she took the picture to send to her husband for Valentine’s Day.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed that the pictures that the teen took from the phone were stored in his phone in a pass code-protected file that contained other pictures that were sexual in nature.
To read release from superintendent that blames Arthur for incident, click here
Thousands of students and others have signed an online petition pushing for Arthur to be reinstated.
“After being escorted off of school property, we (the students) are left to believe that she has been forced to, or given little choice but to resign. Mrs. Arthur has not only shown tremendous dedication to her students, but also the mechatronics program itself, often reaching out to local businesses and colleges to get materials that would not normally be available for the class," students said.
The teenager is in the Department of Juvenile Justice Center in Columbia.
Arthur has said that she isn't sure she would want her job back.
AlertMeShare. Into The Woods Into The Woods
If you were to judge Ori and the Blind Forest solely by appearances – its prominent images of Ori being cuddled by his rotund adoptive mother Naru, for instance – you might assume you were in for a short, pleasantly tepid art-house platformer, the kind where gameplay exists mainly to support lavish graphics and the emotional pull of the story. Instead, Ori is a demanding, cleverly intricate Metroidvania-style adventure in which a quick trigger finger and perfect timing matter almost as much as exploring its secret-filled environments. That it’s also stunningly pretty, includes a sweeping orchestral score, and tugs at the heartstrings certainly doesn't hurt, either.
Exit Theatre Mode
Of course, the forest can’t be saved as easily as simply returning your floating companion to his tree. Three stolen, life-sustaining elements need to be restored to their respective homes first, and finding them means trekking across a huge 2D landscape of interconnected areas, uncovering hidden power-ups, and earning new abilities along the way. Like any good Metroidvania, these abilities – which let Ori pull off moves like double-jumping, wall-climbing, stomping through weak platforms, and grabbing enemies or projectiles to slingshot himself in different directions – open up new areas for exploration while adding to Ori's combat repertoire. The progression from powerless sprite-child to nimble engine of destruction is elegantly smooth, with so many opportunities to use each skill that, by the time you've discovered the next one, using the previous ability will have become second nature.
That's important, because Ori's exploration sometimes feels like training for the real challenges: Its dungeons, a trio of self-contained levels that push you to make heavy use of whatever abilities you've found beforehand, and which sometimes feature unique challenges, like carrying a gravity-bending orb that lets Ori safely walk upside-down across lethally hot surfaces. While taxing, those feel like cakewalks next to each dungeon's climax: an intense, no-room-for-error escape sequence that makes Metroid's time-bomb finales seem tame by comparison. |
vatī, Haṃsa-padmāvatī, Sarasvatī Padmāvatī, śabarī padmāvatī, Kāmeśvarī Padmāvatī, Bhairavī Padmāvatī, Tripurā Padmāvatī, Nityā Padmāvatī, Mahāmohinī Padmāvatī, Putrakarī Padmāvatī, Kajjalāvatārā Padmāvatī, Ghaṭāvatārā Padmāvatī, Dīpāvatārā Padmāvatī etc. It is clear from some of these names that these mantras are influenced by śākta tantra. In fact, a form of the goddess is called śaivāgamoktā Padmāvatī, hinting at her śaiva origin.
In the context of upāsanā of Padmāvatī, one can even find the statement: 'antaḥ śaktā bahirjainā', clearly copied from the older 'antaḥ śāktā bahiḥ śaivāḥ'. The only aspect missing in Jaina Tantra seems to be that similar to Kaula/Vāma practices, and those similar to Vajrayāna - as much of Jaina Tantra echoes Dakṣiṇācāra.
The popular tale of Jinadutta narrates the miraculous help by Padmāvatī which helped him establish a Jaina kingdom in Karnataka, making her a popular goddess in Southern India.At this point, Rick Ross’ relationship with reality is so foregone it’s not even worth discussing, if it ever really was. We get it: Rawse is The Secret, the American dream in all its bullshit glory, the reason every "Is Lana Del Rey/Drake/Slim Jesus authentic?” think piece was irrelevant before it was written. None of this is real, and it doesn’t matter. That’s not what you come to the Bawse for. You come for butter-drenched crab meats, emerald-studded pinky rings, and hang-gliding trips through Hawaii, glaring weight limits be damned.
So what does it mean when the biggest Bawse we’ve seen thus far quietly drops a free album with almost no fanfare, leading off with a track preaching fiscal responsibility? On “Foreclosures”, Ross recruits longtime collaborators J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League for a beat that harkens back to 2009’s yacht-rap classic, Deeper Than Rap—an album he sunk into rather than shouted over. “You reap what you sow, and they speaking repossessions,” he advocates, railing against shady publishing deals, presumptive extravagance, and once-humble peers corroded by wealth. It seems obvious he’s at least partially referring to old nemesis 50 Cent’s bankruptcy and MMG rising star Meek Mill’s recent controversy. Who would’ve thought 2015’s most cogent, subtle diss track would come from the Teflon Don?The DNA of Argentinian rugby is changing, according to Wallabies scrum coach Mario Ledesma.
Former Argentinian Ledesma played 84 Tests for the Pumas, retiring in 2011 and said the South Americans were a different rugby beast now.
“My last game was five years ago so that's how much I know from them now, I mean I've never been involved with this coaching staff,” he said.
“Most of the players could be my sons.
“When I played we didn't throw the ball around a lot and this team does it a lot. So, the DNA's changed a little bit, they're focusing on other skills.”
Argentina’s offloading game against the All Blacks epitomised the improvement that the Pumas have made, but it was no surprise to Ledesma.
“They worked for that,” he said.
“Whenever they started playing Rugby Championship and now Super Rugby that was the main focus, on skills.
“I think they're doing a great job.”
The inclusion of the Jaguares in Super Rugby this season and the Pumas into the Rugby Championship in 2012 has accelerated the development of Argentinian rugby, simply by virtue of familiarising them with the world’s best, Ledesma said.
Under the Super Rugby conference system, the Jaguares didn’t play any Australian teams this time around but they did play all five New Zealand teams.
“Even though the results weren't there (for the Jaguares), the experience and the fact that they're playing against these players all the time, makes it more tangible,” Ledesma said.
“Before, they were only playing once every five years against Australia, once every seven years against the All Blacks so it was difficult to feel that you can beat them.
“Today they're playing week in, week out against them, then they play Rugby Championship.
“They've got already a couple of wins under their belt so I think the whole Super Rugby experience is exactly that, the experience of playing these players week in, week out and knowing that they can beat them.”
This weekend will be the third time Ledesma faces off against his home nation and he said every match against the Pumas was significant.
“I get a lot of bagging over there, some calls and everybody treating me like I'm a traitor or something but it's all good,” he joked.
“It's a good thing that I'm in the stands and I'm not playing but it's always special.
“Obviously I played a long time for them and I'm a very proud Argentinian.
“The team and the coaching staff over there, I'm really good friends with and they've always been really supportive of what I'm doing over here so there's no issues there.”
The Wallabies host Argentina at nib Stadium on Saturday night, kicking off at 8:05pm AEST. Buy tickets here.Katy Perry and Lana Del Rey are taking different approaches to wokeness.
Pop music has two practical applications now: It makes good times feel great, and it makes bad times feel bearable. The stars who last are the ones able to tap the pulse of the culture and fine-tune their music to it. This is how Michael Jackson gets from “Rock With You” and “Pretty Young Thing” to “Man in the Mirror” and “Heal the World.” In the last three years, the ambient feeling of the 2010s has crept from complacency to open anxiety, but with a few strong exceptions, you wouldn’t know it from a spin through radio. The Chainsmokers, Drake, and Rihanna sell impossibly catchy songs about heartbreak and desire, examining interpersonal relationships with laser focus, but rarely ever touching on politics — RiRi’s noble “American Oxygen” single notwithstanding.
It’s no small coincidence that the North American stars with the greatest cultural cachet at the moment are Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar: Their last few albums struck a balance between hard personal reflection and righteous indignation over state injustice at a time when youth were becoming newly politically active around the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2016 presidential election. Songs like “***Flawless,” “Alright,” “Formation,” “Freedom,” and “DNA” proved you could speak your mind without palpable harm to your career, that the call for a new enlightened pop music that blends social awareness with gripping hooks and production outstrips whatever cable news and conservative audience blowback exists for pop stars who dare to “get political.”
It is also no surprise that in 2017, popular music is becoming something of a mad dash toward wokeness. Nearly all the big-ticket pop albums on the calendar this spring are coming from stars in need of reinvention. Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Rey are singing about the desire for music that edifies both mind and body, and speaks to the increasing demand for pop stars who are also enlightened world citizens and voices for the disadvantaged. But it feels like these stars are shifting gears out of duty rather than genuine interest. That they’re all having a hard time with it speaks to both the value of locating and sticking to your specific creative ministry and to the precariousness of speaking out in a public forum.
Katy Perry was first in line at 2017’s woke pop party. To hear her tell the story, she coined the term “purposeful pop” around the late-winter release of the single “Chained to the Rhythm,” hoping that “a song that starts conversations” could warm a climate of fallout from an acrimonious election. As a radio single, it’s a slick exercise in smooth singing and thumping French house. As a statement of purpose, it leaves much to be desired. The song’s goofy slave metaphor and the presence of the obligatory Marley descendant Ky-Mani feels pat. The lyric about music that doesn’t switch on the lights upstairs is just as applicable to Katy’s own history of delightful, confectionary pop as anyone else’s.
Ineffectual messaging isn’t a crime in the court of public opinion, but when wokeness is your stated aim, thoughtlessness is the result: Perry recently found herself in hot water for a tasteless Barack Obama joke and her choice of Met Gala dress, a blood-red gown from Hitler-sympathizing Maison Margiela director John Galliano. Both gaffes brought back Perry’s florid history of cultural dress-up and raised questions about the seriousness of her social-justice initiative. Tellingly, the follow-up to “Chained to the Rhythm” is “Bon Appétit,” a ditty about getting “spread like a buffet” with verses from guests the Migos.
Katy isn’t the only singer reverting to old ways this spring. Miley Cyrus just released the new single “Malibu,” the first move in a campaign to bring the country turned R&B turned psych star back to her roots, both literally and figuratively. “Malibu” is a heavy-handed reboot, Miley barreling back into country-pop after two years partying with Southern rap figureheads Juicy J and Mike WiLL Made It, and another two smoking pot and dropping acid with the Oklahoma mystics in the Flaming Lips. The “Malibu” video’s symbolism is thick: Miley’s curly brunette roots have overtaken the bright blonde mop of the Bangerz epoch. Every outfit is blinding white, every scene subdued and rustic. The pivot was explained in a Billboard chat where Cyrus said lurid misogyny is the reason she doesn’t listen to rap anymore. It’s a curious stance for her to take, as someone whose garish stage and award-show antics are singularly responsible for introducing twerking to middle America. Longstanding suspicions about her use of hip-hop culture as an accessory suddenly seemed confirmed, and fans pushed back. Miley’s single is ultimately refreshing, and her message isn’t without value; but it’s hard to receive a harsh word from someone who hasn’t lived it.
Miley could learn a lot about subtlety from Lana Del Rey, whose art is, at root, a smart study of contrasts. Lana mixes traditional American iconography with stories of decay, quietly evoking David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls, two series about the secret horror of idyllic locales. Lana wants to bring more to the table with her new Lust for Life, and this year, she’s become a more outspoken celebrity in her own delightfully quirky way, from joining a group of witches in casting a spell on Donald Trump to writing a song about troubling international news reports. In the new “Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind,” Lana trains her gaze on the world around her rather than broadcasting her inner struggles as universal interests. It’s an affecting bid for peace, but also a trite one.
Woodstock was a place to peacefully gather and temporarily escape the fear of war and the draft through drugs and music. Coachella is increasingly becoming a place young people go to be seen, get fucked up, and be seen getting fucked up. Lana’s “Coachella – Woodstock” creates beautiful imagery, with all her words turning into birds and fluttering out over flower crowns at a Father John Misty show, or whatever, but “Coachella – Woodstock” also falls into the “Chained to the Rhythm” trap of suggesting that the act of thinking differently is profound, when it’s the conclusions she will arrive at as a result of her soul-searching that hold the real value.
The hippie movement is actually a great case study in the intersection of pop music and activism. Listen to Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock.” (Yes, she famously missed performing at the festival she wrote the definitive song about.) “We are stardust, we are golden, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” Listen to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young calling out police in the wake of the Kent State shooting in “Ohio.” Listen to Bob Dylan skewering government warmongering on “Masters of War.” 2017’s ambitious pop crop could wield this same power if they wanted. But do they?Anaconda is a 1997 American adventure horror film directed by Luis Llosa, starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde and Owen Wilson. It centers on a documentary film crew who have been taken hostage by a snake hunter who is going after a legendary giant anaconda, which is discovered in the Amazon rainforest. The film received mixed reviews but was a box-office success and was followed by a series of films.
Plot [ edit ]
A poacher hides from an unknown creature in his boat. While it breaks through the boat and attempts to catch the poacher, he commits suicide by shooting himself dead to prevent the beast from killing him.
Meanwhile while shooting a documentary about a long-lost indigenous tribe, the Shirishamas, on the Amazon River, director Terri Flores and members of her crew including cameraman Danny Rich, production manager Denise Kalberg, her boyfriend, sound engineer Gary Dixon, visionary Warren Westridge, anthropologist Professor Steven Cale, and boat skipper Mateo come across stranded Paraguayan snake hunter Paul Serone and help him, believing he knows how to find the tribe they are searching for.
Most of the crew are uncomfortable around Serone, and Cale clashes with him several times in regards to Shirishama lore. Later, while trying to free the boat's propeller from a rope, Cale is stung in the throat by a wasp inside his scuba regulator, which swells his throat shut and leaves him unconscious. Serone performs an emergency cricothyrotomy, seemingly saving Cale's life. With that, Serone takes command and captain of the boat and the crew. They are then forced to help him achieve his true task: hunting down and capturing a giant record-breaking female green anaconda he had been tracking the whole time.
Later, Mateo gets lost and is the first to be killed by the anaconda, which coils around him before it snaps his neck near the boat where the poacher had been killed. A photograph in an old newspaper reveals that Mateo, Serone, and the unnamed poacher were actually working together to catch animals, including snakes. The others try to find him while Gary sides with Serone, who promises if they help him find the anaconda, he will help them get out alive.
Later at night, the anaconda appears and attacks the boat. When Serone attempts to capture the snake alive, it instead coils around Gary and begins to crush him before killing and devouring him, leaving Denise to mourn for the loss of her boyfriend. The survivors overcome Serone and tie him up for punishment. The next day, the boat becomes stuck at a waterfall, requiring Terri, Danny, and Westridge to enter the water to winch it loose. Denise confronts Serone and attempts to kill him in revenge for the death of Gary, but he gets the edge and strangles her to death with his legs before dumping her corpse into the river.
When the anaconda returns, Westridge distracts it enough for Terri and Danny to return to the boat while he ascends the waterfall. Danny and the freed Serone battle, as Westridge is coiled and crushed by the snake. Before it can kill him, the tree supporting the anaconda breaks, sending the group into the water and waking up Cale in the process. With Westridge killed in the fall, the snake coils itself around Danny and attempts to kill him, only to be shot in the head and killed by Terri. An enraged Serone attacks Terri, only to be stabbed with a tranquilizer dart by Cale, who soon loses consciousness again. Danny punches the drugged Serone, knocking him into the river.
However, Terri and Danny are soon captured when Serone catches up to them. He dumps a bucket of monkey blood on them and uses them as bait in an attempt to capture a second, much larger male anaconda. The anaconda soon appears where it coils itself around Terri and Danny and begins to suffocate them. They are caught in a net by Serone, but the snake breaks free. Serone tries to flee, but the anaconda finally manages to prevent him from escaping and coils itself around him before suffocating him to death. Terri and Danny cut their bonds and watch as the anaconda swallows Serone whole.
Terri finds a nest of baby anacondas in a building, but the snake arrives and after it regurgitates Serone's still twitching corpse, it chases her up a smoke stack. Danny traps the anaconda by pinning its tail to the ground with a pickaxe and ignites a fire below the smoke shack which burns the snake alive and triggers an explosion. The burning anaconda flys out of the exploding building where it plunges into the water and sinks. As Terri and Danny recuperate on a nearby dock, the anaconda, now burnt, appears one final time. Somehow, Danny slams a splitting maul into the snake's head, finally killing it.
Afterwards, Terri and Danny reunite with Cale, who begins to revive on the boat. As the three remaining survivors float down the river, they accidentally locate the natives for whom they were originally searching. They realize Serone was right all along and resume filming their documentary.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Gillian Anderson and Julianna Margulies were the first choices for the role of Terri Flores (whose last name was originally Porter), but they passed due to scheduling conflicts with both The X-Files and ER respectively before Jennifer Lopez signed on. Jean Reno was considered to play the part of Paul Serone, until Jon Voight was cast. The filming took place in the mid-spring and summer 1996.
Soundtrack [ edit ]
The soundtrack for the film was composed and conducted by Randy Edelman and released by Edel Records.[2]
Track listing
Main Title (4:45) Watching and Waiting (4:43) Night Attack (2:47) This Must Be Heaven (1:39) Down River (2:43) Seduction (3:27) Travelogue (2:45) Baiting the Line (2:47) My Beautiful Anna... (conda) (2:54) The Totem's Scared Ground (2:26) Sarone's Last Stand (3:00)
Sequels and crossover [ edit ]
A sequel, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid in 2004, which was released to theaters and followed by three films, Anaconda 3: Offspring (2008), Anacondas: Trail of Blood (2009) and Lake Placid vs. Anaconda (2015), a crossover film with the Lake Placid franchise.
Even though no characters from the first film appear in the sequels, in the second film they are referenced by the character Cole Burris, when he says he knows a man (Warren Westridge) and another man (Danny Rich) that took a crew down to the Amazon and they were all eaten by the snakes; in Lake Placid vs. Anaconda, another character Will "Tully" Tull, spoke to Reba about the same incident of the snakes in the Amazon, but no mention of the characters.
Reception [ edit ]
Anaconda received generally negative reviews upon its release. Some critics did praise the film's effects, scenery, and tongue-in-cheek humor, but many criticized the acting, "forgettable" or "cardboard" characters, inaccuracies, and "boring" start.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "rotten" rating of 40%, based on 50 reviews.[3] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 37 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[4] Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film a mixed 2 out of a possible 4 stars, criticizing the film's "hokey" special effects and "expositionless" script but complimented the film's use of Brazilian locale and Voight's campy performance.[5]
Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars and called it a "...slick, scary, funny Creature Feature, beautifully photographed and splendidly acted in high adventure style."[6]
Despite the initial negative reception, Anaconda has since become a cult classic, often viewed as being so-bad-it's-good. The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.[7]
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[8]
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
The film was nominated for six Razzie Awards in 1998 including Worst Picture (which lost to The Postman), Worst Actor (Jon Voight; which went to Kevin Costner for The Postman), Worst Director (awarded to Costner for The Postman), Worst Screenplay (lost to The Postman), Worst New Star ("the animatronic anaconda"; which went to Dennis Rodman for Double Team) and Worst Screen Couple (Voight and "the animatronic anaconda"; where they lost to Rodman and Jean-Claude Van Damme for Double Team).[9] It was also nominated for two Saturn Awards including Best Actress (Jennifer Lopez; who lost to Jodie Foster for Contact) and Best Horror Film (which went to The Devil's Advocate).
Box office [ edit ]
The film opened at #1 with $16.6 million in its first weekend [10] and remained at the top spot in its following week.[11] In total, Anaconda went on to gross $136.8 million worldwide,[12] making it a sizable box office success collecting more than three times its $45 million budget.
See also [ edit ]There was a time when I played a lot of MMOs (that’s Massively Multiplayer Online games, to the uninitiated).
It started, as it often does, with World of Warcraft, still pretty much the undisputed king of the genre. Back then, late 2008, around the time the Wrath of the Lich King extension was released, publishers Blizzard were on top of the world; 10 million subscribers eager to login day after day, grinding away at quests, dailies, achievements, and the massive end-game raids, where up to 25 players work together to progress through a dungeon, a feat that can take many hours of work (not to mention weeks of preparation, gearing and practice).
Like many others, I was sucked in by the oh-so-easy progression and Blizzard’s expertly calibrated ‘carrots’ that keep players playing long into the night — just a few more XP (eXperience Points) to reach the next level; just one more piece of armour to complete the set and benefit from those sweet set bonuses; one final variety of snake to kill to complete the achievement and receive one more completely worthless badge.
Of course, aside from the endless content, the second ‘M’ in MMO is a key factor in the endless playability. Multiplayer games, especially those like WoW that allow their players to band together in player-run ‘guilds,’ offer a ready-made group of peers that not only share your interests and passions, but also often have a vested interest in seeing you succeed. Players feel simultaneously wanted and valued, while the drip-drip-drip of rewarding quest completion ensures a never-ending dopamine hit, day after day after day.
Eventually, though, Warcraft lost its charm; Blizzard removed much of the challenge from the levelling experience, and as the level cap increased so did the necessary time commitment required to run the same high-level dungeons over and over while you wait for that elusive piece of gear to finally drop. Disillusioned, I looked around for an alternative. As it turns out, there are quite a few.
The success of WoW has spawned an army of clones over the last ten years. Some are relatively successful (Guild Wars 2, Destiny), some not (such as Defiance, a bizarre attempt to pair an online game with a TV show); some follow Blizzard’s monthly fee model while some adopted a more generous free-to-play model, making their money instead through the sale of items that can help you in-game (the so called ‘pay-to-win’ model, much reviled among ‘serious’ gamers). There are games set in both the DC and Marvel comic universes, as well as in the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Conan, Warhammer, and Dungeons & Dragons worlds. You can play on a pirate boat or during a zombie apocalypse. Final Fantasy went MMO (for the second time) with Final Fantasy XIV, a series with almost twenty years of history behind it.
I tried them all. But, in the end, I found that there is no other multiplayer game in the world that comes close to EVE Online.
More than just spreadsheets in space
EVE Online is a multiplayer game set in space. In the far future (so the story goes) mankind has colonised the distant galaxy of New Eden, and split into four pretty much interchangeable varieties of human: the Amarr, Caldari, Gallente and Minmatar races. After possibly the most complex character creation screen imaginable, players awake to find themselves in a space station with a crappy ship and no money. The object of the game is … well, I’ll get to that later. A helpful AI named Aura holds your hand while you learn how to fly your ship, shoot asteroids, shoot pirates, and make a little bit of money. You buy a better ship. If you’re lucky, nobody shoots it.
For a game that has been described as having not so much a learning curve as a learning cliff, there really isn’t much more to the basic premise of EVE. That’s because it is a “sandbox” game; in other words, the developers built all of the mechanics of the game, but the behaviour of the players determines how to actually play it. (I’ll get onto the behaviour of the players later, too.) Suffice to say that, after playing for a while, you start to see why psychologists study EVE Online as a way to model real-world issues.
One of the key differentiators that makes EVE different from most other MMOs is that loss is permanent. In Warcraft, and most other games, if your character dies you do not lose all of the weapons and armour s/he was wearing at the time; you resurrect with exactly the same set of equipment, ready to have another go.
In EVE, however, that is not the case. When you die, that ship — along with whatever was in it — is gone. Forever. And, since each ship and piece of equipment on it represents a substantial amount of effort on the part of the player, losses can be exceedingly painful. In classic MMOs, when a challenge is not going well, you will often hear the raid leader give the order to “wipe” — everyone die, let’s start again. In EVE, that’s rarely an option. Aside from the loss of an expensive ship, to start over you need everyone involved to either have a spare ship ready to go, or the funds to purchase and equip a new one right away. Which brings me onto another topic: resources.
As well as perma-loss, the other aspect that sets EVE apart from other games is the entirely player-driven economy. Virtually everything in the game can be manufactured by players, using resources gathered by other players (via mining, planet management, moon extraction, and other incredibly complex game mechanics). Anything you buy, therefore, is at the end of an infinite chain of resource gatherers, manufacturers, and market traders, each group fuelling the others in a complex ecosystem that is largely unmanaged by CCP Games, the creators of EVE Online.
In a nutshell, that’s the game — make money by doing stuff, spend money on things that other people have made. But in reality, it’s what happens in between that truly defines the EVE experience.
Space jobs
“EVE is life,” as the saying goes, and “space jobs” in EVE mirror many of their real-life counterparts. Mining is hour upon hour of boredom, broken up by occasional bursts of danger; shipping goods from A to B can also occupy many hours. Unlike other MMOs there are no shortcuts, no hearthstones or portals that allow you to leap from one end of the galaxy to the other (well, there are wormholes, but those require a completely separate set of skills and knowledge to use), and so players must learn patience, how to calculate risk versus reward, and how to interact with each other to discover whether there are market needs that they can meet … for a tidy profit, of course.
This then, is effectively an alternate life, in a far more meaningful way than the Second Life ‘game’ ever achieved. Finding a niche, building up your abilities, budgeting for risk, and knowing when the time is right to expand in new directions, are all skills as applicable to the real world as they are in New Eden. And that’s before you even start to consider the people skills involved in running the massive in-game alliances, comparable in size to many global companies, and requiring just the same amount of infrastructure and management. The largest player-operated groups in EVE have their own HR departments, training teams, IT infrastructure, and board of directors. Tack onto that the necessary military-style structure for the management of interstellar warfare — logistics, scouting, diplomats, and various ranks of Fleet Commanders, those players tasked with leading fleets of ships into battle — and successfully steering even a medium-sized alliance becomes as challenging a job as any other in which thousands of people are depending on you.
Joining a player-owned corporation or alliance can even be a similar experience to joining a large company. While real-life on-boarding might involve being shown around, introduced to the right people, and provided with the equipment you need, joining an established group in EVE can often include gifts of money (ISK, the in-game currency, is named for the Icelandic krona, where the game’s developers are based), ships, and other valuable resources. Nowhere is this unique attitude towards new players more clear than in the terms used by the EVE player base; unlike most games, where they would be classified as “newbies,” in EVE the new players are known as “newbros” — they may be new to the game, but once they join our side, we’re all brothers-in-arms now.
Forging a purpose
So, you’ve found a new home amongst the stars with your new space friends, who shower you with pretend space money. Now what?
The final killer trick up EVE Online’s sleeve is the exploitation of the singular dream of virtually every person on the planet. A place to call your own. A home.
New Eden is separated into two distinct areas of space. The centre of the galaxy is known as high security, or “hi-sec,” space. It’s safe, well-connected; it even has its own police force. The biggest danger here is the chance that you might fall for one of the non-stop scams perpetrated by players against other players, taking advantage of those age-old weaknesses, greed and stupidity.
Outside of hi-sec, beyond a protective band of low-security space, lie the lawless wastes of null-sec. Out here, nobody is going to protect you from the bad guys … hell, if you’re out here, you probably are one of the bad guys. Yet null has a singular attraction, one that entices tens of thousands of players to leave the safe playpen of hi-sec and make their home in the middle of a permanent war zone. Because null-sec systems can be conquered, and owned, by the players. The opportunity to plant a flag (quite literally; the game allows for custom logos to be added and displayed in-game) and declare “This belongs to us!” is irresistible, as is the urge to kick over someone else’s sandcastle and take what was once theirs for your own. Fleets of players, sometimes numbering in their hundreds, take to the virtual sky to defend their home, while the opposing side fight to expand their own empire. It is a struggle as old as civilisation itself.
Over the thirteen years since EVE’s original 2003 release, empires have risen and fallen, and systems and regions of space have changed hands hundreds of times. Yet the fact that New Eden is a “persistent world” means that there is a history to every system, every station; a history that players know they have contributed to, and that they can continue to shape in the future.
EVE is real
In the title of this piece, I said that EVE Online had spoiled every other MMO for me. And while the factors discussed above — perma-loss, the player-driven economy, the community, owning your home, becoming history — are all part of that, I think that they combine to form a sum greater than their parts. For all that it’s just pixels on a screen and data on a server, EVE is real, and what you do matters, in a way that handing in quests or running dungeons in other games can never approach. Returning to other MMOs, even one as polished as World of Warcraft, reduces you to the level of a trained rat, obediently pushing a button to receive treats. The challenge is entirely superficial — press these buttons in this order, don’t stand in the fire — whereas EVE asks questions of you that get to the heart of who you really are. What are you willing to risk? What are you ready to fight for? And what will you do to reshape history?
In space, everybody can hear you scream.US to Expand Military, Intelligence Presence in Bahrain
The US military plans to establish an intelligence center in Bahrain in a bid to compensate for its dwindling presence in Afghanistan.
A senior US military official told a Senate hearing that the planned espionage center in the Arab state, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, will be an “integral part” of the Pentagon’s post-2014 strategy in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The official, Erin Logan, who oversees the Pentagon’s “counter-narcotics efforts,” claimed during a US Senate hearing on narcotics on Wednesday that the plan is part of Washington’s efforts to “continue fighting” Afghanistan’s “booming drug industry.”
“The center,” she added, “will help fill the gap where space for personnel on the ground in Afghanistan is no longer available.”
The US move to expand its military and intelligence presence in Bahrain comes, however, despite the grave human rights record of the ruling Al Khalifa regime for its brutal crackdown on a popular uprising that has left scores shot and tortured to death and many more injured and prosecuted for taking part and even sympathizing with the continuing anti-regime protests in the country.
The United States has long been suspected by regional countries, particularly Iran and Russia, of promoting the growth of the narcotics trade in Afghanistan ever since American and NATO military forces invaded the country in 2001 under the pretext of fighting terror and bringing stability to Afghanistan.
There have been numerous press accounts over the past years pointing to the involvement of US troops and CIA operatives in Afghanistan’s expanding drug trade that largely finances the al-Qaeda-linked Taliban militants in the country.
The US military aims to establish an intelligence center in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain in a bid to compensate for its dwindling presence in the war-torn Afghanistan.Silicon Valley tech gurus love to tell musicians that they “need new business models.” This is kind of funny when you consider that most of these folks work for companies that have never shown a profit. Never! Whereas my web-enabled businesses Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven (like many bands) have been profitable for decades. So can someone please tell mewhy we’re supposed to listen to these serial failures with their snake oil schemes?
I think it’s high time that artists turn the tables. We should tell these folks how to run their businesses for a change. Quit whining and bootstrap it! Just like we had to when we were starting our bands. Sell T-shirts or something!
For instance here’s how Pandora can increase their revenue 50%:
1. Pandora plays one minute of commercials per hour. Satellite radio plays about thirteen minutes an hour. Pandora could easily double the number of ads and still have a very pleasant consumer experience.
2. Pandora made approximately $86 million from advertising on total revenues of $101 million last quarter. Let’s say they double the amount of advertising and they only generate another 65 million from doubling ads. This gives them a minimum of $151 million in revenue. And that is an increase of 50%.
But seriously folks, have investors considered that the so-called Internet Radio Fairness act could take years to pass? And then once it passes it requires the President to appoint new judges that would have to be approved by the Senate. Does that sound like a quick fix to you folks? But that’s not all. These new judges would then have to convene new hearings on the royalty rates under the new below fair market value standards. This would take years.
On the other hand Pandora could start increasing revenue tomorrow by simply airing more ads. This is what most main street businesses do. They need more revenue? They generate more revenue. They don’t run to the federal government to force their suppliers to lower their prices! Adapt or die Pandora!
Of course we know the IRFA is about more than royalty rates. This is about agency capture. It’s about replacing current judges with judges that are more friendly to the the Tech and Broadcast industry’s agenda. It’s about not allowing artists and their representatives to speak out when mega-broadcasters propose direct licensing deals that benefit labels at the expense of artists. We artists could be prosecuted under The Sherman Act if this bill passes!
Let’s just hope that congress sees this for what it is: Crony Capitalism."Detectives from the Organised Crime Squad's Strke Force Nuralda have met with the NRL integrity unit in relation to reported conduct of a 25-year-old player," according to a police statement. Strike Force Nuralda was formed to investigate potential match fixing of at least two NRL fixtures, both which involved Manly. NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg won't hesitate to ban for life any player found guilty of breaking betting rules. A tough |
not believe in vaccines.
These commentators do not care whether an alternative to the Democratic Party is built in the United States. In fact, to borrow a phrase from Aldous Huxley, they treat us to their “excruciating orgasms of self-assertion” because they have a deep-seated contempt for those who dare to dissent and meaningfully challenge Democrats.
None of the commentators acknowledge the corruption within the structures of power, which brought us to the point where neoliberal politics fueled by President Barack Obama’s administration sowed the seeds for the rise of a right-wing demagogue more commonly referred to as Donald Trump.
Comparisons between Clinton and Trump by those willing to vote for Stein infuriate these columnists, who accuse them of equating the two candidates. However, if one does not like yellow fruitcake or mincemeat muffins, it is not automatically presumed that person thinks the two have identical features. They obviously could dislike these bakery treats for very different reasons.
Many of the rants against Stein lack context. The methods by which the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) undercut and worked to stifle the Sanders campaign is fresh in the minds of Americans who supported Sanders.
Clinton engaged in dishonest attacks against socialist and progressive policies Sanders supported. Sanders appointees on the Democratic National Convention’s platform committee struggled on behalf of working class Americans and global human rights, but Clinton and DNC appointees rationalized corporate power and blocked a ban on natural gas fracking, Medicare For All, and clear language on opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.
When hectoring progressive voters who will not vote for Clinton, pundits avoid the issue of how movements under Clinton will guard themselves against efforts by her administration to neutralize their pressure. Progressives are told Trump will create a hostile climate for movement building, but the reality is anyone involved in the Occupy Movement or the Movement for Black Lives has already endured hostility from both the left and right.
Another argument made is progressives who want to support a third-party have to wait and build a viable political party after the election. These people are nowhere to be found between elections when it is important to support the groundwork they urged.
Let’s dig into a few examples.
Sifting through his post, it would appear New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait was in the middle of a Facebook status update about what he heard Stein say on the radio when he thought, “What if I just put this up at my column and hope people don’t find it entirely amateurish and incoherent?” So, he did, and the post was published under what Chait probably believed was a clever headline, “Jill Stein Explains Her Plan To Stop Trump By Electing Him President.” Yet, there is nothing astute about Chait’s commentary.
What’s most fascinating is that Stein does not try to downplay the danger of a Trump presidency. Instead, she likens it to fascism and Nazism (a comparison that I actually think, for all of Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, goes too far). And yet, proceeding from her premise that Clintonism will lead to fascism, she concludes that she must “stand up to” both Donald Trump and the only candidate who can prevent Donald Trump from winning the presidency, in equal measure. “Neoliberalism” — the left-wing term of abuse for liberalism — leads to fascism, so we might as well skip the neoliberalism step and go straight to the fascism.
Except, Chait clearly did not understand what Stein said. She did not argue a Clinton presidency will lead to fascism. She believes Trump is a phenomenon that is the result of the policies pushed by President Bill Clinton’s administration and corporate Democrats over the past twenty to thirty years, including NAFTA, which led to deindustrialization, and the repeal of welfare benefits.
Here is what Stein said:
What we know from history, and what we know from the current situation, we are seeing a rise in right-wing extremism, not just in the United States, and it’s not just Donald Trump, it’s also throughout countries in Europe. What is driving this? It is policies like NAFTA, like globalization, like the dominance of the banks, like the Wall Street bailouts, like the Wall Street meltdown thanks to deregulation. Who gave us those policies? The Clintons were leading the way on those policies! The answer to neofascism is stopping neoliberalism. Putting another Clinton in the White House will fan the flames of this right-wing extremism. We have known that for a long time ever since Nazi Germany. We are going to stand up to Donald Trump and to stand up to Hillary Clinton!
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
Like a schoolyard bully, who distorts what an unpopular student said for attention, Chait wrote, “To whatever extent it can be ‘known’ that a Clinton in the White House leads to right-wing extremism, it certainly was not known during the Third Reich—which occurred several decades before the first Clinton administration, at least according to the standard neoliberal calendar.” Yet, anyone listening to her remarks would know she meant Nazi Germany taught the world neoliberalism leads to neofascism, and because of this lesson, she believes letting Clinton rule the country for any period of time will lead to more right-wing extremism.
Unfortunately, Chait is not the only commentator to address Stein spitefully. This is the level of discourse among commentators, when it comes to the issue of third-party politics and democratizing elections so voters have more voices and choices.
Yvonne Abraham wrote for The Boston Globe, “Stein can’t honestly argue Trump and Clinton are equally harmful to the causes she holds dear. Doing so advances her own political fortunes at the country’s expense.”
“Gee, that seems familiar. Maybe if Stein is looking for someone to compare to Trump, the mirror would be a pretty good place to start,” Abraham concluded.
A letter to the editor from Thea Paneth of Arlington, Massachusetts appropriately responded to Abraham’s priggishness.
“If the Democrats lose in November, it will be because the party is failing voters, the nation, and the world, not because of the Green Party, which is not even on the ballot in all 50 states. Our nation is divided, and fractured, in many ways and has been for decades. About half of eligible voters do not bother to vote at all,” Paneth argued.
“The Democrats have stepped up to wage and expand Bush’s wars; to commit extrajudicial murder by drone, complete with a presidential ‘kill list’; and to move toward modernizing nuclear arsenals. In the last eight years, we have seen immigrants deported in astronomical numbers and have failed to find solutions to the economic and racial divisions in our nation,” Paneth added. “Smearing Stein by comparing her political voice to the racist hatred volubly expressed by Trump is a new low for Abraham and The Boston Globe.”
Finally, Duncan Hosie, a Hillary Clinton “super volunteer” whose Twitter header is a photo of him with Bill Clinton, is not just afraid that Stein will siphon off votes from Clinton. He proclaimed in an article for the Huffington Post that the bigger problem is “Jill Stein doesn’t share our core progressive values.” He went on to suggest that she “traffics in fear and paranoia,” which is basically what Hosie is doing when he hyperventilates about Stein “spoiling” Clinton’s chances in the election.
What are these “core progressive values,” which Stein lacks? Stein does not support the Affordable Care Act, and like Sanders, she favors a Medicare For All system. Stein also talks about Obama waging “illegal war,” which does not “elevate the dialogue.”
Progressives should not talk honestly about Democratic presidents, whose administrations are responsible for war crimes, and they should definitely not support policies, which would be horrible for the health insurance industry as well as pharmaceutical companies. After all, some executives in health insurance and pharmaceutical companies have been very loyal to Democrats over the years, something Clinton will not forget if she is elected president.
Both Clinton and Trump are two of the most unpopular presidential candidates in the history of American politics. Reuters polling, as of July 25, showed 56 percent of people support Clinton because they do not want Trump to win. As of July 19, 44.5 percent of people support Trump because they do not want Clinton to win. The New York Times reported only 9 percent of the American population voted for Clinton and Trump.
Americans are extremely discontent with the two most prominent political parties. Citizens increasingly do not vote because they do not think the system represents them. They seek alternatives yet face scorn when they break from corporate political parties, which bear responsibility for their poverty and daily struggle.
Commentators like Chait will be perfectly fine after the election. They will go on blaming the left for failing to be pragmatic enough to advance progressive causes and pretend they never would have told Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. he did not know the correct way to fight for change. But no matter who wins the election, the poor and working class will lose. It is the poor and working class who need leaders willing to step out into the political wilderness and forge new paths toward economic, racial, social, and environmental justice.iStock
Last week, Johnson & Johnson gave a seriously generous gift to its employees who are parents-to-be. The maker of Band-Aids and Tylenol announced it would be offering new mothers, fathers and adoptive parents eight additional weeks of fully paid parental leave, bringing the total to 15 weeks for new mothers (17 if they have a C-section). New fathers and adoptive parents will now get nine weeks of parental leave. And an extra surprise: The policy is retroactive to any employee who became a parent in the last year.
To put that into perspective, the average length of paid maternity leave among the 100 companies deemed best by Working Mother Magazine is only seven weeks. Fathers at these top-rated companies get an average of just three.
Something else about Johnson & Johnson’s new policy is interesting as well, though. The company specifically stated in its announcement that new parents don’t have to take all that time off at once, "so our people can enjoy some much-needed flexibility during such a critical time in their lives."
With as many as 17 weeks to play with, new mothers can opt to take all of them in a row. Or, they might want to take, say, 12 weeks immediately after the birth and then spread out the remaining five — working three to four days a week over a period of several months to help ease their re-entry to the office.
Peter Fasolo, Johnson & Johnson’s vice president of worldwide human resources, said in an interview that it’s up to employees to decide how they take their leave. “We wanted to give people the maximum flexibility to come back on their own terms,” he said. “Far be it from me to dictate how someone should slice up those 17 weeks.”
Like Johnson & Johnson, a few other large companies have been significantly expanding the time off they give new parents, especially as the fight for top talent grows fiercer in a more competitive job market.
A couple companies in Silicon Valley have set the bar high. Google, for instance, offers new mothers 18 weeks, and Facebook offers 17. Yet others elsewhere are starting to catch up. In March, Accenture said it was doubling its paid maternity leave benefit, offering employees up to 16 weeks. And last month, private equity firm Blackstone Group said it was expanding the number of paid weeks it offers women from 12 to 16.
Yet in addition to providing longer leaves, some companies are focusing as well on how to ease the return to work, as Johnson & Johnson has by allowing women to split up their expanded leave. Such organizations are offering new mothers access to a more family-friendly schedule—if on a temporary basis—as part of a more holistic maternity leave package.
Vodafone, for example, announced in March that all new mothers will not only get at least 16 weeks of paid time off, but can also then work reduced hours at full pay for the following six months.
[An unusual new policy for working mothers]
At the consulting firm Strategy&, new mothers are automatically given access to a program that promises them a more family-friendly role at the firm for six months after their leave is over. The benefit, which was introduced in 2013, “basically shifted the [burden of] negotiation from the woman to the firm,” said Traci Entel, the firm's chief human capital officer. “It was just guaranteed.”
Jennifer Owens, editorial director of Working Mother Magazine, says that 23 percent of the 100 companies on its list of the most family-friendly workplaces have some kind of “automatic phase back” benefit. She describes these programs as offering new mothers the ability to return to work on a temporary part-time schedule as part of their official maternity package, rather than having to negotiate for the arrangement separately or secure a manager's approval.
“Whenever a company asks me what they should be doing, that’s where I’m always pointing them,” Owens said.
Owens notes that other companies may allow new mothers to divide up their weeks of paid leave as Johnson & Johnson does. But unless the number of weeks offered is generous enough, it won't be a viable option for most women.
Making such benefits an explicit part of the maternity package also helps foster the idea that softer re-entries to the workplace are an accepted norm, rather than an exception to the rule, says Anne Weisberg, senior vice president at the nonprofit Families and Work Institute. “When you’ve been out on leave, you’re feeling very vulnerable,” she said in an interview. Companies can mitigate that by saying, “You know what? We expect you to do this."
At Strategy&, that kind of guarantee has been critical as they’ve rolled out their program, according to Entel. A couple of years ago, the firm began letting women take on internal staff roles or client-facing work without travel for the first six months after they returned from their leaves. During that temporary period, their required “billable hours”—a key metric for consultants—would be guaranteed, offering them protection on their bonus during this difficult period for most mothers.
Entel said that giving the program a memorable name—"Your Baby Not Your Billability"—helped make the firm’s leadership team more aware of it. She added that its fixed time period, as well the firm's efforts to share success stories of women who'd been through it, has helped combat the perception it's some sort of dreaded "mommy track" program.
“What this program is focused on is that moment in time where someone is going, ‘How do I come to work while I’m pumping and not sleeping and I don’t know which end is up?’ ” Entel said in and interview from her New York apartment, where she is on maternity leave with her second child. “It’s getting you through that initial hump.”
Read also:
An unusual new policy for working mothers
When 'good' maternity leave programs can actually hurt women
Like On Leadership? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.The effort called Save KPLU lived up to its name Thursday afternoon, when KPLU General Manager Joey Cohn took to the station’s airwaves to make the official announcement.
“We reached our goal of $7 million,” Cohn announced shortly after 3:30 p.m. in the studio packed with staff, supporters and media.
Now the Friends of 88.5 FM can make an offer to station owner Pacific Lutheran University to keep it out of the hands of the University of Washington’s KUOW.
It took 17,000 supporters of the Tacoma-based public radio station less than five months to donate the money. A fund-topping $500,000 matching contribution came from a collection of businesses and individuals.
Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The News Tribune
In a typical fundraising effort, charities will first seek big donors before a public campaign. Save KPLU didn’t have that option.
“We didn’t have the luxury of time. We just had to go,” Cohn said.
Money was raised at over 85 community events. Cohn said he knows of no other situation in public radio that comes close to the fundraising efforts of Save KPLU.
“We’ve been saying we made public radio history,” Cohn said. He cited $2 million dollars raised in less than a month for a station in Greeley, Colorado, as being the closest, and $1 million of that was a single donation. “This kind of donations in this short of time, no, it’s never happened before,” Cohn said.
“We’ve had 4-year-olds send in change,” he said.
KPLU, which broadcasts news and public radio programing along with jazz and blues, has a large presence in Western Washington. In addition to 88.5 FM, it broadcasts on 10 repeaters from Bellingham to Raymond.
The sale to Friends of 88.5 FM would include KPLU’s streaming jazz and blues service, Jazz24.
PLU announced in November that it was selling the station to KUOW. Music fans and news listeners were concerned what would happen to their programming if the sale went through.
After a public outcry, officials at UW and PLU agreed in December to allow a community-based nonprofit group to make its own offer on the station’s license for $7 million — the same price KUOW would pay.
Supporters created Friends of 88.5 FM to raise the money needed to buy the station’s license and other assets.
Cohn cited Olympia as a major center of donations. “Tacoma too. There’s a lot of pride in Tacoma for KPLU,” Cohn said.
The Friends group has been negotiating a standard nondisclosure agreement with PLU for the station’s sale, said Stephen Tan, chairman of the board of Friends of 88.5 FM.
A new purchase agreement between PLU and the Friends must be negotiated, and the sale is subject to the Federal Communications Commission’s approval.
Cohn estimated on air Thursday that the entire process will take 90 days.
Though the name of KPLU will change, it won’t leave the PLU campus for another two to three years, Tan said. A state grant that paid for equipment at the Neeb Center still has another three years of funding, Cohn said.
Eventually, Cohn said, he hopes to find studio space in downtown Tacoma.
“We want to continue broadcasting from Tacoma,” Cohn said.
KPLU and the South Sound are intertwined, Tan said.
“That’s a big, big part of our identity and our success,” Tan said.
KPLU has a 16-member news gathering team. The staff did not abandon KPLU during the period of uncertainty, Cohn said.
“It had the opposite effect and it brought the staff together,” Cohn said. “We rallied together and felt like we were on a mission.”Monster croc nabs reptile park's lawnmower
Updated
A huge saltwater crocodile has charged at two workers at a reptile park north of Sydney and stolen their lawnmower.
The five-metre croc named Elvis attacked the staff at the Australian Reptile Park near Gosford after they went into its enclosure about 9:00am (AEDT) on Wednesday.
The men used their lawnmowers as a barrier when the hulking beast lunged. They escaped unharmed.
The park says the enclosure is usually tended with one mower, but this morning two were used.
The 50-year-old crocodile lost two teeth in the encounter and is now guarding one of the lawnmowers.
"Elvis is sitting at the bottom of the lagoon with the lawnmower next to him. He's guarding it," said park spokeswoman Libby Bain.
"Obviously we have to go in and retrieve the mower.
"It's not something we think he would eat but it's encroaching on his territory and he believes it is his."
Staff later distracted Elvis while the mower and his teeth were retrieved.
Elvis was acquired by the park in 2008 after it had been causing a nuisance in Darwin harbour by climbing onto fishing boats.
"He's a monster. He's the unfriendliest crocodile you would ever have the pleasure of meeting," Ms Bain said.
AAP/ABC
Topics: animal-attacks, offbeat, somersby-2250
First postedCourse Edit
Profile of the road race circuit All road races took place on a challenging, technical and inner-city road circuit, 16.22 km (10.08 mi) in length. The elite men's race consisted of 15 laps – plus a start lap of 18.1 km (11.2 mi) – for a total of 261.4 km (162.4 mi). The circuit headed west from Downtown Richmond, working its way onto Monument Avenue, a paver-lined, historic boulevard that's been named one of the "10 Great Streets in America". Cyclists took a 180-degree turn at the Jefferson Davis monument and then maneuvered through the Uptown district and Virginia Commonwealth University. Halfway through the circuit, the race headed down into Shockoe Bottom before following the canal and passing Great Shiplock Park, the start of the Virginia Capital Trail. A sharp, off-camber turn at Rocketts Landing brought the riders to the narrow, twisty, cobbled 200 meters (660 feet) climb up to Libby Hill Park in the historic Church Hill neighborhood. A quick descent, followed by three hard turns led to a 100 meters (330 feet) climb up 23rd Street. Once atop this steep cobbled hill, riders descended into Shockoe Bottom. This led them to the final 300 meters (980 feet) climb on Governor Street. At the top, the riders had to take a sharp left turn onto the false-flat finishing straight, 680 meters (2,230 feet) to the finish.
Qualification Edit
Schedule Edit
All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4).[7] Date Time Event September 27, 2015 9:00–15:40 Men's road race
Final classification EditBy Thomas Sowell - September 5, 2012
We have heard many times from President Barack Obama how he plans to raise taxes on "millionaires and billionaires," but not on the middle class. Apparently, if you don't happen to be a millionaire or billionaire, you don't have to worry.
But the numbers say otherwise -- and say so big time.
The actual tax increase plans being proposed by Obama do not start with people who have an income of a million dollars a year. They start with people with incomes of $250,000 and up.
That is more than most people make, but it is far short of a million dollars, and miles away from a billion dollars. How many of the people who stand to get hit with Obama's higher tax rate plan are in fact either millionaires or billionaires?
According to the Internal Revenue Service, there are more than 2,700,000 people who earn $250,000 a year or more -- and fewer than one-tenth of them earn a million dollars or more. So more than nine-tenths of the people who would be hit with the higher taxes supposedly aimed at "millionaires and billionaires" are neither.
When businesses advertise one thing and then actually sell something else, that is called "bait and switch" advertising. That is exactly what President Obama is doing with his proposed tax increases on "millionaires and billionaires."
It gets worse when you look at the potential economic consequences of the tax rate increases being proposed. The small proportion of the people targeted for Obama's higher tax rates who are in fact millionaires and billionaires have the least likelihood of actually paying the higher tax rates.
People with annual incomes in the millions or billions of dollars can live pretty high on the hog on a fraction of their income, leaving them with plenty of money to invest. And they can invest it in ways that keep it away from the tax collectors. In addition to tax-exempt bonds, they can invest in other countries that have lower tax rates.
Hard facts show this happening as far back as we have had a federal income tax.
The Constitution of the United States had to be amended in 1913 to permit the federal government to collect income taxes. Almost immediately, very high tax rates on people with very high incomes led to their taking steps to avoid paying those taxes.
In 1920, Secretary of the Treasury David Franklin Houston in the Democratic administration of Woodrow Wilson pointed out that the taxable income of people with incomes of $300,000 and up had been more than cut in half, just from 1916 to 1918. He did not believe that this was because the rich were becoming poorer but "almost certainly through investment by the richer taxpayers in tax-exempt properties."
President Woodrow Wilson himself urged Congress to reconsider whether very high tax rates are in fact "productive of revenue" to the government. He said that, beyond some point, "high rates of income and profits taxes discourage energy, remove the incentive to new enterprise, encourage extravagant expenditures, and produce industrial stagnation with consequent unemployment and other attendant evils." That sounds a lot like where we are today.
Both Democratic and Republican presidents once warned that high tax rates can reduce economic growth. And Secretaries of the Treasury under both Democratic and Republican administrations once pointed out that higher tax rates do not necessarily bring in more tax revenues than lower tax rates. Yet this lesson from more than 90 years ago has still not been learned by those who advocate higher taxes on "the rich" as the answer to our fiscal problems.
In today's global economy, it is even easier for genuine millionaires and billionaires to escape high tax rates by investing in other countries. Not so for the other nine-tenths of the people hit with higher tax rates, such as small business owners or independent professionals such as dentists or realtors, whose sources of income are necessarily local.
Those hardest hit by high tax rates that drive jobs overseas are likely to be those who are unemployed and need jobs here. Ironically, millionaires and billionaires may have the least to lose from higher tax rates on "the rich." But Barack Obama has the most to gain from class warfare rhetoric that wins votes from gullible people.The underground music scene in New York City — underground as in the subway system, not secret clubs — is characterized by a wide range of quality. Sometimes it seems like all it has to offer are mariachi bands that insist on playing only on those days when you have a splitting headache, got caught in the rain and just found out that your dog died. But occasionally you stumble upon a gem. This video from a Brooklyn station is precious not as much for the band’s rollicking version of the Grateful Dead’s “Me and My Uncle,” but for a small, bespectacled child’s joyful dancing.
The girl’s roof-raising jig gradually inspires a small hootenanny of strangers coming together in unfettered joy. At one point, her glee escapes from her in the kind of scream reserved only for the highest moments of elation.
Five minutes later, surely, all those people smashed themselves shoulder-to-shoulder into the human equivalent of a cattle truck. But for those two minutes, her joy was the center of the universe.
The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now
Read next: When It Comes to Frozen, This Dog Can’t ‘Let It Go’ Either
Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com.7 years ago
(CNN) - If Mitt Romney has indeed fumbled the football overseas, President Barack Obama's campaign may well be seen as spiking it.
Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday the Republican presidential candidate's overseas trip has put his readiness for the Oval Office in question.
- Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
- Check out the CNN Electoral Map and Calculator and game out your own strategy for November.
"He's now been to two countries and he's had two countries where he has made a series of fumbles," she said. "He's been fumbling the foreign policy football from country to country.
And there's a threshold question that he has to answer for the American people and that's whether he is prepared to be commander-in-chief," she continued. "As we look to the past events, we know that this raises some questions about his preparedness and we'll see how the rest of his trip goes."
Psaki was referring to what some have seen as Romney's missteps over the last several days in London and Israel.
In London, some saw his answer to a question about the Olympic games as a gaffe.
"You know it's hard to know just how well it will turn out," he said in an interview with NBC News, explaining that issues with a private security contractor and labor issues were "disconcerting." After a meeting with the British prime minister, who himself responded to Romney's remarks, the candidate said he was "very delighted with the prospects of a highly successful Olympic Games."
The episode brought mocking headlines from British newspapers his way.
Days later, a prominent Palestinian leader called out one of Romney's statements in Jerusalem "racist."
Palestinian negotiator Sa'eb Erekat said Romney's "racist statements about the Israeli culture being superior to the Palestinian culture reflect someone who needs to be educated, who needs knowledge." Romney pointed out a wealth disparity between Israel and the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
Psaki's Monday statement - made to reporters on Monday - is the latest in a volley over Romney's foreign trip. On Sunday, Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to Obama's reelection campaign, said "I think it's clear that voters in this country wonder aloud whether Mitt Romney is ready for the world."
Romney adviser Kevin Madden said Sunday that any gaffes in the campaign would be overshadowed in voters' eyes.
"I don't think that a gaffe or a YouTube moment is really going to make or break this particular election," he said on ABC News' "This Week." "I think it's going to be about the direction of the country, how we rebuild the economy, how we continue to have a stronger national security posture around the globe."
But on Monday, Psaki had a different perspective: "I think 'foreign policy fumble' has a nice ring to it."
Romney's trip continued in Poland on Monday.
- CNN's Kevin Liptak contributed to this reportThere are plenty of social, web, and technology tools to help you with your commute. Whether you have a TomTom or constantly whip out your iPhone, you can find driving directions, locations, general traffic information, and even speed traps.
However, what Waze is aiming to do is far more ambitious. This mobile app, which uses crowdsourcing to create driver-generated maps, is expanding out of Israel and is launching today in the U.S. With it is a technology that gathers information on driving patterns, traffic, accidents, police traps, and more and analyzes it in order to inform the driver of the best possible route available.
Waze's real-time technology
Waze is an application, primarily for Google Android phones, that gathers data and provides it to the driver. Waze is able to use your GPS and your movement to determine if there is a traffic jam, an open route, or a previously unknown alleyway. It relies on multiple data points from multiple phones to provide a full picture of the area.
As more and more users drive a specific area, it picks up on the streets, tendencies, and more to build a driver-generated map. This map not only includes streets, but builds in models for bottlenecks and major delays (red), fast routes, accidents, etc. Users can also actively report things like a speeding camera or a construction zone in order to build a more accurate Waze map.
When you actually use the application, you can physically see where these traps, slowdowns, and areas to avoid are. There's even a map that shows the movement of all of the cars (anonymously) using the application in real-time. One of Waze's key advantage is real-time information. For example, if a previous traffic jam clears up, the next car using Waze that goes through at normal speeds will slowly erase the traffic indicators from the map as they drive through it.
It also has a system to rank people based on reliability, using points. If you're reporting bad information, the system docks you points and your influence on the user-generated map decreases. It provides a unique competitive and social feature while providing a way to judge informational accuracy.
Waze eyes the U.S. market
Waze has been in use for a while in Israel, but now it sets it ambitions on the U.S. It's starting with the Google Android platform and the San Francisco bay area, where users may be more receptive to having the application. However, it probably won't reach enough platforms until it gets its iPhone app approved. Even then, the iPhone's inability to run background apps (which might change soon, rumors say) could harm Waze's data collection efforts.
Yet if Waze can succeed with a proof of concept in the U.S., there is huge potential. The driving information market is huge, and there have been major acquisitions in the past - Navteq was acquired by Nokia in 2007 for $8.1 billion while Tele Atlas was bought by TomTom for 3 billion euros. Waze aims to gather more information and bring it real-time.
Crowdsourcing this type of information seems like an intelligent thing to do. Apps like Trapster already do a great job of gathering this information. But much of Waze's data is collected passively, making it easier on the driver. The result could be the a full-knowledge system that knows when roads are packed and where police patrols like to hide.
If Waze can get itself on more phones in more cities, or if they score a deal with a car maker so that it gets automatically installed into cars, it has the potential to be a major innovator and player in the market.September 7, 2017 Javier Eguiluz
The Symfony Translation component supports lots of formats (YAML, JSON, Qt, CSV, PO/MO, etc.) but it officially recommends to use XLIFF. Symfony implements a subset of the full XLIFF specification and in Symfony 3.4 we added support for another of its features: XLIFF notes.
According to the XLIFF 2.0 specification, notes are "a collection of comments used to store end user readable information and annotations". They are useful for example to store metadata such as the status of a translation:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xliff xmlns= "urn:oasis:names:tc:xliff:document:2.0" version= "2.0" srcLang= "fr-FR" trgLang= "en-US" > <file id= "messages.en_US" > <unit id= "LCa0a2j" > <notes> <note category= "state" > new </note> <note category= "approved" > true </note> <note category= "section" priority= "1" > user login </note> </notes> <segment> <source> original-content </source> <target> translated-content </target> </segment> </unit> </file> </xliff>
When using the Symfony framework, translation notes are automatically loaded and saved back. When using the standalone Translation component, call the setMetadata() method of the catalogue and pass the notes as arrays. This is for example the code needed to generate the previous XLIFF file:Two unnamed administration officials told The New York Times on Friday that Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon had tendered his resignation earlier in the month and was on his way out. The news came as a pleasant surprise to those who had long petitioned for his dismissal, though others quickly noted that, even with Bannon gone, his racist policies still live on.
“I’m happy Bannon will no longer work in the White House. But his departure can’t wash away the harm he and [the president] have done,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) tweeted. In an attached statement, he added, “It can’t reverse the Muslim ban. It can’t reverse the president’s inappropriate attacks on a federal judge of Mexican heritage. And it can’t reverse the White House’s reluctance to denounce white supremacists.”
Bannon has a long history of questionable behavior and racist comments. And after President Trump was sworn in, he made sure those views were turned into policy as soon as possible.
Just one week after Trump came into office, Bannon and Senior Adviser Stephen Miller spearheaded efforts to craft a travel ban specifically targeting Muslims, though the White House would deny that detail later. Trump signed the executive order on January 27, giving homeland security staffers virtually no time to review the order before it went into effect, according to CNN.
Advertisement
The ban was immediately criticized as unnecessarily harsh: not only did it discriminate against travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, it effectively banned all refugees from entering the country at all, regardless of their application status. It also barred lawful residents—green card holders—from re-entering the country, leaving scores of people stranded at airports across the country. Though the Department of Homeland Security at first interpreted the order to exclude green card holders, Bannon and Miller overruled that decision personally.
Eventually, a revised version of the travel ban was rolled out, one that exempted green card holders, among others. But the key components of the band remained: travelers hoping to enter the United States had to prove that they had a “credible claim of bona fide relationship”—in other words, that they had a family member already living in the country or a work or education connection. Most refugees, then, did not meet those requirements.
The travel ban isn’t Bannon’s only legacy. As the former chief executive at the right-wing Breitbart News, Bannon boasted that the outlet had become a platform for so-called “alt-right,” an attempted re-branding of the white supremacist movement. After officially joining the Trump White House, Bannon continued to push those same racist views, allowing them to seep into most of the administration’s official stances and embolden those already prone to dangerous rhetoric.
After neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and counter-protesters clashed in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend, leaving one woman dead, the president took to the lectern at a press conference and delivered his response: after initially claiming that “many sides” were responsible for the violence, Trump claimed that counter-protesters lacked a permit had provoked the neo-Nazis. Others who attended the white supremacist rally were “very fine people.” On social media, white nationalists themselves largely applauded the administration’s seeming support of their movement. Bannon “was thrilled with the remarks.”
Bannon later claimed, in an interview with the American Prospect, that white nationalists and neo-Nazis were “clowns,” but the damage was done.
Advertisement
Bannon may no longer be in the White House, but he leaves behind him a stanchion of white nationalism. Miller, who serves as Trump’s chief adviser on policy and writes many of his speeches. He not |
.
The St. Paul officer “immediately saw K.S. was bleeding heavily and her face was covered in blood,” the complaint said.
The complaint did not detail the nature of the Facebook dispute.
Olson declined to talk with police after her arrest. She was booked into the Ramsey County jail.
Emily Gurnon can be reached at 651-228-5522. Follow her at twitter.com/emilygurnon.When last I addressed the extended debacle that pitted Time Warner Cable and the Los Angeles Dodgers against the interests of the Dodgers' fans, it was to point out that this was a teachable event: It reminded the fans that when money is at stake, "the teams are businesses that don't give a Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance's damn about them."
That could help inoculate the public against "the virus of gimme that pro sports teams spread in their local communities," I observed. "The owners and their leagues demand tax abatements, public stadium funding, and all sorts of other handouts because, you know, they truly belong to the people."
If nothing else, let's do it for Vin Scully. -Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti stretches credulity
That was in February 2015, when the blackout keeping Dodgers telecasts from millions of homes across the Southland was about to enter its second ridiculous year. At the time, it was unimaginable that the obdurate greed of the team or its broadcast rights holder, Time Warner Cable, would continue for another season. It did, and the standoff is about to enter Season 3.
As my colleagues Meg James and Ryan Faughnder have reported, the cable company recently offered to drop the price of its Dodgers cable channel in an effort to win space on Cox Communications' cable system and DirecTV's satellite service, the major holdouts. The offer failed, and Time Warner now appears to have abandoned the effort.
A couple of points about all this. First, a quick look at the economics that brought us to this pass.
In 2013, the Dodgers' new owners, led by Guggenheim Partners, reached a deal with Time Warner Cable to create a Dodgers cable channel called SportsNet LA to be carried by Time Warner Cable. TWC agreed to pay $8.35 billion over the life of the 25-year deal for TV rights to Dodgers games. This represented some very rosy-tinted analysis by TWC, which figured it could get much of that back by hawking the channel to the other pay-TV outlets in the region.
If you're not a subscriber of Time Warner Cable (purple territory) or Charter (brown), you won't be hearing Vin Scully broadcasting the Dodgers on TV. (FCC)
But Time Warner demanded such a high price for the channel that it received a firm "no" from every other pay-TV system, which included Cox, Charter Communications, the fiber services Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse, and the satellite companies DirecTV and Dish. Time Warner Cable served only about 30% of the pay-TV households in the Southland, so Dodger games were effectively blacked out for the other 70%.
As I wrote in 2014, "the magic of the free market was trumped by the black magic of greed. The Dodgers held out for the highest price they could get for the TV rights, figuring the team is such a jewel in the Southern California sports crown that the sky was the limit. Time Warner figured it could squeeze the other pay-TV companies for every last dime because, really, what TV service would dare not carry the Dodgers, whatever the price? The answer was: all of them."
(Since then, Charter, which is poised to take over Time Warner Cable, has added the Dodger channel to its lineup. AT&T acquired DirecTV last year.)
Another point is that this showdown has prompted some of the most spectacularly hypocritical corporate pronouncements known to human history. In 2014, when the Dodgers stretched the National League pennant race into the last week of the season, TWC decided to put the last six games of the season on free TV, and then swanked around as though it was the fans' savior.
"We're Dodger fans too," a company mouthpiece said. "Angelenos love their Dodgers, and we’re happy to give them a way to watch their beloved team during this pennant chase."
Of course, Time Warner Cable wasn't part of this community then and isn't now. It's a New York corporation that sees Los Angeles as just another market to be squeezed until it screams for mercy. Time Warner Cable's people aren't "Dodger fans"; they're executives feeding their bottom line, and in this case they found themselves choking on the meal.
But that pales next to the more recent statements of Time Warner Cable shills. The most shameless development is their invoking the sainted name of Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, 88, who will retire after this season.
"The Dodgers' massive fan base deserves to be able to watch Dodger games regardless of their choice of provider," Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said, in urging the TV holdouts to accept Time Warner's "significant economic move." He added, "The situation is particularly acute given that this is Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully's final season."
Spare us, Commissioner. You want the team's massive fan base to see the games? Spend some of MLB's money to put the Dodger Channel on DirecTV. If you're not willing to step up to the plate, keep your mouth shut.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who really should know better, also got into the fray, stating that he's "hopeful that we are close to breaking the deadlock and finally doing the right thing for Dodger fans. If nothing else, let's do it for Vin Scully." It's unclear who the "we" is in that statement, since this is a dispute among a bunch of corporate behemoths, not a civic project.
For what it's worth, Scully said he found being drawn into the corporate bickering "really kind of embarrassing for me." One more black mark on the Dodgers/Time Warner Cable roster of shame. Scully also said, in a conversation with my colleague Bill Shaikin, that if mentioning his name would "serve in any possible way to get the fans to see more games, that is the thing I would be rooting for."
From the standpoint of Time Warner Cable and the Dodgers, the worst aspect of this fiasco must be that it shows how wildly they overestimated the team's value in the Southern California market. TWC originally offered the Dodgers to its pay-TV rivals for $4.90 a month per subscriber home, whether the subscribers wanted the channel or not; a counter-offer from DirecTV to make the channel a paid add-on just for households that wanted it was spurned by TWC.
In March, the increasingly desperate TWC cut its asking price by nearly 30%, to $3.50 per home. That's less than some other regional sports networks command, including New York's YES Network, which carries Yankee games and costs its cable carriers more than $5 a month per subscriber. TWC's offer, however, was for only one year, after which it would be subject to renegotiation. Unsurprisingly, DirecTV and the other systems spurned the offer: They weren't so dumb they didn't recognize that it would give TWC tremendous leverage, since giving subscribers a channel and then taking it away is a lot harder than never offering it in the first place.
More recently, James reports, Time Warner Cable proposed a six-year deal for about $3.84 a month, about what DirecTV charges for a regional sports channel it owns in Seattle. TWC says that's been rejected, too.
What's left? The ball soon will be in Charter's pitching hand. It may have to cut the price of Dodger telecasts even more, and eat whatever losses that means. But the one thing it needn't bother to do is tell the fans, whatever the ultimate deal, that it's doing it because it loves them. They've heard it before.
Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.
Return to Michael Hiltzik's blog.
UPDATES:
6:13 p.m.: This item has been updated with additional remarks by Vin Scully and Mayor Garcetti.Aisle after aisle, table after table, there was one thing about the 2012
that was different from the event in previous years: There were brewery reps, brewers and, in many cases, brewery owners themselves staffing their booths, hanging out and answering questions. It was a refreshing change that may have come about because of a letter from Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery.
Continue Reading
See also: - Photos: The best beer swag of Great American Beer Festival 2012 - Twenty best costumes of Great American Beer Festival 2012 - Five sexiest beer names at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival
The issue has been a sore subject for years at the Boulder-based Brewers Association, which organizes the festival; the BA has beseeched its members to stick around and interact with their customers, rather than leaving everything to the volunteers who work the GABF. Meanwhile, many brewers have traditionally used the festival as a way to socialize with colleagues, try other beers from around the country and generally have a good time in a great city.
Arguments on both sides make sense. But the lack of brewery representation has always bothered Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver, who is well-known for maintaining a strong (and well-dressed) presence at his own booth year after year.
This time around, however, he made his feelings very clear by posting a message on the BA's private message board for brewers.
"In my 21 years, I have worked my booth for hours of every single session of GABF," he wrote. "I'm older than most of you, and I'll be honest -- this doesn't get any easier. At the end of each session, I know that my knees are going to hurt and my voice is going to be shot, and I'm going to be starving. That's the way it is. It's once a year, people, for a few hours. It's time for you to pay back the devotion that's given you the opportunity to do the very best thing in the world, in the very best place, and at the very best time. SO PLEASE STAND YOUR GROUND AND POUR." (You can see the full letter below.)
Shortly after this year's GABF ended, we asked Oliver to elaborate on his feelings and the experience. Here's what he said.
Westword: Why is it important for brewers and brewer reps to be at their booths?
Garrett Oliver: I often make the point that craft beer is about people, not just about liquid. It's the passion of America's brewers that makes the GABF and the American craft-brewing scene as wonderfully vibrant as they are. So to have a GABF where the brewers aren't present defeats the entire spirit of the enterprise. Even if you're a brewpub brewer from 1,000 miles away, if you're making great beer, the people who are trying your beer still want to meet you and talk about you. It's not just about the one ounce of beer in the glass.
Are you actually able to find the time and space to talk to people about the beers during the crush of GABF?
It's not easy, but you can make the time, yes. I'm hoarse now from all the talking I did last week. But it's all good! As a brewer, you're also there to listen. I've had home brewers tell me about Brooklyn beers they've cloned, younger craft brewers tell me that we inspired them to go into brewing -- there are so many wonderful stories. It would be a real shame not to be there to hear them.
What was the feedback you got from your letter?
It was actually tremendous. I had dozens of brewers either tell me directly or e-mail me to say how much they appreciated the sentiments expressed. One young brewer told me that he'd abandoned his booth early last year, but that I was right, and that this year he was going to work the booth hard. And he did -- I saw him there pouring. The GABF crew was so appreciative that they actually got me a rubber mat to stand on!
Did you get the feeling that it worked?
According to people I've talked to, they seem to feel that it had a definite effect, which is certainly gratifying. It's hard work, no doubt about it, and for those of us used to sea-level air, it's particularly tough. But I also think that everyone who stayed and poured enjoyed feeling the energy of the beer fans. If you ever get tired of talking to your own customers and fans, you need to do some soul-searching about whether you're in the right business.
Do you have any suggestions for improvements to GABF that would result in more brewery/customer interactions?
That's a good question, and I'm on the Events Committee, so we're always looking to see how we can improve things. But the action really is at the brewery booths, so if the brewers are there, the interactions will happen. Next year we'll focus on asking the brewers to actually physically pour as much beer as they can. People love having their beer poured by the person who made it. It's pretty much what this whole thing is about.
Continue reading for Oliver's full letter.
Fellow Brewers, "Wow, I can't believe you're actually here pouring your beer!" I hear that every year. This week will mark my 21st year judging the Great American Beer Festival. It will also be my 21st year pouring my beer at the GABF. After all this time, I know a few things about brewers and about GABF. Frankly, we go mostly to see each other and to taste each other's beer. A lot of us see each other maybe twice a year, and that can make it hard to spend hours stuck behind your booth, saying the same thing over and over again. But let me tell you all something. Getting to be a craft brewer, today, at the most exciting time for beer that the world has ever seen, is a true privilege. The people who gave you that privilege are the people who come to GABF. They come to GABF not just for tiny sips of tasty beers -- they are there to see YOU. Yes, you. They are there to ask you questions, to tell you, you things, to have their pictures taken with their favorite brewers, maybe even to tell you that you inspired them to get into brewing. When they come to see you, WILL YOU BE THERE? In my 21 years, I have worked my booth for hours of every single session of GABF. I'm older than most of you, and I'll be honest -- this doesn't get any easier. At the end of each session, I know that my knees are going to hurt and my voice is going to be shot, and I'm going to be starving. That's the way it is. It's once a year, people, for a few hours. It's time for you to pay back the devotion that's given you the opportunity to do the very best thing in the world, in the very best place, and at the very best time. SO PLEASE STAND YOUR GROUND AND POUR. I'm not saying that we all have to martyr ourselves. I want dinner too, I want to come by your booth and taste your beer, and I'll see you later down at Falling Rock. The volunteers are wonderful, but if you walk away from your booth and leave it without a brewer all evening, it's just plain wrong. So don't be a wuss. Stand proud behind your beer and do what we came to do. And when your knees start to hurt, remember how damned lucky you are to be here. See you on the floor, Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster
Follow
Westword
's Beer Man on Twitter at @ColoBeerMan and on Facebook at Colo BeerManMELBOURNE –
The " Prisoner X " affair has raised concerns in the Jewish- Australian community and some fear anti-Semitism is rearing its head in their once peaceful country.
"Now anyone who supports Israel will be accused of dual loyalty, maybe even treason," says Robert, a Jewish lawyer from Melbourne, "this is our very own Pollard affair."
Related stories:
Robert, like all the Australian Jews interviewed in this report, asked Ynet not to reveal his last name, saying that "the situation is sensitive."
The son of Polish Holocaust survivors, Robert said that the Jewish community in Australia is going through exactly what his parents came to Melbourne to avoid.
"My mother and father went through hell to find shelter in Melbourne, the farthest place in the world from Europe, so their children would not suffer anti-Semitism," he said.
"But it seems you can't run away from it. It comes up everywhere, whatever chance it gets.
"Today, some colleagues who never cared for news before, asked me if I'd seen today's papers, and every comment they made held hidden criticism of Israel and of us, Australian Jews. This affair will haunt us for a long time."
Ben Zygier, 'Prisoner X,' and family
The Jewish community is worried that after the use Israel made of Australian passports in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in 2010, the diplomatic relations between the two countries cannot be remedied.
"I'm afraid the Zygier affair will damage the long-term relations between Israel and Australia," said a Melbourne resident who wished to remain anonymous.
"Australia has already banished an Israeli diplomat after the passports affair and didn't vote in favor of Israel in the UN like it had in the past. Who knows if it will remain a loyal friend as it was until now?"
Alex, an Israeli citizen who immigrated to Melbourne, said the deterioration in relations is already felt.
When he tried renewing his Australian passport, previously a formality, he ran into unexpected difficulties.
"The authorities are suspicious, especially when it comes to Israelis," he said.
"It didn't interest them that I already have an Australian passport. I had to bring my original birth certificate, translated by a government approved translator.
"They didn't accept my daughter's translated birth certificate, and I couldn't do anything about it."
A wake up call
Far from mourning the lost relations between Israel and Australia, an Australian Jewish journalist said the affair should encourage the Jewish community to reexamine its uncritical stance on Israel.
Antony Loewenstein, founder of the Independent Australian Jewish Voices organization, said in an interview to Australian radio program "AM" that the big question is the Jewish community's promotion of bias in favor of Israel.
Loewenstein cited the community's pressure on young Jews to be involved with Israel, visit the country and enlist in the IDF, which according to him, should not be tolerated by Australia.
The Mossad's actions are not considered controversial by the Jewish community, Loewenstein said, and if an Australian Jew is involved in actions of this sort, it will not be seen, as it should, as an ethical or legal problem.
Lowewenstein's urgings may already be realized: Some of Melbourne's Jews have already declared that they would avoid going to Israel, and deter their children from visiting, as well.
"There's no way I'll let my kids fly to Israel now," clarifies Brenda. "I'll definitely not encourage them to do so."
Even the once widely-accepted service in the Israeli army is now being reconsidered.
Richard, Brenda's neighbor, remembers the glorious return of one soldier. His name was Ben Zygier.
"He came back with the aura of a hero," he said. "But now his family doesn't dare show their faces around the community out of remorse and shame," he said.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and TwitterRuby Rivera did what she had always been told.
The Illinois shortstop had a hunch to play closer to second base on a sunny Saturday in the fall of 2013. She knew the runner at first base was fast.
The batter swung and missed; the runner sprinted toward second. The runner’s left knee jammed into Rivera’s chest, causing her to flip — the way she thinks her brain did in that instant.
The moments after the incident were unfamiliar: walking was hard, her balance was off, she couldn’t see through one of her eyes.
It was just the adrenaline, she thought.
She fell victim to the thought process that is common among athletes who want to impress their teammates: Play through the pain.
Rivera didn’t know, however, that this decision as a freshman would irrevocably affect her health and understanding of concussions, a complex injury.
“I immediately knew something was wrong,” the now senior said of the 2013 incident. “I was just trying to earn my spot and show that I’m tough. So I couldn’t take myself out of the game because I felt like I would be weak.”
She passed out in between games. Her teammates told her she was pale as a ghost.
She couldn’t see; she wanted to throw up.
When she was in high school, she had been in a similar collision on the field. Then, her coach was more concerned that she had been called out than if she was hurt. With that incident, the repercussions then weren’t as pronounced.
“I wish I was more educated on (concussions) before coming in, realizing how sensitive and cautious we need to be about concussions,” Rivera said.
Many female athletes share Rivera’s cluelessness about concussions. Despite preliminary evidence that females may be more prone to concussions, football tends to steal the spotlight on all matters concussion-related.
That means young women and their families are often left undereducated on an issue that can affect them for the rest of their lives. Coaches and athletic administrators, some of whom are also undereducated, are trying to address concussion concerns. Is that enough? What should parents and players do?
Chapter I A parent’s fear
A parent’s fear
A couple miles north of the University of Illinois campus, Katie Stafford sits at the top bleacher with her husband and one of her daughters. Inside the Soccer Planet facility in Urbana they are sheltered from a cold December afternoon.
The warehouse is filled with girls yelling inside a rink-like soccer field and the rubbery aroma of FieldTurf.
Stafford sits and watches as her older daughter, Kaitlyn, 13, plays for the Illinois Football Club. The regular season is over, but the girls aren’t done playing; they’ve just moved indoors for a couple of weeks.
Stafford shares laughs and concerns with her family and other parents, but throughout every joke, complaint or cheer, the fear of concussions hides in the back of her head.
She doesn’t pace around the outskirts of the rink every time her daughter plays; she’s aware ankle and knee injuries are more common than concussions in soccer.
“I think if I worried about all the things that could happen to her on the field, I would make myself crazy,” she said.
But Stafford knows a bit about concussions and what they mean. She is the secretary of the club’s board and has had first-hand experience dealing with head injuries.
Kaitlyn suffered a mild concussion when an errant ball hit her in the nose during a game earlier this year.
Stafford and the coaches handled Kaitlyn’s injury within the club’s protocol — she was held out until she could pass all of the appropriate tests — however, Kaitlyn’s concussion didn’t fall into the category of head injuries U.S. Soccer and Illinois Youth Soccer are trying to eliminate.
In November 2015, U.S. Soccer announced a ban on players 10 and younger using their heads to hit the ball. Illinois Youth Soccer has adopted this rule.
“These guidelines are a major victory for the Safer Soccer campaign and a fantastic first step in making the world’s most popular sport safer to play for children,” U.S. Soccer wrote in a press release. Both U.S. Soccer and Illinois Youth Soccer failed to respond to multiple requests for an interview.
The rule change caused more frustration from parents than it did for players, according Kevin Love, executive director and director of coaching for Illinois Football Club. Stafford attributes the outcry to some parents’ disdain for others telling their children what to do.
But both the two argue that headers aren’t as common in the 10-and-younger game.
Coaches at that age level echo Stafford and Love’s opinions — heading shouldn’t play into that age group’s style of play. They agree the ball should stay on the ground and both boys and girls should focus on fundamentals rather than trying to head the ball.
But rule change shows that there is a shift in the way the world and governing bodies look at concussions. There is training and education for young players now, and they are told tell a coach or trainer if they’re injured.
“The no heading is a very significant step for U.S. Soccer to take,” Love said. “That in itself shows that they are serious about it.”
Chapter II The known and the unknown
The known and the unknown
Dr. Brian Hainline decided to take an unfamiliar path from some of his peers, who were focused on football-related head injuries. The NCAA’s chief medical officer had a different concern: concussions in women.
“(It’s) a societal issue,” Hainline wrote in an email. “Concussion coverage is dominated by men’s football for reasons that go beyond an interest in concussion.”
Hainline wrote a column published on NCAA.org in which he discussed his theory that female athletes take longer to recover from a concussion and that they concuss differently from a biomechanical viewpoint.
He draws upon the similarity between migraines and concussions because they share similar pathophysiological expressions. Women are more susceptible to migraines during childbearing years because of the fluctuation of estradiol hormone, which is why he believes women take a longer time to recover from concussions.
Dr. Shannon Bauman came to a similar conclusion at Concussion North in Barrie, Ontario. She found that women report more symptoms when initially assessed with a concussion and exhibit more characteristics of concussions overall than males.
According to her research, one-third of women continue to suffer symptoms after six months or longer.
The reason for the difference, though, remains a mystery for Bauman and her team.
“Further research needs to be done on gender differences in concussion,” Bauman wrote in an email. “We are just completing further research in this.”
Nearly a decade ago, a team led by Dr. R. Dawn Comstock, an epidemiologist and researcher at the Colorado School of Public Health, started to investigate the frequency of injuries that occurred in high school sports, how they happened and how long it took athletes to recover.
In the research, Comstock discovered that in sports where boys and girls use the same equipment and rules for the sport — soccer, basketball and baseball or softball — female athletes had a higher risk of concussion. Over the 10 years studied, women always had a higher rate of concussion, although the difference between the genders was not consistent.
These are preliminary results. All three researchers agreed they have just started learning more about concussions, especially in female athletes.
“The solutions must be multifaceted and evidence-based. Knowledge is important but is insufficient, as knowledge does not change culture,” Hainline said.
“We need evidence-based educational and research paradigms to change the culture of sport.”
Chapter III Mistakes from the past
Mistakes from the past
Alex Booker didn’t know any better.
To she and her teammates, missing the baseline concussion testing at the beginning of the season didn’t seem like a big deal.
“If you’re an 18-year-old, what’s it to you to take a concussion test?” said Booker, a former member of the Illini softball team. “You don’t think that way. It’s just another test you have to take and more time wasted.”
But if a concussion actually occurred, there would be no basis for comparison.
According to Booker, players didn’t have to sign an agreement to take the test. If a player missed an appointment, she’d try to reschedule, even though she usually never did.
“It’s hard to pass something that you don’t know what that original score was,” Booker said.
Booker played volleyball, basketball and softball in high school, but it wasn’t until she started watching college sports when she first heard the word concussion.
She didn’t know what they were, but now, she thinks she has suffered a few, including one playing a summer league basketball game when a player ran into her, causing Booker to hit her head on the floor.
But Booker faced the same battle Ruby Rivera fought years later.
“Was I going to say anything?” Booker said. “I didn’t know if that was OK to feel or if it was not OK to feel. I didn’t know. I never would have known any different.”
Since Booker graduated in 2014, the sports medicine team at the University has made preseason baseline testing mandatory for every team, even noncontact ones.
Do you think men or women get more concussions in baseball/softball? Boys
Girls [AnythingPopup id=”4″] [AnythingPopup id=”4″]
This reflects a changing understanding of concussions within the sports community.
Randy Ballard, associate director of athletics, sports medicine, remembers 10 years ago when there was no set protocol for how to handle a concussion. Now, Ballard and his staff must submit its official protocol and send it to the NCAA annually.
“I definitely think (the culture has changed),” Ballard said. “I think people are more aware of the need to evaluate is this a concussion or not? Twenty to 30 years ago, it’s just a headache. Now, it’s let’s evaluate.”
Athletes and coaches go through concussion training at the beginning of each season and additional lessons throughout the year. It’s part of an evolving process when athletes are learning more about an injury that has for so long been a mystery.
“It just truly makes me happy that they’ve taken such a precaution on me as an athlete, that they care,” Booker said. “As an athlete, you want to be out there doing your thing, you want to prove everyone you’re strong, but you need to show that you’re smart, besides just strong.”
Chapter IV Solutions
Solutions
Jeff Skeen was pissed off when he entered the world of protective soccer headbands and founded Full 90.
After all that his daughter had gone through, he’d had enough.
They had thought that soccer was a safe sport, but that changed in 2001 when Lauren Skeen suffered a concussion after a head-to-head collision with an opposing player.
Six months later, she was involved in an identical play with a graver result: a grand mal seizure. Skeen watched as his daughter suffered a loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions in the middle of the field.
That moment and the ensuing hospital trip led to the creation of Skeen’s first concussion-prevention headband — one with two pieces of padding on either side. To him it was simple; it’s better to create a cushion between a player’s head and the object with which the player makes contact.
Do you think men or women get more concussions in soccer? Boys
Girls [AnythingPopup id=”2″] [AnythingPopup id=”2″]
But not everyone thought like Skeen. His daughter wore the headband during warmups, but a referee told her to take it off or she couldn’t play. All she could do was look up at her father and throw the headband to the sideline.
Six minutes later, it happened again: head-to-head collision, her third in two years — the start of a grueling six-year recovery.
“Watching your daughter go from an A student to barely a D/F student because they can’t remember anything and seeing their dreams of playing soccer just vanish and all the anxiety and depression is just unbelievable,” Skeen recalls.
Following her final injury, Skeen founded Full 90, one of several headband companies trying to reduce the risk of concussions. Skeen believes no company can claim to fully prevent a concussion, but if headbands meet testing material standards, they can reduce the risk.
But as he’s seen before, not everyone shares his thinking.
In 2003, the U.S. Women’s National Team practiced against his daughter’s team in preparation for the World Cup. According to Skeen, a few of the U.S. players saw his daughter’s headband and were interested in wearing it.
But the governing body meant to protect players stepped in.
Skeen says U.S. Soccer told the alleged players they wouldn’t play for the team if they wore those headbands, a direct order from FIFA.
“They don’t want soccer moms to think this game is dangerous,” Skeen alleged.
Neither U.S. Soccer nor FIFA responded to interview requests for this story.
“They’re not saying it on their own, so parents have to figure it out based on common sense that could make sense to protect our kids’ heads,” said Jim Caldwell, founder of Unequal, another headband company.
And that assumes that league rules allow the headbands.
“I think the majority of people really do know, they know what a concussion is, but I don’t know if they know what that means long term for their kids and if that’s actually causing brain damage,” Katie Stafford said. “I feel like we talk about concussions in the short term. We don’t want them playing when they have a concussion, but I don’t people know why it is that concussions are so bad.”
Chapter V Hope
Hope
What’s next isn’t clear.
There’s still research to do, but the process has at least started.
Professional athletes are leading the movement. Although little is known about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, level, there is evidence that CTE can take place in male soccer players.
The degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes, most often football players, isn’t exclusive to any one sport, but researchers such as those at the Boston University’s CTE Center face a problem: They can’t establish conclusive evidence without examining brains.
“For a thing like women’s soccer, it just hasn’t really penetrated the public conscious yet,” Boston University CTE Center researcher Bobby Abdolmohammadi said. “We haven’t really gotten any brain donations from this demographic. It’s hopefully something we can look at in the future, but it’s definitely a longer term thing.”
This is where athletes like Brandi Chastain and Abby Wambach come in — both have pledged their brains for concussion research.
For now, it’s just learning more.
“There is hope,” Hainline said. “There has never been a greater spirit of collaboration among the governing bodies, medical organizations and higher education organizations than there is at present. This … will help assure that we continue to move in a positive direction.”
Sometimes hope is all you can do.
[email protected]Koovs – A Sizzling Hot Fashion Brand
Koovs is India’s first online fashion brand that has brought the high street fashion of western world to glam up the Indian youth. Featuring the most popular British and other international brands, this online store has succeeded in bringing the globally trending fashion to Indian streets in a quite affordable price range and exciting Koovs coupons for further attraction. Catering specifically to the young men and women of modern India, koovs has assimilated a pinch of westernism in the rich culture and tradition of India through its exclusive capsule collection of apparels from the select global brands.
be in trend with Koovs!!!
Your search for different style checks to keep yourself in trend ends here at Koovs which is doing it all for you. With a flooding 150+ addition of hot running fashion and beauty stuffs every week on the website, your effort to keep pace with the changing trends gets minimized. The creative team of the company keeps an eagle’s eye on the latest fashion trend globally to curate them and bring the best to Indian platform keeping you always on the go when it comes to fashion. The brand Koovs itself has a talented team of designers based at London who analyze the global trends and design clothes that are highly preferred by the customers. To your amazement, Koovs also offers a range of celebrity style clothing and accessories to give you a distinguished look. Now that celebrity look for which you always dreamt of has become possible with just a few clicks.
What is Cool About Koovs?
A collection that brings you out of that monochrome look
Highly affordable rates and delivery to your doorstep
Collection updated every week
Easy browsing, catwalk videos and 360 degree product views
International brands and global fashion trend made accessible to Indian customers
Special celebrity collection to make you strike wherever you go
Registered customers updated for new arrivals and everyday fashion trends
Fashion ideas and inspirations on the website
Explore Koovs with MaddyCoupons
Your desire to have international look is made easier and more affordable with us at MaddyCoupons. Check on the discount coupons for Koovs and let loose your temptation to have the trendiest wardrobe collection with unlimited shopping and saving. We are offering you some of the most exciting deals on products you would love to have in your closet at rates much less than your imagination. So get set, find coupons for Koovs at MaddyCoupons, use the Koovs promo code and avail the discount. Don’t miss the lucrative opportunity to blush your personality with ultimate panache. We also offer FREE coupons to our qualifying customers.
Mobile app
Android App
Twitter App
Contact Details
Call on 0124-6770000
Write to info@koovs.com
Office Address: Marble E-Retail Pvt. Ltd, 75D, Gate No-2, Sector-18, Gurgaon, Haryana : 122015
Latest News
Social LinksHundreds of activists marched in London on Sunday to protest against British involvement in Syria and Iraq, with many accusing the government of funding terrorist groups.
The activists, many of whom are Iraqi Kurds, accused the British government of supporting the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) by providing training and arms to Syrian rebels, many of whom are affiliated with the terrorist group.
Marching on Trafalgar Square, the group chanted ‘Down with ISIS!’ and ‘Wake up, UK!’ They also criticized the British government’s close ties with Saudi Arabia, who they say are the primary funders of the Islamic State.
"ISIS terrorism has so far claimed the lives of thousands and thousands of people in the most violent and barbaric conditions,” Memed, a Kurdish activist told Ruptly.
"You can petition your MPs, the prime minister of this country, to stop supporting Turkey, to cut its ties with Turkey, who have been supporting ISIS terror for the past two years. Cut ties with Saudi Arabia and Qatar… themselves repressive regimes against their own people."
London’s Kurdish community has long been active in protesting against the Islamic State, and Iraqi Kurdistan has become one of the most important strategic bases in combatting the militant group.
In August, hundreds of Kurds and campaigners marched through the streets of London to |
appendix to the standard, as well as expanded a few existing PCI DSS requirements (3, 10, 11, 12) to include DESV controls for service providers specifically.
“The payments industry recognizes PCI DSS as a mature standard, so the primary changes in version 3.2 are clarifications on requirements that help organizations confirm that critical data security controls remain in place throughout the year, and that they are effectively tested as part of the ongoing security monitoring process,” said PCI Security Standards Council GM Stephen Orfei. “This includes new requirements for administrators and services providers, and the cardholder data environments they are responsible to protect. PCI DSS 3.2 advocates that organizations focus on people, process and policy, with technology playing an important role in reducing the overall cardholder data footprint.”
The update to the standard is part of the regular process for ensuring the PCI DSS addresses current challenges and threats. This process factors in industry feedback from the PCI Council’s more than 700 global participating organizations, as well as data breach report findings and changes in payment acceptance.
Added Leach, “Moving forward, we expect incremental revisions like those in version 3.2 to address evolving threats to the payment landscape, with a focus on helping companies use this standard as a good framework for everyday security and business best practice.”
Photo © nobeastsofferceThe judgement on triple talaq will be out soon. The debate in the past few months has starkly posed issues related to gender justice, secularism and the uniform civil code. And yet, there is practically no sound analysis based on data, despite how central empirics could be, to resolve such an issue.
Of the little bit that people have written, the data is dangerously misrepresented. For example, the oft-cited claim (including by Kapil Sibal on 26 May 2017 in this article) that 68% of all divorced women are Hindus while only 23.3% are Muslims, is flimsy and meaningless. Hindu women outnumber Muslims by five times, so it is only logical that the share of Hindu women in the divorced women population will be higher.
Some media reports have also suggested that the divorce rate among Muslims is lower than among Hindus (PTI, India Today, 8 April 2017). This is, again, plainly incorrect, as I show below. This claim was made by the women’s wing of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and the data used comes from self-selected 16 family courts in a country with 439 family courts (as on May 2016), which gives a hugely incomplete and distorted picture. Flashed in the form of big, bold headings, incorrect data is a recipe for uninformed judgement.
I pulled out data from Census 2011 to see divorce rates in the two communities. Divorce stock ratio can be defined as the total number of divorced persons in a community to the total number of married persons in that community (I don’t call it divorce rate because rate is a flow, and the census only tells us stock, but analogically, it’s the same as divorce rate). This ratio is 2.0 for Hindus and 3.7 for Muslims. This means that for every 1,000 married Hindus, 2 are divorced, and for every 1,000 married Muslims, 3.7 are divorced (for India, this value is 2.4). Across gender, the disparity is wider (most men remarry but women can’t, hence the disparity). For every 1,000 married Hindu women, 2.6 are divorced, while for 1,000 married Muslim women, 5.6 of them are divorced. As for men, the ratio is almost the same (1.5 for Hindu men and 1.6 for Muslim men). This implies that population and marital status adjusted, Muslims are more likely to be divorced than Hindus, and Muslim women take up almost the entire burden of this difference. About 78.7% of Muslim divorcees are women; for Hindus, this figure is 64.2%.
This data is replicated with minor differences across rural and urban India. In general, divorce indicators are slightly worse in urban than rural India, which is not surprising.
And what is the regional make-up? I estimate the divorce rates across all states, for Hindus and Muslims, and examine the difference between males and females in the two religions, across all Indian states. This is calculated by dividing the divorce rates of male Muslims by that of male Hindus. The same value is also estimated for Muslim and Hindu females. The two ratios are then plotted, showing the difference.
If ratios are greater than 1, it shows that the divorce rate among Muslims is higher than among Hindus. A few interesting ideas can, then, be drawn. Among big states, except Punjab, Haryana, Assam, Bengal, Gujarat, Andhra and Kerala, Muslim men have a higher incidence of divorce compared to Hindu men. And even in the states mentioned, the difference is marginal (the ratio is greater than 0.9) except in Gujarat, where Muslim men are doing better than Hindu men in their marriage dissolution statistics.
But more important is the state of women. Except Haryana and Andhra Pradesh, Muslim women show much greater divorce rates than Hindu women, with the greatest number in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
When we see the difference between the two ratios, we get a picture of the extent to which Muslim women’s position vis-à-vis Hindu women is worse than the Muslim men’s position vis-à-vis Hindu men. In other words, a higher difference suggests a larger burden of divorce borne by Muslim women as compared to Muslim men, relative to their Hindu counterparts. This difference is largest in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala.
If an index is designed, reflecting how (demographically) burdensome marriage dissolution is for women compared with men in different states of India, we see the poor states will take the highest positions. This means that the differential impact of divorce across gender, while higher for Muslims than Hindus, and higher for women than men, is also higher in poor regions than in rich ones.
It must be said, at this point, that we don’t know how many Muslims get divorced using triple talaq. And so, it cannot be claimed that higher divorce rates among Muslims are a result of triple talaq. But the purpose of this article was not to claim such a thing but to dispel incorrect data presently in circulation as regards Hindu and Muslim divorces and marriages. The court must decide whether triple talaq is unconstitutional or not. But in doing so, if it chooses to rely on data, it must be done carefully.
Yugank Goyal is associate professor of economics at the O P Jindal Global University.
Comments are welcome at theirview@livemint.comJanice Huff and Raphael Miranda with the latest winter storm warnings and snowfall forecast on the evening of Jan. 21, 2014. (Published Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014)
A swirling snowstorm broke breaking snowfall records as it battered the tri-state Tuesday, forcing schools and offices to close early, delaying flights and making the roadways a dangerous mess.
Track the weather with our interactive radar
By the time the storm tapered off Wednesday morning, between 10 and 15 were on the ground in the southern portions of Brooklyn and Queens, central and coastal New Jersey, and on Long Island. Other parts of New York City and areas north of the city saw more than 10 inches of accumulation.
By early Wednesday, parts of New Jersey and Long Island had as much as 15 inches, while Central Park and parts of Connecticut and Westchester County had more than 10 inches. Snow got heavier as the day progressed, falling as fast as 1 to 2 inches per hour. The storm is also bringing a blast of arctic cold that is expected to freeze the region for nearly a week.
The National Weather Service was reporting records for daily maximum snowfall were broken at LaGuardia, Central Park and Islip.
Watch Live: Snow Falls on Times Square
The snowfall was accompanied by lightning, bitterly cold winds gusting up to 30 mph and temperatures in the teens and single digits. It could feel as cold as 10 degrees below zero overnight with wind chills.
Your Photos: Amazing Winter Weather Photos
The blowing and drifting snow caused hazardous travel and walking conditions across the area. Drivers were urged to stay off the roads, and if they must travel, keep a flashlight, food and water in their vehicles in case of emergencies.
A state of emergency was declared in parts of New York and all of New Jersey. The blinding snow and massive accumulations caused numerous problems throughout the area.
SCHOOL CLOSINGS AND EARLY DISMISSALS
Hundreds of schools were closed or delayed Wednesday. Check your school here.
New York City schools will be open Wednesday, and all after-school programs, field trips and PSAL games will operate on a normal schedule. "Travel conditions may be difficult, and families should exercise judgment when taking their children to school," Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina said in a statement.
MASS TRANSIT, AIR/RAIL TRAVEL
MTA will run close to normal subway service Wednesday, with express service restored during the morning rush hour. City buses will operate at 80 to 90 percent of normal levels; most of the buses are outfitted with chains, but many were getting stuck in the snow Tuesday.
will run close to normal subway service Wednesday, with express service restored during the morning rush hour. City buses will operate at 80 to 90 percent of normal levels; most of the buses are outfitted with chains, but many were getting stuck in the snow Tuesday. LIRR will operate on a weekend schedule Wednesday, which provides 60 to 65 percent of the trains available on a regular weekday. Passengers were reporting that trains were extra crowded Tuesday afternoon as commuters tried to get home early ahead of the storm.
will operate on a weekend schedule Wednesday, which provides 60 to 65 percent of the trains available on a regular weekday. Passengers were reporting that trains were extra crowded Tuesday afternoon as commuters tried to get home early ahead of the storm. Metro-North will operate at 80 to 85 percent of its normal weekday service, with some trains combined and some delays possible.
will operate at 80 to 85 percent of its normal weekday service, with some trains combined and some delays possible. NJ Transit trains will operate on an enhanced weekend schedule on all lines Wednesday except the Atlantic City Rail. Buses and light rail will run on regular weekday schedules but customers should expect delays. NJT is cross-honoring systemwide on Wednesday, and will keep waiting rooms open 24/7 through Jan. 27.
trains will operate on an enhanced weekend schedule on all lines Wednesday except the Atlantic City Rail. Buses and light rail will run on regular weekday schedules but customers should expect delays. NJT is cross-honoring systemwide on Wednesday, and will keep waiting rooms open 24/7 through Jan. 27. NY Waterway ferries are operating normally. Due to ice on the Hudson River, buses are operating between Newburgh and the Metro-North station in Beacon, and between Haverstraw and the Metro-North station in Ossining.
are operating normally. Due to ice on the Hudson River, buses are operating between Newburgh and the Metro-North station in Beacon, and between Haverstraw and the Metro-North station in Ossining. Amtrak is operating on a modified schedule on the Northeast Corridor, Empire and Keystone lines. Check amtrak.com for service alerts.
is operating on a modified schedule on the Northeast Corridor, Empire and Keystone lines. Check amtrak.com for service alerts. Hundreds of flights have been canceled out of the area's three major airports, according to FlightAware. [PHOTO via Twitter]
ROAD TRAFFIC AND STREET CLOSURES
In New York City, track snow plows here.
, track snow plows here. In New York City, alternate side parking is suspended Wednesday, but parking meter rules are still in effect. Drivers on the Upper East Side complained about unplowed streets and stalled traffic; city officials said the number of vehicles on the streets made it difficult to clear snow during the day but expected it would be easier overnight.
, alternate side parking is suspended Wednesday, but parking meter rules are still in effect. Drivers on the Upper East Side complained about unplowed streets and stalled traffic; city officials said the number of vehicles on the streets made it difficult to clear snow during the day but expected it would be easier overnight. In New Jersey, a snow emergency has been declared in Essex County, meaning residents and motorists cannot park their cars on county roads while crews clear the roads. In Jersey City, vehicles may not be parked within 25 feet of an intersection.
, a snow emergency has been declared in Essex County, meaning residents and motorists cannot park their cars on county roads while crews clear the roads. In Jersey City, vehicles may not be parked within 25 feet of an intersection. The Garden State Parkway reduced its speed limit to 35 mph, but traffic was crawling at about 10 mph. Route 80 eastbound was shut down in Parsippany for a few hours after an NJ Transit bus caught fire. There were no injuries. Also on Route 80, a charter bus overturned and rolled down an embankment in Roxbury. Three people had minor injuries in the apparent weather-related accident, according to police.
reduced its speed limit to 35 mph, but traffic was crawling at about 10 mph. was shut down in Parsippany for a few hours after an NJ Transit bus caught fire. There were no injuries. Also on Route 80, a charter bus overturned and rolled down an embankment in Roxbury. Three people had minor injuries in the apparent weather-related accident, according to police. The Long Island Expressway remains open but drivers are urged to stay off the highway. Motorists reported bumper-to-bumper traffic and hours-long delays. The L.I.E. was shut down during the last storm; authorities say snowfall is stretching out over a long enough period that quickly accumulating snow didn't pose as much of a threat.
Send us your storm photos! Email stormteam@nbcnewyork.com, tweet #NBC4NY, or upload them here.Amateur sewers test their sewing and dressmaking skills. The contestants make an A-line dress, alter a high street top and create a made-to-measure dress under the clock.
Claudia Winkleman presents a series from the makers of The Great British Bake Off in which eight hopefuls are tested on their sewing and dressmaking skills as they compete to be crowned Britain's best amateur sewer.
Over three challenges, they must follow a simple pattern for an A-line skirt, transform a high street top by altering the neckline and produce a made-to-measure dress for a model under intense time pressure. The judges, May Martin from the Women's Institute and Savile Row's Patrick Grant, scrutinise every stitch as they look out for puckering seam lines and perfect top stitching. One sewer is awarded garment of the week whilst two leave the Sewing Bee.MIAMI -- The flop is having an impact on the playoffs, and it's being caught much more than it was in the regular season.
Miami guard Dwyane Wade became the latest recipient of a postseason flopping fine Monday when the NBA ordered him to give up $5,000 after a review showed he over-exaggerated a foul during Game 2 of the finals that was charged to San Antonio's Manu Ginobili.
And there's an ironic twist -- Ginobili is often considered a master flopper, but he wasn't even warned once about it this season.
"He took a swipe and he hit me," Wade said Monday, before the fine was announced. "It was a late call by the ref, but he called it."
The league saw it a little differently.
It was the fifth flopping violation of the playoffs, which works out to one in every 17.2 games. The NBA said 35 flops were caught in the regular season, or one in every 35.1 games. Players are not fined in the regular season until their second flop of the year; in the playoffs, every flop is a fine.
"Flopping," Miami guard Shane Battier once said, "is a silent killer."
Well, unless it works.
Wade drew the foul against Ginobili with 4:09 left in the second quarter on Sunday night. Ginobili, who took a big swipe at the ball about 35 feet from the basket, wound up going to the bench with his third foul of the half. Wade went to the line and made the two resulting free throws, since Miami was already in the bonus.
The Heat wound up winning by two points.
"I saw Manu coming out of the corner of my eye to try to steal it so my only thing was to make sure that he didn't steal it," Wade said. "He swiped and he wound up hitting me and the ref called a foul. We move on."
The Heat-Spurs matchup is tied 1-1, with Game 3 in Miami on Tuesday night.
Dwyane Wade became the latest player to get fined by the NBA for flopping this postseason. Wade's violation was the fifth of the playoffs. Bob Donnan/USA TODAY Sports
Some of the flops in the playoffs have been almost circuslike acting jobs, including a pair by Indiana guard Lance Stephenson -- the official leaguewide leader in flopping this season with two violations in the regular season and two more in the postseason. He's had to pay $20,000 for those flops, or basically about 2 percent of his season's salary.
For Wade, who's made nearly $19 million in salary this season, the $5,000 was mere pocket change. And situations like that were pointed out last year by now-retired NBA Commissioner David Stern, who said the small fine "isn't enough. You're not going to cause somebody to stop it for $5,000 when the average player's salary is $5.5 million."
Stern added then that anyone who thought the fine would stop the flop is allowing "hope to prevail over reason." So it would be no surprise if tougher flopping penalties were at least discussed when the NBA's competition committee when that group meets this summer.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he's not surprised that the rate goes up in the playoffs, saying Monday that it could be as simple a reason as "more people in the league office watching each possession."
Besides Stephenson and Wade, the other postseason flop fines have been assessed to Indiana's Roy Hibbert and the Spurs' Tiago Splitter. All of those flops were cited in the conference-final round or later.
Indiana's season ended with a third straight playoff loss to the Heat. And not surprisingly, it wouldn't seem like the Pacers are rooting for their conference member this time of year -- a media relations official from East finalists tweeted shortly after the Wade-Ginobili play Sunday that the Heat guard deserved a flopping fine and even made what seemed like a lighthearted plea to the league:
"C'mon NBA, do it for Lance."From a dusty shelf in a TV station in Nigeria, nine lost episodes of Doctor Who have been recovered. Also attempting to move through time and space are our politicians. A large, state-owned utility is floated on the stock exchange by the government. The frenzied stampede for the shares, which show an instant and hefty profit, is hailed by the government as a resounding success for privatisation while Labour accuses ministers of flogging off a national jewel that belonged to all of us at a knockdown price. In the same week, the prime minister launches a state-sponsored scheme to help people into homeownership, another one that sounds like it is from the back catalogue of Margaret Thatcher. Help to Buy is a conscious, though phoney, imitation of her right to buy that enabled council tenants to purchase their homes. Welcome back to the 80s or, rather, a bad impersonation of it.
Why did the government make such a fetish of selling off the Royal Mail? Partly because they are strapped for cash and there is not a whole lot left in the cupboard. By the time she had finished, Mrs T had sold off more than 40 state industries, a revolution that was emulated around the world. Under John Major, the railways and what was left of the coal industry followed. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown auctioned air traffic control and defence research.
None of them managed to sell off the Royal Mail. Even Mrs T balked at that. She had a complicated psychological relationship with monarchy and thought it an act of lèse majesté to privatise the Queen's head. Going boldly where even the Iron Lady feared to tread was an element of the appeal of this privatisation to the Thatcherite business minister, Michael Fallon. He books himself a place in the Tory hall of fame by doing something from which even their heroine recoiled. The enthusiasm of Vince Cable and the Lib Dems is harder to fathom. This will seem counterintuitive to anyone who is not a Lib Dem minister, but for them this was also a political virility test. They believe that they burnish their credentials as a party of government by doing things that most of the public say they hate. It's not been unpopular with everyone, of course. There will not be much moaning from those who bought the shares at 330p and saw them rise to 455p by the close of trading on Friday. A 38% paper profit is a great return for a few clicks of the keyboard.
Accused of grossly mispricing the offer, Dr Cable protests that it won't be fair to judge until we see where the shares settle in six months' time. The Royal Mail faces some very stiff challenges: rotten relations with its workforce, a need for investment and increasing competition. Those who drove up the price of the shares are making a bet on the chief executive, Moya Greene. As one of the ministers involved in the flotation points out: "She hasn't done anything yet."
All the same, people in government are frank, at least in private, that the issue was "priced to go". The Royal Mail's debts were written off and its pension liabilities taken on by the Treasury. The worst of all worlds, from the government's point of view, was that investors, especially the small ones, would end up nursing a loss. Ministers wanted to be absolutely sure that buyers would see a return, especially when they will be wanting to offload the government stakes in the banks in the future. The allocation to small investors was seven times oversubscribed. For shares valued at £1.7bn there were £30bn worth of bids, which does suggest that the shares were priced too cheap. In the balance of risks to their own reputations, ministers decided that they would rather suffer what they hope is a passing embarrassment about the pricing than the career-terminating disaster of presiding over a humiliating flop.
Enthusiasts hailed the demand for shares as evidence of a continuing public appetite for the Thatcherite idea of "popular capitalism". Ministers are especially pleased that nearly all of the Royal Mail's staff took their helping. To me, this is unsurprising proof that people will always gladly take free money.
Not as many as you might have thought, though. The float of British Telecom in 1984 attracted more than 2.4 million people, the subsequent sale of British Gas something like 4 million. The Royal Mail attracted a much more modest 690,000. That is not compelling evidence of a massive unquenched appetite for "popular capitalism", a concept that has been rather unpopular since the Great Crash. There is another important difference from Mrs Thatcher's privatisations. Her sell-offs were popular not just because the "Sids" made a fast buck on them. State industries had been widely discredited by their association with losses, strikes, inefficiency, poor management and lousy consumer service and choice. Privatisation could be sold as the cure and has been broadly successful in those areas where the companies were released into markets in which there was genuine competition.
Not many would today contend that British Airways, British Aerospace, Jaguar or Rolls-Royce ought to be taken back under state control. You certainly won't find anyone on the Labour frontbench arguing for renationalisation. Labour is not even saying that it would take back the Royal Mail on the not unreasonable grounds that a Labour government simply will not be able to find the money.
The legacy from privatisation that has always been the problem was the second, later wave of sell-offs that put monopoly suppliers of water, gas and electricity into private hands. The structure and regulation of the utilities has never been got right by governments of either stripe. Rather than create proper competition, they have the smell about them of a cosy cartel dedicated to maximising the returns to their shareholders and swelling the bank accounts of their boards rather than innovating on behalf of the consumer. The privatisation of the railways was a botch that has never been corrected. They have become more modern, safer and they carry more passengers, but they have also become more costly to the taxpayer than they were in state hands. The operators of the rail franchises now receive about four times as much in public subsidy as did British Rail.
Mrs Thatcher created a popular enthusiasm for privatisation because the flaws of state industries were so painfully plain. Three decades on, we now have long experience of the private companies that took their place and damn them for having many of the same faults along with flaws all of their own. So even as David Cameron uses the word "nuts" to describe Labour's plans to impose a price freeze on the energy companies, the prime minister admits that Ed Miliband has "struck a chord" with the public. The government feels compelled to say it is ordering a cap on rail fares, though such is the confusion about pricing it is not clear that it will really be a cap at all.
Mrs Thatcher's sale of council housing was another revolution that turned a million tenants into home-owners. Not many people know this: Labour had the idea first. The party lived to regret that they let her steal it from them along with many of their voters. The tragedy was that the social housing stock that was sold off was not replaced. What Britain now needs – has long needed – is to build more homes. That would surely be the mission of a true Tory radical, a genuine heir to Thatcher. What the party's current leadership has come up with is the Help to Buy scheme that will use government-sponsored loans to help some people get mortgages. The likeliest result is that house prices will be driven further upwards, making it even more difficult for others to get a foot on the property ladder.
The kindest thing to say is that this betrays a philosophical confusion among the political descendants of Mrs T. The state should get out of the business of delivering parcels, they say, but it should get into owning the risk on the purchase of private property. Go figure. Debt is wicked when it is owed by the government, but is to be encouraged among the public. Work that one out. A different explanation is that they are simply being cynical. George Osborne has reportedly quipped to cabinet colleagues that "a little housing boom" will be great for their re-election prospects because "everyone will be happy as property values go up".
Mrs Thatcher didn't realise at the time that she was presiding over a housing bubble that would burst with very painful consequences for many voters. Her successors are knowingly trying to recreate that aspect of her period in the hope that it will make some voters feel warmer towards the government. They are gambling that the consequences won't be felt until after the election is behind them.
They are playing some of the tunes of Thatcherism, but doing it like a poor tribute band that resorts to trying to replicate her greatest hits because they can't write any of their own. I understand why Conservatives want to create an ersatz version of the 80s, their last decade of hegemony over British politics. Here's their problem. We've already lived it. We know what happens next.Slipknot had such an enjoyable time playing 2013's Ozzfest in Japan that they took a page out of the book and relocated Knotfest to Japan for 2014. The second staging of the Slipknot-organized event will take place Nov. 15 and 16 at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Tokyo and the first two acts joining Slipknot have been revealed.
It will be a bit of an old school lineup as frequent 'Family Values' participants Korn and Limp Bizkit will be making their way to Japan for the event. Korn have enjoyed a big year with their latest album, 'The Paradigm Shift.' The disc has already spawned the hit singles 'Never Never,' 'Love & Meth' and 'Spike in My Veins,' with the potential for even more hits.
Limp Bizkit, meanwhile, have been working on new music for their upcoming release, 'Stampede of the Disco Elephants.' The lead single for the album, 'Ready to Go,' was released in April 2013.
It is not known who else will join Slipknot, Korn and Limp Bizkit on Knotfest 2014, but more acts are expected to be added. Stay tuned to the festival website for additional details.Stanford gives military veterans an academic boost
Eleven U.S. military veterans are participating in a summer program at Stanford designed to prepare them to transfer from community colleges to elite four-year universities.
L.A. Cicero Jonathan Kong, left, and Ryan Cotter, who both served in the Navy, engage in a discussion during their academic research writing course.
Jonathan Kong, who treated U.S. Marines for battlefield injuries in Afghanistan, hopes to become a doctor specializing in emergency medicine.
Susana Murillo, a behavioral health specialist in the U.S. Army Reserve, also has set her sights on a career in medicine – as a pediatric psychiatrist, perhaps, or a heart surgeon.
They are two of the 11 veterans enrolled in Stanford 2 to 4: A Veteran's Accelerator, a new summer program designed to prepare veterans to transfer from community colleges to elite, four-year universities. The students, four women and seven men ranging in age from their mid-20s to 36, represent every branch of the military.
During the eight-week program, which ends Aug. 17, the veterans earn Stanford credits while learning academic skills they will need to thrive at four-year universities. Stanford provided scholarships that covered tuition and fees, private bedroom accommodations in shared campus suites, a dining plan and book stipend.
In addition to a course on academic research writing, each of the veterans is taking one or two electives – choosing from the 40 courses offered to visiting students by the schools of Humanities and Sciences, Earth Sciences, and Engineering in Stanford Summer Session.
The program was conceived by William Treseder, '11, who served in the Marines for 10 years, and further developed in collaboration with Summer Session, as well as Stanford alumni, current students and faculty.
Jess Matthews, the associate dean and director of Summer Session, said everyone who has interacted with the veterans has been impressed by their maturity, focus and intelligence.
"They are wonderful students who are taking advantage of everything they can at Stanford," said Matthews, who oversees the program, now in its first year of a three-year pilot. "They are so excited to be here. They are so grateful for the opportunity."
Kong, a Navy veteran and a student at De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif., set the ambitious goal of completing Stanford's two-quarter introductory chemistry sequence – Chemical Principles I and Chemical Principles II – in just two months.
"I've got to admit, it's pretty fast paced and on a whole other level from what I'm used to," Kong said. "It was my first time ever taking chemistry and my math is a bit lower than what the course recommends, so it's been a constant battle to keep up. But with office hours and tutoring I've been able to hack away at the material and managed to get a B+ for the first half."
Murillo, a student at Riverside City College in Southern California who is serving in the U.S. Army Reserve, is taking an introductory neuroscience course. In addition to studying the neurobiology of behavior, the class is learning about neuroscience research techniques. During a field trip to the Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, the class observed post-mortem brains.
"It was a humbling experience to see and handle a brain," Murillo said. "It's not every day that we get such an amazing opportunity. Since I am fascinated by the brain, when I saw one of our instructors pull one out from a bucket, I felt like a little kid that saw the cosmos in plain darkness for the first time."
The courses the other students in the program are taking reflect a wide range of interests:
Public Archaeology: Market Street Chinatown Archaeology Project
Introduction to International Relations
Press Play: Interactive Device Design (Electrical Engineering)
Some of the students are working on an ongoing study of the Etkin Lab at the Stanford School of Medicine. The lab has partnered with the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Hospital to explore a variety of treatment options for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Writing like scholars
Twice a week, the veterans meet as a group – in a small classroom in Wallenberg Hall – for a two-hour class on academic research writing.
The course includes three major writing projects: analyzing three journal articles within disciplines of their choosing; creating a proposal for a research project; and producing an 8- to 10-page research-based argument. All major assignments go through multiple revisions.
L.A. Cicero Veterans Adam Lorta, left, and Claudia Acosta discuss their papers during an exercise in the Stanford summer writing class
"One of the main goals of a writing course is to create a community – a safe space where students feel free to talk about their work – and that was easy with this group, because they were already connected through their shared experiences and from living in the same dorm," said Erica Cirillo-McCarthy, a lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric who taught the course. "They really have a lot of respect for each other."
She said the program has helped the veterans see they can be successful at the elite educational institutions that can help them achieve their long-term goals.
"The thing I hear a lot from these students is: 'I want to go to Stanford, I want to go to Harvard, I want to go to Yale, so that I can make a difference,'" Cirillo-McCarthy said.
Ryan Cotter, who served as a sonar technician aboard a fast attack nuclear submarine and is now in the U.S. Navy Reserve, chose the treatment of national security whistleblowers as his research topic – without knowing that Daniel Ellsberg – an activist and former U.S. military analyst who leaked a top-secret Pentagon study in 1971 that revealed how the American public had been misled about the Vietnam War – was coming to campus.
Cotter said that hearing Ellsberg speak after the campus screening of the 2009 documentary, "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers," helped his research immensely.
Cotter, a student at City College of San Francisco who plans to earn a bachelor's degree in sociology, said he learned an incredible new set of theories and ideas for understanding humanity by taking Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology at Stanford.
He also enjoyed the campus.
"Going to the gym nearly every day, running The Dish three times a week, going to Hoover Tower and most of all visiting the Cantor Arts Center, are things that I will never forget," he said.
Tobias Wolff on creative writing
During the program, the students gathered for a writing workshop with Tobias Wolff, a professor of English at Stanford and author of the memoirs This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army, as well as two novels and four collections of short stories.
Wolff, who served in the Army from 1964-68, including a year in Vietnam, spoke briefly about his transition to civilian life. He told funny stories. He shared his approach to writing.
"I gave them the advice I give to every young writer, or to someone who's just starting to take writing seriously, and that is to make up their mind before they put a word down that anything they write they're going to rewrite," he said.
"To try to write something perfectly the first time out and to not have decided that you're certainly going to rewrite is to tie yourself in knots. Once you say to yourself, 'Oh, I'll be rewriting,' you give yourself a lot of freedom. That was something I was at pains to share, because that's been an important part of my experience as a writer. I had to learn that."
Army veteran Claudia Acosta, who attends Santa Monica College in Southern California, said Wolff's talk made her realize that veterans of every generation share similar struggles adapting to civilian life. She said his writing advice was reassuring.
"He told us that sometimes when you write and rewrite your draft, you may delete a large portion of it – but that's okay," Acosta said. "I realized I wasn't the only one that did that."
Wolff, who was involved in bringing the first cohort of Stanford 2 to 4 veterans to campus, said making veterans part of the university community benefits everyone.
"These veterans will greatly enrich the experience of the people at Stanford who meet them, and I'm talking about faculty as well as other students," he said.
"Veterans bring a breath of fresh air to the university. They bring a sense of reality of life outside academia that for most of us is conjectural or theoretical. I have been impressed by the intelligence and humor and sensitivity of the vets that I've met here – not just the ones in this program, but other veterans I've met at Stanford."The polls this morning (June 14) indicate that Brexit will win, and the United Kingdom will be on course to leave the E.U. It’s depressing. The shrill intolerance and xenophobia of the Little Englanders have no appeal for me and I regard their leaders like Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage with a mixture of dismay and contempt. Farage, I concede, has principles; he has been consistent in his opposition to the E.U.; Johnson has none, or none that are discernible. He is that dangerous fellow: a clever silly-billy. Yet he may be our next prime minister. God help us!
At my age, admittedly, Brexit may not affect me much; I may be dead before it is fully achieved. But I would like my grandchildren to grow up in a tolerant, open-minded country. Some hope if Brexit becomes reality!
The Leave campaign is built on a big lie. “We want our democracy back,” they shriek.
Funny, that; it hadn”t occurred to me it had gone away.
After all, we have elections. We elect a government and can dismiss it. That government levies taxes and decides on public expenditure (with the approval of Parliament). Its budget is huge, by the way, dwarfing that of the European Union of 28 member states. The E.U.’s budget is only about the same size as the budget for the U.K.’s government department responsible |
, the consequences of saying no can be significant. Third, it can be difficult to thoroughly delete data from your devices. Even when you think you have “moved” data to the cloud, some of it could still actually be present on your devices. If agents seize your device and subject it to a forensic examination, they may recover significant amounts of incompletely deleted data. Delete Information From Your Devices
If you know you will not need certain information during a trip, you can delete it before crossing the border. If you want to remove all of your data, you can use third-party software or, sometimes, built-in options to “wipe” or “factory reset” a device to a blank or pristine state where no user data is readily accessible. However, border agents may find it suspicious if they realize that you have deleted some or all of your data before crossing the border. In addition, it can be difficult to delete information securely in a way that leaves no traces. Please see Part 3 for more information on securely wiping your device. Use Private Browsing Mode
Most browsers offer a private browsing mode. In this mode, the web browser avoids saving browsing history to the hard drive at all. Files are also not saved to the disk cache and so the forensic footprint of things you do online is reduced. Private browsing mode is not a way of clearing your browsing history after-the-fact. And clearing your browsing history may still leave the information vulnerable to forensic recovery by CBP officials. Rather, to get this benefit, you have to regularly use private browsing mode whenever you browse the web. Digital Cameras Border agents may demand to look through the photos or videos on your cameras or phones. Most cameras do not come with encryption, so there are no convenient technical means that would prevent this kind of inspection. If you do not want border agents to see your photos or videos, the simplest approach is to delete them or move them to a secured laptop or cloud storage. You should be aware that forensic examination can typically recover deleted photos, unless the storage media has been securely wiped.
Protect What You Carry Over the Border
Whether or not you plan to cooperate with border agents’ demands, you should take two basic precautions: make backups and use encryption. Backups prevent your data from being lost if your device is seized, stolen, or broken—risks that are significantly heightened during international travel. Encryption prevents others from accessing your data in certain scenarios. Even if you are prepared to unlock your devices or provide the passwords, using encryption still prevents your devices from being searched or examined without your knowledge.
Backup Your Data Travelers should always have backups of their data. Your need to access the backup during your trip may vary, so depending on your situation, you may want to leave a backup at home or at work as a fallback option, or you may want an online backup that can be accessed during your travel. Backups are especially important for password managers as they grant you access to your online accounts. You can make backups of a phone or tablet onto a computer (often over a USB, Thunderbolt, or Firewire cable). You can make backups of a computer onto an external hard drive, or sometimes other media like DVD-R or a home or office file server. In places with fast Internet access, online backups have become the most popular option for backing up all kinds of devices. They are discussed in Part 3. Encrypt Your Data Encryption is an important technology to protect all kinds of data from unauthorized access in all kinds of circumstances. We focus here on encryption of stored data on devices (rather than end-to-end encryption of communications). More details are included in Part 3, including encryption tools that may be available for your device. People often decide to “set a password” on their device in order to protect their data. This intuition is right, but the details matter significantly. Not all ways of “setting a password” provide the same kind of protection, and many do not involve any encryption at all. For strong data protection, you need to ensure that your password will actually encrypt the hard drive content, rather than only controlling access to the device. A screen-lock password or user account password is enforced by the operating system code and only controls access to the device. The operating system is configured to ask for the password and will not allow access unless the right one is provided. But the data is still simply present on the hard drive in unencrypted form. Forensic tools can easily bypass such passwords and access the unencrypted hard drive content. CBP, ICE, and other federal law enforcement agencies have staff with training and access to these tools. By contrast, a password used for storage encryption uses mathematical techniques to scramble the data on the hard drive so it is unintelligible without the right cryptographic key. This mathematical protection works independently of the operating system software. A different device or software program cannot just decide to allow access, because no device or software program can make any sense of the data without the right key. Fortunately, modern phone, tablet, and computer systems usually come with comparatively easy-to-use “full-disk” storage encryption features that can encrypt the full contents of the device with a password that will be required when the device is first powered on. Using these tools is the most fundamental security precaution for travelers who have sensitive information on their devices and are concerned about losing control of them—not just at a border crossing, but at any point during a trip. Use Strong Passwords Strong passwords are critical for encryption. A border agent once accessed a traveler’s digital devices by correctly guessing that the traveler used her birthday as her password. Even a random password that’s too short or predictable could be easy for someone to crack by machine, allowing them to decrypt data on a seized device. So you should create a password that is long and unpredictable—but also memorable. One approach is a phrase made of several words randomly selected by a computer or by rolling dice. More information about strong passwords is in Part 3. Power Off Your Devices We recommend that you power off all of your devices before you arrive at a border checkpoint. This will resist a variety of high-tech attacks against encryption that only work when a device is already powered on. For some mobile devices, powering off also resets the device to a higher-security state that requires a password to unlock, which may not be true in day-to-day use. Do Not Rely Solely on Biometric Keys Many phones and tablets, and some laptops, can be locked with a biometric feature like a fingerprint. While this can be a convenient security precaution, it may not offer the same security and legal benefits as a password that you memorize. Before arriving at the border, make sure that your device requires a password to decrypt, and that your device has been powered off. Traveling Without Knowledge of Your Passwords You can arrange not to know information necessary to decrypt your device, including your password. If so, you cannot be compelled to divulge that information. This would provide the highest possible level of protection for devices that you carry across the border. Also, it may provide a disincentive to agents to try to force you to reveal what you do not know. However, it may also cause agents to escalate if they find it suspicious that you are carrying a device you cannot “unlock.” If you take this approach, you have a few options. For example, you could generate a new random password that is too long for you to remember, change your password to the new one, and then give this password to someone else, send it via a different channel, or store it online where you can only retrieve it once you have Internet access. A variation on this idea is to tell it to a lawyer, so that nobody can retrieve it without getting your lawyer involved. These approaches are probably most useful to people whose highest priority is protecting their information: while you cannot be forced to unlock a device, border agents may still seize the device or escalate the situation. Again, not knowing your password is very unusual and agents may find it suspicious or difficult to believe. If you choose this approach, you may wish to have some information to substantiate the fact that you really don’t know your password, and recognize that this may still not satisfy the agents. Do Not Try to Hide Data on Your Devices Some people have proposed technical means of hiding data on a device so that it is not apparent to a border agent. For example, a “hidden volume” feature may make different data appear depending on which password is entered. Other possible techniques may make searches harder or less fruitful, make data available under some conditions but not others, make data self-delete, or make it less apparent where data is kept, who can access it, or what its nature is. We appreciate and respect technologists’ efforts to find ways to help travelers protect their data. However, we recommend against using methods that may be, or even appear to be, calculated to deceive or mislead border agents about what data is present on a device. There is a significant risk that border agents could view deliberately hiding data from them as illegal. Lying to border agents can be a serious crime, and the agents may take a very broad view of what constitutes lying. We urge travelers to take that risk very seriously.
Social Media and Online Accounts
If you are reluctant to have the government review what you post on social media, you can change your social media privacy settings (at least temporarily) to make your posts not viewable by the general public.
On your devices, you should consider logging out of browsers and apps that give you access to online content, and removing saved login credentials. This may help prevent border agents from reviewing browser and app information that may be cached in your device. You could also temporarily uninstall mobile apps, and clear browser history, so that it is not immediately apparent which online services you use.
Note that while certain messaging apps provide end-to-end encryption, if a border agent has access to your app, they will be able to see your cached messages in plain text within the app itself.
When You Are at the Border
The hardest part of protecting your privacy at the border is deciding how to respond if a border agent demands that you help them invade your digital privacy.
If you are a U.S. citizen, border agents cannot stop you from entering the country, even if you refuse to unlock your device, provide your device password, or disclose your social media information. However, agents may escalate the encounter if you refuse. For example, agents may seize your devices, ask you intrusive questions, search your bags more intensively, or increase by many hours the length of detention. If you are a lawful permanent resident, agents may raise complicated questions about your continued status as a resident. If you are a foreign visitor, agents may deny you entry.
Unjustified escalation may violate the law and, as discussed in the next section, you may have some recourse after you exit. However, some travelers may want to avoid any risk of escalation if they can.
What to Expect
When you arrive at the border, agents may seek access to your device by demanding that you type in your password, tell them your password, or (if you use a fingerprint key) press your finger to the sensor. This will give the agents access to information you store on your device. Border agents may also ask you to disclose your social media identifiers, which would allow them to scrutinize your public social media content, even if they do not have access to your devices. If proposals being floated as of this writing are adopted, border agents may ask for your social media login credentials (usernames and passwords), which would allow them to scrutinize your private social media content.
Basic Rules for Everyone
First, decide how you will respond to border agents’ demands before you arrive at the border. Make this decision holistically, in light of your unique risk assessment factors, along with all of the other before-you-arrive decisions discussed above.
Second, stay calm and respectful. Staying calm will help you make better decisions. Also, if you get emotional or disrespectful, some agents may escalate the encounter. CBP, in turn, pledges to treat travelers with “courtesy, dignity and respect.”
Third, do not lie to a border agent. It is a crime to make a false statement to a law enforcement official who is asking you questions as part of their job.
Fourth, do not physically interfere with a border agent. This includes complying with demands to open your luggage or hand over your digital devices. Border agents may legally inspect the physical aspects of a device—for example, the battery compartment or inside a case—to ensure that it does not contain contraband such as drugs or explosives. If you do physically interfere, border agents may respond with physical force.
Fifth, if you have any problems, try to document the names, badge numbers, and agencies of the officers you interact with at the border. If you decide later to file a complaint about the way the officers treated you, it will be easier to do so if you know who they were. Also, if officers seize your digital devices, politely demand a property receipt (Customs Form 6051D).
Try to Avoid Implicit “Consent”
Law enforcement officials often try to persuade civilians to consent to searches. Once the civilian consents, it can be harder to challenge the search in court.
Sometimes law enforcement officials achieve so-called “consent” by being vague about whether they are asking or ordering a civilian to do something. You can try to dispel this ambiguity by inquiring whether border agents are asking you or ordering you to unlock your device, provide your device password, or disclose your social media information. If an agent says it is a request only, you might politely but firmly decline to comply with the request.
What Could Happen When You Comply With an Order
If you do comply with an order to unlock your device, provide your device password, or disclose your social media information, several things may occur.
Border agents may scrutinize all of the content stored in your device, manually or with powerful forensic software.
Border agents may copy and store all of this content for their later use.
If you later bring a legal challenge to the search of your device, the government may defend its actions by saying you consented to the search.
If You Comply With an Order, Should You State That It Is Under Protest?
If you elect to comply with a border agent’s order to unlock your device, provide your password, or disclose your social media information, you can inform the agent that you are complying under protest and that you do not consent. If you later assert a legal challenge, this may help you defeat the government’s claim that you consented to the search.
What Could Happen if You Refuse to Comply With an Order?
If you refuse to comply with an order to unlock your device, provide your password, or disclose your social media information, several things may occur.
The border agent may escalate the encounter.
Border agents may seize your devices. Then CBP and ICE agents may attempt to access your digital data without your assistance. Even if they cannot decrypt your devices, they may be able to copy the encrypted contents of your devices. If they later obtain your passwords, or find vulnerabilities in the encryption, they may be able to decrypt their copies. The government’s scrutiny of your devices may take months. During this time, you may need to purchase replacement devices, and you will not have access to the information on the devices.
You may be flagged for heightened screening whenever you cross the U.S. border in the future.
The border agent may let you pass through without further interference.
Should You Attempt to Persuade the Agents to Withdraw Their Order?
Some travelers may attempt to avoid this no-win dilemma by trying to persuade the border agent to withdraw their demand to unlock a device, provide a device password, or disclose social media information. For example, the traveler may object that the information is especially sensitive, such as attorney-client correspondence or journalistic sources. Likewise, the traveler may object that the devices belong to their employer, and that the agent should speak to their employer’s lawyers if they want to search the devices.
This tactic may work for some travelers. But it carries risks. For example, it may induce a conversation with the agent about the contents of your device, which carries the risk that you will make statements against your interests.
After You Leave the Border
If you believe that border agents violated your digital rights at the border, please contact EFF at borders@eff.org.
Make a Record of What Happened
If you are unhappy with how border agents treated you, then you should write down everything you remember about the event as soon as you can. This may help you later if you choose to challenge the agents’ actions. You should also try to identify witnesses.
You may also want to ask the government for its written records about you and your encounter at the border. Anyone can do this with the Freedom of Information Act. U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents also can do this with the Privacy Act.
The CBP and ICE websites for records requests are:
Change Your Passwords and Login Credentials
If you gave your device passwords or account login credentials to a border agent, then the government has continuing power over your digital information. For example, there are reports that CBP agents store device passwords for use the next time a traveler crosses the border. If you aren’t comfortable with that continuing power, you should change your passwords and credentials.
Government Offices That May Help You
You may wish to file a complaint with, or seek help from, the government. However, you would benefit from speaking with a lawyer before doing so, especially if it is possible that you will file a lawsuit about your experience at the border.
You can file a complaint with CBP: https://help.cbp.gov/app/forms/complaint
You can file a complaint with DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: https://www.dhs.gov/file-civil-rights-complaint
If border agents have repeatedly referred you to secondary screening over the course of several international trips, and you think you may be on a government watchlist or misidentified as someone else who is listed, you can seek help from DHS’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP): https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-trip
PART 2: CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES, AND PRIVACY AT THE BORDER
In this section we address the legal framework that allows, and limits, border searches and seizures. The law in this area is evolving and adapting, imperfectly, to technological changes, creating uncertainty for travelers and government agents alike. EFF is fighting in the courts and in legislatures to resolve that uncertainty and ensure that travelers can count on strong protections for their digital rights at the border.
This primer provides general information only. When in doubt, you should consult with a lawyer.
The Law of Border Searches and Seizures
As a general principle, government agents at the U.S. border enjoy more power than police officers working in the American interior. Most of the time, border agents exercise these powers on travelers arriving in the United States, but they sometimes apply them to travelers leaving the United States as well.
However, the U.S. border is not a Constitution-free zone. The powers of border agents are tempered by our Fourth Amendment right to digital privacy, our First Amendment rights to speak and associate privately and to gather the news, our Fifth Amendment right to freedom from self-incrimination, and our Fourteenth Amendment right to freedom from discrimination.
The Fourth Amendment at the Border: Digital Privacy
The Default Constitutional Privacy Rule
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the primary protector of individual privacy against government intrusion. The Fourth Amendment prohibits “unreasonable” searches and seizures by the government. The default rule to ensure that a search or seizure is reasonable is that law enforcement officials must first obtain a “probable cause” warrant. This means that the officer must present preliminary evidence to a judge that shows that the thing to be searched or seized likely contains evidence of illegal activity.
The Border Search Exception
The Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourth Amendment to include a “border search exception” to the standard warrant and probable cause requirements. The Court has held that the government has an interest in protecting the “integrity of the border” by enforcing the immigration and customs laws.
For “routine” searches, such as those of luggage and other common possessions presented at the border, the Supreme Court concluded that this specific governmental interest outweighs an individual’s privacy interests. The Court presumes that warrantless and suspicionless border searches are critical to:
Ensuring that travelers entering the U.S. have proper authorization and documentation; Enforcing the laws regulating the importation of goods into the U.S., including duty requirements; Preventing the entry of harmful people (e.g., terrorists) and harmful items (i.e., contraband) such as weapons, drugs, and infested agricultural products.
In sum, the border search exception provides that “routine” searches at the border do not require a warrant or any individualized suspicion that the thing to be searched contains evidence of illegal activity.
The Exception to the Exception: “Non-Routine” Searches
The Supreme Court has also recognized that not all border searches are “routine.” Some of them are “highly intrusive” and impact the “dignity and privacy interests” of individuals, or are carried out in a “particularly offensive manner.” At minimum, such non-routine border searches require that border agents have some level of individualized suspicion about the traveler.
“Individualized suspicion” is a legal term that means that the border agent has a factual reason to believe a specific person is involved in criminal activity.
Thus, for example, the Supreme Court held that disassembling a gas tank is “routine” and so a warrantless and suspicionless search is permitted. However, detaining a traveler until they have defecated to see if they are smuggling drugs in their digestive tract is a “non-routine” search that requires “reasonable suspicion” that the traveler is a drug mule. Likewise, lower courts have held that body cavity searches and strip searches are “non-routine” and also require reasonable suspicion.
Border Searches of Digital Devices
Given that digital devices like smartphones and laptops contain highly personal information, are border searches of digital devices “routine?" There is some legal uncertainty at the moment, but we believe the final answer is no.
In U.S. v. Cotterman (2013), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that border agents need reasonable suspicion of illegal activity (at least within the authority of border agents to investigate) before they could conduct a forensic search, aided by sophisticated software, of the defendant’s laptop. Unfortunately, the court also held that a manual search of a digital device is “routine” and so a warrantless and suspicionless search is “reasonable” under the Fourth Amendment.
One year later, however, in Riley v. California (2014), the Supreme Court held that the police had to obtain a probable cause warrant to search the cell phone of an individual under arrest. The police had argued that the warrantless and suspicionless cell phone search was permissible as a “search incident to arrest,” the same way it would be possible for the police to search the pockets or wallet of an arrestee for drugs or weapons. In short, the police invoked an exception to the Fourth Amendment similar to the border search exception. Rejecting that argument, the Court held that “a warrant is generally required before such a search, even when a cell phone is seized incident to arrest.”
No appellate court has yet applied the Riley decision in the border context, but the Supreme Court itself has recognized that the search-incident-to-arrest exception invoked by the government in Riley is similar to the border search exception. Thus, we believe that all border searches of digital devices should require a probable cause warrant.
In both the Cotterman and Riley cases, courts stressed the significant privacy interests in all the data modern digital devices contain—call logs, emails, text messages, voicemails, browsing history, calendar entries, contact lists, shopping lists, personal notes, photos and videos, geolocation logs, and other personal files. Digital devices typically cover many years of information and include the most intimidate details of a person’s life. The Supreme Court in Riley rejected the notion that cell phones are the same as physical items: “That is like saying a ride on horseback is materially indistinguishable from a flight to the moon” just because both are “ways of getting from point A to point B.”
Both courts also raised special concerns about the government accessing cloud content via digital devices. The Ninth Circuit in Cotterman stated:
With the ubiquity of cloud computing, the government’s reach into private data becomes even more problematic. In the “cloud,” a user’s data, including the same kind of highly sensitive data one would have in “papers” at home, is held on remote servers rather than on the device itself. The digital device is a conduit to retrieving information from the cloud, akin to the key to a safe deposit box. Notably, although the virtual “safe deposit box” does not itself cross the border, it may appear as a seamless part of the digital device when presented at the border.
Similarly, the Supreme Court in Riley stated that using the search incident to arrest exception to justify searching files stored in the cloud “would be like finding a key in a suspect’s pocket and arguing that it allowed law enforcement to unlock and search a house.”
Therefore, to the extent that border searches of digital devices access cloud data, the privacy interests are even more significant. Given these interests, the border search exception should not apply.
Interior Checkpoints
Border agents may establish permanent checkpoints on roads that are miles away from the international border, where agents may stop motorists for brief questioning, even in the absence of any individualized suspicion. However, border agents at these checkpoints cannot search a car without probable cause. Likewise, border agents at these checkpoints should not be able to search a digital device without probable cause.
The First Amendment at the Border: Freedom to Privately Speak, Associate, Acquire Information, and Gather News
When border agents scrutinize the massive volume of sensitive information in our digital devices, they infringe on our First Amendment rights in at least four distinct ways.
First, border searches of digital devices may intrude on the First Amendment right to speak anonymously. This includes the right to use a pseudonymous social media handle. Border agents will unmask anonymous speakers by linking the passport-verified identities of travelers to pseudonyms revealed through device searches or disclosure of social media handles.
Second, border searches of digital devices may disclose private membership in expressive associations, like being part of a political group or social club. The First Amendment protects the right to join together with other people to advance a shared message. This includes the right to privately participate in an expressive association, for example, in an advocacy organization with a private membership list.
Third, border searches of digital devices may reveal the private decisions that travelers make to acquire expressive materials, such as books and movies. The First Amendment protects the right to receive information, and to do so without telling the government what we are reading and watching.
Fourth, border searches of digital devices may disclose confidential journalistic sources and work product. This burdens the First Amendment right to freedom of the press, specifically the ability to maintain the integrity and independence of the newsgathering process. The Supreme Court has said that journalists are not “without constitutional rights with respect to the gathering of news or in safeguarding their sources.”
To protect these First Amendment interests, border agents should be required to get a warrant supported by probable cause before searching digital devices. Indeed, when police officers demand records from booksellers, for example, about the purchases of individual customers, courts have held that an ordinary probable cause warrant is not enough. Instead, the First Amendment requires police to additionally show a compelling need, the exhaustion of less restrictive investigative methods, and a substantial nexus between the information sought and the investigation. Obviously, a device search is far more intrusive of First Amendment rights than disclosure of what books a person buys at a single bookseller.
The reason for this protection is simple: government snooping will chill and deter First Amendment activity. Rather than risk border agent examination, many people will refrain from anonymous speech, from private membership in political groups, or from downloading certain reading material. This is especially true for people who belong to unpopular groups, who espouse unpopular opinions, or who read unpopular books. Likewise, confidential sources who provide invaluable information to the public about government or corporate malfeasance may refrain from whistleblowing if they fear journalists cannot protect their identities during border crossings.
Unfortunately some courts have rejected First Amendment challenges to border searches of digital devices. Given the increasing amount of sensitive information easily accessible on and through our devices, and the increasing frequency and intensity of border searches of this information, we hope that other courts will rule differently in the future.
The Fifth Amendment at the Border: Freedom From Self-Incrimination
The Fifth Amendment guarantees that “no person shall be... compelled... to be a witness against himself.” Statements and actions that qualify as bearing “witness” are called “testimonial.” A person’s statement or action is testimonial if it would disclose “the contents of [their] own mind.”
The best way to preserve your Fifth Amendment rights, given your own risk tolerance, is to politely but firmly decline to comply with a border agent’s demand to unlock your device, provide your password, or disclose your social media information. Only a judge, and not a border agent, can decide whether the Fifth Amendment protects this information.
Passwords
At least one court has held that the Fifth Amendment confers an absolute right to refuse to provide one’s password to unlock or decrypt a digital device. We believe that outcome was correct, for three reasons.
First, the act of entering a password into a device, or telling a border agent the password so the agent can enter it, will always be testimonial, because it will always expose the contents of the traveler’s own mind.
Second, when the data on a device is encrypted, the process of decryption is also testimonial, because it comprises the translation of otherwise unintelligible evidence into a form that investigators can understand.
Third, a foundation of the Fifth Amendment is “respect for the inviolability of the human personality and the right of each individual to a private enclave where [they] may lead a private life,” and digital devices hold “the privacies of life.”
However, many courts have instead adopted a lesser, but still strong, test. Under this test, the government may compel a suspect to unlock their device only if the government can prove with “reasonable particularity” that it is a “foregone conclusion” that a “certain file” is stored on the device. Border agents usually will not know what is stored on the device, so they can’t compel you to disclose your password.
Sadly, other courts have adopted a weak test, under which the government need only show that the suspect knows the password. Border agents will usually find it easier to show that a traveler knew the password of the device they carried, compared to showing that a particular suspect file was in that device.
Fingerprints
Properly construed, the Fifth Amendment should offer the same protections when people use fingerprints or other biometrics to secure their devices. The vast content of our devices ought to be part of the “private enclave” secured by the Fifth Amendment from self-incrimination. Also, many consumers reasonably assume that their fingerprint lock is just as protective, legally and practically, as a password.
Unfortunately, some courts (though not all) have held that fingerprints, unlike passwords, are not part of the contents of our minds, and thus fall outside Fifth Amendment protection. Moreover, police are developing technologies that can take a person’s stored fingerprint from a government database and use it to unlock that person’s phone. Or an overzealous border agent may use force to press a traveler’s finger to their phone.
Thus, fingerprints are less secure—both legally and technically—than passwords. You should consider using a password and not a fingerprint to lock or encrypt your digital devices.
The First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment Intersection at the Border: Freedom From Discrimination
Border agents may not decide whether to search or seize a traveler's digital devices, based on the traveler's religion, ethnicity, or similar characteristics.
The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the government from discriminating on the basis of factors such as race, religion, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation. The Equal Protection Clause applies to the federal government through the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Likewise, the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment prohibit religious discrimination. Accordingly, law enforcement officials cannot discriminate on the basis of religion or similar factors when deciding whom to subject to surveillance. These protections apply at the border.
Consent: Waiving Constitutional Rights at the Border
The constitutional protections described above can be waived. For example, the Fourth Amendment allows law enforcement officials to search people or their property if those people voluntarily consent to the search.
That said, whether consent is truly “voluntary” depends on the totality of the circumstances, such as the nature of the questioning and the youth of the person being questioned. There is a strong argument that a traveler’s compliance when border agents demand the unlocking of a device, the device password, or social media information, should never be treated as voluntary consent. Border screening is an inherently coercive environment, where agents exercise extraordinary powers, and travelers are often confused, tired after international travel, and/or rushing to make a connecting flight.
However, courts may rule otherwise. It is possible that if you unlock your device, and agents then search your device, a court will rule that you consented to the search. It will depend upon the totality of the unique circumstances surrounding your particular border crossing.
As noted in Part 1, the best way to avoid an inadvertent “consent” to search is to decline to unlock your device, provide the device password, or provide any social media information.
What If You Are Not a U.S. Citizen?
EFF believes the U.S. government should respect the digital privacy of people from all nations. However, U.S. courts have held that foreign citizens arriving at the U.S. border enjoy fewer constitutional rights compared to U.S. citizens.
Foreign visitors have the fewest rights. For example, if a border agent refuses to allow them to enter the country, some may have no constitutional right to procedural due process (notice and a hearing) to challenge the exclusion. Thus, if a foreign visitor refuses a border agent’s demand to unlock their digital device, provide the device password, or provide social media information, and the agent responds by denying entry, the foreign visitor may have little legal recourse.
Lawful permanent residents (LPRs or green card holders) enjoy more constitutional protection. For example, if LPRs are denied re-entry, they may have a constitutional right to procedural due process under the Fifth Amendment, depending on such factors as the duration of their trip. However, the law regarding re-entry of LPRs is complicated, and it provides border agents discretion to consider many factors to challenge the continued status of residents. If an LPR does not comply with an agent’s demand to unlock a device, provide the device password, or provide social media information, that decision may negatively impact their re-entry processing.
Constitutional protections do apply if the U.S. government brings a criminal prosecution against a foreign citizen for smuggling contraband over the border.
Foreign citizens should consult with a lawyer before they travel if they have questions about their legal rights at the U.S. border, including the ramifications of declining an agent’s demand to unlock a device, provide a password, or provide social media information.
Also, to make it easier to communicate with a lawyer during a potential border detention, foreign citizens should complete a Form G-28 before they travel.
Federal Policies and Practices on Digital Searches
Federal Agencies That Oversee the Border
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for securing the nation from threats, including border security. Its units include U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
CBP manages and controls the U.S. border, including customs, immigration, border security, and agricultural protection. On a typical day, it screens nearly one million visitors at the U.S. border.
ICE investigates and enforces federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration. ICE agents do not routinely search or interview travelers at the U.S. border. However, when CBP officers seize an electronic device at the border, they sometimes turn it over to ICE for further investigation. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit operates forensic laboratories that can process digital evidence.
Device Search Policies
In 2009, CBP issued its agents a written directive on “Border Searches of Electronic Devices Containing Information.” It addresses search, seizure, and retention of digital information.
Search
CBP claims authority to “examine electronic devices” and “review and analyze the information encountered”—“with or without individualized suspicion.”
An officer may search an electronic device without supervisory approval if such approval is “not practicable,” though notice to the supervisor is required afterwards.
When officers encounter information on an electronic device that may be protected by the attorney-client privilege, they must consult with the CBP legal office before searching it. But this heightened review is no substitute for individualized suspicion, and cannot justify invasion of attorney-client confidentiality.
When officers encounter “other possibly sensitive information, such as medical records and work-related information carried by journalists,” they must follow “any applicable federal law and CBP policy.” It is unclear whether this provides any protection at all. It certainly is far less than individualized suspicion.
If an officer searches an electronic device, they must complete an after-action report.
Seizure
Officers may detain electronic devices for subsequent search at an on-site or off-site location. If an officer does so, they must issue a custody receipt to the traveler (Form 6051D). The device detention should not exceed five days, though CBP managers may (and do) grant extensions of weeks or months.
Officers may indefinitely seize a device or retain copies of information on the device if, based on data uncovered during the initial search or other facts, there is probable cause to believe that the device contains evidence of a “crime that CBP is authorized to enforce.”
If there is no probable cause, agents must return the device, and they must destroy any information copied, subject to the two broad and nebulous exceptions below. This destruction must be documented.
CBP granted itself two substantial loopholes from this destruction rule. First, agents may retain information “relating to immigration, customs, or other enforcement matters” as allowed by various CBP record system rules. Second, agents must “promptly share any terrorism information” with other federal agencies, which will manage and dispose of that information in accordance with their own rules. It appears that the two exceptions swallow the rule.
The 2009 CBP policy empowers border agents to search devices, and authorized third parties to assist them, citing 19 U.S.C. § 507. But authorization to search devices does not mean travelers must disclose passwords. The cited statute, empowers border agents to “demand the assistance of any person” to conduct a border search, and allows a $1,000 fine against a person who “without reasonable excuse” refuses such assistance. But when Congress enacted this law in 1986, travelers were not carrying password-protected devices, so Congress could not have intended to address passwords. Even if it did, travelers have the ultimate “reasonable excuse”: protection of their constitutional liberties. Most importantly, a statute cannot strip travelers of their constitutional liberties.
In 2009, ICE issued a similar policy. It also authorizes searches and seizures “without individualized suspicion.” It sets a 30-day deadline for searches, though ICE managers may grant extensions.
Searching Cloud Content By Using Travelers’ Devices?
It would be easy for border |
primary rivals attempted to raise them in different ways during that election. (Wolf won the primary with nearly 58 percent of the party vote.)
The Corbett ad claims that Wolf got rich “off the backs of middle-class taxpayers.” How? The ad says “millions from the state’s pension fund were funneled into Wolf’s company” and that “after Wolf pocketed the money” the company laid off workers, and “to this day hard-working Pennsylvania taxpayers have never been repaid.”
The facts as we outlined them before are these: Wolf was part owner of the Wolf Organization, a kitchen cabinet and building supply company that had been in the family since its founding in 1843. Wolf and his cousins sold 47 percent of the firm in 2006 — not to the state pension fund — but to Weston Presidio Fund V. As we reported, the state pension fund was one of many investors in the diversified Fund V, and owned only 5 percent of the $1 billion investment fund.
The ad claims that Wolf “laid off his workers,” but that’s not accurate. The company’s troubles resulted from the 2007 financial crisis and the collapse of the housing bubble that year, which took place after Wolf was no longer in charge. And not mentioned in the Corbett ad is that of the $20 million that Wolf “pocketed” from the sale, he later reinvested $11 million to regain day-to-day control of the firm — saving it from foreclosure. The paper loss to the state pension fund would have been even greater had the company gone into foreclosure.By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
Hu Jia was arrested in his dining room, two days after Christmas
His wife, fellow activist Zeng Jinyan, is now under house arrest. At least 10 security personnel guard her home.
Mr Hu's arrest comes as China celebrates the start of one of its most important years in recent history.
This summer, all eyes will be on it as it plays host to the Olympic Games.
Foreign campaigners say Beijing has not fulfilled its promise to improve human rights ahead of the Olympics - a charge the Chinese government flatly denies.
But the country's human rights record - including Mr Hu's case - will be under scrutiny as much as its sporting endeavours.
'Inciting subversion'
Mr Hu was arrested two days after Christmas, during the afternoon, as he sat at his computer in the dining room of his home.
When officers barged into his flat, his wife was in the bedroom, feeding their two-and-a-half-month-old baby.
According to his arrest warrant, issued by the Beijing Public Security Bureau, the 34-year-old is accused of inciting subversion.
We've said very clearly that we want full respect of human rights
Olympic chief Jacques Rogge, 2004
Mr Hu is a well-known HIV/Aids activist who also helps publicise other human rights cases in China.
He has been arrested several times before.
On the night he was taken away, six police officers stayed at Mr Hu's home to guard his wife, her mother and their child.
Telephone lines and internet access to the home, in an eastern Beijing suburb, have been cut off.
When the BBC visited the couple's flat, we found Ms Zeng was being closely guarded by at least 10 public security officers.
We arrived as three of them were escorting her as she walked her baby in a shared garden next to her apartment.
Zeng Jinyan and her family are guarded by at least 10 people
Four of them then pushed the 24-year-old back towards her apartment.
"I try to be strong because I need to feed my baby, but during the first three days after my husband's arrest I lost 2kg," she said as she was forced away.
Still clutching her baby, she added: "I don't know where my husband is, because I have no contact with the outside world."
The officer in charge at the scene refused to say why Ms Zeng could not leave her home or why she could not be formally interviewed.
Redefining human rights
When China made its bid to stage this year's Olympic Games, it said the event would lead to improvements in the country's human rights situation.
The International Olympic Committee, which awarded Beijing the games, said it would keep a close eye on that record in the run-up to the event.
"We've said very clearly that we want full respect of human rights," Olympic chief Jacques Rogge told the BBC in 2004.
The democracy and human rights of the people will be vigorously enhanced and safeguarded
Liu Jingmin, Beijing Olympic organising committee
Some even claim the Chinese government is cracking down harder on dissenters as the Olympics approach, to prevent embarrassing demonstrations.
"As China prepares to welcome the world in 2008, it has to demonstrate that it respects human rights and the rule of law," said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, in response to Mr Hu's detention.
"Otherwise the promises made by the Chinese government to its people and the world will become increasingly meaningless."
Beijing sidesteps complaints about human rights abuses in China partly by redefining the term.
It claims human rights have more to do with providing people with food, clothing and shelter than with freedom of speech.
Liu Jingmin, executive vice-president of the Beijing Olympics organising committee, claimed in October that the games were promoting human rights in China.
"The Olympic preparatory work is progressing concurrently with China's development," he said.
"In the process, the democracy and human rights of the people will be vigorously enhanced and safeguarded."
If he could be contacted for a comment, Hu Jia would probably disagree.Click here for all of GameBeat’s 2015 Game Developers Conference coverage.
About 75 percent of game developers say that Steam and the PC platform is “very important” for the future of the game industry, according to a survey by the International Game Developers Association.
The survey of 2,200 developers show that many view the PC as the top platform for the next five years. And 25 percent of developers said that “proprietary platforms” such as virtual reality are also very important, said Kate Edwards, the executive director of the International Game Developers Association, in an interview with GamesBeat.
Those results suggest a good outlook for PC games, Steam Machines, and PC-related technologies such as virtual reality, Edwards said.
“It wasn’t surprising that consoles were falling on the list,” Edwards said. “Seeing iOS lower on the list was surprising to me while Android is rising.”
Those are some of the key findings of the 2014 survey on industry trends being released today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The IGDA is also just beginning to get respondents for its 2015 survey.
Here are some of the other key findings:
Seventy-four percent of developers rank the “advancement of game design” as being a “very important” issue for the industry’s future growth. “More diversity in game content” was at second place with 65 percent, and “advancement of storytelling” was third with 60 percent.
The issue of diversity in game content has been a huge issue in the past year, thanks in part to the Gamergate controversy, Edwards said. She noted that the Gamergate issue — which brings to mind issues around game journalism ethics as well as harassment of female game developers — isn’t over yet, and it is causing a larger conversation at companies such as Intel about the role of women and minorities in game development.
The need for “better monetization of games” ranked last with only 29 percent.
That last item tells you where game developers stand on prioritizing their craft issues, such as game design, over business issues such as monetization. That’s not a surprise, Edwards said, but it’s also an example of a disconnect between game developers and the executives or investors who fund them.
“That confirmed what a lot of us know anecdotally,” Edwards said.
On matters relating to jobs, 53 percent of respondents reported a positive 1-year outlook for the game industry; 17.3 percent considered it “very positive” while 35.6 percent indicated “somewhat positive.” Only 4 percent indicated a “very negative” outlook for employment in the games business.
Edwards said that the outlook in North America isn’t as ebullient as it is in the rest of the world. That’s partly because other countries have been doing better in generating revenues from mobile games compared to U.S. developers, who are coming from behind to one of the fastest-growing sectors of gaming.
The survey said 41 percent of respondents answered either “very negative” or “somewhat negative” when asked about job opportunities in the industry. 35 percent answered either “very positive” or “somewhat positive” and 24 percent remained neutral.
“The average number of jobs people had in five years was four, and only 70 percent of respondents had full-time permanent jobs,” Edwards said. “There is optimism about jobs, even though there isn’t real stability. The good thing is that a lot of the change is coming through choice, where people want to be independent rather than working for others.”Shopshop! This deck has all the shops! I want to go to the Shop!
Gene Conditioning Shoppe! Be even prettier with Symmetrical Visage! Laugh at IG with your Synthetic Blood! Use Enhanced Vision! Adjusted Chronotype lets you be Hard At Work at your Personal WorkShop and also party at Wildside or the Beach all night.
Game day at the Beach! Combo!
When Hard at Work at your Workshop, you might use a Stimhack. I hear that's pretty good.
Aesop's Pawnshop lets you sell all your junk. I hear he might take your Astrolabe on Trade-In towards a Toolbox. He's got lots of Sacrificial Constructs lying around, and loves to watch Daily Casts. Some of his stuff has been Modded.
Bishop comes up when I search for Shop, so it goes in the deck.
Film Critic can help watch out for your opponent's Shops. She's seen a number of Shops in her day, and can identify them because of the pixels.
The rest of the programs are just stuff I had lying around the Shop.
Shop!The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
All websites find and delete the article “Entomologists Report: Scholars Use ‘Daddy Xi’ to Name a New Type of Beetle” and related information. (July 11, 2016) [Chinese]
After discovering a new species of beetle from Hainan, Chinese scientist Wang Chengbin published an article in the peer-reviewed taxonomy journal Zootaxa declaring the new species’ name Rhyzodiastes (Temoana) xii—the “xii” a reference to President Xi Jinping. Explaining the name, the researcher said, “This specific epithet is dedicated to Dr. Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, for his leadership making our motherland stronger and stronger.” Web users and news editors represented the honorific naming in headlines and social media posts by drawing attention to Xi Jinping’s moniker “Daddy Xi” (Xi Dàda 习大大)—an endearing nickname that was once a part of Xi’s official image crafting campaign, but has more recently been downplayed by authorities.
At Global Voices, Oiwan Lam notes that search results for the Chinese translation of the new name (習氏狼條脊甲) have been blocked from Weibo. Lam continues to translate two netizen comments, the first in sarcastic praise of the efficiency of censors, and the second a poem written by historian Zhang Lifan in the spirit of Franz Kafka:
“The check on sensitive terms is so advanced. The post about the new bug named after XXX on [major social media platforms] Weibo, Duban and Ren Ren was deleted instantly. Should we say that XXX is not happy about the bug being named after him? An act of ass kissing now turns into ass kicking…” […] “The Metamorphosis
Confusion between ass kissing and advanced hacking [of meaning],
Name draws boundless imagination.
Natural-born dragon species,
Driving the dream in the air now turns into bug.” [Source]
Naming new species after government officials is a common practice. In 1999, a new species of sea slug was named after former South African President Nelson Mandela, and in 2012 a newly discovered trapdoor spider was named in honor of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors,who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. See CDT’s collection of Directives from the Ministry of Truth since 2011.Highway dumping of 25 dead ponies
Posted
Police in northern New South Wales are investigating the dumping of 25 dead ponies off a cliff near the New England Highway.
A tip-off led officers to the bodies about 1:00pm on Saturday.
The ponies had been dumped near a truck parking bay off the highway between Glen Innes and Armidale.
Police say there were no obvious signs of injury and no identifying marks to help locate an owner for the dead animals.
Officers photographed the horses before they were buried at the site.
They believe a small to medium-sized truck was used to dump the animals and have called for anyone with information to contact Glen Innes Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Topics: animals, police, animal-welfare, llangothlin-2365Republican senators on Wednesday blocked an effort to debate a bill that would prevent credit card companies from raising interest rates ahead of new regulations coming into force next year.
The move angered congressional Democrats who were pushing for an emergency freeze on credit card rates.
“I’m extremely disappointed that the financial health of millions of American taxpayers has been completely brushed aside by a handful of Wall Street banking interests in the US Senate,” Rep. Betsy Markey (D-CO) said, as quoted in the Coloradoan.
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), who heads the Senate Banking Committee, had authored a bill that would have prevented credit card issuers from hiking interest rates ahead of a new law coming into effect in February that restricts how and when rates can be raised.
Earlier this year, Dodd wrote and passed through the Senate the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which requires credit card issuers to give customers advance notice before hiking rates and fees.
That bill comes into force in February. But, as news sources reported earlier this year, credit card companies took advantage of the delay to hike interest rates before the bill became law.
Dodd’s latest bill would freeze credit card rates where they are now until the new law comes into effect next year. It would also require credit card companies to review all interest hikes going back to the beginning of 2009 to see if customers were overcharged.
But when Dodd asked for the Senate’s unanimous consent to discuss the bill, Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MI) “objected on the behalf of several of his GOP colleagues, preventing debate,” reports The Hill.
“Knowing that the Credit CARD Act would finally protect consumers from these abuses, the industry has tried to make one last grab for their customers’ pocketbooks,” Dodd said Wednesday.
“The reason we allowed a gap period between the passage of the legislation and the imposition of the regulations or the statutory requirements was because the industry came to me and said, you know senator, we’re going to need some time to administer, to change how we provide these kinds of benefits to people. So would you give us a little window here to operate?” Dodd said.
“Unfortunately they’ve taken that window and used it as a way to jam in on the consumers of this country,” Dodd said.
A Rasmussen poll released Tuesday shows that about half of Americans — 50 percent — saw their credit card interest rates go up in the past six months.CARACAS/HOUSTON (Reuters) - Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA, has relaunched a large tender for the drilling of 600 oil wells in the world’s largest crude reserves, sources with knowledge of the tender said this week, after a similar project collapsed last year amid concerns about transparency and political favoritism.
The logo of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is seen at a gas station in Caracas, Venezuela August 10, 2016. REUTERS/Marco Bello
Reuters reported last month that tiny Colombian trucking firm Trenaco, whose management was close to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, won a multibillion-dollar contract to carry out similar work despite having no relevant experience.
In a rare rebellion, foreign oil companies protested to PDVSA that Trenaco was vastly underqualified, leading to the cancellation of the $4.5 billion deal.
PDVSA has now revived a similar project but split it into six separate contracts of 100 wells each, three sources with knowledge of the tender told Reuters. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to jeopardize future business.
Three Orinoco Belt joint ventures - companies that are majority-owned by PDVSA with minority stakes held by foreign and local partners - are each offering two contracts for 100 wells each.
The joint ventures are Petrovictoria, which includes Russia’s Rosneft; Petrocarabobo, which includes Spain’s Repsol SA and India’s ONGC Videsh; and Petroindependencia, which includes Chevron Corp, Venezuela’s Suelopetrol, and Japanese companies Mitsubishi Corp and Inpex Corp.
Caracas-based PDVSA did not respond to a request for comment.
Five different oil services companies - one Venezuelan and four foreign - have submitted offers so far but PDVSA has not made a decision about awarding the contracts, according to one source. The state-run firm is asking potential providers to fully finance their projects.
Global oil services company Schlumberger NV, which has scaled back operations in Venezuela amid major payment delays, has submitted an offer to build 100 wells in Petrovictoria, according to one source.
The company said it could not discuss projects. Horizontal Well Drillers, an Oklahoma-based contractor specializing in drilling oil and gas wells in the United States and Mexico, has presented an offer, according to a representative.
It is unclear when a decision will be made. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s crude output is on track this year to suffer its steepest decline in 14 years after a long period of underinvestment and low crude prices.
The Reuters investigation of the initial tender process found that Trenaco had access to details of the project months before it was publicly tendered. Trenaco had also planned to outsource much of the work to more qualified firms.
Trenaco sources said the company was run by Colombian businessman Alex Saab, who they said was close to top figures in Maduro’s government. Saab denied having ever been an employee or shareholder of the firm.
Shortly after the story’s publication on July 26, PDVSA President Eulogio Del Pino said PDVSA had canceled the Trenaco deal after it realized the company was not capable of handling such a large project.
Cash-strapped PDVSA has suffered a slip in production due to maintenance problems, an energy squeeze, lower imports, theft and a brain drain. It has increasingly asked foreign companies to foot the bill for projects or operations.
But Venezuela is mired in a major economic crisis that has prompted mobs to loot supermarkets as inflation spirals into triple digits. Investing in the country, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, is viewed as risky.
PDVSA has accrued billions of dollars in debts to contractors. Payments to oil services companies have also been delayed, leading Halliburton Co, Schlumberger and other companies to scale back operations in Venezuela.Home Kitchen Food Storage > Prepper Pantry: How to Store Food
Pin 3K Shares
Growing your own food is a great way to save money and be less dependent on commercial grocery stores, but as we all know each crop has its season. When crops are growing, there’s an abundance of fresh, nutritious food to keep your family fed — but what do we do once the season ends?
Learning how to store food will help you get the most from your harvest.
Canning as a Method of Preserving Food
Pressure canning and water bath canning are two different methods people use to can their fresh goods. Water bath canning is only safe for foods that have a high level of acidity, like fruits, jellies/jams and pickles. Vegetables and low-acid foods like meat need to be preserved using a pressure canner to keep the pathogen levels at a safe amount, especially botulism. Incorrect canning results in unsafe food, reducing your stockpile and wasting resources.
Learn more: How to Preserve Food by Canning
Here are fruits and veggies that can very well.
Canning Fruits
Jonagold apples are a great choice for canning and applesauce, though Honeycrisp and Gala apples will do just as well. Don’t forget about apple butter too. I make a batch of apple and pear butter every year.
Nothing beats the taste of a ripe peach fresh off the tree; with water bath canning you can have peaches year round.
You may also can mangoes, guavas, apricots and berries.
Canning Vegetables
Not sure which vegetables are good for canning? Just take a look at the shelves in your local grocery store. Most veggies aren’t very acidic and will need to be pressure canned, with the exception of tomatoes.
Beans, carrots, peas, potatoes, asparagus, peppers, tomatoes, corn, pickled onions, pickles and cabbage are all great vegetables for canning.
Winter squash doesn’t need any special treatment. Crops like acorn squash, butternut squash and pumpkins can be stored in a cool, dark location for up to six months. Just harvest and store, no canning required.
Storing Food: Dehydrating
Dehydrating food is another great way to store the goods from your bountiful harvest. For those living off the grid, power usage is a large concern, so an electric dehydrator may not be a reasonable option. That’s where solar dehydrators come into play. Solar dryers will take more time to dehydrate fruits or vegetables — about a day or two versus the 8-12 hours that an electric dehydrator offers — but the solar option will reduce your energy usage. You can probably build your own for less than the cost of a good electric dehydrator.
When dehydrating, always cut your food into thin uniform slices so all the food dries quickly and the batch is complete all at once. Read on for more tips.
We at MomPrepares have used and recommend the Excalibur Dehydrator.
Dehydrating Vegetables
Tomatoes can be prepared for dehydration by dicing or simply slicing into rings, whichever size works best for your intended use.
Peppers are a colorful addition that can bring a lot of flavor to yours meals. Beware when dehydrating hot peppers, though, since dehydrating can concentrate the hotness of your peppers. – Read more about dehydrating peppers.
You can dehydrate broccoli and cauliflower by soaking in salt water for 10 minutes to clean the vegetables and then slicing florets into smaller pieces. Since broccoli can be quite fibrous, I recommend steaming for about 10 minutes, until the rich green color starts to come through. After steaming, your veggies are ready to be dehydrated.
Dehydrating Meat
Freezing dried meat will preserve it for several years, and vacuum sealing before freezing will prevent freezer burn. The temperature in a dehydrator isn’t high enough to kill all the harmful microorganisms that may be present in your meat, so cooking before you dehydrate is a must to make your food safe.
Ground beef doesn’t rehydrate very well but there’s a trick to get around that — adding breadcrumbs to your meat before cooking. The breadcrumbs allow the meat to absorb more water when rehydrating so they come out tender.
Squeeze cooked meats between paper towels and blot to remove as much oil as possible before dehydrating, since oil can cause the meat to go rancid.
Learn more: How to Re-hydrate Dried Meat
Dehydrating Fruit
When choosing fruit to dehydrate, you want to make sure your harvest is ripe but not overripe. Try to avoid bruised fruit. If dehydrating fruit with skin on, wash thoroughly to remove the waxy coating from the fruit. Your fruit should be leathery or pliable when finished, not brittle. It should bend in your hands, not snap.
Bananas are best for dehydrating when there are a few brown flecks on the skin but before they’re too ripe. This is when the fruit has the perfect amount of sweetness.
Pineapple can be dried after coring to remove the fibrous part of the plant. You can even dehydrate canned pineapple, but it will take longer because of the extra juices.
Dehydrated peaches combined with sugar and bread crumbs will make an excellent peach cobbler. There’s no reason your prep pantry can’t be full of delicious food.
Dried strawberries make a great snack or they can be rehydrated and used to make strawberry shortcake.
Canned and dehydrated foods are a great way to ensure you always have nutritious food on hand.
Storing your foods will stretch your harvest and make it last through the year. When you think you have too much food to eat before it goes bad, it’s time to break out the canning and dehydrating supplies. Always check your stored goods closely for any signs they’re improperly sealed or starting to go bad.
Ali Lawrence is a kombucha tea-sipping writer who focuses on healthy and sustainable living via her family blog, Homey Improvements. She also writes about DIY projects, home tips, and gardening. Ali was born and raised in Alaska and dabbles in Pilates and party planning. Find her on Twitter at @DIYfolks.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Another dramatic showdown between Republicans and the White House over federal spending looks inevitable this fall, with scary talk of government shutdowns and default on government debt.
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the U.S. economy inside the main warehouse at the Jacksonville Port in Florida, July 25, 2013. REUTERS/Larry Downing
While Capitol Hill analysts are not predicting catastrophe, they have several reasons to worry that the conflict just weeks away could be even worse than usual.
The timing is particularly bad, they say, because the political climate in Washington is unusually frayed by a host of tangential issues not present in previous battles.
Obama and Congress face two fiscal deadlines in quick succession. They must agree by October 1 on a stop-gap measure to keep the government funded or face a shutdown.
And in early November, Congress must raise the legal limit on the country’s borrowing authority or risk an unprecedented default on the government’s debt, a much more consequential event than a shutdown because of its potential to cause chaos in financial markets and harm the economy.
This time around, the Republicans, who control the U.S. House of Representatives, are expected to use the deadlines as they have in the past as leverage to extract spending reductions from President Barack Obama.
With the two dates so close, some members of Congress, including some Republican leaders, think they could influence each other, and not for the better.
There’s a chance, for example, that conservatives, particularly on the eve of the 2014 midterm election campaign, may be willing to hold out for a shutdown in order to show they mean business in advance of the debt limit fight.
Analysts also fear that if conservatives lose the battle over government funding - and get no concessions from Democrats - they will be all the more determined to take a hard line on the debt ceiling.
Conservative anger at Obama has risen in the last few months, thanks in part to the controversy surrounding the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status and the implementation of Obamacare, the president’s signature health care reform law, which starts officially on October 1, just as the fiscal battles intensify.
Washington is gearing up for another showdown over the budget even though two prior confrontations resulted in political damage for both Obama and congressional Republicans.
The most recent fight, which played out in late 2012 and was resolved late in the evening on New Year’s Day, left Republicans frustrated because it resulted in tax increases on the wealthy.
The standoff over the debt limit in July and August of 2011 was more unsettling to financial markets because of the risk of a default. The impasse triggered a downgrade of the country’s credit rating.
OBAMACARE FACTOR
Some Republicans, including conservative Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida want to link the fiscal deadlines with Obamacare, demanding the withholding of funding for the health care law as part of any deal to avoid a shutdown.
Texas Republican Representative Pete Sessions expressed concern about House members splintering their demands, with various factions focusing on different issues.
“I’m not so worried about a hard line. I’m worried about members drawing different lines,” he said, staking out positions on tax policy, Obamacare, or approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
Meanwhile, with Congress set to leave town August 2 for a five-week recess, there are few signs of any substantive negotiations.
Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner rarely have direct conversations. At the staff level, White House aides and House Republican leadership staff “are in regular but not terribly substantive communication,” said a senior Republican aide.
The one avenue for communication are budget talks between the White House and a handful of Republican senators, most of whom have a reputations as dealmakers, including Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona.
TALKS GOING NOWHERE
By all accounts, there has been scant progress in these talks, which have not even included proposals for specific cuts.
The battle started taking shape this week.
Obama began touring the country, punctuating his comments about the economy with warnings to Republicans not to “manufacture another crisis.”
Congressional Republican and Democratic leaders ramped up their rhetoric as well, accusing each other in exchanges on the House floor of spoiling for a fight.
Further exchanges are likely this weekend, with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew scheduled for a round of appearances on Sunday interview shows.
The last government shutdowns forced by House Republicans in late 1995 and early 1996 under then-Speaker Newt Gingrich backfired badly for them, helping to seal Bill Clinton’s re-election as president later that year.
Some Republican moderates remember those days well and caution against risking a shutdown or a default.
“Those are the kinds of things that would put the Republican majority in the House in jeopardy and make it essentially impossible to win the majority in the Senate,” said Representative Tom Cole, a Republican moderate from Oklahoma.
Others are unafraid.
“A lot of folks see this as a crisis. It’s an opportunity,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, a Kansas Republican.EXCLUSIVE: Annapurna has set The Shallows helmer Jaume Collet-Serra to direct Waco, a drama scripted by Zero Dark Thirty’s Mark Boal and Kubo and the Two Strings’ Marc Haimes about the 1993 standoff between the FBI and Texas state law enforcement and the David Koresh-led Branch Davidians that turned the sleepy town of Elk, just outside of Waco, into a battle zone. A 51-day standoff ended with 76 people dead as the cult’s compound was engulfed by a raging fire.
The film will be produced by Annapurna and Page 1, the producing shingle Boal set at Annapurna after Zero Dark Thirty that is producing the upcoming Kathryn Bigelow-directed Detroit, the drama about the 1967 riots and uprising in Michigan’s largest city that Annapurna will release August 4. Boal will produce Waco with Megan Ellison and Matthew Budman, along with Page 1’s Hugo Lindgren and Jon Leven.
Boal confirmed the film to Deadline and said the hope is to start production later this year, with casting to get underway shortly and several strong roles in the ensemble including Koresh and the elite FBI agents tasked with stopping him. Collet-Serra, the Spanish director who broke into Hollywood with the genre hit Orphan, followed with the hits Non-Stop and The Shallows and has upcoming the 2018 Liam Neeson starrer The Commuter. Boal said that the filmmaker has been an unsung hitmaker who is ready to take the step up to a period drama that has relevance to the political maelstrom that has engulfed the Trump administration.
“Waco was a turning point in history in the battle between the FBI and the far right in America,” Boal said. “It is a collision between a militant faction, the Second Amendment and the right to religious freedom. Many said this cult was not bothering anyone; this is about what the FBI and Justice Department perceived as a threat, and why and how the FBI came in and crushed it.”
The film covers the buildup of the Branch Davidians, a sect that broke from the Seventh-ay Adventist Church and was led by the shadowy but charismatic Koresh, and the primary FBI agents tasked by the Justice Department to bring to heel what law enforcement considered a dangerous cult that was suspected of stockpiling weapons. It started with a search warrant from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and escalated into intense gunfire when the ATF raided the ranch that resulted in the deaths of four government agents and six Branch Davidians.
The standoff ended when the FBI raided the compound to force the Branch Davidians out of their headquarters, after which the fire resulted. A Justice Department investigation concluded that Koresh and his followers started the blaze.
“Jaume is a filmmaker who has proven himself to have a strong connection to mainstream audiences,” Boal said. “His work also shows a high level of artistic ambition, and this is an opportunity to combine those elements in telling a story that started in a small Texas town and reached up to the highest levels of government.”
Page 1 separately is producing Triple Frontier, the film that Boal scripted and JC Chandor will direct. It came loose from Paramount, and Netflix and others have engaged in talks to pick it up, possibly with Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck in the starring roles. Page 1 also is working on a limited series about the 2016 presidential election. Boal won two Oscars for writing and producing The Hurt Locker.
Collet-Serra and Boal are repped by CAA and Management 360; Haimes is repped by WMESALT LAKE CITY -- A group that represents Utah bars and restaurants wants a judge to ban state legislators from considering input from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they draft liquor laws. But others say that violates the right to free speech.
The Utah Hospitality Association claims that it's unconstitutional for the state to consider the views of the LDS church when making liquor laws. That claim is part of an amended lawsuit that was filed in U.S. District Court last week. The original lawsuit was filed in June.
The lawsuit targets SB314, which bans daily drink specials and ties the number of liquor licenses to population totals and the number of state-employed police officers.
Utah Hospitality Association board spokesman Ken Wynn says the LDS church voiced its opinion when the bill was being created, and that doing so influenced lawmakers.
"I don't deny them their right to get involved in it, but when they're so one-handed and so heavy handed and when they refuse to listen to anybody else - they won't even talk to us. They're getting one side from somebody, I don't even know who," he said.
A church spokesman declined comment about the lawsuit, but Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, did respond. He confirmed that the LDS church was one of the stakeholders when determining alcohol policy in the state, but he says so are a lot of other groups including the Restaurant Association and the Hotel Association.
"I'm surprised that anybody would go to the courts to prohibit another person from redressing their government, from being able to have free speech, to say ‘This is how we feel' about a particular issue," he said.
The Utah Hospitality Association hopes by filing the lawsuit to eventually do away with SB314.
----
Written with contributions from Shara Park and Andrew Adams.
×
Related Links
Related StoriesThe cost of Parliament's dual citizenship imbroglio has been laid bare in the Turnbull government's mid-year budget update.
Taxpayers will fork out $11.6 million in the 2017-18 financial year for legal costs arising from the saga, which has dragged on for nearly half a year and seen a slew of MPs appear before the High Court.
Some of Australia's top silks were enlisted to battle it out in the landmark 'citizenship seven' case, which ended with five MPs including Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, deputy Nationals leader Fiona Nash and One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts being thrown out of Parliament.
Mr Joyce was represented by leading barrister Bret Walker SC. Former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson SC and former Federal Court judge Ron Merkel QC represented Mr Joyce's challenger at the 2016 election, Tony Windsor, who argued for the Nationals leader's elimination.The 1990s – what a time to be an Evertonian! Brushes with relegation, financial ups and downs, a club drifting without purpose; it was a decade that saw Everton fall off the pace, abandoning the club’s long-held position as a member of English football’s elite. Jim Keoghan’s Highs, Lows and Bakayokos explores this transformative time for one of the game’s oldest and grandest clubs. It searches for the causes of Everton’s troubles, looking for reasons why peers raced away, grasping the opportunities presented by the dawning of the Sky era.
It’s May 1998, the final game of the season, and for the second time that decade Everton FC are fighting for survival. Third from bottom, the club needs to win and hope that relegation rivals Bolton Wanderers stumble. With Everton 1-0 up at home to Coventry City, and Bolton losing away to Chelsea, survival seems assured. A penalty for the home side late on in the second half appears to provide the opportunity to put matters to rest. But back then, when did Everton ever make life easy for their fans…
Nick Barmby stood over the ball, in front him the goal and behind that 10,000 Evertonians standing in anticipation, the entire Gwladys Street waiting to erupt in celebration. He ran up and struck it hard to the keeper’s right. I can still see the ball’s trajectory if I close my eyes. From the moment it left the spot and the keeper started to move the right way you just knew it wasn’t going in. It was too close to Hedman, too easy to push behind for a corner. Everton’s chance to finish this game had been and gone.
‘I dropped to my knees, the tears started to build |
Ahmad, press secretary to the Prime Minister, said in a statement.
Everett Klippert in 1984, about the time he got married – to a woman he ‘just doted on,’ his nephew recalls. FAMILY PHOTO
Everett George Klippert, who was born in 1926, was convicted of 18 counts of gross indecency by a Calgary court in 1960, and spent four years in prison after pleading guilty to having consensual sex short of intercourse with other men. (Intercourse, or "buggery," was a separate offence.) After a second conviction in 1965 in Hay River, NWT, on four additional counts of gross indecency, and a sentence of a further three years, the Crown attorney in Yellowknife applied to have him designated a dangerous sexual offender.
Two psychiatrists who examined Mr. Klippert said that he was not a pedophile or in any way inclined to violence – they found him "intelligent," "courteous" and "sensitive" – but concluded he was likely to once again seek out sex with men upon his release. For that reason, Justice John Sissons went ahead and designated Mr. Klippert a dangerous sexual offender, subject to life imprison– ment.
The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the designation in a 3-to-2 ruling in 1967, causing a furor in Parliament and the press. A month later, then-justice minister Pierre Trudeau introduced legislation that, among other provisions, decriminalized consensual homosexual acts between two adult men.
"There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation," he told reporters, echoing a Globe and Mail editorial of the week before.
A similar bill became law in 1969, when Mr. Trudeau was prime minister. But for reasons that remain unclear, Mr. Klippert was not released on parole until 1971, having spent a total of 10 years in prison.
The government's statement this week said: "As Canadians, we know that protecting and promoting fundamental human rights must be an imperative for governments and individuals alike – and this includes gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. We have made great strides in securing legal rights for the LGBTQ2 [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, and two-spirited] community in Canada … but the fight to end discrimination is not over and a lot of hard work remains.
Story continues below advertisement
"Canadians know our country is made stronger because of our diversity, not in spite of it."
After his release from prison, Mr. Klippert moved to Edmonton, where he found work as a truck driver. He died in 1996, at the age of 69.
Laws prohibiting sexual acts between men, accompanied by very stiff penalties, predate Confederation. (The laws did not appear to contemplate the possibility of sex between women.) In the 1950s, governments in developed countries confronted two conflicting forces: the fear that homosexuals either were inclined to support communism or susceptible to blackmail by communists, and increasing pressure by voters – especially younger voters – to liberalize laws relating to sexuality.
While England and Wales decriminalized homosexual acts in 1967, in Canada the government of John Diefenbaker decided to toughen existing laws. In 1961, it changed the definition of a dangerous sexual offender to include anyone who was likely to re-offend after committing a sexual offence. Mr. Klippert was the first and only person to be held in preventive detention – in effect, a life sentence – because a judge found he was likely to continue to seek out other men for sex after he was released.
Although the Supreme Court upheld the designation, Chief Justice John Cartwright wrote a stinging dissent, saying "it means that every man in Canada who indulges in sexual misconduct … with another consenting adult male and who appears likely, if at liberty, to continue such misconduct should be sentenced to preventive detention," which "would bring about serious overcrowding" in the nation's prisons.
MORE FROM THE GLOBE AND MAILUber-portable, sexy touch screen goodness that does almost everything an iPhone can... in half the size.
So we’ve had the iPhone, the LG Prada ‘fashion iPhone’, the Samsung F700/F520 ‘smart iPhone’ and now the Neonode N2 ‘pocket iPhone’.
Like the others the N2 sports a touchscreen which near fills the front of the handset and though it only measures two inches (176 x 220) that is proportionately vast for its teeny 47 x 77 x 14.7mm dimensions and 70g weight.
Perhaps just as interesting as the display however is the interface: a proprietary offering from Neonode itself which uses touch ‘gestures’. Unsurprisingly this system is extremely similar to Apple’s iPhone ‘Multi-touch’ input method where commands are issued from finger strokes around the screen not just presses.
On a side note – considering the device looks to run on Windows Mobile (it employs Microsoft’s ActiveSync, Calendar and Address Book software) – it appears Microsoft based devices will be compatible with such interface upgrades. Patch for my HTC TyTN anyone?
Getting back to the N2 this ultra portable handset still crams in the features with a 2MP camera, audio and video codec support and four hours talk time, 200 hours standby.
Predictably there’s no release date yet for the N2 but if Apple’s lawyers don’t get it first sign me up for one.
”’Update:”’ Thanks to hyper vigilant reader Richard we now know the N2 will be arriving May. He also points out, rather interestingly, that the Neonode N1 also had a touchscreen and launched in 2004 so eat that Apple legal team. Personally, I hadn’t heard of Neonode before this so slap me on the back of the legs and call me Nigel. Actually, skip the ‘Nigel’ part, it’s too cruel.
Link:
Neonode N2 Product PageDear black people: your lack of solidarity for white crime victims ensured #DarrenWilson walking - Andrew Auernheimer Oðinnsson. Market abuser. Internationally notorious computer criminal. weev
Dear black people: your lack of solidarity for white crime victims ensured #DarrenWilson walking
Darren Wilson walking free is a travesty. That he is not in prison is a blow for the legitimacy of Constitutional government. However, this has absolutely nothing to do with racism. The black community has done themselves a disservice and corrupt law enforcement a huge favor by pretending it is. I was there
The reality of interracial crime is that the vast majority of it is black on white. We are talking, for example,
Michael Brown should not have been shot, but he was no angel. He had just robbed a store. You know who was an angel? Vicki Weaver. She had committed no crime, and she was shot in the back by a non-white FBI sniper while she was holding her infant child. This, of course, was the day after she saw her 14 year old son murdered by feds. FBI Special Agent Lon Horuichi never faced any charges. This was the single most egregious act of cold-blooded law enforcement murder in the history of the United States. You know what the black community said about this? Absolutely nothing. You think black cops aren't still killing white people?
The real issue in this is that of an obvious moral hazard. Law enforcement agents have a very close relationship with prosecutors. They commit atrocities against human rights very frequently to help prosecutors build cases. Prosecutors are thus indebted to law enforcement officers. When law enforcement officers do wrong, the only people to indict them are their friends on the same side of the isle. Grand juries universally follow prosecutor desires. A prosecutor can, of course, indict a ham sandwich. I was personally kidnapped at gunpoint from my birthplace to a foreign territory regardless of the fact that I had not committed a crime, and it was treasonously unconstitutional to do that to me. A prosecutor can indict whomever he wants, and exculpatory evidence (that which can suggest a defendant's innocence) and the alleged criminal's testimony is never presented to a grand jury. I very aggressively tried to testify at my grand jury. I was denied this because it never happens, except, of course, in the case where the potential defendant is part of the law enforcement establishment. As such, law enforcement agents will never be able to be lawfully punished for their misdeeds. This is why I think men like Tim McVeigh and Andrew Stack are heroes: they are the only people to ever bring the murderous, thieving terrorists of the state to justice. I wish for their resurrection every day, but I'd actually rather see murdering cop thugs tried in a court that isn't a complete sham and humanely executed afterwards.
Now, it is obvious that Officer Wilson's testimony was not true. There has been much coverage of the fact that the police continually changed their story about the distance from which he was shot (35 feet on day two, but photographs of where the SUV and Brown's corpse showed more along the lines of 150 which was eventually admitted on TV by a STL officer). There's also the issue of the wounding pattern. Take a look at
I hate cops just as much as the black community. I think all cops are subhuman garbage that need to be taught a lesson. However, your insistence that they only deserve such lessons when their victims are black is playing a very old and tired race card. Nobody wants to hear it anymore. As a victim of racially motivated violence perpetrated against me by minorities I sure as hell don't. I want to see you get justice, but you are making it impossible to do so. This Thanksgiving I offer black people some advice should they actually want to see revolutionary courts give murderers in law enforcement the executions they truly deserve:
Stop saying white people have violence coming to them. Stop having your commentators pretend this isn't a common sentiment amongst black people. Only the dumbest among us will believe you. Bring those among your communities who commit violence against whites to justice. Show some support for white victims of state violence, just as we white folk show support for black ones. Seriously, some marches of equivalent size for some dead white women would do a lot to endear you to the people from my hometown.
Eternally your servant in escalation of entropy and eschaton,
Andrew "weev" Auernheimer Darren Wilson walking free is a travesty. That he is not in prison is a blow for the legitimacy of Constitutional government. However, this has absolutely nothing to do with racism. The black community has done themselves a disservice and corrupt law enforcement a huge favor by pretending it is. I was there to speak out about the injustice of the murder of Oscar Grant, and I am here to speak out about the injustice of the murder of Michael Brown. Thousands of white people opened their mouths to say those murders are unacceptable. These events are purely wrong, but please stop pretending the victim's race is the real issue.The reality of interracial crime is that the vast majority of it is black on white. We are talking, for example, of tens of thousands of black-on-white rapes per year. Black people are murdering, raping, and stealing from whites with near impunity. Whites do not retaliate. Blacks talk of white people having it coming. Real talk: the totality of all historical black-on-white violence far exceeds that of white-on-black (the irony of the fact that both of these are dwarfed by the totality of black-on-black violence, while not as relevant to this discussion, should also be apparent). If that debt was to be repaid in blood, it has been repaid in spades. You want to pretend four hundred years of slavery is justification for violence? I am a Slav. The very word "slave" comes from the name of my race. After four thousand years of servitude you can claim your racial reparations check would be as big as mine, and yet you don't see my people asking for it. I have more important debts to be paid to me than the ones from hundreds of years ago.Michael Brown should not have been shot, but he was no angel. He had just robbed a store. You know who was an angel? Vicki Weaver. She had committed no crime, and she was shot in the back by a non-white FBI sniper while she was holding her infant child. This, of course, was the day after she saw her 14 year old son murdered by feds. FBI Special Agent Lon Horuichi never faced any charges. This was the single most egregious act of cold-blooded law enforcement murder in the history of the United States. You know what the black community said about this? Absolutely nothing. You think black cops aren't still killing white people? Please get informed. There is racial bias in how cases of interracial violence are handled: minorities are the perpetrators of most interracial violence and still show absolutely no solidarity with white victims. Where were the riots when 76 innocent men, women, and children were murdered at Waco? Where is the minority outrage for the tens of thousands of white US citizens murdered and raped by blacks every year?The real issue in this is that of an obvious moral hazard. Law enforcement agents have a very close relationship with prosecutors. They commit atrocities against human rights very frequently to help prosecutors build cases. Prosecutors are thus indebted to law enforcement officers. When law enforcement officers do wrong, the only people to indict them are their friends on the same side of the isle. Grand juries universally follow prosecutor desires. A prosecutor can, of course, indict a ham sandwich. I was personally kidnapped at gunpoint from my birthplace to a foreign territory regardless of the fact that. A prosecutor can indict whomever he wants, and exculpatory evidence (that which can suggest a defendant's innocence) and the alleged criminal's testimony is never presented to a grand jury. I very aggressively tried to testify at my grand jury. I was denied this because it never happens, except, of course, in the case where the potential defendant is part of the law enforcement establishment. As such, law enforcement agents will never be able to be lawfully punished for their misdeeds. This is why I think men like Tim McVeigh and Andrew Stack are heroes: they are the only people to ever bring the murderous, thieving terrorists of the state to justice. I wish for their resurrection every day, but I'd actually rather see murdering cop thugs tried in a court that isn't a complete sham and humanely executed afterwards.Now, it is obvious that Officer Wilson's testimony was not true. There has been much coverage of the fact that the police continually changed their story about the distance from which he was shot (35 feet on day two, but photographs of where the SUV and Brown's corpse showed more along the lines of 150 which was eventually admitted on TV by a STL officer). There's also the issue of the wounding pattern. Take a look at the autopsy diagram in the New York Times. See the anterior wound in the forearm? Put your finger on that spot and simply rotate your arm until that wound faces forward. That's right, put your hands up. #HandsUpDontShoot is actually for real. Even after the fact that witness testimony is normally never presented at a grand jury, normally a prosecutor with a witness on the stand would present the witness would confront him with his testimony being conflicted by a mountain of evidence. There was no such confrontation here.I hate cops just as much as the black community. I think all cops are subhuman garbage that need to be taught a lesson. However, your insistence that they only deserve such lessons when their victims are black is playing a very old and tired race card. Nobody wants to hear it anymore. As a victim of racially motivated violence perpetrated against me by minorities I sure as hell don't. I want to see you get justice, but you are making it impossible to do so. This Thanksgiving I offer black people some advice should they actually want to see revolutionary courts give murderers in law enforcement the executions they truly deserve:Eternally your servant in escalation of entropy and eschaton,Andrew "weev" Auernheimer From: (Anonymous) Date: November 27th, 2014 08:15 pm (UTC) (link) The statistics David Duke cites are counting Hispanic/Spanish/Latino/whatever you call them as "white". Both "black-on-white" crimes disproportionately involve Hispanic people as "white". Which makes sense. And if you move other, call them "border-line" groups whose socioeconomic status and complexion is often closer to that of the Hispanic population than the capital W White population (Turkish, Greek, Arab, Armenian, Italian, Sephardic/eastern Jewish, Arab, etc) yet are even more likely than Hispanics to get counted as "white", I suspect that the "black-on-white" crime rate goes down even more. People who live in areas with a large black population are much more likely to be victims of black criminals, and by and large these people are not likely to be bona fide white people.
Ruby Ridge was something that should have provoked outrage from all across society (though it happened so long ago that most of the blacks who are up in arms about Ferguson were little kids at the time). I would argue that people like yourself are too worried about black people. Vicki Weaver didn't need the support of the black community. She needed the support of the white community. She didn't get it cause mainstream America isn't just complacent when it comes to dropping bombs on Arabs, they're also complacent when it comes to the government doing anything to anyone who isn't them, even without the "militia" aspect people would still have tuned it out. And blacks (and whites) on the fast track to becoming unimportant in this country as groups. The only reason blacks are important at all is a historical tendency to rally as a community, and that's going out the door and would be irrelevant anyhow given how blacks are an increasingly small minority.
I would say that the important group is the growing "post-racial" majority, except it isn't. There isn't an important group Anyone worried about swaying public opinion is a fool. Anyone who gets caught up in a "movement" is a bigger one. From: (Anonymous) Date: December 10th, 2014 02:14 pm (UTC) (link) Isn't the black population increasing? If basing their minority status primarily off of population numbers, they'll continue to grow in number. How are they an 'increasingly small minority'? Perhaps you could argue a cultural decline, as you have, but off of sheer population growth their decline has a minority is not the case. From: weev Date: December 11th, 2014 04:04 pm (UTC) (link) per capita, they are being supplanted rapidly by hispanics. they are not keeping population parity From: jedigandalf Date: November 30th, 2014 09:35 am (UTC) (link)
It's between field niggas and slaves that are stuck in the house...
...If you on the bottom, be you Anglo or Asian
You gotta recognize the realness of what I'm saying
You gotta recognize another G ain't the enemy..." ---Civil War (Immortal Technique)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRhsswpEjYo
This post reminded me of this though. Don't even really care for rap personally, but there are times...
"So fuck a Civil War between the North and the SouthIt's between field niggas and slaves that are stuck in the house......If you on the bottom, be you Anglo or AsianYou gotta recognize the realness of what I'm sayingYou gotta recognize another G ain't the enemy..." ---Civil War (Immortal Technique)This post reminded me of this though. Don't even really care for rap personally, but there are times... From: weev Date: November 30th, 2014 01:57 pm (UTC) (link) Yeah, I don't like hiphop but I do listen to Immortal Technique. "Cause of Death" is basically the best Jews did WTC indictment ever From: (Anonymous) Date: October 23rd, 2015 11:40 pm (UTC) (link) You're confused.
If Brown had indeed just robbed a store then of course he should have been shot, regardless of race.
However, there's another issue, highlighting your contradictions of thought, that does bear on race:
I gather that you're a race separatist. How do you imagine that a purely white community will maintain its separateness if not by the threat of deadly force? That is, in this interconnected world where geographic isolation is a fading dream, its only going to work if non-whites are deterred from entering an area by the real possibility of being shot on sight, without judicial or administrative procedure.
Regarding the extreme, social asymmetry of both crime and punishment that you quite rightly point out, you don't offer any remedy; your article is no more than an extended complaint, without coming to much of a conclusion. The conclusion that you might reach, if you thought the matter through from your separatist premises, is that peacetime rules of conduct no longer apply, since there are identifiable enemy formations that don't reciprocate such behavior, and instead, the simpler and more relaxed rules of war apply.
From: weev Date: October 24th, 2015 01:35 am (UTC) (link) I'm pointing out the hypocrisy for a reason. I have advocated violence elsewhere. From: (Anonymous) Date: December 9th, 2015 01:57 pm (UTC) (link) Michael Brown's entrance and exit wounds You are absolutely correct about solidarity. People exclusively care about their own identity group when they demand empathy, sympathy, and support. Those making such demands are almost by definition against you if you are not one of them.
As for Michael Brown's gunshot wounds, they do not mean he had his hands up in surrender and compliance. His arms were up because he was charging Darren Wilson and started to receive fire. Anyone would put their hands up at that point.
Thanks for the article. (no subject) - cezi78 ExpandAn anonymous tipster wrote to us this morning to tell us that Cuil, the ill-fated “Google Killer,” has unleashed its Twiceler indexing bot on websites across the globe and in the process, has brought many sites down.
“I don’t know what spawned it, but when Cuil attempts to index a site, it does so by completely hammering it with traffic,” the tipster wrote. “So much, that it completely brings the site down. We’re 24 hours into this “index” of the site, and I’ve had to restrict traffic to the site down to 2 packets per second, while discarding the rest, or otherwise it makes the site unusable.”
The Admin Zone forums are abuzz over Cuil’s overzealous method for indexing. Countless posters on the site have said that their websites have been brought down because of the Twiceler robot and one user said it “leeched enormous amounts of bandwidth — nearly 2GB this month until it was blocked. It visited nearly 70,000 times!”
Website owners are also saying that the way Cuil indexes sites isn’t scientific in any way and is actually quite “amateurish.” According to those who experienced the Twiceler onslaught, the bot seems to “randomly hit a site and continue to guess and generate pseudo-random URLs in an attempt to find pages that aren’t accessible by links. And by doing this, they completely bring a site down to where it’s not functional.”
Upset site owners contacted Cuil to see why Twiceler was hitting sites so often. James Akers, Cuil’s Operational Engineer responded to the issue by saying that “Twiceler is an experimental crawler that we are developing for our new search engine. It is important to us that it obey robots.txt, and that it not crawl sites that do not wish to be crawled. If you wish I will glad to add your site to our list of sites to exclude, but I need you to tell the site name to block as email return addresses frequently from the domains that wish to be blocked.”
Akers also claims that Cuil has seen a “number of crawlers” that pretend to be Twiceler, and site owners should consult the company’s IP addresses page to determine if it’s really Cuil causing all the trouble.
Cuil has yet to respond to a request for comment, but it doesn’t look like the pelting of sites by the company’s Twiceler bot is an isolated incident. And if it’s true that Twiceler is trying to find pages on sites that don’t even exist to simply increase the index size, Cuil should work quickly to modify the bot before it receives even more negative publicity.This motorcycle embraces two very different dynamics. On the one hand, it's quite possibly the most expensive motorcycle ever built, with some experts speculating that the frame alone is worth $1 million. On the other hand, it looks old and beaten up, like a steampunk MadMax.Designed by an extremely wealthy Turkish motorcycle fan, Tarhan Telli, the basics are include an 1801cc V-Twin with 125 horsepower, a six-speed transmission and a 700-pound curb weight. But what makes it special, aside from the frame that's made entirely from gold, is the artistry. As Motorcycle explains, Telli wanted high-end materials, like the gold, but wasn't looking for something shouty, opting for worn materials with interesting patinas. So, basically, he commissioned a bike with a frame made from gold, but didn't want it to be too loud, so he went to further lengths to obscure the gold finish. This may be the world's biggest humblebrag.Telli has approached the Guinness Book of World Records to get his one-off creation certified as the world's most expensive motorcycle. He isn't revealing what it cost him to build, but if he spent a million bucks on the frame, we'd expect the entire bike might be a few times that. Scroll down for the video.While they say that “politics makes strange bedfellows”, the sleeping arrangements at Brampton City Hall seem to be a colossal version of strange.
You would be forgiven if you missed the details of this story because the local media didn’t report what really happened at a sleepy Council Meeting approximately ten hours after the (in)famous LRT vote at the Rose Theatre, when a Councillor accused of breaking the rules was let go with just a warning.
On that day’s Agenda were two special items for elected officials to deal with; two Integrity Commissioner Reports based on complaints against three Councillors. The first complaint filed by a resident, accused Councillors Moore and Gibson of having a conflict of interest in a decision to hire a facilitator that had donated to their reelection campaigns. In his report, the Integrity Commissioner ruled they had broken no rules and summarily dismissed the complaint; they were free to go. The second complaint, filed by Mayor Linda Jeffrey against Councillor John Sprovieri alleged that the Councillor had broken the Code of Conduct by releasing confidential information that pertained to a $28 Million lawsuit against the City by a local developer.
In his report to Council that day, the Integrity Commissioner agreed with the claim and declared that Councillor Sprovieri had indeed broken the rules and that he had done so to a serious degree, serious enough that the report recommended the Councillor be penalized an amount equal to 60 day’s salary.
Now, earlier in the meeting, Councillors Moore and Gibson had declared a conflict of interest with respect to the Integrity Commissioner’s report on their two cases; however, video recordings reveal that Councillor Sprovieri had not done so, even though the report in his case indicated that he was looking at a financial loss; in other words, he had a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the report’s findings and recommendations. A member of Council is required to declare a conflict of interest in this type of situation.
Not only did Councillor Sprovieri not declare his conflict, to the shock of observers in the room, and despite pleadings from the Mayor that he stop, Councillor Sprovieri proceeded to grill the Integrity Commissioner on items related to his case, which according to the rules, is also not permitted.
Once he was done, the Councillor abruptly rose from his seat and left the room, leaving the remaining members wondering if what had just happened was legal insofar as the rules were concerned. When asked, the City Clerk affirmed that the rules clearly stated that a member of a Council must declare a conflict of interest when they have a pecuniary interest in a matter before Council and that they are not permitted to address Council in any way about it.
What followed was a series of questions back and forth by Councillors, some expressions of regret to see such a serious fine levied against a fellow Councillor, and some clever wordsmithing of the penalty statement which ended in Councillor Sprovieri receiving the equivalent of a slap on the wrist; no financial penalty needed. Despite the recommendations of the report; the only penalty was a warning to the Councillor to never do it again or else next time, a fine would be imposed..
The vote, incredibly, was unanimously passed 10-0. It’s likely now, based on his actions, that we will see another complaint against one of the members of the “Brampton Six” as they are now called. The Mayor herself, in thanking the Integrity Commissioner for his work, expressed that they would all meet again, probably very soon. But one wonders if there is any point to these investigations, because more often than not, nothing ever comes out of them. Despite a strong verdict against one of their own, this Council once again found themselves able to make a decision they could all agree on, and that would suggest that despite their differences, this Council can work together to protect their own interests. It’s warm in that bed, even if there is a long divide right down the middle. Strange indeed.
Will taxpayers be on the hook for the $28 million if this case is lost based on the negligent behaviour of council members? The verdict is still out.
Watch the full exchange where Councillor Sprovrieri further implicates himself.
Comments
commentsFORT WORTH (AP) – Jarvis Ray had a career-high 18 points and Texas Christian got its first victory, holding on to beat road-weary Abilene Christian 71-64 Tuesday night.
Kyan Anderson was scoreless for the Horned Frogs (1-2) until his floater with 3:47 left broke the final tie, making it 60-58 after the Wildcats had come back from a 14-point deficit. Anderson added two free throws a half-minute later.
Brandon Parrish added 15 points and Christian Gore 14 for TCU.
Abilene Christian (0-5) tied the game at 58 when Austin Cooke swished a 3-pointer from the right wing. Parker Wentz had 14 points to lead four ACU players in double figures.
ACU was playing on the road for the fifth time in 11 days to open their first season in NCAA Division I. Plus, the Wildcats were coming off the worst lost in program history, 103-41 at Iowa Sunday.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Latest News:
Top Trending:MLB managers would get two chances each game to challenge disputed calls. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) MLB managers would get two chances each game to challenge disputed calls. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Major League Baseball owners approved funding for replay expansion for the 2014 season, reports Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com.
The Major League Baseball Players Association and the World Umpires Association still must approve the plan.
Rob Manfred, MLB's chief operating officer, said present and former umpires likely would make the decisions on contested calls after reviewing video at MLB headquarters in New York.
The current system calls for replay only for boundary calls involving home runs.
Managers will now get two challenges that can be used at any point in the game. If a certain play is challenged and overturned, the manager gets to keep that challenge. Managers cannot argue reviewable calls, but if a manager enters the field of play to argue a play, he must challenge.
CORCORAN: MVP Awards preview: McCutchen vs. Goldschmidt, Trout vs. CabreraHOUSTON, TX – In a world of good and bad, right and wrong, black and white, electronic cigarettes are not safe. That`s because nicotine isn`t good for you. It doesn`t cause cancer, but it isn`t good for you.
But for those addicted to tobacco products and not concerned with a world of absolutes, only Sith deal in absolutes after all, these light saber-like personal vaping devices are safer than cigarettes. And that`s all that matters to them.
Linc Williams, director of the new documentary “We Are Vapers” was at The Vapor Gypsy in Houston this weekend discussing proposed regulation, cautionary advice and industry standards set for the e-cig industry.
“I would never say anything is safe. Drinking Coke and Diet Coke is never safe, there’s always risk… but they’re magnitudes of order safer than a traditional tobacco cigarette,” Williams says.
In April, the FDA made moves to keep nicotine sale away from those not legally of age to smoke, and to try and regulate standards for manufactures. So what`s the controversy?
“There are some people that believe in abstinence only type of policy, where anything that resembles smoking is bad.
While opinions remain cloudy, at least some Houstonians are taking the time to hear the facts.We continue to formally introduce you to our newest Vikings with our in-depth series. If you missed the one on Sharrif Floyd then click here and you can click here for the article on Xavier Rhodes.
Up next is Tennessee wide out Cordarrelle Patterson who we identified as a possible Vikings target back in January. Shortly after that article came about, Patterson began to skyrocket in terms of his perceived draft stock. Despite growing concerns about his lack of experience, football intelligence, and general maturity, Patterson remained near the top of his class and was one of only three wide outs selected in the first round.
CORDARRELLE PATTERSON, WR, TENNESSEE
ATTRIBUTES
Height: 6′ 2″
Weight: 216 pounds
Arm Length: 31 3/4″
Hands: 9″
COMBINE RESULTS
If Patterson’s game tape hadn’t caught the attention of NFL front offices, then his performance at the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine should have done the trick. Despite his size, Patterson was clocked as the sixth fastest wide out in the forty yard dash. He also tied for the fifth highest vertical jump and the sixth longest broad jump. As was expected to be the case, however, Patterson’s athleticism could not mask some inconsistencies in the positional drills.
Forty: 4.42 seconds
Vertical Jump: 37″
Broad Jump: 128″
The Vikings were among the teams that met with Patterson at the Combine, and there are mixed reports about how well his interviews went, but we do know that he scored an “11” on the Wonderlic test which has led to the “dumb” label being applied often and heavily by anyone with access to the internet. Patterson, however refuses to accept that label and has a simple answer for why we shouldn’t be concerned about it.
“You can’t judge anything on the Wonderlic,” Patterson said plainly. “That has nothing to do with football.”
Keyshawn Johnson also scored an 11 on the Wonderlic, prior to being the #1 overall pick of the 1996 NFL Draft, and he came to Patterson’s defense prior to the Draft.
“If somebody is using the Wonderlic to determine if a player can play football, then the scouting department needs to be checked,” Johnson said. “…But I played 11 years, and was always accused of being one of the smartest players on the team.”
PRO DAY RESULTS
Patterson stood on his Combine numbers, but elected to also get numbers on record for the three-cone drill and the short shuttle. Other than a slip in the short shuttle, Patterson once again confirmed that his athleticism gives him an incredibly high ceiling, but he also had one drop and looked raw in his route running which, likewise, confirmed that he needs NFL coaching to sink in if he’s going to avoid the “bust” label.
Three-Cone: 7.21 seconds
Short Shuttle: 4.42 seconds
PERSONAL HISTORY
After graduating high school, where he was a pronounced football player, Patterson did not play at all during 2009 while attending North Carolina Tech. He then moved on to Hutchinson Community College where he absolutely dominated the JUCO talent pool and it was clear he needed a bump in competition. It was after that season that he joined the Tennessee program.
The pre-Draft process is acknowledged for being filled with B.S. from anonymous sources talking about players, but those quotes live on after the Draft comes and goes, and we often look back at those quotes while forgetting the smoke-filled time period from which they come. Some players, like Patterson will have to, then need to battle to prove that these labels being applied to him are false.
One scout was quoted as saying you felt like Patterson was “out there in La-La land” while trying to talk to him. The same scout went on to say Patterson is “kind of immature” and “doesn’t seem to get it.” He claimed Tennessee scaled back their playbook just for Patterson, but even after listing off Patterson’s faults the scout admitted he would be in favor of his team drafting the immense talent.
Patterson’s uncle, Reico Barber, is the Dean of Students at Rock Hill High School and doesn’t refute that Patterson has had his struggles with school. He insists, however, that Patterson’s problem has more to do with focus, and less to with intelligence, than the pre-Draft media coverage has indicated.
“His learning style is completely different than for the average person,” Barber said. “He’s not cookie cutter. What you see is not always what’s there.”
Barber recalled a time when Patterson had to score a 75 on a math exam in order to graduate from high school. Patterson scored a 79 and Barber thinks that’s because the circumstances called for him to buckle down and do what needed to be done.
“I hope teams realize that I’m willing to take coaching, learn from it and work hard,” Patterson said prior to the Draft. “People always want to believe the negative stuff, but they don’t really know me.”
This pre-Draft label will draw a lot media attention to Patterson’s ability to pick up the playbook in his rookie season. This might be unfair, especially considering fellow first rounder Sharrif Floyd is very raw in his own right and Xavier Rhodes comes with major question marks with his ability to play in zone coverage, but this will certainly be the first hurdle Patterson has to put behind him in his NFL career.
The sooner, the better.
COL |
representation in Quebec to help explain the party's policies and counter what actually is happening because of this absence."
Bernier said the federal government would prefer to avoid seeing a PQ regime emerge in Quebec, but has no plans to interfere with the provincial campaign and is prepared to work with the duly-elected government.
The small contingent of Quebec Conservatives in Ottawa also faces an army of New Democrats elected in the May 2 vote and a popular new leader in Quebec, Thomas Mulcair, who once sat as environment minister in Premier Jean Charest's cabinet.
White said many wind up with the impression Harper is punishing Quebecers after they rejected him, believing he doesn't need their support to stay in power.
"From (Harper's) point of view, it's probably a waste of his time because he's tried four times (in elections) and been rebuffed by Quebecers for four times and basically he's said: 'To hell with you,' " said White. "That's all very well on the purely pragmatic political basis, but it's very, very dangerous for the future of the country."
Thousands of Quebecers have also signed up to join environmental groups who are organizing a massive Earth Day demonstration on April 22. The event is billed as a "Quiet Spring" movement that calls for major changes in both federal and provincial economic and conservation policies, inspired in part by the movement that dramatically changed Quebec and its population's views about national unity during the 1960s Quiet Revolution.
Meantime, the Charest government, facing its own share of criticism about its policies these days from students and other critics, has been bringing its disputes with Ottawa into the courts, creating a new dynamic in federal-provincial relations, said Benoit Pelletier, who was Charest's intergovernmental affairs minister from 2003 to 2008.
"I would say we are going toward a litigious form of federalism," said Pelletier, who now teaches law at the University of Ottawa.
"What's very clear is that Pauline Marois is tempted to make Stephen Harper a target... She will want the next Quebec election to be a trial of the entire federal regime and of conservative values and it's clear that the more conflicts there are between Ottawa and Quebec, the more it helps Madame Marois in her attempts to demonize Mr. Harper."
Pelletier said Charest still has a chance to win a fourth consecutive mandate in the next Quebec election that must be called by December 2013.
But while Pelletier believes Canada is strong enough to survive, even if Marois wins, federal Tories in Quebec don't want to take the risk.
"What if she wins the referendum?" asked White. "If these people in Quebec are right that the winning conditions are there, that means she's going to win the referendum."
— Postmedia NewsShortly after Google’s new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL began shipping, some users noted that the devices seemed to have some… quirks.
Onscreen colors on the XL seemed faded, some users reported. When switching screens, evidence of previously displayed images sometimes seemed to linger (as if they were burned into the screen). Others reported that the screen seemed to turn an odd shade of blue depending on your viewing angle. Meanwhile, Pixel 2 users reported hearing high-pitched “clicking” sounds when on a call.
Google said on Monday that they were investigating the reports, and they’ve just shared their first findings.
You can find the full version here, but the short version: they think things are working mostly as intended, but they’re making a few software changes and extending the device’s warranty anyway.
On the display’s colors, Google VP of Engineering Seang Chau writes:
We’ve received some feedback about the Pixel 2 XL displays not appearing as saturated as other phones. We attribute this perception to our choice to calibrate the Pixel 2 XL for delivering natural, accurate colors, taking advantage of the new color management support in Android 8.0 Oreo. … Based on the feedback we’ve received since announcing Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, we learned that some users do want even more vibrant colors. So, through a software update to Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, we will soon be adding a new “saturated” color mode.
In other words: they like the way colors look on the device, but they’re going to add a “saturated” mode by way of a software update. The device already has a “Vivid” mode that tweaks the display colors a bit, but it sounds like “saturated” mode will take things even further.
And on the “burn-in” effect:
We’ve received reports of Pixel 2 XL devices exhibiting image retention on the screen and have been actively investigating them. Extensive testing of the Pixel 2 XL display show that its decay characteristics are comparable to OLED panels used in other premium smartphones.
With that said, they’re still making some changes to the way the screen works:
The nav bar buttons at the bottom of the screen will fade out when not in use
They’re dropping the display’s maximum brightness by 50 nits — an amount they say is “almost undetectable,” but that should reduce strain on the display “significantly.”
And while they’re at it, they’re bumping the warranty of all Pixel 2/Pixel 2 XL devices up from one year to two.
Google says the update with these changes should roll out to the Pixel 2 XL in coming weeks.
As for the clicking sound that some Pixel 2 users were hearing during calls, a separate thread on the user forums suggests that Google has pinned down the issue on a software bug in the NFC functionality, and promise a fix is on the way. In the meantime, turning off NFC will stop the clicking.
[Cheers to Andrew Martonik for spotting these]CHENNAI: With engineering admissions coming to a close today, only around 87,000 of the 1.75 lakh seats are likely to be filled by the end of the day. However, the number of takers is expected to be marginally higher than in 2016. At the end of Thursday's counselling, 83,562 seats were filled in Anna University and its affiliated colleges. With an average of 3,000 seats being filled every day, experts predict that about 87,000 seats will be filled by the end of the counselling process. “Another 1,000 to 1,500 seats will be added during the supplementary counselling," said education consultant, Moorthy Selvakumaran.In 2016, 87,199 out of the 1.85 lakh seats were filled. Anna University had cut its intake capacity in major courses this year, bringing the overall intake down by nearly 10,000 seats. The engineering admissions in 2017 may look marginally better than 2016, thanks to the uncertainty over the national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET). This rush led to an average of 4,500 students taking part in the counselling process in the first two weeks. Only in the last one week did the average number of students attending counselling come down to 4,000.Data from the last five years shows that the demand for engineering has dropped 38%. In 2012, 1.27 lakh seats were filled and this marginally dropped to 1.24 lakh in 2013. A sharp fall in the numbers was witnessed in 2014 when, for the first time, the number of vacant seats touched the 1 lakh mark. The demand was worst hit last year when, for the first time, the number of seats filled went below the 1 lakh mark.The drop in demand has been attributed to increasing awareness about the quality of engineering education and the opportunities opening up in other sectors. Courses like biotechnology saw almost all seats being filled. Core engineering courses like electronics, computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering saw nearly 50% of seats filled.The worst hit course was civil engineering. While the intake capacity for the course was reduced by 7.5% this year, it saw only 28% of seats filled by the end of Wednesday. A professor of civil engineering recalled that such a trend was last witnessed eight years ago.“The market is dull because of demonetisation, problems in purchase of sand and shortage of water. Apart from the top 20 colleges, all others have struggled to fill their seats in civil engineering,“ said the professor.At various points in previous episodes (particularly those of an ISOC++ nature) we've briefly touched on or alluded to modules, so here's the episode that finally breaks it down! Learn from our in-house expert why modules is [sic] going to make C++ even more awesome with its various explicit and implicit benefits, and you can take advantage of it right away! (after you've finished watching the video of course =P)
To jump right to the demo, click here.
Have feedback on modules? Email modules@microsoft.com
Want to dive deeper into modules? Check out Gaby's CppCon 2015 talk on modules
Want to be the first to know about updates and improvements in Visual C++? Subscribe to the Visual C++ blog!
Haven't installed Visual Studio 2015 yet? Click here to download and play with modules for yourself! (You'll need Update 1.)Popular Check Designs
Order Checks and Other Accessories Quickly and Securely at Bradford Exchange Checks
Welcome to Bradford Exchange Checks, where our personal checks and services can be a perfect expression of your style! It's quick and easy to securely order checks and other accessories from Bradford Exchange Checks, so see first hand how much you can save - up to 70% off bank check prices! With our unique selection of personal checks with style, you will find the design that perfectly reflects your taste. From classic business checks that celebrate professionalism to eye-catching bank checks that add an extra pop of color to every day - and everything in between - Bradford Exchange Checks is the premier source for cheap checks and checkbook covers, all at a super value!
Love the inspiring artwork of Thomas Kinkade? Or perhaps your favorite dog breed is what puts a smile on your face. Whatever interests you, our ever-expanding selection of personal checks showcase stylish tributes to what you love. And when you shop online at Bradford Exchange Checks, you'll see that most of our check designs have checkbook covers and address labels that perfectly coordinate! Stick to one theme or mix and match to showcase a variety of your interests! Plus, we now offer a line of personalized stamps and accessories featuring over 180 new products, including custom rubber stamps, Peel & Stick stamp sets, tools and more, all at an everyday savings of 30%.
You can always rest assured that when you order checks from Bradford Exchange Checks, they will exceed bank security standards. Our vast carousel of checks meet all requirements established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and will always be fully accepted at your financial institution. Plus, you can always shop with trust and confidence when you secure the additional benefit of services like EZShield® and EZShield PRO®. We also offer the convenience of SecureShip®, providing fast, trackable and guaranteed secure delivery.
Bradford Exchange Checks are the perfect expression of your unique style, ranging from contemporary to classic, and from elegantly simple to playfully bold. Lena Liu checks that capture the beauty of nature, Disney checks to enchant and delight, MLB® checks and college checks to show your team pride, charity and causes checks to reflect what you hold close to your heart - they're all here waiting to be discovered by you! We've made it simple to safely and securely order unlimited checks online and quickly receive your checks in the mail, so don't wait. Shop Now!Story highlights Bill would allow business owners to deny service to gay and lesbians based on religious objections
Some lawmakers who know Gov. Jan Brewer believe she'll reject the measure
Businesses pressure her to reject the bill pushed by group opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage
All signs indicate Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will likely veto politically-charged legislation that supporters say promotes religious freedom and opponents contend discriminates against gays and lesbians.
Brewer did not signal her intention either way in an exclusive interview with CNN on Monday at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington.
"I can assure you, as always, I will do the right thing for the state of Arizona," she said.
But some Arizona Republicans who know her well say they are confident those comments mean Brewer will almost surely reject the bill that is generating nationwide controversy.
The Republican-led measure would allow Arizona business owners to deny service to gay and lesbian customers as long as they assert their religious beliefs.
JUST WATCHED CEO: Arizona is a welcoming state Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH CEO: Arizona is a welcoming state 03:53
JUST WATCHED Will Gov. Brewer sign anti-gay bill? Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Will Gov. Brewer sign anti-gay bill? 01:33
JUST WATCHED AZ Sen.: Arizonians don't discriminate Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH AZ Sen.: Arizonians don't discriminate 03:24
Brewer is scheduled to return to Arizona on Tuesday, and a source tells CNN those familiar with her thinking say she will likely spend at least one full business day in the state before acting.
"I'm going to go home, and when I receive the bill, I'm going to read it and I'm going to be briefed on it. We have been following it. And I will make my decision in the near future," Brewer told CNN.
She has until Saturday to sign or veto the bill. If she does nothing, it automatically becomes law.
Arizona GOP sources say Brewer considers herself a pro-business governor -- someone who above all else wants to protect and promote Arizona's economic interests.
They say she knows full well there will be economic consequences for the state if it has a law on the books perceived to effectively codify discrimination.
"I have a history of deliberating and having an open dialogue on bills that are controversial, to listen to both sides of those issues, and I welcome the input, and information that they can provide to me. And certainly I am pro-business, and that is what's turning our economy around, so I appreciate their input, as I appreciate the other side," Brewer said.
Business leaders in Arizona and around the country, including the chief executive of American Airlines, have urged Brewer publicly and privately to veto the bill.
Approval also is likely to trigger lawsuits.
The bill was pushed by the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative group opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage.
The group argues the proposal protects people against increasingly activist federal courts.
Brewer vetoed a similar bill last year, arguing that the state legislature should focus on more pressing issues, such as a Medicaid expansion plan she was promoting.
Sources say she is concerned about this bill taking away from other issues she is now pressing, such as overhauling Arizona's child protective services system.Adelson Cerqueira Silva, of the federal environmental agency, said about 300 penguins have been found dead or alive in recent days along the coast of Bahia state, better known for sunbathers in bikinis than for seabirds native to Antarctica and Patagonia.
The state capital, Salvador, is roughly 600 miles closer to the equator than Miami is and temperatures in the current Southern Hemisphere winter are in the mid-70s (low 20s centigrade).
"This is unheard of. There have even been reports of penguins washing up as far as Aracaju," Mr Silva said, referring to a beachside state capital even closer to the equator.
He said biologists believe stronger-than-usual ocean currents have pulled the birds north. Others have suggested the increase might be due to overfishing near Patagonia and Antarctica which has forced the penguins to swim further in search of food.
Mr Silva said the environmental authority was receiving hundreds of phone calls reporting penguin sightings.
"We're telling people if the penguins don't appear to be injured or sick to leave them alone so they can swim back," he said.
While penguins commonly wash up as far north as Rio de Janeiro state in July and August - hundreds have done so this year - Bahia is roughly 750 miles north-east of Rio.
P Dee Boersma, a conservation biologist at the University of Washington who works with penguins in Argentina, said that while she has heard of penguins occasionally washing up as far north as Bahia, the numbers washing up this year are extremely high.
"The last time that you got a lot of penguins was in 2000, mostly in Rio but some further north. That year the sea surface temperature was a degree lower than the 30-year average so the penguins just keep swimming in search of food without noticing where they're going," she said.San Francisco startup Sense.ly has raised $8 million in a Series B round of venture funding to bring its virtual nurse technology to clinics and patients of every kind. The company’s app helps physicians stay in touch with patients, and prevent readmission to the hospital. Chief Executive Officer and founder of Sense.ly, Adam Odessky describes the platform as “A cross between Whatsapp and Siri that captures all the important signals about a person’s health.”
On the patient side, Sense.ly asks users to tell a nurse avatar how they’re doing with 5-minute “check ins” either once a day, or every few days, on their smartphones. Patients can simply talk to the app, no typing required. What they share through check-ins is rolled up into a medical record that only authorized health providers can review. The reports also include data that Sensely pulls in from a range of medical devices, wearables and other internet-connected hardware that patients use in their daily lives.
Sense.ly integrates artificial intelligence from the likes of MindMeld, Beyond Verbal, Affectiva and others to enable its platform to respond to a patient’s mood, not just their symptoms and behavior. The app speaks with patients empathetically. When they have serious concerns about managing their heart health, or diabetes, for example, Odessky said you don’t want patients hearing a chilly, robotic response or one that feels commercial. Conducting emotional analysis also helps Sense.ly alert health care providers when their patients may need mental health counseling, or are experiencing feelings of depression or anxiety as a side effect of certain prescribed medications or lifestyle changes.
To make the app work for people in different age groups and dealing with different health issues, Sense.ly has written its core, rule-based engine and algorithms around commonly accepted medical protocols for diagnosing and dealing with chronic diseases. The company is always layering in more protocols and content, usually from partner-hospitals and clinics, to expand to cover different health issues and populations.
To-date, the company has focused on engaging patients who are 60 and older and grappling with issues like: COPD, heart failure, diabetes and other age-associated health problems. But Sense.ly has been expanding, to work with massive health providers including the National Health Service of the UK, and several major clinics and hospitals in the US. Sensely competes with other startups building AI medical assistants, such as HealthLoop, Your.md and Babylon Health.
Investors in Sense.ly’s Series B round included the Mayo Clinic, Chengwei Capital which led the round, Bioved Ventures, Fenox Venture Capital and the Stanford StartX fund. Chengwei Capital Managing Director Richard Gu tells TechCrunch that his firm only invests in startups that have a “China play,” meaning their apps could serve massive markets there, or their technology could be manufactured in China.
The investor said, “We may help them find key partners in this region to expand here. But we want to see them use the funding to invest in core research and development.” Gu said he believes that Sense.ly’s technology has the potential to help people live longer, better lives and stay independent at home for longer than they might today. Odessky said given the medical talent shortage plaguing the US and other markets, Sense.ly also has the potential to make quality healthcare more affordable and available.
Will the virtual nurse “steal” jobs from human nurses, though? Odessky says no. “There aren’t people doing this job already. You couldn’t possibly have humans do this amount of phone calls and data analysis. This is a technology to help medical professionals do their jobs more effectively, and not one that threatens their livelihood.”Five questions for the Dolphins third preseason game against Dallas tonight in Sun Life Stadium:
1. Can this offense move on a bad defense? Dallas ranked last in the league defensively last year, lost some key players (DeMarcus Ware, Shawn Lee) in the off-season to free agency and injury and lost another linebacker, DeVonte Hollomon, to injury last week. San Diego scored 27 points in the preseason opener against it. Baltimore scored 37 points on Dallas last week. Do you get the picture of what's going on with that defense? "Awful" might not go far enough to describe it. Yes, the Dolphins have questions across the board offensively and may sit running back Knowshown Moreno and tight end Charles Clay. But they couldn't ask for a better opponent to help a running game that was non-existent against Tampa Bay (.5-yard average). And passing game? Dallas has just one proven cornerback healthy right now.
2. Is there any depth at linebacker? This will be a central issue with Koa Misi inactive for the game and Dallas having a good offense. Jason Trusnik will get the start - and the tryout. Can Jordan Tripp show something? Will Chris McCain on the outside? This hasn't been a confidence-inspiring preseason thus far. The question remains if the linebackers will be a liability again this season. Misi isn't a sure thing at mdidle linebacker. Tonight we'll find out if he's the only option available.
3. Is there any depth at tight end? Clay has practiced this week after injury his knee in an intrasquad scrimmage a few weeks ago. We'll see if he plays tonight. So we'll again get a look at whether there's some help at a position this Bill Lazor offense needs. Philadephia had two, big tight ends in 6-5, 249-pound Zack Ertz (36 catches) and 6-4, 245-pound Brent Celek (32 catches). They were especially important in the red zone, combining for 10 touchdowns. It's hard to see that kind of big, safety-valve target on the Dolphins roster. Clay is a smaller, quicker tight end. But this would be a night for Dion Sims to build on a decent preseason. Kyle Miller? Brett Brackett? One thing we know: It won't be Michael Egnew, who was cut this week.
4. Is John Potter about to win the kicking battle? Let's not dismiss the importance of this it's-just-the-kicker idea. Eight of the Dolphins games were decided by four points or less. Caleb Sturgis went through good and not-so-good stretches - just like Dan Carpenter in the year before. Sturgis has a groin injury, too. Potter made kicks of 48 and 51 yards against Tampa Bay. He has a strong kick-off leg - it's why Washington had him on the roster last year. Tonight will be another barometer to see just what the Dolphins have in Potter.
5. Can they get through with no injuries? We're officially in the cone-of-concern for any injury with the season starting in two weeks. The Dolphins don't have a talent-deep roster and will be starting the season without Mike Pouncey, Reshad Jones and Dion Jordan. The last thing they need is another player going on the injured list and having to count on a second-tier player even more. Yes, it's cliche. But coming out of a night like this without injuries is the first goal.Sentai Filmworks has a pretty good idea how popular the series Parasyte – the Maxim is. When it premiered in 2014 on Crunchyroll, fans and writers alike couldn’t stop raving about how awesome this show was. Once Sentai received the license for this series, it became abundantly clear that they were going to dub it. Of course, fans were begging them to dub the series, as well as have Toonami broadcast it. In fact, I’d say that Parasyte was requested more than Akame ga Kill by fans on their “Ask Sentai” articles. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise, given how much praise the series has been getting since it appeared on the action block. Even Toonami Faithful founder Paul Pescrillo has placed Parasyte among his top-1o anime that have aired on Toonami (say what now). I’m sure he’s not alone with all the love sent Parasyte’s way.
Sadly, however, it feels like this franchise will always rank in second place to Akame ga Kill (for Sentai titles) in overall popularity/sales, probably because the manga for Parasyte was written in the late 80’s and is finished back in the 90’s. Akame ga Kill’s manga is still ongoing and has a prequel series that I’m betting will be turned into an anime in the future. So with all of that continuing, the franchise should stay relevant for the average anime fan. This newly adapted anime series is all Parasyte has aside from the yet to be licensed live-action films (regarding current products), and should be overtaken when it comes to overall sales. Even when Parasyte first joined the lineup, it was placed at 1 a.m. behind Akame ga Kill, continuing the trend of coming in second. It has felt like Parasyte has played second-fiddle to Akame ga Kill since it has joined the block. However, when looking at how this show performed, I think it smashed expectations and has been the most popular show on Toonami (at least among the dedicated audience), even when Akame ga Kill was still on.
So what makes Parasyte work so well on Toonami? For one thing, it has all the action that fans crave. While it isn’t a non-stop action thrill ride like Kill la Kill, it certainly has its satisfying moments. Toonami needs to have superb action shows like Parasyte that can keep eyes on Adult Swim. Fans loved watching Shinichi rip the heart out of the parasite who killed Kana, and watching Gotou kill an entire Yakuza unit (which was a terrifically bloody scene). And it doesn’t stop with specific battles, as there have been plenty of massacres that occurred in the series. So while there have been scenes and episodes that are slow or quiet, there have also been a plethora of bloody, gory or action-packed scenes for action anime fans to indulge in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPIh6TJYA-U
Parasyte can also appeal on an intellectual level which makes many older viewers ecstatic. It delves into one of the biggest questions ever pondered by man, i.e., what is the meaning of life. Look at the case of Reiko Tamura, who wants to know what roles her kind (parasites) must face in this human-dominated Earth. Why does she exist, and why is it that she gave birth to a normal human baby? How and where were the parasites created? She wants to know everything about her species and the mysteries that she has pondered throughout her time. Unlike many of the parasites, she seems to be more interested in finding out how they became the way they are than consuming the human race. While I enjoyed her ruthlessness in a few action scenes, listening to her line of thinking on the topic of her origin was just as rewarding.
In addition, the show deals with many ethical questions during conversations between Migi and Shinichi. Questions such as why it’s okay for humans to slaughter cows for food, but parasites can’t do the same, since humans are their primary food source. Or why Shinichi decided not to use other humans as shields when Mr. A was attacking the school. These types of questions always pop up, leading Migi to wonder why humans are such irrational creatures. The conversations between Migi, Shinichi, and Reiko are some of the best parts of the entire series in my opinion, they truly make you stop and ponder subjects that aren’t regularly discussed in anime.
But this isn’t a series that only takes the deep route. I’ve enjoyed the bits of humor that have been a part of this series. While there are some brutal murders and some beautiful scenes, there’s also some solid comedy (which was something that Akame ga Kill had trouble with). At first this seemed somewhat surprising, but it does fit in with the overall product. Like Migi wanting to see humans mate when Murano and Shinichi were alone at his place, as well as Migi helping Shinichi relieve himself in the school restroom. And it’s always funny when parasites try to laugh like humans. There’s something to be said about how such a serious show can have so many hilarious moments that left me rolling on the floor (which includes the most recent episode, when Uragami pleasures himself as he is talking to an attractive woman). I’m impressed with how the humor in this show doesn’t feel out of place.
The powerful scenes and emotional moments also seem to draw fans into this show, like the deaths of Reiko, Kana, and Shinichi’s mother. Shinichi appears to have lost part of his humanity after Migi saved his life when a parasite tries to kill him using his mother’s body. Instead of going insane, he is able to prevail and survive after all that hardship. It wasn’t until episode 18 when Shinichi is finally able to cry after all he’s had to endure. Before that, he’d lost his mother, a friend, and tons of classmates, but he didn’t bat an eye. It wasn’t until Reiko’s death, when she tells Shinichi about how she loved her child and didn’t hurt him, that Shinichi finally breaks down in tears, realizing that he’s still human. It was this moment that felt like a climax for the series, with Shinichi making progress in returning to his normal self. These scenes can resonate with the audience, which has made the journey of watching (so far) worth investing in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXY-b5KDbTA
Parasyte offers a wide range of topics for anime fans, which is also why it’s so beloved by fans. It isn’t a typical shonen series that is geared toward a younger demographic. Parasyte may have some elements that younger fans enjoy, but it is also a show that has more appeal to an older audience. Similar to streaming shows such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, Parasyte is entertaining for those who want more adult-type shows airing on Toonami (basically saying it’s a series that pushes the line). But it isn’t vulgar for the sake of being vulgar. There’s a point to everything that occurs in this show and it understands what its fans find most compelling.
There were many reasons why so many fans were asking for Parasyte to air on Toonami, and we are seeing that now. It takes viewers on a wonderful adventure, giving fans a combination of action, tension-filled drama, and some genunie laughs (and we’re only through 18 episodes). While this could be the final ride for Parasyte (with no other development for the franchise on the way), it has left its mark on the Toonami Faithful. It’s become a fan-favorite and a well deserved one at that. Sentai Filmworks should be applauded for their work in producing and creating the dub for a broad audience on Toonami. It’d be great if more shows executed the type of storylines and drama that Parasyte does, but that’s what makes this show unique. I guess that means that Migi was right yet again (sorry Shinichi).
C.J Maffris is an editorial writer for Toonamifaithful.com. He’s enjoyed almost every aspect of Parasyte and hopes the rest of the fans have been too. Feel free to talk about Parasyte with C.J on Twitter @SeaJayMaffrisDisclaimer: Every single thing in this post is public record, or publicly-available information. Please don’t comment otherwise. :)
Welcome back!
Today’s post is a departure from the usual… Many of you know that I’m a school counselor. You may not realize that I’ve got a lot of history with technology; having majored in computer science, attended a technology-focused high school, served in many technology roles across my career path, and even built award-winning robots (at a competition hosted by Disney, no less).
Suffice it to say, technology very much interests me. MagicBands, MyMagic+, and the whole Next Gen technology push at Disney is no exception. I decided to tear down one of my many MagicBands (actually, my girlfriend‘s broken one) to see just what’s going on inside there. Beyond just tearing into the Band itself, I pulled all of the information from the FCC’s search engine relevant to MagicBands and shared that with you as well.
First, the MagicBand teardown! Big, huge thanks to @clintssmith for the table and the photography help!
Thoughts: I knew about the RFID technology… it just made sense to me. Here’s the Wikipedia page about RFID, so you can understand why I assumed quite easily that was what was going on here. The Wal-Mart tag on that page looks a lot like what you see in loss-prevention (anti-shoplifting) tags, as well as the antenna/induction coil layout in the MagicBand. HowStuffWorks also explains RFID, in a much more understandable way.
What surprised me about the inside of the MagicBand was the button cell battery, the second transmitter setup, and the size of the antenna on that second transmitter. RFID is a type of near-field communication, meaning it has to be very close to the reader to activate and to transmit. The non-RFID transmitter is both powered and has a huge (relatively) antenna the size of the colored part of the Band. This means that the communication does NOT require that your band be right at the reader… This means that Disney is wisely able to track MagicBand users as they travel throughout the Parks (and possibly Disney Property as a whole). Will we see Disney roll out long-range readers on their cruise ships? In their stores? On their golf courses? In their resort hotels? Who’s to say? I know I’ve seen MyMagic+ management-types aiming a directional antenna at my train as I rolled into Main Street Station. Data is money and guest satisfaction. There’s no way Disney is going to leave either of those on the table.
Beyond the Band
The long-range antenna and second chip had me wondering just what sort of specifications these MagicBands had… on a suggestion from @clintssmith, I decided to hit the FCC’s public search engine to dig up a little more info for you guys. I’ve linked PDF documents below, each with some fairly interesting information within them.
Visit https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm?calledFromFrame=N if you want to dig up the documents yourself. Enter the grantee code Q3E and go to town…
You’ll get a results page like this:
And clicking on any of the links will lead you deeper: However, as I said, I’ve done the work for you. Click through the following links for some interesting reading, if you’re a nerd type like me. Or click them for cool pictures like this one, and dozens more:
So, here’s what I found:
MagicBand:
MagicBand Reader Dome:
Payment Device:
XBR (Long Range Receiver) Version 3.0:
XBR(Long Range Receiver) Version 3.2:
XBR(Long Range Receiver) Version 4.0:
XTPRA/XTPRS:
Hope you enjoyed this little detour from the usual… Please let me know in the comments or on twitter!
-ADA
@AtDisneyAgainFor months, people have been anticipating a terrible midseason market for starting pitchers. With the deadline right around the corner, some are offering that this is one of the worst markets in memory, in terms of how little is available. As the theory goes, when markets are this bad, teams selling get to over-charge, taking advantage of the limited supply and excess demand. What happens in reality is that an equilibrium is reached. Teams that might not have been inclined to sell find themselves intrigued by the market, so additional players become available. One such player at present could be Chris Archer.
The Rays have been thinking about selling for a while — they’ve lost way too many games, so rumors have surrounded arms like Drew Smyly, Jake Odorizzi, and Matt Moore. Archer is better than those guys, and he’s affordable for the next five years. Because of his contract, the Rays should feel no urgency to move him. But then, every pitcher is kind of a short-term acquisition, in a sense, and the market is what it is. Archer would make for a high-profile splash, and I don’t think he’d fit anywhere better than he’d fit with the Dodgers.
I’m not the only person thinking like this. I’d guess odds are still against Archer going anywhere, but if he moves, the Dodgers seem like the best spot. Surveying the standings, there are several teams who could use a starter, but few of them have the Dodgers’ organizational resources. The Astros could step up to the plate if they wanted to dangle Alex Bregman. The Rangers could make a play if they floated Joey Gallo, or maybe Jurickson Profar. The Dodgers are far from the only option, but they are the only team that has a Clayton Kershaw on the sidelines. It’s not clear when Kershaw will be able to return, if he’s able to return this season, so the Dodgers should have a certain urgency. They’re not hurting for depth, but they’re hurting. So many of them are hurting.
Reports have gone around that teams have made proposals for Archer, and the Rays have perhaps literally laughed them off. I first read that in a Ken Rosenthal article, and it’s not a total surprise. Archer does have a mid-4s ERA. I’m sure there are teams who think they can buy him low.
But that isn’t how the Rays operate. The Dodgers’ front office, obviously, would be familiar with how the Rays’ front office thinks. Archer is owed something in the vicinity of $40 million between now and the end of 2021. And at the end of the commitment, there are a couple team options, increasing the value of the contract for the club even more. The Rays think in terms of surplus values. The Dodgers think similarly, and Archer’s surplus value is through the roof. Both teams are able to recognize that, and that makes reaching an agreement easier.
In terms of performance, Archer hasn’t been where he was last year, and that is an issue. His value is down, slightly. On the other hand, he’s already improved.
Chris Archer, 2016 Split ERA- FIP- xFIP- K-BB% 1st-Strike% Z-O Swing% Contact% Strike% First 10 GS 126 111 85 16% 53% 36% 75% 61% Last 11 GS |
Tt eSPORTSThermaltake is a well known brand for gaming & DIY in Case, Cooler, and PSU for years. Due to the constant requests for keyboards and mice from gamers and end users, Thermaltake decided to create a series of gaming keyboards, mice, and headsets with the Tt eSPORTS brand. By using Tt eSPORTS, we want to extend our product lines into the gaming industry, and provide more ''personalized gaming'' gears to gamers and enthusiasts worldwide. With years of experience in gaming industry, Tt eSPORTS is committed to bring the most personalized and the highest quality weapons for the most competitive cyber battles. For more information, please visit www.ttesports.com : Players cannot bring their own machines as they could in the past. The new venue has more than enough machines for everyone to use. Everyone is welcome to bring their own mouse and keyboard; however, all mice and keyboards must be USB and not PS2.: The Arizona Open will be run group stages into bracket play. There is no elimination in the group rounds. All players will be placed into 8 groups. Each group will play a round robin of best-of-threes. After the first game, the loser will pick the next map (No map may be played twice in a match) and so on until the bo3 is over. After the group stages are over the top 16 players (2 from each group. subject to change based on attendance) will then move on to the bracketed single elimination finals. The ro16, ro8, ro4 will be played in a bo3 format. The finals for the tournament will be a bo5.: Since we are running a format with groups, time will be of extreme importance. Any player who is more than 10 minutes late to a round will receive a forfeit loss for that game and start the series at 0-1 and choice of map. A player that is 20 minutes late forfeits the match 0-2.-MLG Metalopolis-MLG Shakuras Plateau-MLG Shattered Temple-MLG Tal’darim Altar-MLG Antiga Shipyard-MLG Dual Sight-MLG Xel’Naga Caverns: Any drop occurring before the 5 minute mark will result in a rematch using the same map. Any other drop will be reviewed by the tournament admin.: Good tournament Etiquette will be required. Excessive profane language in an aggressive manner, any violence, or other similar behavior may result in disqualification.: No in game observers, other than tournament administrators or official tournament casters will be allowed. Any stream cheating will result in immediate disqualification.: All tournament players are required to report their result to a tournament administrator. Failure to report a result may end up in a forfeit for that round.: Tournament administrators have authority over all decision making, all participants must abide by rules/decisions or they may face disqualification.: Please leave the following information here if you plan to attend the event.Sc2 ID & Character CodeLeagueRace: TumbaSCCheck out our caster for this tourney! Excellent high quality stream. Will be broadcasting the event via TL.Player List: + Show Spoiler + Group 1 + Show Spoiler + Group 2 + Show Spoiler + Suitin' it up 24/7We saw a Melbourne cyclist take similar action last week, when she filmed a 65-year-old man opening a taxi door into her on busy Collins Street. He refused to give his details and verbally abused her. There are problems with extreme responses on both sides of the cycling wars. They create conflict, heighten the chance of road rage and are impractical because so many drivers and car passengers ignore road rules or intimidate cyclists. In seeking a truce, the starting point is cultural. Governments have to implement policies on the basis that crowded cities need more cyclists, not fewer. According to the O'Farrell government's Cycling for Sydney report last December, 70 per cent of NSW residents say they would like to ride a bike more for everyday transport - and would do so if cycling was made a safer and more convenient option for them. We need to recognise the world has changed. Cycling is not, as some claim, ''arrogant elitism''. Authorities have not ''bowed to the demands of selfish cyclists and their lobby groups''. Our cities are dominated by cars not ''because they are sprawling''. They are commuter nightmares because successive governments have played down public transport as well as the health and logistical benefits of safe cycling. In theory, dedicated bicycle paths are a priority - and to that end linking existing ones into networks away from busy roads is a move in the right direction. The government needs to accelerate their implementation, not impose further delays and focus only on lanes within five kilometres of the city as has been the approach of the O'Farrell government. More investment will pay off.
Drivers also need to have much greater education as to the dangers of sharing roads, with harsher penalties for flagrant ignorance of cyclist safety. Cyclists are entitled to take up a full lane, ride two abreast, and be given a full-metre clearance when a vehicle overtakes them. What's more, cyclists are entitled to overtake on the left as long as the car or truck has indicated but not commenced a turn. Technological advances can help protect cyclists when they inevitably have to share crowded roads. Apps are being developed to warn motorists and cyclists of impending collisions, to reduce human error. Better traffic management can handle bus lanes and can be tailored to cover rapid-fire cycle crossings at key intersections. At the same time, cyclists need to pull back, and recognise that time is money for commuters and trucks on suburban roads. They should recognise that escalating tensions will only undermine broader public support for reforms. A cynical minority of cyclists need to stop running red lights, eschewing hand-signals and pushing their luck when turning. That only undermines their case for reform. Both sides will need to accept trade-offs. In return for greater access on shared roads, cyclists need to accept some ''high difficulty'' thoroughfares need to be closed to bikes due to the expense of making them bicycle friendly; the speed of traffic; very high traffic volume; high numbers of buses and insufficient road space. Among proposals being considered for the NSW government's Cycling Safety Strategy to pursue, beyond white lines and signs, are safer road infrastructure bicycle safety features. They cannot come soon enough.
How to not fumble a fly ball at the SCG It's the question every Australian is asking as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks strut their stuff at the Sydney Cricket Ground this weekend. Why does a baseball fielder wear a glove? It's understandable for the catcher (wicketkeeper) who has to stop 160kmh pitches. But a cricket ball is heavier, smaller and as such a denser projectile than a baseball. And generations of Australians in the slips, in the gully, at silly mid-on, deep fine leg and left right out have caught cricket balls with their bare hands. Even fans grab classic catches while not spilling their beer. Yet since the 1870s gloves have become a fixture on all baseball players.
Sadly, this American inability to grab the ball barehanded seems to be catching on here. Australians in the crowd for the exhibition match between the Dodgers and Australia on Thursday dropped every ball that came their way via fouls, the Yasiel Puig homer and even the tradition of players tossing every ball they touch or practise to the crowd as keepsakes. The only Aussie fan who managed to catch a ball was a small boy who threw a tantrum when another kid grabbed the ball he reckoned was his. The tanty thrower caught it barehanded when the rival tossed it back to him. Luckily, we can learn from American crowd catch expert Zack Hample - he's grabbed more than 7100 baseballs flying his way. He's in Australia for the MLB season opening series. Hample does his homework on where the batters are likely to hit. He arrives early for batting practice. He avoids standing next to tall people. He mentions the player's name instead of "hey mate". He doesn't barge over kids but ''I'm willing to look silly in order to get a head start on the competition''.
And why is wearing a glove important? Because you catch more baseballs that way and it hurts if you don't wear one.Ngoc Nguyen pushes a box of supplies damaged in Tropical Storm Harvey from the Willis Tailor and Alterations store she runs in Dickinson, Texas, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017
The American Civil Liberties Union slammed a Houston suburb's decision to block grants to repair homes or businesses damaged in Hurricane Harvey if the applicant supports boycotting Israel as a violation of free speech rights.
>>In America, the right to boycott Israel is under threat. This is why that's cause for concern | Opinion
“The First Amendment protects Americans’ right to boycott, and the government cannot condition hurricane relief or any other public benefit on a commitment to refrain from protected political expression,” said ACLU of Texas Legal Director Andre Segura.
“Dickinson’s requirement is an egregious violation of the First Amendment, reminiscent of McCarthy-era loyalty oaths requiring Americans to disavow membership in the Communist party and other forms of ‘subversive’ activity,” Segura added.
>> Still Recovering From Harvey, Texas Suburb Hit With 'Hurricane Israel'
The city of Dickinson’s application form for storm damage repair funding includes a clause stating that “By executing this Agreement below, the Applicant verifies that the Applicant: (1) does not boycott Israel; and (2) will not boycott Israel during the term of this Agreement.”
No other clauses about political affiliations or beliefs are included in the form.
Keep updated: Sign up to our newsletter Email * Please enter a valid email address Sign up Please wait… Thank you for signing up. We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting. Click here Oops. Something went wrong. Please try again later. Try again Thank you, The email address you have provided is already registered. Close
The state of Texas passed a law in May banning state entities from contracting with businesses that boycott Israel. The law, one of 21 passed in states around the country in the past few years, has been criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union as unconstitutional.
Local TV news station KTRK reported that the damage Dickinson received “may be the worst of Harvey,” with more than 50 inches of rain in 72 hours. The widely-distributed photo of residents of a nursing home waiting to be rescued as floodwater reached their waists was taken in Dickinson.
Calls to the offices of the mayor and the city secretary were not returned.EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — As the Air Force races to declare its F-35 jets operational before the end of the year, observers are still warning about schedule delays, a faulty logistics system, and software glitches.
But here at Edwards, the pilots, maintainers and technicians of the F-35 integrated test force say they are happy with the plane — in fact, in many ways the joint strike fighter is a huge improvement over legacy systems.
'The Burger King jet'
Lt. Col. Raja Chari said the biggest difference between the F-35 and flying legacy platforms is that the pilot, freed from basic "stick and rudder" tasks by the JSF's automation, is able to focus on mission planning.
"Each plane is its own command and control platform," said Chari, who began his career flying F-15s and is now director of the F-35 ITF and commander of the 461st flight test squadron. "You don't have to do as much stick and rudder, just getting to and from, because there are so many automated modes to use on the F-35... [It] is almost as easy as breathing."
Maj. Raven LeClair, assistant director of operations for the 461st flight test squadron, told Defense News May 4 he likes the F-35's touch screen display, which each pilot can customize to his or her liking.
The "glass," as pilots call it, looks like two iPads sitting next to each other. Pilots can divide the screens any way they want in order to easily see different systems, Chari said.
Pilots can easily change the display anytime just by scrolling through these "portals" using the "hands-on throttle and stick," or HOTAS, he added.
× Fear of missing out? Fear no longer. Be the first to hear about breaking news, as it happens. You'll get alerts delivered directly to your inbox each time something noteworthy happens in the Military community. Thanks for signing up. By giving us your email, you are opting in to our Newsletter: Sign up for our Early Bird Brief
"It's the Burger King jet," Chari said. "You can have it however you want, your way."
Pilots are also happy with the jet's high angle of attack, or AOA, capability, as well as its ability to perform high alpha maneuvers, Chari said. As airmen gain more experience flying the JSF, they are learning some "tricks of the trade" for handling a close-in fight, he added. He declined to be more specific because the information is classified.
Chari is looking forward to the integration of the AIM 9X missile, which will come as part of the final 3F software package. The combination of the F-35 airframe, the AIM 9X and the Gen III helmet is "a dogfighting game-changer," he said.
Maintainers weigh in on ALIS
Officials say ongoing challenges with the F-35's Autonomic Logistics Information System, or ALIS, is the single biggest obstacle to declaring the Air Force jets operational on time. An internal diagnostic system that tracks each part of each plane worldwide, ALIS has been the subject of frequent criticism over the years, including the recent claim that if a single server goes dark it could cripple the entire F-35 fleet.
But maintainers here say that claim is ludicrous. Even if the power goes out, the team can still use ALIS, said RJ Vernon, supervisor for AF-3. All of the jet's information is stored in a device called a portable maintenance aid, or PMA, which the team can load to the main ALIS data base once the power comes back on.
"We've had that happen multiple times, and we can still use ALIS," Vernon told Defense News. If the power is out for long enough, the team may have to track maintenance and manage daily operations manually, as legacy systems do. But the chances of that happening are very slim, he added.
"We could teach you in 15 minutes," he told Defense News.
Technicians say F-35 is easier to maintain
Unlike many legacy planes, the F-35 is built with access panels to allow technicians to more easily make adjustments. This makes changing out parts "a whole lot faster," said Tech. Sgt. Chard Wooldridge, an avionics technician.
"For example, instead of taking off the entire nose assembly, it's just a compartment," Wooldridge said.
Plus, the computer catches problems the human eye might miss, Wooldridge said.
The computer is especially critical for fixing surface damage to the jet's stealth coating. Technicians first trace the damage on the plane, then use the computer to zoom in on that specific part of the aircraft, said Staff Sgt. Jason Noyes, a low-observables technician.
The jet's weapons are also easier to maintain than those on legacy platforms, said Master Sgt. Jason Buffell, the weapons section lead. The F-35's weapons delivery is "pneumatic," which means it fires projectiles by means of air pressure, instead of explosive. This saves man hours because the team doesn't have to spend time cleaning the weapons banks every day, Buffell said.Big news for news for Linux fans: Editshare has today announced it aims to release a public Beta version before the end of the first quarter of 2013. Now, everyone will be able to try Lightworks for Linux
When the Beta version is released, it will be a historic occasion for Linux, because it will be the very first time that a professional NLE has been available for the Linux platform. It is also important for video editors generally because this is part two of the rollout of Lightworks across three platforms: Windows, Linux and OS X - giving editors and content creators previously unheard-of flexibility to work on the platform of their choice - or across all three if they want to!
The Linux Beta program follows the successful private (i.e. closed) Alpha test, which thanks to intensive and detailed reporting from enthusiastic Alpha testers has taken Lightworks for Linux to an advanced phase.
The Linux Beta will include a friendlier licensing system, which it is hoped will avoid the frustration caused by the existing one.
The Linux Beta version will have all the facilities of the Pro version with some minor limitations.
Lightworks Global Product Manager Matt Sandford told RedShark:
"We are very hopeful that we can meet this target, but there is significant work still to be done on improving the licensing to give users a better experience when they install the software."
Like the Windows version, at the end of the Beta phase, Lightworks for Linux will be available as Free and Pro downloads. The Pro version will allow users to work with professionally licensed codecs such as AVC Intra and Red files.The border situation is chaos on steroids, with thousands of unaccompanied kids and families streaming in from Central America, where they heard on television that kids are guaranteed amnesty tickets
In the video clip below, documentary filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch warns that the invasion is only beginning:
“It’s about to get worse... Entire villages are emptying out and coming from Central America through Mexico to the United States. They’ll be hitting in the next couple weeks. What you are seeing right now is the tip of the iceberg.”
There’s no reason why millions won’t come, since Washington has announced America’s borders are wide open. Just bring a kid or claim to be one (with fraudulent ID). And be sure to say you have a “credible fear” of persecution.
Remember the Boatlift? That Democrat-created crisis transformed Miami from a nice American city into a crime-infused Cuban one, after Castro dumped his prison population on the US. And that humanitarian crisis brought only 125,000 Spanish-speaking foreigners.
The Daily Caller reports, “a leaked estimate by a top official in the Department of Homeland Security says the 12-month inflow will reach 90,000 by October, and then grow by another 142,000 in the next 12 months before October 2015.” That’s over 230,000, nearly a quarter million that the Democrats hope to dump on US taxpayers.
On Monday, the White House requested $2 billion to pay for the feeding and lawyers of the illegal aliens. Consider it down payment.
Why aren’t there troops on the border? It may be hard to recall now, but Obama did post the National Guard on the border in 2010 so there’s no reason why he couldn’t do it again.A synagogue burning in Germany is perhaps among the most literal illustrations of anti-Semitism imaginable.
But apparently, not all synagogue burnings are equal.
This week a German regional court ruled that the 2014 firebombing of a synagogue in Wuppertal, a region just east of Düsseldorf, was an act of criminal arson, but not anti-Semitic. Instead, the court found it was a protest against Israel, even though the synagogue was obviously not in Israel and those who worship there are Jews, not Israelis.
The decision upheld that of a lower court, which stated the perpetrators, a trio of Palestinian-born German residents, wanted to “call attention to the Gaza conflict” when they prepared and then lobbed Molotov cocktails at the synagogue one July night in 2014. No one was injured, but the attack caused €800 in damages. The men were ultimately given suspended sentences.
The court’s decision is baffling — and deeply troubling. The men didn’t target the Israeli Embassy or one of its consulates. They attacked a Jewish institution. To conflate Israelis with Jews — and to say that a disagreement with the policies of the former somehow justifies attacking the latter — is by definition anti-Semitic. And if there is a line between anti-Israel sentiments and anti-Semitic ones, this attack definitely crossed it.
“The ruling judges... found that it was somehow logical that if you were angry with the state of Israel you would choose [to attack] a synagogue, because there are no objects of the state of Israel to protest,” Deidre Berger, the director of the AJC Berlin Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations, told me Friday. “It’s very difficult for us to get a sense of the dimensions of the problems of anti-Semitism in Europe when cases of anti-Semitism are not characterized as such.”
When the lower court decision came down in February 2015, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported the Jewish community of Wuppertal was horrified. “I thought the time of packed suitcases was over forever,” Leonid Goldberg, the head of the Jewish Community in Wuppertal, told the magazine. “I am now wondering — when would be the right moment to pack them again.”
He wasn’t simply speaking rhetorically: Wuppertal’s synagogue last burned in 1938. It was rebuilt at the end of the last century.
Note to would-be attackers: It’s wrong to target Jews because you’re angry at Israel
The case in Wuppertal was not an isolated act of blaming Jews for Israeli policy. It took place in the summer of 2014, during a bloody Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip designed to prevent Hamas militants there from continuing to rocket Israeli border towns. Images broadcast around the world were of children hurt or killed; anti-Israel protests were held across Europe. The violence ultimately claimed the lives of 70 Israelis and 2,205 Palestinians; the number wounded on both sides went far higher.
And, as the summer’s conflict continued, anti-Semitic acts against Jews around the globe went up, enormously. According to a report jointly issued in April 2015 by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry in Tel Aviv, and the European Jewish Congress, 766 acts of anti-Semitism were recorded in 2014, an increase of 38 percent from the previous year. These were, according to the report, “with and without weapons, and by arson, vandalism or direct threats against Jewish persons or institutions such as synagogues, community centers, schools, cemeteries and monuments, as well as private property.”
The report noted that the Israeli offensive inside Gaza contributed to the upsurge in violence but was not the only factor.
The Anti-Defamation League issued a report in August 2014 noting a “dramatic surge” in attacks. The acts ranged in size and scope. In Paris, memorably, protesters trapped Jewish worshippers in a synagogue. Chants at rallies across Europe often swapped the word “Jews” with that of “Israel.” In the United Kingdom, the Community Service Trust, which has monitored anti-Semitism in the UK since 1984, registered the highest number of anti-Semitic acts in the organization’s history.
In nearly every report, including one in the New York Times, Wuppertal was included as an act of anti-Semitic violence.
“This is a mistaken decision as far as the motives of the perpetrators are concerned,” Green Party lawmaker Volker Beck said after the first ruling, in 2015. “What do Jews in Germany have to do with the Middle East conflict? Every bit as much as Christians, non-religious people or Muslims in Germany, namely, absolutely nothing. The ignorance of the judiciary toward anti-Semitism is for many Jews in Germany especially alarming.”
Germany’s Jewish community is growing. This ruling is a slap in the face.
Back in 2011, the American ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, gave a speech where he drew a link from Israel to Europe. “[E]very new settlement announced in Israel, every rocket shot over a border or suicide bomber on a bus, and every retaliatory military strike exacerbates the problem and provides a setback here in Europe for those fighting hatred and bigotry,” he said.
But suggesting the answer to European anti-Semitism was not in the streets of Brussels or Berlin or Paris, but in Jerusalem, wasn’t well received. Newt Gingrich tweeted that the president should “recall” the ambassador. The White House told ABC News, “We condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms and believe there is never any justification for prejudice against the Jewish people or Israel.” And the ambassador later qualified his remarks stating, “I strongly condemn anti-Semitism in all its forms. I deeply regret if my comments were taken the wrong way.”
The problem with linking the upsurges of anti-Semitic attacks to Israel is that it implies Jewish communities around the world are somehow to be blamed for the decisions of a sovereign foreign government,
The fact that the attack took place in Germany is particularly troubling, and not just for historic reasons.
The overall Jewish population of Europe is in decline, according to the Pew Research Center, but Germany itself has seen a surge in Jewish immigrants in the past quarter-century. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, thousands of Jews settled in Germany, revitalizing a once moribund, decimated community. Attacks like the one in Wuppertal could leave that growing community to wonder if they’re safe in their own country.
Berger, of the AJC, said the firebombing “created a tremendous feeling of insecurity” in Wuppertal.
“The entire community became very concerned about their safety,” she added.
This week’s ruling won’t do much to allay those fears.This study aims to determine the function of Plectranthus barbatus (Lamiaceae) herbal tea as inhibitor of the brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. To accomplish this objective the herbal tea as well as its main component, rosmarinic acid were administered to laboratory animals (rats) and the effect on the brain AChE activity was evaluated. The study of the herbal tea metabolites in the plasma and also in the brain was undertaken. The herbal water extract was administered intragastrically and also intraperitoneally. When the plant extract was intragastrically administered, vestigial amounts of metabolites from P. barbatus extract compounds were present in rat plasma, but none were found in brain, although inhibition of brain acetylcholinesterase activity was detected. However, when P. barbatus extract was administered intraperitoneally, all its compounds were found in plasma, and rosmarinic acid was found in brain. The highest concentrations of compounds/metabolites were found 30 min after administration. An inhibition of 29.0 ± 2.3% and 24.9 ± 3.7% in brain acetylcholinesterase activity was observed 30 and 60 min after intraperitoneal administration, respectively. These values were higher than those expected, taking into account the quantity of rosmarinic acid detected in the brain, which suggests that other active extract compounds or metabolites may be present in non-detectable amounts. These results prove that the administration of P. barbatus aqueous extract can reach the brain and act as AChE inhibitor.The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Canadian parent Kori Doty, who identifies as a “non-binary trans person,” is fighting to make newborn baby Searyl Atli the first to be registered as “gender unknown.” Doty wants to allow Searyl to decide his or her sex, CBC News reported.
Doty identifies as neither male nor female, preferring the pronoun “they,” and wants Searyl, whose sex has not been entered into any government records, to have the same option. Doty gave birth to Searyl at a friend's home last November.
“I’m raising Searyl in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I’m recognizing them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be the most whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box,” Doty said.
So far, Doty said British Columbia is refusing to issue Searyl a birth certificate with no sex listed. The province has, however, issued the child’s health cards with a “U” for “undetermined” or “unassigned,” so Searyl would have access to medical services.
Doty’s lawyer, barbara findley, who refuses to spell her name with capital letters, said British Columbia allows for only male and female designations on birth certificates.
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal is aiding Doty in the fight to get all government documents to accommodate those who claim to be neither male nor female.
“When I was born,” Doty explained, “doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and followed my identification throughout my life.
“Those assumptions were incorrect,” she continued, “and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then.”
Doty believes “assigning” a child’s sex at birth is a human rights violation, taking away the freedom to decide one’s own sexual identity.
According to findley, the government does not need to know the child’s sex.
“Certainly, our culture is obsessed with [if a baby is] a boy or a girl, but the government doesn’t have any business certifying that information when they don’t know it to be true,” findley said.
It is important, Doty noted, for Searyl “to have all of the space to be the most whole and complete person that they can be.”
The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal is also fighting to extend the right to leave the child’s sex off of every legal document, including a driver’s license and passport.
“People always ask, ‘Is your baby a boy or a girl?’ I don’t know yet,” Doty said. “I’m waiting to get to know them more.”The battle for Delhi is officially under way. The date may have been announced today, but the battle cry had already been sounded over the weekend, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. And the clues to who will win on 7 February are to be found in his Ramleela Maidan speech.
Launching the party’s poll campaign, Modi used the word ‘gareeb’ 33 times; almost once in every minute of his half-hour speech. In his 2013 speech, Modi had favoured a different G word with the poor remembered just twice.
The reason for this change in Modi’s vocabulary and why G for Gandhi has been replaced by G for gareeb: AAP’s influence among the urban poor—the migrant labour, rickshawpullers, auto-drivers and those who live in slums. This voter, the truly aam aadmi, can spoil Modi’s party.
For the past few months the BJP has been trying to woo them. First with promises of legalizing all unauthorized colonies, then by talking about cheaper and better electricity and finally by talking more and more about the gareeb.
The Delhi election will be completely different from the other assembly polls that have taken place since Modi became PM. In Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress was in power — either on its own or with an ally — and there was a lot of anger against it. The anti-incumbency sentiment combined with the incompetence of Congress leadership to help the BJP make handsome gains in these states.
But in Delhi, Kejriwal’s popularity, his party’s clean image, marginalization of the Congress and the abating Modi wave will ensure that the BJP doesn’t start with a huge advantage.
The BJP’s other strategy — Amit Shah’s formula of communal polarization— also won’t work in Delhi. Results of the clashes in Trilokpuri and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s inflammatory speeches didn’t raise the communal temperature in Delhi and the project had to be abandoned.
The dynamics have changed, and so has the BJP strategy. Modi himself has entered the fray himself like a proxy CM candidate, doling out promises and making an all-out effort to woo the urban poor away from Kejriwal.
The Delhi election is a test of Modi’s popularity, and the toughest since the Lok Sabha elections.
Modi would love to decimate Kejriwal. After the decline of the Congress, the only possible challenge to Modi will come from regional satraps. The Janata Parivar in UP and Bihar, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and Naveen Patnaik in Orissa could be next on Modi’s hit-list. But Kejriwal has the advantage of being in the heart of Delhi. His victory—unlikely but not impossible—can establish AAP as a rallying point for all anti-Modi voters. If Kejriwal wins, it can have a cascading effect on the morale of his other regional rivals.
The BJP has already committed a tactical blunder – the kind reminiscent of another kind of battle. At the beginning of World War II, the German army could have forced Britain to surrender if it had continued to march towards Dunkirk in France, trapping several thousand Allied forces. But the Germans stopped for a few days, allowing Winston Churchill to evacuate nearly 3.5 lakh trapped soldiers.
The BJP too had Kejriwal on the mat after his rout in Lok Sabha polls. Modi must have hoped that Kejriwal would fade away after the humiliation in Varanasi. But Modi and Shah made the mistake of giving him time to revive AAP.
Modi’s attack on Kejriwal and his party during the Delhi speech suggest that the AAP is still a formidable adversary. He is hoping – and rightly – that a Delhi election rout will be a death blow to AAP, from which even Kejriwal cannot recover and regroup.
Whatever be the outcome, it is in everybody’s interest that the Delhi polls get out of the way as soon as possible. It will ensure that Modi gets out of poll mode and gets back to governing—a task he has been elected for.
Several important decisions are in abeyance because of the impending polls. In Delhi, lots of ordinances and reforms have been put on the backburner because the government is busy dealing with Kejriwal.
And in Srinagar, for instance, the PDP and the BJP have delayed announcement of their alliance. This has been done because of fears that it will harm Modi’s campaign by giving his critics the opportunity to argue that the BJP has struck an opportunistic alliance with a party that favours self-rule and Article 370.
So, whoever triumphs at the polls, it is a win-win situation for voters. And that’s the real good news now that the election dates have been announced.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.A laptop repair man who was caught copying private photos and bank passwords in an undercover investigation has been jailed for nine months.
Grzegorz Zachodni was filmed in a undercover investigation by Sky News last year.
The Sky investigators, who were acting on tip-offs from PC Pro readers, were attempting to uncover rogue PC repair shops. Zachondi, who worked for Laptop Revival in Hammersmith, was caught using undercover footage secretly recorded with the laptop's webcam.
Hopefully this conviction will be a warning to the computer repair industry that the copying or use of customer’s private and personal information is not acceptable
Zachondi, who was supposed to be fixing a fault with the laptop's memory, opened a folder marked 'Private' that was planted on the PC by Sky's investigators. The folder contained intimate snaps of a Sky researcher wearing a bikini.
After calling over a colleague to look at the pictures, he proceeded to copy the files to his personal USB drive. The stolen photos were stored in a folder called "MAMMA JAMMAS", which is urban slang for females with large breasts.
He also attempted to break into the researcher's online bank account, and copied her Facebook and eBay logins and passwords to his USB drive.
Sky passed on its evidence to the Metropolitan Police Service’s Economic and Specialist Crime Unit, who arrested Zachondi last October.
Zachondi pleaded guilty to fraud on 7 July at West London Magistrate’s Court. He was today sentenced to nine months in prison.
Investigating officer DC Chris Young said: "Hopefully this conviction will be a warning to the computer repair industry that the copying or use of customer’s private and personal information is not acceptable and the Metropolitan Police Economic and Specialist Crime Directorate will endeavour to prosecute any person found to have committed offences regarding these abuses."
Click here to see Sky's report on the story and watch Sky News at 5pm for a full report.In Massachusetts, we just saw a textbook example of how bad facts (in this case, horrific facts) can make bad law. Here’s the Washington Post with the details:
In a landmark case, a Massachusetts judge has ruled that Michelle Carter, who urged her boyfriend through phone calls and text messages to kill himself, is responsible for his death. Bristol County Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz announced Friday that Carter, 20, is guilty of involuntary manslaughter after placing Conrad Roy III in a situation that led to his suicide in 2014.
Advertisement
There is no question that Carter behaved terribly. In fact, her conduct was unconscionable, and she certainly played a key role in an absolutely heartbreaking death:
Roy, 18, and Carter, who was 17 at the time, had been texting about death in the days and weeks leading up to the tragedy, according to court records. In one message, Carter told him: “You’re finally going to be happy in heaven. No more pain. It’s okay to be scared and it’s normal. I mean, you’re about to die.” Moniz, however, focused on Roy’s final moments when he wavered, stepping out of the truck — and Carter told him to “Get back in.” The judge said that though Carter knew Roy was in trouble, she took no action. “She admits in a subsequent text that she did nothing — she did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family,” Moniz said in court. “Finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction: ‘Get out of the truck.’”
Advertisement
Advertisement
I see two serious problems with this verdict — one moral, the other legal. First, Conrad Roy is responsible for his death. To argue that Carter committed manslaughter is to diminish Roy’s moral agency. It denies his free will. It’s wrong to deny compassion to someone so troubled that they’d attempt suicide, but we can’t move so far in the other direction that we race to find who’s “really” to blame when a person voluntarily takes their own life. It’s still an act of self-murder, and while Carter undoubtedly played a persuasive role, I can’t imagine where we will draw the line. Will we prosecute mean people for manslaughter when troubled teens kill themselves?
Second, there are real First Amendment implications with this verdict. Carter’s actions were reprehensible, but she was sharing with him thoughts and opinions that he may have found persuasive but had the capacity to reject. A legal argument that |
Let’s say we’re both badass veteran warriors at our respective games, but you’re in a high math system and I’m in a low math system; you swing for 50 damage each hit, and I swing for 1. In your game, a nasty troll has 1250 hit points; in my game, it has 25. Both of us will need to land 25 hits on that enemy to put it down. (Let’s leave spells, skills, and special attacks out of it for the moment.) So far it sounds the same, right? Except at my game, a new player also swings for 1 damage. So it’s 25 swings for him too. But at your game, a new player swinging 3’s will take 417 swings to put down that bad guy, or in other words, he won’t, at least not without developing a wicked case of tennis elbow in the process.
In order to combat this problem, many games adopt a “scaling” practice where they openly divide the player base for battles and adventures based on character level or the equivalent, so that new players don’t fight things they can’t kill and veterans don’t get bored obliterating nuisance threats. In other words, in a scaling system you might not be able to go on anything designated an “Epic Adventure” unless you’re level 15 or higher, that kind of thing. Which is all well and good when you can easily divide players, such as when you have hooks taking a pre-determined number of players on a structured adventure in a designated area, but it can be very difficult to preserve the concept in sprawling melees, night ambushes and other more freeform situations. And it’s not much fun to be the new players who stumble across the Unkillable Lich Minions and are carved down without even the slightest hope of winning. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that every enemy should be a cake walk for new players as well as veterans, and I know full well that many larpers will stubbornly insist on fighting when they probably should run. But there’s a big difference between “probably a good idea to flee” and “there is absolutely no hope at all” and I know which one sounds more fun and dramatic in the end.
Now, I’ve also heard this practice defended with logic along the following lines: “Well, a 1st level D&D character can’t expect to fight a 15 Hit Die dragon and win – why should it be any different in larp?” And I suppose that’s true if that’s the model you want to follow, but in response, let me answer with another question – is a math-heavy tabletop gaming model designed for a small group of friends necessarily the best basis for a real time live combat game with dozens or hundreds of players? I know fantasy boffer games started up with the general idea that it would be like playing D&D in the woods, but it’s been more than 20 years now. Boffer gaming is its own form, with two decades of innovation to make it so. We can imitate tabletop standards if we want to, but we certainly don’t have to do so anymore.
Suggestions: Obviously, this is a difficult thing to “fix” in an existing game without overhauling the entire system, so if the game already uses large numbers and adventure scaling, it might be more of a question of just understanding the problems the come with that kind of system and trying to minimize them. Make sure the new players feel valued, spend equal time and effort designing content for the different levels of players, find other ways to make things challenging than simply adding more numbers to them.
#1 – Calling Damage Every Swing
The Theory: It helps keep combat math straight.
The Problems: It kills combat roleplay, makes large battles extremely confusing, and renders ranged effects difficult to downright useless to land successfully.
This is the absolute number one thing that I find frustrating about fighting in boffer games. Anything larger than a small skirmish invariably becomes an escalating shouting match as everyone tries to make sure their target can hear them clearly, creating a battlefield din that can make it difficult to tell which numbers are directed at which target. Not to mention the difficulty people have in adding up the numbers coming at them – it’s hard enough to add 35+11+7+7+14+25 in a hurry, let alone while you’re also shouting your own numbers back. Which leads to a lot of boffer combatants essentially giving up on doing the math and just taking their best guess at when they should fall down – and if pragmatism means more or less everyone does that, what’s the point of calling damage supposed to be, again?
Another casualty of constant damage calling is ranged combat (including spellcasting and similar mechanics) – I’ve watched spellcasters of power great and terrible throw packets into these cacophonous rugby scrums and scream themselves hoarse trying to be heard by their targets, even giving up in frustration at times. Bow and crossbow users sometimes do a bit better, especially in systems that use padded arrows instead of packets – it’s a lot harder to miss being hit with an arrow than it is being hit with a tiny bean bag – but as someone who plays a game that uses nerf guns to simulate real ones, I know well the frustration of landing a perfect shot only to realize after four tries that my target can’t hear my damage because they’re heavily engaged with three people in melee and all four of them are yelling numbers of their own. Nobody’s cheating – they’re not ignoring my shots on purpose or anything – it’s just that with all the loud math in the air, my target literally cannot hear me over the din. And if I have to run up close to make my skills known, I tend to lose a lot of the basic point of being an archer/gunslinger/spellcaster, namely that I’m supposed to be able to destroy rude strangers from a distance as opposed to getting right up in their faces.
To be fair, a lot of my frustration with this problem comes from the fact that I started out playing in one of the very few boffer games that didn’t use damage calls every swing. It had a very simple system – a one-handed weapon did 1 damage, a two-handed weapon did 2 damage. If you couldn’t tell what hit you – say you were struck from behind and couldn’t turn around to see what did it – you assumed the higher number. If you used a special skill to increase this amount, you called that extra damage, and if your weapon had a magical quality, you called it once or twice the first couple of times you attacked a target, just to see if it had a special effect (or was totally ineffective), but otherwise you didn’t need to call anything while you were fighting. And you know what the best part of that system was?
We could fight and roleplay simultaneously.
Instead of having to pause our combat damage calls in order to say something to our companions – yell for help, a rallying cry, pray to the gods, insults for our enemies, whatever – we could swing our weapons and talk at the same time. It made for a very dramatic combat environment, where we could continue our character roleplaying and interaction the entire time. Now, I know from experience it’s certainly possible to intersperse roleplaying and combat in systems that require constant damage calls, so I’m not saying such systems eliminate combat roleplaying, but they certainly don’t encourage it to the same degree as a system which has few if any damage calls. When you take out the constant math calls, you not only encourage combat roleplaying but also make it far more likely that spells, ranged attacks and special abilities are properly noted, since those are the only rules calls that will be made during the average fight. It’s a win all around.
Suggestions: Like big numbers, this system is hard to remove from a game without completely overhauling the combat system, but there are some work-arounds that different games have used in the past, and not just the very simple “number of hands = damage inflicted” mechanic I discussed previously. Some games color-code weapons, for instance, so that if you’re hit by a blue weapon you take 1 damage, a green weapon does 5 damage, a red one does 10, etc. At night or in other situations where it might not be obvious, you simply call the color a few times as you swing – “Red! Red! Red!” – until your opponent knows what you’re swinging. This system does rely on learning a color code, requires a handful of standard weapon damage settings to correspond to those colors (typically increments of 1, 3 or 5), can be limited by the practical availability of properly colored duct tape or fabric sheathes to mark weapons, and can be quite noisy at night when colors are hard to see, but it remains a potential alternative. Other games use hit location systems, where weapons don’t inflict damage numbers, they simply render body parts useless after a certain number of hits to that location (potentially modified by armor on that location). This too can have some problems, as it can encourage extremely rapid striking and is often quite brutal compared to other games, but it does eliminate a lot of damage call mechanics a game might dislike.
—————————————————————————-
Badass LARP Talk is a semi-regular advice series for gamers who enjoy being other people as a hobby. Like what you read? Click on the BLT or Badass LARP Talk tag on this entry to find others in the series, follow me on Twitter @WriterPete, or subscribe to the blog for future updates!
AdvertisementsSydney weather: Thousands without power after severe storm cuts power to homes
Updated
Thousands of homes and businesses in Sydney's west will remain without power overnight, following a severe thunderstorm which brought heavy rainfall and damaging winds.
Areas affected included Penrith, Mt Druitt and The Hills, with heavy rain and strong winds bringing trees down on homes and roads.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issued a more general severe thunderstorm warning on Wednesday evening as the storm moved north.
Becky Gollings from the State Emergency Service (SES) said they had responded to hundreds of calls for help after the severe storm warning was issued, and the number rose as residents came home from work.
"It was pretty chaotic with those severe thunderstorms affecting Sydney and further south on the Illawarra and south coast," she said.
Endeavour Energy said more than 33,000 homes and businesses in Western Sydney suburbs from St Marys through to Mt Druitt and the Hills District were left without power during the severe weather.
More than 14,000 of those were in the Plumpton area, after a lightning strike hit a major substation.
As of 9:30pm more than 13,000 homes and businesses were still affected at suburbs in and around Mt Druitt, The Hills district and around Parramatta.
Endeavour Energy said because of widespread damage, some customers would be without power overnight until repairs could be completed.
"Residents in these areas are asked to check on elderly or sick neighbours and [are] reminded not to touch or go near fallen powerlines, keep others well clear and call Endeavour Energy immediately on 131 003 [if they see one]," it said in a statement.
It said all planned maintenance in Western Sydney had been cancelled and fresh crews would be brought in from the Blue Mountains, Liverpool and Wollongong to assist.
Flight delays averaged 30 minutes during storm peak
Sydney Airport said at the storm's peak several flights were cancelled and both domestic and international services experienced delays, but services were now back to normal.
Forecaster Zac Porter said the storm produced some fairly heavy rainfall as it came into the Sydney area.
"Around the Warragamba Dam area we have had falls of up to 20 millimetres in just 15 minutes and also in other parts of the state today with thunderstorm activity we have seen winds gusts of over 80 kilometres per hour," he said.
Earlier in the afternoon, Cowra, in the state's central west, recorded wind gusts of 87kph and a gust of 85kph was recorded at Goulburn in the Southern Tablelands.
Topics: weather, storm-event, sydney-2000, manly-2095, penrith-2750
First postedMINNEAPOLIS -- Mike Zimmer started into his story during the Minnesota Vikings' team meeting on Wednesday, intent on turning the team's recent futility at Soldier Field into a bogeyman the Vikings would become desperate to slay. He had just about reached the punch line when two of the three players who'd endured the most anguish in Chicago stole it from his lips.
"He started talking about it, and BRob [Brian Robison] and Chad [Greenway] finished the sentence for him," quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said. "He started to say, 'Yeah, we haven't won at Chicago in...' BRob and Chad just finished the sentence for him. I think they're more aware of it than we are. Like I said, we know how important this game is for us, a divisional game, on the road, in a place that we haven't won at in a long time."
It's been since Oct. 14, 2007, to be exact. Robison, a rookie, didn't start in the game. Greenway, playing his first full NFL season after tearing his ACL as a rookie, had six tackles. And a rookie running back named Adrian Peterson went over 200 yards for the first time as a pro, carrying 20 times for 224 yards three weeks before he'd break the NFL's single-game rushing record. Ryan Longwell hit a 55-yard field goal as time ran out, and the Vikings won 34-31. Since then, Soldier Field has been a nightmarish venue for the Vikings, full of late-game collapses and bizarre sideshows.
Thirty-four of the 53 players on the Vikings' active roster have been with the team for two years or less. But even those players can recount stories of trips to Chicago gone awry -- such as 2013, when the Bears scored the winning touchdown with 10 seconds left, or last season, when a malfunctioning Soldier Field game clock forced the Vikings to fly blind on their last attempt to tie the game.
So as the Vikings face the Monsters of the Midway on Halloween weekend in Chicago, we present five moments to remember -- or rue -- from their losing streak there:
1. Oct. 19, 2008: A nasty return
The Vikings had won three of four after an 0-2 start when they traveled to Chicago to face a Bears team with the same record. But in a game in which the Vikings rolled up 439 yards on offense, they were done in by turnovers -- particularly those which the Bears could return for scores. Chicago brought back fumbles for touchdowns in the second and third quarters, to go with a first-quarter blocked punt return for a touchdown, and prevailed 48-41 over a Vikings team that would go on to win the division at 10-6.
2. Dec. 28, 2009: Monday night misfire
Following a Sunday night loss in Carolina in which Brett Favre feuded with coach Brad Childress, the Vikings came out flat on Monday Night Football, falling into a 16-0 hole at halftime and trailing 23-6 in the third quarter. Favre brought the Vikings all the way back with 17 unanswered points in the third quarter and hit Sidney Rice with 16 seconds left to send the game to overtime. But Jay Cutler's 39-yard strike to Devin Aromashodu officially ended the Vikings' bid for home-field advantage in the playoffs, and the team would lose the NFC title game in New Orleans four weeks later.
3. Nov. 25, 2012: Breakdown on the road
Peterson had to take a cab from the team hotel after missing the bus to the stadium, and he fumbled on his third carry of the game. Peterson ran for 108 yards on 18 carries, but Christian Ponder threw for just 159 yards on 43 attempts, and the Vikings never recovered from a 25-3 deficit in a 28-10 loss that dropped them to 6-5. They'd beat the Bears at the Metrodome two weeks later, though, to start a four-game winning streak that took them to the playoffs.
4. Sept. 15, 2013: The last-minute woes begin
In four years covering the Vikings, I've never been in a postgame locker room setting as tense as the visitors room at Soldier Field that day. The Vikings started the game with a 105-yard kickoff return TD from Cordarrelle Patterson and got another score on Robison's 61-yard fumble return. But up 27-24 in the fourth quarter, the Vikings missed a chance to put the Bears away when Ponder missed Kyle Rudolph and Peterson was stuffed on third-and-goal from the Bears' 4. Chicago marched 66 yards for the game-winning score with 16 seconds left on a play where Cutler probably could've thrown the ball to three different receivers for a TD. Afterward, fuming players tried to hold their tongues about the defense on the final drive, and middle linebacker Erin Henderson said defensive coordinator Alan Williams' final call was a coverage the Vikings hadn't practiced during the week. The 31-30 loss started an all-too-familiar trend: The Vikings blew last-minute leads five times that season, which was Leslie Frazier's last as head coach.
5. Nov. 16, 2014: Not like clockwork
The Vikings came out of their bye at 4-5 after two straight wins gave them flickering playoff hopes, and they built a 10-0 lead on the road. But Cutler targeted Josh Robinson 15 times, exploiting the 5-f0ot-10 corner's disadvantage against Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery. A malfunctioning game clock left the Vikings guessing at how much time they had in the fourth quarter. Thinking he had time for only one more play, Bridgewater heaved a pass for the end zone with just under a minute left in the game. The second-down pass was intercepted in the end zone by Ryan Mundy. "When you're not aware of how much time is left on the clock, when you're down there on the playing field, it forces you to make some decisions that you probably wouldn't have made if you were aware of the play clock or the game clock," Bridgewater said Wednesday. "Hopefully it doesn't happen again this year."LOS ANGELES — The vast majority of unaccompanied migrant children arriving in the United States from Central America this year have been released to relatives in states with large established Central American populations, according to federal data released Thursday night.
A total of 30,340 children have been released to sponsors — primarily parents and other relatives — from the start of the year through July 7, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which has overseen the care of the children after they are turned over by Customs and Border Protection. More children have been released in Texas than in any other state, with sponsors there receiving 4,280 children, followed by New York with 3,347. Florida has received 3,181 children and California 3,150. Maryland and Virginia have each also received more than 2,200 children.
The numbers do not include those children who are still being cared for in shelters, which have prompted the most outrage from governors and other local officials across the country. Many children who are placed in shelters for some period of time — anywhere between a few days and a few months — have later been released to family members.
Officials have said that more than half of all children initially placed in shelters have gone on to be reunited with at least one parent already living in the United States, and 85 percent of all children have been placed with a close family member.Truly impressive mod projects make me want to defy physics. For example, try as I might, I cannot – even with the assistance of a truly formidable thesaurus – recreate the pure magic of an authentic standing ovation in post form. And yet, that’s what the legions of folks who’ve spent five years continuously tidying up each and every inch of Morrowind deserve. Meanwhile, Morrowind Overhaul 2.0 was quite the looker, but I want to frame Overhaul 3.0‘s trailer and hang in it on my wall – something that’s also probably outside the orc-and-elf-free realm of possibility. Even bare walls and pin-drop silence, however, won’t dampen my excitement for really pretty videogame snow. I mean, just look at that stuff. Well, go on now. Do it.
So obviously, the mod compilation – which should be available any day now – is adding yet another shiny new coat of paint, but there’s also quite a bit going on underneath the hood. Ease-of-use improvements, especially, sound wonderful.
“Among the new graphics, sounds and fixes there will be the easiest installer ever made for this package. The first version had a 40 pages installation guide, the second version’s guide was just 10 pages and the third one will have just one, and you don’t even have to read it!” “MO comes with an handy auto-updater that will automatically download the latest mod updates for you. Despite what you think the Morrowind modding community is well alive and still makes a lot of mods!”
Odds are, it still won’t knock Steam Workshop off its throne any time soon, but – as far as games that only have the option of fending for themselves go – this sounds vastly more convenient than most. On top of that, while this update’s largely dedicated to graphics and sound, the Overhaul team’s still ironing out the kinks on a “Game Experience” compilation as well. Perhaps someday in the far flung future, our children’s children won’t even be able to comprehend an existence in which Morrowind’s combat is pretty much every flavor of terrible. They’ll ask, “Grandpa inferior lifeform who’s yet to evolve to a state of pure energy, why did you hate Cliff Racers so much?” And we’ll ponder for a moment before smiling back and saying,”Oh, no reason.”Wilson doctrine: Emergency debate over spying on MPs' communications BelfastTelegraph.co.uk MPs are to hold an emergency debate on the Wilson doctrine, amid fears the convention designed to prevent politicians' communications being spied upon is "dead". https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/wilson-doctrine-emergency-debate-over-spying-on-mps-communications-34113265.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/article31401329.ece/13191/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-760fcfd0-a916-4545-863a-e9800b4eaae2_I1.jpg
Email
MPs are to hold an emergency debate on the Wilson doctrine, amid fears the convention designed to prevent politicians' communications being spied upon is "dead".
The Wilson doctrine, named after former prime minister Harold Wilson, protects MPs’ phones and electronic communications.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has ruled the convention has no legal basis.
Shadow Commons leader Chris Bryant led a successful application in the Commons for an emergency debate in response to Wednesday's judgment.
The debate has been allocated up to three hours on Monday, October 19.
Mr Bryant said the judgment had resulted in an "ambiguity" which needed to be cleared up urgently, adding it had also cast doubt on the protections supposedly afforded by the convention.
He told MPs: "To all intents and purposes, it means that the Wilson doctrine is dead."
Earlier, the Labour frontbencher told the Commons: "The right of members of this House to be able to represent their constituents without fear or favour is intrinsic to our democracy.
"It is the cornerstone of the bill of rights and it is one of the most ancient freedoms of this country.
Read more
Ruling on tapping of MPs' phones 'body blow for democracy'
GCHQ may be spying on Northern Ireland Assembly members after policy change, claims Amnesty
British MPs fear security services now have 'open door' to snoop
Bugging scandal in British parliament
"In another era, before the existence of telephones and emails it meant that MPs and peers, even in war, had a right for their written correspondence not to be intercepted or be interfered with."
He said that since 1966 politicians had relied on the words of then prime minister Harold Wilson to prevent the tapping of their communications.
Concluding his application, Mr Bryant criticised ministers for failing to offer assurances over the protections MPs have.
He said: "Serious questions remain. Firstly, is the Wilson doctrine still in operation in any meaningful sense whatsoever?
"Secondly, have parliamentarians' communications been deliberately targeted?
"Thirdly, if so has this been on the authority of a minister, a secretary of state, or anyone else?
"This is an urgent matter and it needs consideration."
Commons Speaker John Bercow said he was satisfied the issue raised should be put to a vote.
Labour MPs stood up to vote in favour of the application - in line with what is required under standing order 24 - while Conservative MPs could also be heard shouting their support.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb and former MP George Galloway made the complaint to the IPT.
Lawyers alleged that the politicians' communications are being intercepted by GCHQ as part of the Tempora programme, which monitors and collates on a blanket basis the full range of electronic communications data produced in, or transiting through, the UK and other countries.
On Wedneday, the IPT declared the doctrine applies only to targeted, and not incidental, interception of Parliamentary communications, but that it has no legal effect, save that in practice the Security and Intelligence Agencies must comply with their own guidance.
Its president, Mr Justice Burton said the IPT was satisfied that the doctrine was not enforceable in English law by the claimants or other MPs or peers by way of legitimate expectation.
The Wilson doctrine outlined the policy of no tapping of the phones of MPs or members of the House of Lords, unless there is a major national emergency, and that any changes to the policy will be reported by the prime minister to Parliament.
Spying on Northern Ireland MLAs
In August Amnesty International wrote to all members of the Northern Ireland Assembly warning them that their communications could be under surveillance.
Amnesty NI director Patrick Corrigan said: "The change in GCHQ’s interpretation of the Wilson doctrine illustrates why mass surveillance is so damaging to a free society. If our elected representatives are not safe from the spies, who is?
"For the rules on spying on elected representatives across the UK to change without any sort of public scrutiny or accountability, is outrageous. We need to know from the Northern Ireland Executive, what - if anything - they knew about this change.
"Amnesty International fought through 18 months of litigation at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal and a wall of denials to get confirmation that we were also subject to mass surveillance by the UK Government via GCHQ.
"They finally admitted that not only had GCHQ been spying on us, but what’s more that it had acted illegally, breaking its own policy on storing our data and communications.
"As human rights campaigners, this is a matter of very serious concern. We work with victims of government abuses who are understandably afraid that their confidential communications with us might be read by hostile governments.
"Like MPs and MLAs, the people Amnesty talk to rely on and trust that confidentiality, and so GCHQ’s behaviour puts at risk our ability to do our jobs well and safely.
"Our inadequate surveillance laws are failing to keep the spies in check and must be urgently reviewed and reformed. That’s why we’re calling for an independent inquiry into how the UK intelligence agency has been spying on human rights organisations. We hope that elected representatives in Northern Ireland will now join with us in making that call."
In July Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was seeking assurances from David Cameron that Scottish MLAs are not being spied upon. The Scottish First Minister wrote to the Prime Minister calling on him to clarify whether communications from MSPs have been intercepted by the intelligence agencies.
Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government had not been consulted on the apparent change and urged Mr Cameron to confirm that the Wilson doctrine remains in place in Scotland.
She wrote: " I am sure you will agree with me that, excepting truly exceptional circumstances involving national security, the confidentiality of communications between parliamentarians and their constituents is of the utmost importance.
"I am sure you will also agree that it is just as important for MSPs as it is for MPs. This principle of confidentiality is what the 'Wilson doctrine' was introduced to protect.
"You will therefore understand my concern at suggestions in the Daily Record and elsewhere - reportedly supported by documentation shown to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal - that, while GCHQ had been applying the Wilson doctrine to the communications of MSPs, that is no longer the case."
Belfast Telegraph DigitalThe Jamesburg Earth Station will be responsible for transmitting the messages contributed to the Lone Signal project.
NEW YORK — In 18 years, messages beamed out into space from Earth by a new alien-messaging project Monday (June 17) will reach a distant star system known as Gliese 526.
Officials with the Lone Signal project — a newly launched website designed to send user-written notices to any extraterrestrials who may receive them — hope that their messages might open the first dialogue between Earth and other intelligent life forms.
One of the company's first message beamed to the Gliese 526 system, located 17.6 light-years from Earth was sent by famous futurist Ray Kurzweil and reads: "Greetings to Gliese 526 from Singularity University. As you receive this, our computers have made us smarter, the better to understand you and the wisdom of the universe…" [10 Wildest Ways to Contact Aliens]
Two party-goers look out onto the Manhattan skyline next to a telescope pointed toward the star system Gliese 526. Image released June 18, 2013. (Image: © Miriam Kramer/SPACE.com)
"This signal, in 19 hours, will go farther than the Voyager spacecraft has in 40 years," Jason Silva, the host of "Brain Games" on the National Geographic Channel said. He spoke to a crowd of fashion models, businessmen and a handful of scientists in downtown Manhattan honoring Lone Signal's launch on Monday.
A chosen star system
Scientists aren't sure if Lone Signal's chosen target of Gliese 526 (a red dwarf star) plays host to any potentially alien-populated exoplanets, but Lone Signal's chief science officer, Jacob Haqq-Misra thinks that it's possible the system harbors life. Gliese 526 is listed in the Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems.
Lone Signal officials won't put limitations on the messages their users send into space. Although other Lone Signal participants can mark a particular message in the queue as "NSFW" (not safe for work), that doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be beamed toward Gliese 526.
Haqq-Misra doesn't think that this kind of free-range messaging is anymore dangerous than other transmissions being sent into the universe. Radar signals and electromagnetic currents from cell phones and other devices also carry information to far-off places.
Humanity's presence in the universe isn't secret, according to Haqq-Misra.
"We don't really know if [Lone Signal] is more likely to be bad at all," Haqq-Misra told SPACE.com. "It could be more likely to be good. So there's really almost no information as to whether or not we should send radio signals if you're really worried about aliens responding to them … Is Lone Signal dangerous? Are cell phones dangerous? Is radar dangerous? The answer is we don't know."
Lone Signal is crowd sourcing the search for intelligent life by asking people from around the world to submit their messages that will be sent deep into outer space. (Image: © Lone Signal Media)
A large antenna
Lone Signal officials are using the Jamesburg Earth Station, a central California radio dish built in 1968, to beam the messages into outer space. The company holds a 30-year lease with the antenna.
Lone Signal is continuously sending two different beams of information toward the alien star. One beam carries the user-created messages while the other holds a binary code "hailing message" that carries information about Earth's place in the galaxy, the hydrogen atom and other information about the planet. The more powerful hailing message will point alien observers to the other stream of messages.
Other scientists and organizations have tried to send messages to possible intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe. One of the most powerful attempts is known as the "Arecibo message" — a powerful radar signal sent to the globular star cluster M13 about 25,000 light-years away. [The Nearest Stars to Earth (Infographic)]
Lone Signal's beams are weaker than the Arecibo message sent from a powerful observatory in Puerto Rico, however, the company's messages are aimed at a much closer region of the universe, Haqq-Misra said.
"What's different about this from previous attempts at messaging to extra-terrestrials is past attempts have been pulses in time that have existed for just a matter of a few seconds or so and then they've ceased," Haqq-Misra said in a video introduction of the website. " … So if we really want to communicate something to a potential extra terrestrial listener, you have to transmit your message repeatedly and with a periodic signal and something that's going to allow a lot of time for them to tune in to the right station."
A crowd-sourced message
Officials from Lone Signal rented out a Manhattan loft, complete with a laser light show, to officially launch the project's website. Image released June 18, 2013. (Image: © Miriam Kramer/SPACE.com)
Any interested person can send his or her first alien communication for free, but extra missives come with a price tag. Another text communiqué can be purchased for one "credit" and photo message cost three. Four credits can be purchased for $0.99, but high rolling space senders can buy 4,000 credits for $99.99.
People around the world can participate in the project in a variety of ways, according to Lone Signal officials:
Share Beams/Track Beams: Once signed in, users can see how far their beam has traveled from Earth as well as share this information with others.
Dedicate Beams: Friends and family can dedicate a beam to loved ones
Explore: The Explore section gives beamers current data on the Lone Signal beam, who is sending messages, from where on Earth and other information.
Blog/Twitter – The Lone Signal science team and other contributors will post opinion articles and share science news and updates via social media.
You can read more about the Lone Signal project and send your first alien communication from the company's website.
Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter and Google+. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.President Obama was in town briefly yesterday to slow jam the news with Jimmy Fallon and take photos with Madonna, causing plenty of traffic delays and gridlock in Midtown Manhattan. But a presidential motorcade wasn't enough to deter one intrepid Citi Biker, who attempted to circumvent the street closures and got taken down pretty hard for his troubles.
This #Citibike rider tries to penetrate a #NYPD barrier seconds before the #Obama #motorcade rolls across Park Avenue... what happens next will not surprise you #clickbait A video posted by Matt (@mattpeco) on Jun 8, 2016 at 3:47pm PDT
Cops confirmed that the 59-year-old man, whose name wasn't released, was "stopped and detained" by cops at 50th Street and Park Avenue around 6:20 p.m. Wednesday. He was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.
Sure, cops probably could have stood in front of him to prevent him from getting any further (he doesn't appear to be biking very quickly in the video above), but where would the fun have been in that?!
This is what happens when an unstoppable #deblasiosny meets an immovable #thanksobama.Imagine if Edward Norton had made Primal Fear and decided to just bounce after that, or if Johnny Depp called it quits after Edward Scissorhands. Even though he was in a few films before that (including Nightmare on Elm Street), had that happened, no one would have thought twice about the guy – not unlike how zero people really think twice about the following actors and actresses… 7. Bolaji Badejo – The Skinny Guy In The Alien Suit Almost exactly two years ago I mentioned Badejo in my first ever list on this site. A 26 year old Nigerian-born graphic arts student with one credit to his name, Badejo was found when the casting agent Peter Archer saw him at a bar. And just like that, he became one of the most iconic costumed villains ever without anyone learning his name. Since then, Badejo has become practically legend, as word of his death is unconfirmed. PerhapsEd Sheeran at the BRIT Awards 2017 ceremony and live show in London. Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
After months of controversy, the writers behind the 1999 single “No Scrubs” have received credit on Ed Sheeran’s hit new song “Shape of You.” TLC’s Kandi Burruss, Tameka Cottle, and producer Kevin Briggs are now listed on the song’s official American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers page, joining original writers Sheeran, Steve Mac, and Johnny McDaid.
Observers had noted the stark similarities between the two songs, finding considerable overlap between their choruses. But while the new credits sufficiently recognize this particular comparison, “Shape of You” has actually been criticized for its parallels to a pair of other popular singles as well: Tracy Chapman’s “Mountain o’ Things” and Sia’s “Cheap Thrills.”
Further, it’s worth noting that while this matter has been retroactively settled, Sheeran is still in hot water over other songs that have been accused of plagiarism. Heirs of songwriter Edward Townsend have taken action against Sheeran, claiming he copied key parts of the Marvin Gaye song “Let’s Get It On” in “Thinking Out Loud.” And Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard have sued for $20 million, arguing that key parts of their single “Amazing” were copied for Sheeran’s “Photograph.” According to the BBC, these cases are still pending.Some people are fans of the New England Patriots. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New England Patriots. This 2012 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read the other Why Your Team Sucks 2012 previews here.
1. OW-AH FANS AHHH BETTAH THAN YOUR-AH FANS! New England sports fans are the worst sports fans on the face of the Earth. They're fucking awful in every way, and I can barely stand the sight of them. People from |
212) October 28, 2016 Photo: YouTube screengrabA SOLDIER allegedly waterboarded his four-year-old daughter because she failed to recite her ABCs.
Joshua Tabor, 27, flew into such a rage that he submerged her face about three or four times, Britain's Daily Mail reported.
He admitted to police that he chose the CIA torture technique because his daughter was terrified of water.
Mr Tabor, who is a soldier at a base in Tacoma, Washington, is said to have grabbed his daughter and submerged her face-up into a bowl of water.
Police said that they saw bruising on the girl's back and scratch marks on her throat, and when they asked her how she got them, she said: "Daddy did it."
Police arrested Mr Tabor after neighbours reported seeing him walking around the neighbourhood wearing his Kevlar helmet and threatening to break windows.
President Barack Obama has outlawed waterboarding but it was used frequently by the CIA on terror suspects while George W. Bush was in office.
Suspects would have water poured over their faces, giving them the sensation that they were drowning.
Mr Tabor has been charged with second degree assault. His daughter has been taken into care.Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (New York, Liveright, 2015), 512 pp., $35.00.
THE INITIALS SPQR, the title of Mary Beard’s lively, engrossing and chatty new history of Rome, were part of the everyday language of our republican forebears, at least those engaged in the pamphlet wars around the new federal constitution. Senatus Populusque Romanus, “Senate and People of Rome,” suggested a balance between the wisdom of elders (the root sense of “senate”) and the rights of the people. The pamphleteers signed with Roman names, such as Cato and Caesar, the great opponents in Rome’s Civil War. That war spawned the dictatorship of Caesar which, after his assassination, made way for the principate of Augustus, who sought to restore the forms of the republic while retaining real power for himself and his heirs. For fledgling Americans, this was not antiquarian history. The failure of the Roman republic, as senators prostrated themselves before contemptuous emperors, and elections, hotly contested a few generations earlier, faded into insignificance, fed into cautionary lessons for Federalists and anti-Federalists alike. The Latin motto on the dollar bill, Novus ordo saeclorum, harked back to Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue, in which the poet, turning his back on the naysayers who saw decline everywhere, predicted arrival of a new era of peace and plenty. The devastation and bloodletting of civil war had given rise to millenarian expectations that found at least a rhetorical home in the new “empire of liberty.”
In ancient Rome, the revolutionary generation had found a usable past, rhetorically bypassing the British motherland against which it had rebelled. From the historians Sallust, Livy and Tacitus came the story of an empire won by civic spirit and disinterested virtue. Rome’s decline was variously dated; there was agreement that the bounty of imperial conquest had seduced the conquerors into paroxysms of greed and extravagance. Luxuria had sapped the moral fiber of hitherto sturdy, patriotic Roman youth. That neglected the obvious fact that precisely in the years of supposed decline, Roman arms conquered more territory around the Mediterranean than ever before. Still, the moralists continued to scold and call for a return to—what else?—traditional values. That is reflected in the pseudonym of Publius adopted by Madison, Hamilton and Jay for the Federalist Papers. They could be confident that readers would catch the allusion to a legendary founder of the Roman republic, Publius Publicola, whose very name signaled a zeal to place public interests ahead of private gain.
The Roman experience seemed to teach that a failure to curb the power of self-interest would bring about destructive factionalism. Yet to rely on the virtue espoused by a Cato would be an exercise in futility. Madison, as we know, sought to solve the problem in the tenth Federalist (his first contribution) by the Machiavellian expedient of inhibiting the effects of self-interested partisanship—tolerating a multiplicity of factions in a territorially extended republic.
BEARD TOO is attuned to the institutions and practices that account for the startling expansion of Rome to become the sole superpower of the Mediterranean world. Her approach is analytic; she waves aside the stories of battles and clashing personalities that are the stuff of conventional narratives. Hannibal’s tactics at Cannae are elementary, too simple to discuss; Actium, where Augustus, or his admiral Agrippa, vanquished Antony and Cleopatra to become sole ruler of the Roman world, was, we are informed, a “tawdry” affair. Its tawdriness is too obvious to merit discussion. What accounts for Roman military success, for the almost fanatical perseverance that enabled Rome to ride out initial catastrophic defeats, was its concept of citizenship. The realist historian Arthur Eckstein, in his study of anarchic international relations in the Hellenistic world, had identified this as a, if not the, key to Roman success. Beard appears to agree. What the Romans and nobody else did, she says, was to divorce citizenship from geographical location and heredity. Where the Athenians restricted citizenship to the offspring of citizens, and soon lost their empire, Rome granted the privileges and demanded the duties of citizenship from the populations it conquered. A nice example of the attraction of such inclusiveness is provided by the so-called Social War, in which Italians denied citizenship fought Rome in order to gain it. A critic might object that Romans had first to conquer a city or nation before using citizenship as an inducement to gain its loyalty, and that such loyalty explains better how the Romans managed to overcome invaders such as Pyrrhus and Hannibal than why and how they came aggressively to ingest the entire Mediterranean littoral. Here more conventional narratives of the intense competitiveness of the Roman elite, to be expressed in military exploits, would come into play. Again, it’s difficult to ignore an ethos, evident in the Hannibalic War, that doggedly refuses to concede to an enemy. Call it Catonian virtue if you like.
A CURIOUS feature of Beard’s otherwise accomplished writing—her knowledge is encyclopedic—is her almost total effacement of Cato, at points that would seem to cry out for his inclusion. One such point is the conspiracy of Catiline in 63 BC, the year of Cicero’s consulship. Cicero uncovered the plot, had the plotters seized and brought them before the senate to have their fate decided. Here Cato enters with a decisive intervention whose consequences would bring Cicero to the lowest point of his career. Why drop Cato from the story? That she finds him repugnant is clear. Many people have. Wearing his Stoic rectitude on the sleeve of his toga, giving day-long speeches, he got on people’s nerves. True to his principles, he committed suicide rather than accept clemency from Caesar and live under his rule. Before cutting his veins, he read Plato’s Phaedo on the immortality of the soul, though Socrates in the dialogue expressly forbids suicide. When Beard does mention him in order to comment on his disfiguring himself, he is catalogued as one of a “motley group of those who, for various reasons, did not like what Caesar was up to or the powers he seemed to be seeking.” But what makes this group, which must include Brutus and Cassius, motley? Does Beard truly believe that Caesar only “seemed” to be seeking the powers he ended up wielding, and that these republicans simply did not “like” what he was doing? For Cicero, at least, Caesar was making himself into a deified king.
Cato’s opposition to Caesar in the civil war that the dictator in waiting admitted, or boasted, that he launched in order to defend his dignitas, rank and reputation, against encroachment by Pompey and assorted senatorial diehards, capped a career of principled struggle against the misgovernment and corruption endemic in the late republic. Cicero quipped that he acted as though he were living in Plato’s ideal city rather than in the scummy one of Romulus. His intransigence may have triggered the formation of the so-called First Triumvirate, the alliance between Caesar, Pompey and Crassus that a keen observer, Pollio, thought ushered in the era of civil wars. Granted, Cato’s moralism is off-putting, but it remains a crucial piece of evidence for Rome’s violent transition from republic to empire. Moreover, for once at least Cato came out on top in the senate debate on the Catilinarians.
IN FACT, Beard begins her history with reflections on the Catilinarian conspiracy, only turning to the origins of Rome in the following chapter. The episode is well documented, she points out, in contrast to the veil of ignorance settling on Rome’s early days, about which the Romans themselves could only concoct edifying and sometimes unedifying legends, such as the rape of the Sabine women. “Catiline,” moreover, is the stuff of melodrama: a charismatic, unscrupulous swaggerer who, like so many others, looted the province he governed, using the pelf in electoral contests; unable to win elections to Rome’s highest office, the consulate, he turned to rebellion. Sallust and Cicero make much of his magnetic attraction for bankrupt youths who had misspent their patrimonies; hopelessly in debt, they were easily convinced that the Roman equivalent of “the Man” was to blame for their plight. Catiline held out revenge and easy pickings. Rumors of incest and murders he was said to have committed made him all the more fearsome and alluring.
There were good reasons for disaffection. Italy was in the grip of an economic crisis; Beard usefully describes the evidence for a credit crunch in 63 BC, and Cicero himself in an oration to the people acknowledges the economic squeeze that led many into Catiline’s camp. Catiline may have believed that only a violent uprising could break the back of the senatorial aristocracy responsible for the crisis that had twice denied him the consulate and placed Cicero in office. Cicero, with close ties to the Knights (the wealthy property owners who held the debt) and the publicans (the tax farmers) could be depended on to squelch any movement to cancel debts and relieve the little people. Catiline could never have patched together a halfway effective army composed solely of wayward youths reveling in the capital’s fleshpots. He was able to recruit veterans of Sulla’s armies who had mismanaged or otherwise not made a go of the farms that the dictator had allotted them as payment for their service.
Cicero himself was the target of social snobbery. He was a self-made man whose family tree lacked the noble ancestors who would make for a comfortable fit into the aristocratic ranks. He had worked his way up to the consulate by dint of sheer intelligence and rhetorical finesse. Romans had a word for his type: he was a novus homo, a new man. The phrase hinted at an upstart; newness was no recommendation for Romans oriented towards tradition. By defending and gaining acquittals for aristocrats in the dock, he had built up a network of supporters who owed him one; his prosecution of Verres, the venal ex-governor of Sicily in the face of a defense by Hortensius, the most prominent advocate in Rome, brought him notoriety and the prospect of advancement. Though Cicero might win elections and be useful in blocking Catiline, old-line aristocrats would not accept him as one of their own. Cicero resented the disdain; this resentment may help explain the vainglorious bragging that mars his speeches. Catiline, on the other hand, like Caesar, boasted a pedigree that stretched back to the legendary origins of Rome. In the Aeneid, Virgil celebrates a Sergius (Catiline’s family name), having him take part in a boat race during the Trojans’ voyage to Italy to found Rome—though later in the poem Catiline himself is consigned to eternal suffering in Hades! As Catiline, pummeled by Cicero’s rhetorical salvos, rushed out of the Senate, he was heard to mutter “inquilinus civis urbis Romae,” an immigrant citizen who has clawed his way into the city of Rome. The insult was remembered; in its concise nastiness it could not have been bettered as a riposte to Cicero’s fulsome periods.
This took place at a senate session on November 8, 63 BC, where Cicero’s aim was to isolate Catiline and drive him out of the city. He began his oration, in the published version at least, with a rhetorical question. Beard quotes the Latin: quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, nostra patientia?—how long will you keep on trying our patience? She spends pages in tracing the resonance of the phrase down to recent times without, however, explaining about what exactly Cicero is exercising patience. It is not, as you might expect, that he has not arrested Catiline. No, he has forborne to put him to death! He cites, in lawyerly fashion, a number of precedents in which patriots, without further ado, put men they deemed traitors to death. Cicero is in effect lauding lynch justice. He betrays a temper ready to cast aside legal restraint whenever reasons seem compelling. Cicero’s precedents strike today’s reader not as justificatory, but as huge rents in the Roman legal fabric.
A similar rationale underlies another phrase from the speech, quoted by Beard: “the snappy, and still much repeated, slogan ‘O tempora, O mores’”—our times, our way of life. It’s an all-purpose slogan, useful whenever somebody wants to lament the passing of the good old days.” But as Cicero uses the words, they are no vague bellyaching. Beard fails to explain that, as with quo usque, he is lamenting the passing of a virtuous age when a consul, especially one armed with senatorial decree, could have had such a miscreant executed out of hand, even, he adds pathetically, as the commonwealth faces dissolution. Yet Roman citizens were entitled to trials and, in capital cases, an appeal to a popular assembly. This was known as provocatio and was a bedrock of libertas, their concept of freedom. Cicero dispenses with it by the simple expedient of declaring that Catiline has forfeited citizenship.
Was this simply rhetorical overstatement? Cicero, after all, had no intention of killing Catiline; he wanted to shame him into leaving the city. But this neglects the influence that overheated rhetoric can have in fraying the bonds of civility that a society requires, even in times of crisis. In addition, Cicero’s indifference to elementary citizen rights would come to haunt him in the aftermath of the conspiracy; it had consequences he could not imagine during what Beard calls, perhaps ironically, his “finest hour.”
Cicero had reason to be impatient. Owing to Romans’ fear of executive overreach, the tenure of magistrates was limited to a year. Cicero’s was almost up. This was also the age of military dynasts at the head of virtually private armies. Pompey, leading a seemingly invincible armament in the East while mopping up the remnants of Mithridates’s forces, would have liked nothing better than to swoop in and take the credit for finishing off Catiline. Senatorial bigwigs, fearing the power that would accrue to him, and Cicero, aiming for a glorious victory as savior of Rome, were to head him off. Might Pompey not turn into another Sulla, whose protégé he had been? Pompey, it seems, did not take well to Cicero’s activism. It was the custom for retiring consuls to deliver a valedictory on their accomplishments on January 1. When Cicero rose to do so, a tribune loyal to Pompey interposed his veto. What might Cicero have said? Perhaps he would have repeated an earlier boast that he was the first consul togatus, that is, one wearing the toga of peacetime rather than a military cloak to have put down an armed rebellion. He was, in effect, challenging Pompey’s authority to regulate the affairs of Rome.
BEARD, AUTHOR of an exceptionally fine work on Roman humor, might have found material in the ham-handed behavior of the conspirators whom Catiline left behind in Rome. Cicero had informants who kept him apprised of their every move. He had to put up with mockery of his repeated claims of comperi, “I have found out.” Whether on instructions from Catiline or, more likely, brainstorming on their own, they tried to recruit a Gallic tribe that was nursing grievances against Rome into joining the uprising. To gain the confidence of the Gauls, they signed letters to them, promptly seized by Cicero’s agents. One spoke of an appeal to “the meanest,” namely slaves, to join up—the ultimate horror for a slave-owning society. Another revealed that one of Catiline’s confederates, the high-born Lentulus, was certain of a victorious outcome from deciphering an entry in the Sibylline books—a Roman version of Nostradamus—to signify that he would be the third ruler of Rome. Hauled up by Cicero before the senate, Catiline’s nine lieutenants were forced to acknowledge that the signatures on the letters were theirs. With guilt established beyond a doubt, the only question was: what is the penalty going to be?
The nine were remanded to the custody of prominent senators until the senate could debate and vote on punishment. An attempt to free Lentulus and Cethegus made a decision urgent. The senate met on December 5. Sallust provides an invaluable account of the meeting; he could consult stenographic records. He simplified by isolating the opposing speeches of Caesar and Cato in the manner of Thucydides, whose Roman counterpart he aimed to become. Indeed, he took as his model one of the highlights of Thucydides’s work, the debate between Cleon and Diodotus in 427 BC on the fate of the Mytileneans, Athenian “allies” who had conspired with Sparta to throw off Athenian rule. Sallust has Caesar slip into the role of Diodotus, arguing on pragmatic grounds that in sparing the rebels, the Athenians would be looking to their self-interest, as other allies would be less tempted to defect from the alliance. He also rolls out an intricate, almost sophistic argument that the death penalty has never been effective in controlling crimes. Caesar’s corresponding contention is that—as Epicurus maintained—there is no afterlife, hence no post mortem punishment for crimes; accordingly, the death sentence is no deterrence to crime. Like Diodotus, he concedes that as a matter of justice the men deserve to die. However, there looms a slippery slope from punishing the guilty to persecuting the innocent.
This is simply grist for Cato’s mill. Sallust casts him as a Roman Cleon who is strong on righteous indignation. Just as Cleon had urged his Athenians to indulge their appetites for vengeance, Cato—in the o tempora, o mores strain—lashes out at his Romans for abandoning the rigor and virtue of their forbears. Where Cleon had taunted his audience for the pleasure they got from listening to fancy intellectual arguments rather than taking immediate action, Cato lambastes the senatorial majority for wallowing in luxury and avarice, in contrast to the virtuous ancestors who acquired the empire they are frittering away. The senators appear to have lapped up Cato’s tongue lashing, for after first rallying to Caesar’s recommendation that the guilty men be imprisoned, under the impact of Cato’s denunciation of their flabbiness they overwhelmingly endorsed the death penalty. A few hours later, Cicero had the group led into an underground chamber, the Tullianum, where they were strangled.
Beard mentions Caesar’s “daring suggestion that the captured conspirators should be imprisoned” in country districts and have their properties confiscated. Why daring? In ancient times, she notes “prisons were little more than places where criminals were held before execution.” Then, instead of commenting on Cato’s harangue as the reason that the senate rejected Caesar’s proposal, she writes “relying on the ‘emergency powers’ decree... Cicero had the men summarily executed.” But this makes a hash of Sallust’s account which Beard has relied on for Caesar’s motion. Cicero knew full well what a thin reed the emergency decree was to lean on, and he was relying on decisive senatorial endorsement to avoid the odium in wait for him for executing citizens without submitting them to a trial. In fact, as Beard points out elsewhere, the Senate could advise and consent but neither make laws nor issue binding orders. Its power rested on the authority and reverence it could command, qualities in short supply in the late Republic. Cicero would soon discover that senatorial cover could not shield him from odium and worse.
We have scant account of what might have transpired in a session of the Senate apart from Sallust’s. What we learn from it is how important, even crucial, speeches were in shaping the views and votes of the backbenchers. They do not enter the curia, the senate house, with fixed opinions or as members of a party committed to preordained positions. Rather, the senate, on this occasion at least, strikes one as a smaller version of a popular assembly. That may have been an impression Sallust wanted to leave by invoking the parallel with Thucydides. No doubt he also wanted his readers to see the confrontation between Caesar and Cato in the preview of the later struggle on the much larger canvas of the Mediterranean world between Caesar, whose policy was one of extending clemency to defeated foes, and Pompey; once Pompey was out of the way, Cato became titular head of the old-line, rigorist Republicans. In death, he became a hero of the Stoic opposition to imperial autocracy. Beard, however, is so allergic to him that when she cites a remark Cicero made about the city of Romulus, “he was poking fun at one of his contemporaries.” It seems unlikely that many readers will be aware that the contemporary was Cato.
BY EXCISING CATO and the debate in which he figured, Beard passes up a golden opportunity to examine a Roman response to the already classic literature—dramatic, philosophical and historical—of the Greeks. Romans respected and admired it, but were not overwhelmed. Educated Romans were bilingual, but not frozen into mute admiration of the great literary artifacts of Hellas; rather, these opened up imaginative spaces for them. The Catilinarian debate only gains in pungency through its echoes of Thucydides. This is not to say that Romans of Cicero’s and earlier generations could not be utterly dismissive of the living Greeks they encountered on their path to empire. Plautus’s comedies are adaptations of Greek originals, yet Greeks are consistently referred to as Graeculi, or Greeklings, a term of disparagement.
For his part, Cicero, who worshipped Plato and knew Greek literature inside out, could employ vicious ethnic stereotypes to discredit Greek witnesses testifying to the corrupt practices of their Roman governor; he was not above playing to the prejudices of jurors who saw in every Greek a wily con man out to fleece them. In the Aeneid, which imitates and Romanizes the Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil portrays a cunning Greek, Sinon (the name means “harm”), as bamboozling upright and naïve Trojans, the legendary ancestors of the Romans, into dismantling their city walls and dragging the wooden horse, crammed with warriors, into Troy. The horse itself, of course, was a product of Greek treachery. The episode is introduced by the line: “Learn now of Greek treachery, and from the offense of one, get to know them all.” Sinon represents the nation. But things are a bit more complicated. This calumny of Greeks comes not from Virgil himself, but in a speech of his character Aeneas, broken-hearted and grieving over the fall of his city and his own flight.
In her treatment of Virgil, Beard once more stumbles into Cato trouble. She observes that the poet gave Catiline a “cameo role” in the Aeneid, when he portrays the villain “tortured in the underworld, trembling at the face[s] of the Furies,” the divine avengers of crime. The torture is psychological, like that of Tantalus; Catiline dangles forever at the edge of a cliff, waiting and waiting for the Furies to nudge him over the precipice. Virgil next introduces Cato as his virtuous counterpart. While Catiline trembles, Cato is vouchsafed the posh office of rule over the pii, the souls of the devout and righteous. But Beard does not mention it.
This is peculiar. Whatever other meanings and submeanings that gimlet-eyed critics have detected in it, the Aeneid is a celebration of Augustus, adopted son and heir of Caesar who in fact took on the name “Caesar” as soon as he arrived in Rome after the Ides of March. Julius Caesar despised Cato and wrote an Anticato, slinging mud at the paragon of virtue. The younger Caesar launched the career that would culminate in his becoming Augustus by avenging the murder of his father as an act of piety owed to an ancestor. How then to deal with the heroization of this uncompromising enemy of Caesar, and his association with the pii, in an epic so emphatically pro-Augustan? The explanation is likely to be that time heals wounds and also shifts political priorities.
By the mid-twenties BC, when Virgil was working on his epic, Augustus, intent on restoring the semblance of the old republic and trying indeed to foster an ideology of Catonian virtue, found memories of his father, slain for making himself dictator, less than useful. Augustus studiously practiced deference to a senate for which his father displayed open contempt. He lived modestly. He had his wife Livia act as a virtuous matron of a predecadent Rome by having her spend evenings spinning wool. In light of this, it should come as no surprise that a depoliticized Cato would be recruited in behalf of a restoration of traditional values.
Beard likes to tease staid traditionalists with such observations as that “to all intents and purposes... Virgil and Horace [were] on [the] payroll of Augustus.” First, their patron was Maecenas, not Augustus, though he was of course an indispensable adjutant of Augustus. Second, how, in the absence of the cultural institutions to which we are accustomed, were literary men to practice their craft without subsidies from the wealthy? Beard never considers the possibility that Virgil and Horace might have for good reasons welcomed the peace created by the new regime. John Stuart Mill knew better. In his Considerations on Representative Government, Mill observed,
“the establishment of the despotism of the Caesars was a great benefit to the entire generation in which it took place. It put a stop to civil war, abated a vast amount of malversation and tyranny by praetors and proconsuls; it fostered many of the graces of life, and intellectual cultivation in all departments not political; it produced monuments of literary genius...”
Beard continues her history through the first fourteen emperors, closing with Caracalla, who in 212 AD granted citizenship to all inhabitants of the empire. By this time, however, SPQR had long ceased to exist. It was replaced, as Tacitus mordantly observed, by senatus milesque et populus. The soldier now bestrode the stage, with senate and people as supernumeraries.
Gunther Heilbrunn is a retired classicist living in Pittsburgh, PA.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/Thomas ColeABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (Reuters) - Catholics should not feel they have to breed “like rabbits” because of the Church’s ban on contraception, Pope Francis said on Monday, suggesting approved natural family planning methods.
Pope Francis gestures as he speaks with journalists on his flight back from Manila to Rome, January 19, 2015. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini (PHILIPPINES - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS)
Francis used the unusually frank language during an hour-long news conference on the plane from Manila to Rome at the end of his week-long Asia trip.
The freewheeling encounters have become a hallmark of Francis’s simple style, his penchant for straight talk and his ease at using colloquialisms to make his point.
Speaking about corruption, he disclosed that, in his native Argentina in 1994, he almost kicked two government bureaucrats “where the sun doesn’t shine” after they tried to involve him in a kickback scheme.
He announced plans to visit Central African Republic and Uganda late this year and a trip to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay during the year.
Francis spoke at length about birth control and population, issues that arose in the Philippines, where the local Church opposes a government law making contraceptives easily available.
“Some think, excuse me if I use the word, that in order to be good Catholics, we have to be like rabbits - but no,” he said, adding the Church promoted “responsible parenthood”.
He mentioned a woman he recently met who already had seven children by caesarean sections and put her life at risk by becoming pregnant again. He said he chided her for “tempting God” and added: “That was an irresponsibility.”
The leader of the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church restated its ban on artificial birth control, adding there were “many ways that are allowed” to practise natural family planning.
The Church approves only natural methods of birth control, principally abstinence from sex during a woman’s fertile period.
In Sri Lanka and the Philippines, Francis condemned what he called an “ideological colonization” attacking traditional family values in developing countries.
On the plane, he indirectly criticized rich countries and international organizations he said tried to influence lifestyles and morals of young people in poorer nations, comparing their activity to that of 20th century Nazi and Fascist propagandists.
He told of an education minister he once knew who was offered loans to build schools for the poor, but on condition their libraries stocked a book on gender theory, the questioning of traditional male and female roles. He gave no other details.
“This is ideological colonization. They colonize people with ideas that try to change mentalities or structures,” he said.
“But this is not new. This was done by the dictatorships of the last century,” he said, citing the Hitler Youth and Balilla, its Italian equivalent under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.Lourdes Gurriel Jr., the younger brother of Astros infielder Yulieski Gurriel, hosted a showcase for 60 to 70 Major League scouts today in Panama City, per a pair of reports from MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez and El Nuevo Herald’s Jorge Ebro.
The Marlins had a pair of scouts on hand to watch Gurriel, per Ebro, while the Houston Chronicle’s Jake Kaplan reported yesterday that the Astros would be in attendance as well. And earlier this month, FanRag’s Jon Heyman reported that the Cardinals were planning on attending the workout, too. Realistically, though, given the number of scouts reported to be in attendance and the fact that the younger Gurriel brother is one of the most well-regarded prospects on the international scene, it’d probably be more notable to list the teams (if any) that didn’t attend his showcase. Heyman said that roughly 20 teams were likely to be represented, and it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if that number ended up closer to 30.
Gurriel, 22, is currently subject to international bonus pools. That, however, will change next month on Oct. 19 when he celebrates his 23rd birthday. Despite his relative youth, Gurriel spent parts of six seasons playing in Serie Nacional, Cuba’s top league, meaning he’ll have the requisite experience to qualify as a professional upon turning 23, thus exempting him from bonus pools and allowing him to a Major League contract with any team for any amount and length.
Gurriel began his pro career in Cuba at just 16 years of age and batted.277/.362/.426 in 305 games from 2010-16, including an impressive.344/.407/.560 with 10 homers and eight steals across 59 games in his final season on the island. Capable of playing both shortstop and center field, Gurriel showcased his skills at both positions today, per Sanchez, fielding grounders and turning double plays from the shortstop position while also catching fly balls and making throws from center field. He also took four rounds of batting practice, two rounds against live pitching and ran a 6.65 in the 60-yard dash (all via Sanchez’s report). Sanchez writes that Gurriel’s physique and strong arm drew praise, though some teams felt he could use some more work against live pitching.
From here, the likeliest step for Gurriel will be to conduct private workouts for teams with interest in signing him. Because he’s unlikely to sign before his birthday, the Wasserman client should have ample time to allow multiple clubs to make an evaluation before agreeing to terms with a team. In the above-linked piece from the Houston Chronicle, Kaplan spoke to Baseball America’s Ben Badler about Gurriel’s overall skill set, with Badler explaining that the soon-to-be 23-year-old could open next season in Double-A or Triple-A, suggesting that a reasonably quick rise to the Majors is possible.In 2010, the giants of the beef business set out to put "sustainable beef" on the market. Years later, they're still trying to work out exactly what that means.
Paul J. Richards / AFP / Getty Images
As McDonald's tinkers with its recipes in pursuit of becoming a "modern, progressive burger company," it proclaimed last week that it had removed artificial preservatives from its Chicken McNuggets and some breakfast items, and that it would replace the high-fructose corn syrup in its sandwich buns with good old-fashioned sugar. It also said it had met its commitment to use chicken raised without certain antibiotics one year ahead of schedule. What was conspicuously missing was any mention of beef — a notable omission, given that it's the best-selling meat at McDonald's in the US. In 2014, the company committed to "begin purchasing a portion of beef from verified sustainable sources in 2016," and last year, it hinted at potential changes to its beef supply after completing a sustainability pilot program with producers in Canada. When McDonald's made the 2014 commitment, it offered few details about what "sustainable" meant, how much of its beef it hoped would be sustainable, or where it would be sold. The vagueness of the promise raised some eyebrows, but others were hopeful. The idea of sustainable beef is a little like the United Nations, after all: It makes us feel slightly better about the world, even if we're not sure exactly what it does. And while the workings of the UN might be a mystery to many regular folk, the idea of sustainable beef remains something of a mystery even to the industry's biggest players. How exactly can beef be environmentally friendly when produced at the scale desired by a burger-hungry world? Several years ago, a group of companies commonly associated with "big beef" — including McDonald's and meat processing giants JBS and Cargill — banded together to form national "industry roundtables" to try to answer questions like that. They're still working on it today. In interviews with BuzzFeed News, members of the roundtable suggested that the group's view of sustainable beef is, in fact, pretty similar to what consumers might call "conventional" beef. Rather than overhauling the industry to fulfill visions of organic, grass-fed cows, the group seeks to publicly validate much of the work cattle ranchers do today and declare it to be sustainable. It also plans to develop a framework for monitoring future improvements.
"We do have to measure what we are doing and communicate better because I believe we are already doing a lot of things in the right way," said John Butler, chair of the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. "That won’t stop us from finding ways to continuously improve."
McDonald's also sees plenty of sustainable practices in today's beef industry. "It's not about changing practices, but how you verify a huge range of principles: animal welfare, food safety, treatment of employees — how do we do it?" said Jeffrey Fitzpatrick-Stilwell, the burger chain's senior manager of sustainability in Canada. "The vast majority of people in Canada have been doing the right thing for a long time, but there was no vehicle to share that story." Such efforts aren't convincing to some food industry critics. "The only way that beef production can be truly'sustainable' is if Americans consume a whole lot less," said Michele Simon, executive director of the Plant Based Food Association. "It’s mathematically impossible to feed the current American beef habit with 'grass-fed' or other allegedly more sustainable beef."
Dominick Reuter / Reuters
"There has been a great deal of ambiguity about the true definition or meaning of sustainability." So acknowledged the US Roundtable's John Butler in a July press release. Butler is also CEO of the Beef Marketing Group, a producer cooperative in Kansas that also developed a food safety verification called "Progressive Beef." The US Roundtable has been trying to hammer out a way to understand and market sustainability, with limited results thus far. "It's not about speed, but getting that scale and moving the needle across the industry," Townsend Bailey, McDonald's US director of sustainable sourcing, told BuzzFeed News. The group aims to agree on draft metrics for sustainability by the end of the year and have them finalized in spring 2017. McDonald's will launch a sustainable beef pilot in the US next year, according to a company spokesperson. For now, Butler told BuzzFeed News in an email, the working definition of "sustainable beef" in the US is "beef that is produced in an environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically viable way." As definitions go, it's still pretty fuzzy, and the group will settle on an even simpler working definition this month, he said. "'Beef sustainability' is not a yes/no question |
The panels informed them that the practice of earmarking money to the workplaces of relatives is permissible, as long as tax dollars are not going directly to or solely benefitting their husbands, wives, sons or daughters. Several of the lawmakers also certified to congressional committees that neither they nor their immediate family members stood to benefit from the earmark in question.
Members of Congress have more leeway than executive branch officials or individuals in publicly held companies, who operate under stricter conflict-of-interest rules that generally prevent them from taking actions that might benefit businesses or institutions where their relatives work. The legislators set and enforce their own rules, giving themselves broad latitude to take steps that can end up directly benefiting their immediate family.
“The executive branch has far stricter ethics standards than Congress does — and Congress has set these standards,” said Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a nonprofit government watchdog group. “The executive branch can’t steer contracts or work to businesses where family members work. They can’t even own stock in industries that they oversee, unlike Congress. It’s complete hypocrisy.”
Members engaged in behavior that included directly funding programs run by their children, earmarking money to entities represented by their lobbyist relatives and sending tax dollars to colleges where their family members work or serve on boards of trustees.
Although members of Congress declared a two-year moratorium on earmarks last year, efforts to insert targeted spending provisions into bills continue. Lawmakers attempted to put 115 of the provisions worth $834 million into a House defense bill last year. The provisions were stripped from the bill after they became public late last year.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a leading critic of earmarks, said the efforts to amend the defense bill underscore how deeply committed Congress is to retaining its provincial spending practices. Last week, the Senate defeated a proposal co-sponsored by McCaskill and authored by Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) that would have permanently banned earmarks. But the Senate extended the moratorium another year.
Before the moratorium went into effect, the ability of lawmakers to earmark tax dollars to specific programs and geographic locations was one of their most cherished political prerogatives. Since 2007, senators have required themselves to certify that neither they nor their “immediate” family members have any financial interests in the programs benefiting from their official actions. Under House rules, however, lawmakers are required to certify only that neither they nor their spouses hold a financial stake in their earmarks, not other members of their immediate families.
Congressional files are replete with copies of these self-certifications. Most of them contain identical language, and few disclose that lawmakers have relatives who are employed by the organizations about to benefit from their benevolence. Officials at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonprofit group that monitors congressional spending, said they could not recall the last time a lawmaker was disciplined for using an earmark to benefit his or her relatives.
‘An experienced educator’
For years, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) has supported a Pentagon program called Starbase that teaches science, math and engineering skills to children in dozens of locations around the country.
Johnson is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Pentagon’s budget. In 2008, Johnson, along with seven other senators, added $4 million to the Starbase budget.
At the time, Johnson’s wife, Barbara, was paid an annual salary of $80,000 as a contract employee to evaluate the program. From 2005 to September, she worked for the Spectrum Group, a lobbying and consulting firm in Alexandria, that has a $1 million Pentagon contract to monitor Starbase. A social worker and educator, Barbara Johnson was also assigned to manage its Web site.
Spectrum President Gregory L. Sharp said he hired the senator’s wife because of her history of working with children.
“She was looking for a job,” Sharp said. “We didn’t hire her because of her husband. We didn’t hire her for that reason. She was an experienced educator.”
Barbara Johnson said in an interview she took the job around the time her husband started having health problems. He later had a brain hemorrhage in December 2006.
Shortly after hiring the senator’s wife, Spectrum filed a lobbying registration form with the House and Senate naming Barbara Johnson as a lobbyist for the company. The form listed Starbase as her only client.
Sharp said the form was submitted in error.
“That was a mistake. She never lobbied the Hill,” he said. “She never lobbied her husband.”
“I was never a lobbyist,” Barbara Johnson said.
Perry Plumart, a spokesman for the senator, said Johnson played no role in his wife’s employment and had no contact with Pentagon Starbase officials. Plumart said the senator didn’t think it was necessary to disclose his wife’s employment in certifications filed with the Appropriations Committee because the money he added to the program was technically not an earmark.
The senator’s spokesman said the money was not an earmark because it was added to an existing program, not intended for any specific aspect of Starbase, and the request for additional funds was not directed to Johnson’s home state of South Dakota.
“Senator Johnson’s support of increased funding for STARBASE was not an earmark under the definition of a congressionally directed spending item as defined by the Senate Rules,” Plumart said in a statement.
Directors of government watchdog groups disputed that assessment.
“That’s an earmark,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “His wife supervises the thing. It’s not like he can say this doesn’t benefit what his wife does. At some point, she has a right to earn a living, but at some point he’s got to say, ‘The optics of this are not very good.’ ”
An earmark expert agreed. “It’s absolutely an earmark,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, another organization in Washington that tracks congressional spending. “It went to a program that benefits his wife. We would consider that an earmark because it’s an increase in the budget specifically requested by members of Congress.”
Barbara Johnson said she sought an oral opinion from the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to ensure that her employment “wasn’t crossing any lines.” She said she couldn’t recall when she sought the opinion or who she met with at the ethics committee, but she said she was told that her employment was permitted under Senate rules. “They said it didn’t pose any conflict,” she said.
‘She was never my motivation’
Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.) is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which has jurisdiction over the budget of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Energy Department agency is tasked with securing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and preventing nuclear proliferation.
During the past six years, the congressman has directed the agency to send millions to fund the scholarship program for at-risk high school students headed by his daughter in Arizona. She earns $75,774 a year.
Pastor obtained a $1 million federal grant for the Achieving a College Education program at the Maricopa Community Colleges about four years before his daughter, Laura, was hired as its director in 2005. Since that time, Pastor has earmarked about $4 million from the nuclear agency for the program, records show.
Pastor said he’s proud of the earmarks and pointed out that he has sent money to educational programs across his congressional district in Phoenix. Maricopa’s ACE program provides financial support to high school students who are in danger of not graduating, enabling them to take classes and summer camps to build math and science skills and attend college. While the money goes to the program, Pastor said his daughter’s salary is covered by the college.
“The perception is that you helped your daughter, but if you evaluate the kids who benefited from this, it was worth doing,” the congressman said. “I believe thousands of kids have a better life today because of this program.”
Pastor said he was searching to find ways to support the ACE scholarship program in 2005, when one of his colleagues on the appropriations committee said the nuclear security administration had grants available to fund programs at historically black colleges.
Given this, Pastor said he felt it was appropriate to earmark money from the nuclear agency to Maricopa because the students in the program are largely Hispanic. At the time, he said, he did not know that his daughter was applying for a job to head the program.
“She was never my motivation,” Pastor said. “I wasn’t aware she was applying. If I knew, I would have contacted the chancellor and said, ‘What kind of position does this put you and me in?’ ”
Pastor filed three certifications between 2008 and 2010 stating that “neither I nor my spouse has any financial interest in this project.” Had he been a senator, Pastor would have been required to further certify that no “immediate” family members had an interest.
Laura Pastor declined to be interviewed. She said in a statement: “I applied for several positions at the Maricopa Community Colleges because I wanted to return to work in education. I was well qualified for my position, having administered a similar type of program in Chicago before returning to Arizona. I was chosen through a competitive process.”
Tom Gariepy, a spokesman for Maricopa, said, “She was the best person for the job.”
The Arizona Republic reported in 2007 that Laura Pastor was not the highest-ranked candidate for the position but had received a salary at the top of the pay scale. The paper also discovered that an equal-opportunity investigator had warned college officials that “we will not be able to totally defend the hiring decision.”
After the hiring story faded, Pastor continued to earmark money for the ACE program, The Post found. Pastor has also secured earmarks for other colleges, including $185,000 to Pima Community College, $1.6 million to Arizona State University and $8.7 million to the University of Arizona. More than a third of his college earmarks — $4.2 million to his daughter’s program and an additional $2 million to a different program — have gone to Maricopa.
A spokesman for the nuclear security administration said in a statement that the use of the earmarked money was appropriate.
“Congress has authority for all earmarks and makes those decisions,” Joshua McConaha said in the statement. “This program is not unique within NNSA or within the federal government.... Recruiting and retaining the next generation of scientists and engineers is a priority for us because the types of people we need to execute our mission are highly sought after.”
Collegiate connections
The Post found a pattern of members of Congress who earmarked funds for colleges where their relatives were employed or on boards.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) has championed millions in earmarks to the University of Houston while her husband, Elwyn C. Lee, has helped to run the school as a senior administrator.
The congresswoman or her staff have met with other top university officials to discuss funding for school programs.
“We greatly appreciate the Congresswoman’s support over the years and hope that she can help us again this year with these requests,” a school official wrote to a staff assistant for the lawmaker in May 2011, according to internal e-mails obtained through a public records request.
Elwyn Lee has worked at the university since 1978. Twenty years later, he had risen to dual executive roles: vice president of student affairs for the university and vice chancellor of student affairs for the university system. Last March, he was named the university’s vice president for community relations and institutional access.
Since 1994, his salary has almost doubled, to $210,491 a year.
Jackson Lee, who took office in 1995, discloses her husband’s job on her financial disclosure form. She has helped obtain four congressional earmarks for the school totaling about $5.3 million since 2009, according to the university.
In 2009, she co-sponsored two earmarks to the university: $2.4 million for a “National Wind Energy Center,” and $476,000 for a “Center for Clean Fuels and Power Generation.” In 2010, she sponsored a $400,000 earmark to the university for teacher training and professional development and co-sponsored an additional $2 million for the wind center.
Last fiscal year, according to her Web site, she sought $16.5 million more for the university that was blocked by the earmark moratorium.
The University of Houston, which has about 36,000 undergraduates, is one of several schools Jackson Lee has supported with earmarks. She has also directed earmarks to Texas Southern University and to University of Texas programs in recent years, records show.
Jackson Lee’s staff did not respond to repeated requests for interviews and comment. Her husband said he played no role in securing the earmarks.
“None of the Congressional earmarks secured by UH was directed to the areas under my supervision,” Elwyn Lee said in a statement. “To reiterate, it is not my responsibility, and it has never been my responsibility, to secure Congressional earmarks. Therefore, there has been no conflict to manage.”
As a member of the House education committee, Rep. Robert E. Andrews (D-N.J.) has secured six earmarks worth $3.3 million for a scholarship program at Rutgers School of Law in Camden.
His wife, Camille Spinello Andrews, is an associate dean of the law school “in charge of enrollment, scholarships, and special legal programs,” according to the school’s Web site.
More than half the earmarks were secured prior to 2007, before the House began to require that the spending measures be publicly disclosed. The new rules prompted Andrews to seek an ethics opinion that year. The committee concluded there was no conflict because his wife did not have an “ownership interest” in the law school and the earmarks did not “affect the spouse’s salary.”
The following year, one of Andrews’s political opponents turned the earmarks into a campaign issue. Andrews continued to earmark money for the law school scholarship program, filing certifications that stated “neither I nor my spouse has any financial interest in the project.”
The congressman said his wife has no direct oversight of the scholarship program. He added that he is proud of the earmarks, citing them as an example of why the moratorium should be lifted.
“These earmarks put money into a scholarship program that required students to provide free legal services to the poorest people in a very poor city — Camden,” Andrews said.
Camille Spinello Andrews did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment.
The congressman acknowledged that earmark abuses have taken place and the latest rule changes governing earmarks have not reformed the practice.
“When a member wants funding for a project in their district, they call or write to an unelected official in the executive branch,” he said. “Recently, I called [Transportation] Secretary Ray LaHood and asked for money for a bridge in my district. I am proud that I did that, because that bridge is needed. But the only way you know about that call is because I just told you. I believe that all these calls and letters by members should be made public. It’s perfectly legitimate for the public to ask questions about earmarks, but you can’t do that if you don’t know about them.”
From 2007 to 2009, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah)requested earmarks worth more $1.5 million for Weber State University in Ogden. Subsequent to those requests but before $1.25 million of them were ultimately secured, the university hired the congressman’s son Shule Bishop as a lobbyist. He serves as director of government relations. The congressman said the earmarks to Weber posed no conflict because none were requested when his son worked there and his son lobbies the state legislature, not Congress.
“There is no connection,” Rob Bishop said.
His spokeswoman, Melissa Subbotin, added that the congressman and his staff interact with Weber’s Washington lobbyist, not Shule Bishop.
“The congressman has been working on behalf of Weber State since he was first elected, which far predates his son’s employment there,” Subbotin noted, adding that the congressman has given earmarks to other universities in Utah.
Shule Bishop declined to discuss the earmarks. He referred questions to his supervisor, who said clear lines have been drawn to keep the congressman’s son from lobbying his father.
“I don’t know what they talk about around the dinner table when the congressman is home on the weekends, but we haven’t put him in the position of asking for things from his father,” said Brad Mortensen, who oversees lobbying efforts as Weber’s vice president for university advancement.
He said the university didn’t hire Shule Bishop because of his father’s position.
“The reason we hired Shule was because of the relationships he has in the state Capitol,” Mortensen said. “His father was speaker of the House in the Capitol. He has worked around the Capitol and knows the legislature well.”
Shule Bishop’s job title seems to reflect that he’s in charge of all lobbying efforts, but Mortensen said the state and federal lobbying shops at Weber are kept separate.
“Having the son of a congressman in a government relations role at the state level, that does create some conflicts, so we would try to make sure those discussions were ones where Shule wasn’t the one strategizing or talking to even our federal contract lobbyist, let alone his father’s office,” Mortensen said.
As a result of The Post’s inquiries, Mortensen said Weber plans to change Shule Bishop’s job title, probably to “director of state government relations.”
‘Best for his constituents’
Lawmakers also used their legislative prowess to earmark money to the clients of their lobbyist relatives.
In Chicago, the Lipinski family name carries clout. William O. Lipinski was an influential member of Congress for 22 years, serving on the House Transportation Committee and sending millions of tax dollars back to his congressional district. When Lipinski decided to step down from Congress in 2004, he persuaded Democratic Party leaders to back his son for his seat.
Since joining Congress in 2005, Rep. Daniel Lipinski has continued his father’s tradition of funding projects in Illinois as a member of the same committee. Along the way, the Chicago Democrat has helped to send federal tax dollars to a client of his father’s lobbying practice, Capricorn Communications.
Daniel Lipinski, along with other members of the Illinois congressional delegation, secured $2.5 million in earmarks since taking office for rail projects that are overseen by the Chicago Transit Authority. The CTA is one of William Lipinski’s lobbying clients and has paid the former congressman $766,330.20 in fees since 2007, according to the transit agency. Lipinski’s earmarks for his father’s client were first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times in 2010.
The CTA said in a statement that William Lipinski helps the agency with congressional contacts outside of the Illinois delegation on the House and Senate transportation committees. Other members of the Illinois congressional delegation have also earmarked money for CTA-related projects.
Daniel Lipinski declined to discuss the earmark. Through a spokesman, the lawmaker said he sees nothing improper with the arrangement and didn’t think it was necessary to obtain an opinion about the propriety of the spending from the House Ethics Committee.
“His father does not lobby him on behalf of his clients on transportation or any other issues,” spokesman Nathaniel Zimmer said. “In these, as in other areas, Congressman Lipinski is focused on doing what is best for his constituents.”
Zimmer provided a statement on Daniel Lipinski’s behalf.
“As the most senior Chicago-area member of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Lipinski has helped to secure funding for numerous important local transportation projects that are widely supported by both residents and other elected officials,” the statement said. “That our transportation infrastructure is in serious need of investment is beyond doubt, and every one of these projects fills a critical need.”
Daniel Lipinski filed the required certification with the House Appropriations Committee in April 2009.
“I certify that neither I nor my spouse has any financial interest in this project,” the congressman wrote. Under House rules, Lipinski’s certification did not need to extend to his father.
Between 2005 and 2010, Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) helped secure $21.9 million in earmarks to six clients of Alcalde & Fay, a lobbying firm that employs her daughter, The Post found. During that time, the clients paid the firm more than $1 million in fees to represent them before Congress, records show.
Other earmarks by Brown have been previously reported. She was the sole sponsor of $1.79 million in earmarks to a seventh client, the Community Rehabilitation Center. At the time, her daughter, Shantrel Brown, worked as a lead lobbyist on behalf of the center, the Florida Times-Union reported in 2010.
The earmarks were secured to help finance “substance abuse and mental health programs” at the center and to upgrade a Jacksonville, Fla., strip shopping mall where the center is located, records show. The federal lobbying reports say Shantrel Brown sought “federal funding for substance abuse and mental health programs” from 2008 to 2010.
The congresswoman declined requests for an interview and also declined to respond to written questions about the earmarks. Her chief of staff, Ronnie Simmons, also would not say whether the congresswoman sought an ethics opinion about the propriety of the earmarks.
Shantrel Brown did not return calls or respond to e-mails seeking comment.
Sen. Bill Nelson, a fellow Democrat from Florida, joined Brown as a co-sponsor of a $750,000 earmark for the rehabilitation center in 2010. When he later discovered that Brown’s daughter was a lobbyist for the center, he decided to withdraw his support.
“We try to do our due diligence. The center had the backing of many community leaders,” Nelson spokesman Bryan Gulley told The Post. “But when we learned her daughter was involved in lobbying for the center, that raised enough concerns that we no longer supported the project.”
Washington Post researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this article.A longtime Central District resident whose activism for Black rights has often put him at odds with law enforcement and the legal system sparked a protest and a standoff Wednesday morning at 24th and Spring as the King County Sheriff, Seattle Police, and a work crew arrived to evict him and his UMOJA Peace Center from the Midtown Center block.
Omari Tahir-Garrett, who is in his 70s, was reportedly barricaded inside the house where he has lived for around a decade while working as a caretaker for the property owned by the Bangasser family who is now trying to sell the land for long-awaited redevelopment. UPDATE 2:15 PM: Authorities have determined that Tahir-Garrett is not inside the house. A protest organizer says Tahir-Garrett is “safe” and not in custody.
UPDATE 3/16/2017 8:53 AM: Police say they responded to the corner Thursday morning to help “a man trapped inside a boarded house.” We’re checking to find out more. According to police radio dispatches, SPD officers entered the house around 8 AM after being called to the scene to a report of somebody trapped inside. The person was “removed from the property” around 15 minutes later.
Responded to report of a man trapped inside a boarded house in 2300 blk of Spring. Police quickly removed the boards & helped the man out. — Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) March 16, 2017
UPDATE 3/16/17 2:15 PM: In an appearance outside his boarded house and flanked by City Council member Kshama Sawant, Omari Tahir-Garrett and organizers of the two days of protests against his eviction at 24th and Spring said they will rally again on Saturday for inclusive development with a march starting at 23rd and Union.
“We contend that this Omari’s block,” organizer Cliff Cawthon said. “Yesterday, we had dozens of people come out with only a few minutes later to defend this place because of what this means.”
Tahir-Garrett described the moment police arrived Thursday morning as a surprise show of force to remove him from the house.
“Get your hands off me. I’m old enough to be your granddad. You don’t have respect for your elders”
“That made me so sick. I just vomited down there,” Tahir-Garrett said.
The 70-year-old said he was able to hide inside the house as it was boarded up Wednesday thanks to his military training when a Sheriff K-9 unit searched the house. He also announced his plans to again run for city council — but he said he didn’t want to challenge Sawant in his home District 3.
Tom Bangasser, who was removed as head of the family partnership that owns the Midtown Center block and is embroiled in a battle with family members over the planned sale of the property, spoke of his long friendship and respect for Tahir-Garrett’s role in the neighborhood. He said the future of Midtown Center must involve change and development but with Africatown as an owner. “It doesn’t mean we put a big grocery store in here because somebody else wants a grocery store,” Bangasser said. “We put in what the community wants. The neighborhood is going to change but the ownership needs to remain with this community.”
“Yesterday, they showed the brutality of what gentrification really is. And even as I stand here today, it’s heartbreaking, it is disgusting, but also it is inspiring to see Omari stand strong,” Cawthon said.
WEDNESDAY COVERAGE:
An afternoon arrest A standoff over Tahir-Garrett’s car was resolved when a protest organizer was allowed to drive it from the property for safe storage But after the car’s removal, police forced an opening for a truck to drop off another bin to be filled with materials removed from the property Protesters formed a temporary chain but dispersed quickly when threatened with arrest
UPDATE 3:45 PM: There was one arrest and a series of tussles between police and protesters as both the protest and the work effort to clear the property dragged into the afternoon. East Precinct commander Capt. Paul McDonagh was at the scene and told CHS the King County Sheriff’s eviction was complete and SPD units were at the property to “ensure the peace.” In the arrest, a protester who had been at the house since crowds first formed Wednesday morning and who had been moved by officers multiple times through the day was taken into custody after police cleared 24th Ave to make way for a truck to drop a large bin on the property for workers to fill with trash and materials. Following the arrest, a backhoe began tearing into the house to remove elements around the windows to allow workers to board up the structure and block access after possessions were removed from inside. Some of Tahir-Garrett’s things were piled into a car on the property that police allowed a protest organizer to drive from the scene, diffusing one of a series of standoffs with the crowd through the day. UPDATE 9:00 PM: Only a small group of protesters remained on the block around 8:30 PM. One person said police had left around an hour earlier. The house’s windows and doors have been boarded shut and the property is mostly surrounded by chain-link fence. Organizers had not publicly announced any further actions planned in coming days at the property as of Wednesday night.
Members of the Bangasser family look on from behind the newly erected fence SPD on hand to keep property cleared as the house was boarded up One attempt to remove a protester stopped quickly when a crowd arrived, cameras in tow
UPDATE 3/16/17 11:34 AM: Photographer Noah Lubin monitored Wednesday’s protests and shared these pictures from a clash between protesters and police later in the day:
District 3 representative Kshama Sawant called for a halt to the eviction. She cast the eviction in the light of Seattle’s stance as a sanctuary city. “In order to truly turn Seattle into a sanctuary, politicians need to actively work to fulfill the housing, education, health care, and cultural rights of our communities,” Sawant said. Her full statement is below.
Sawant on the Midtown block eviction efforts pic.twitter.com/onHVGfu8Ug — jseattle (@jseattle) March 15, 2017
Do not evict the Umoja PEACE Center! My letter to @MayorEdMurray & @SheriffJohnU: https://t.co/M5z2dvIj4t — Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) March 15, 2017
Group at scene to protest attempted eviction of Omari Garrett at 24/Spring pic.twitter.com/GStiCsTctZ — jseattle (@jseattle) March 15, 2017
Workers attempt to put up fencing. Crowd of a few dozen attempting to slow or block. Queen Pearl here. Law enforcement here but no arrests pic.twitter.com/JSNzWI4wWU — jseattle (@jseattle) March 15, 2017
Earlier this month, eviction papers were served at the house after a long running legal fight over the property he has lived in at 24th and Spring on the backside of the Midtown Center block. Tahir-Garrett and his UMOJA Peace Center were ordered by a King County Superior Court judge to leave the property in eviction proceedings that included Tahir-Garrett being jailed after repeated courtroom outbursts. A March 4th Black Lives Matter protest march included a stop in front of the 24th and Spring house to rally support.
Cliff Cawthon, an activist helping to organize a protest of a few dozen people outside the property Wednesday morning said he had not been able to speak to Tahir-Garrett but that he was inside the house despite the arrival of the Sheriff and a department K-9 unit that searched the residence.
Work crews were on hand to install large wire fencing around the property while a crew of contractors, Bangasser family members, and people who told CHS they were friends of the family worked to clean the property of piles of possessions and refuse that had collected on the lot that has also served as a homeless encampment. Work on the clean-up proceeded briskly but the project to erect a fence was taking a little longer as protesters placed themselves in the way of workers until police officers on scene would move in and clear the small crowd back. The activists and protesters chanted against the police activities and the county’s effort to evict Tahir-Garrett from his longtime home despite the court ruling that he must vacate the property.
The eviction comes as Tahir-Garrett’s son K. Wyking Garrett is also facing the eviction of the Black Dot work space and business incubator that is supported by his Africatown community organization. Wednesday, Wyking Garrett sent a message to media saying the locks have been changed at the facility in the middle of the 23rd and Union Midtown Center just around the block from the 24th and Spring protest. The dispute clouds efforts for Africatown and conservation investor Forterra to partner on a bid to purchase the Midtown Center block for a mixed-use project based in what the groups call inclusive development principles. People familiar with the situation say the lease for Black Dot was ended last month when another partner organization that held the contract decided not to remain as a tenant.
For Omari Tahir-Garrett, the standoff follows months of legal disputes with the Bangassers after his role with the family partnership changed with the removal of Tom Bangasser as director of the company managing Midtown. It also is part of a lifetime of activism for Tahir-Garrett that has frequently put him in conflict with law enforcement including when the activist and slavery reparations advocate assaulted former Mayor Paul Schell with a bullhorn in response to the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man. We talked with him about his activism in 2015 as he launched a campaign for City Council. In 1985, Tahir-Garrett was part of a group that occupied a Seattle school to advocate for an African-focused museum in the Central District. His efforts eventually lead to the creation of the Northwest African American Museum. It wouldn’t be the last time Tahir-Garrett made headlines through occupying a school building. In 2013, Tahir-Garrett was part of a group that occupied the Horace Mann building in hopes of establishing a permanent home for the Africatown Center for Education and Innovation, an organization founded by Tahir-Garrett’s son Wyking. Both men also help found the Umoja P.E.A.C.E. Center at 23rd and Spring. More recently, Tahir-Garrett lead an unsuccessful fight to preserve the the Liberty Bank building at 24th and Union. He also opposed the opening of Uncle Ike’s pot shop in the neighborhood. “If you want to have peace in a community, you need to have a community center,” he told CHS in 2015.
UPDATE: Here is the judge’s order in the case against Omari Tahir-Garrett:A dozen years back, he said, if you wanted Westvleteren 12 you just drove out to St. Sixtus and bought some. Now, he said, in nice weather the line of cars waiting to buy the beer can stretch for three miles.
The pick-me-up for the local economy could not come at a better time, with Belgium feeling the recession afflicting all of Europe. Out in Liège, in the east, a major steel works announced in January that it was laying off 1,300 people; a month earlier, Ford said it would close a car plant in nearby Genk, affecting as many as 10,000 jobs.
Image Credit The New York Times
Yet beer, for the moment, keeps little Vleteren nicely afloat.
In recent years a second microbrewery has sprung up, perhaps inspired by the monks. In 2005, several local people who ran an ostrich farm began producing a dark beer of the strong 12 percent type similar to what the monks brew. Now, demand for their dark strong ales and stouts, branded as De Struise — Dutch for the ostrich — is so great that the company is expanding into a disused school building.
Urbain Coutteau, 51, the fledgling brewery’s brew master, leads a visitor through a warehouse of used oak casks, some from Kentucky that once stored bourbon and others from wine-growing regions of France, that are now used for aging the beer. The monks of St. Sixtus, he says, are not competitors. “I regard them as holy colleagues, that’s just the word,” he said. “If I want to visit them, I just go out there; we have a good relationship, we respect each other.”
Beer, he said, is lifting everyone’s economic boat. “Lots of pilgrims come,” he said. “They have to eat, sleep, they don’t go back the same day.” They visit other breweries, like nearby St. Bernardus, he said, or the war graves that abound in this region, Flanders Fields, where major battles of World War I were fought.Teamliquid Map Contest #7 Text by TeamLiquid ESPORTS Graphics by shiroiusagi
Maps have been a hot topic in our community lately, so it seems like now's the perfect time to announce that the Teamliquid Map Contest will be returning today! The TLMC has traditionally allowed mapmakers to showcase their creations at the highest level with the end goal to have their maps featured on both ladder and the WCS circuit. In the past TLMC has produced maps such as Cloud Kingdom, Frost, Ohana, Habitation Station, Echo, Coda, and Cactus Valley, just to name a few. If the maps that are selected this season are any indication of what's to come, then we're in for a treat.
Before we begin, Blizzard have once again upped their support of TLMC by providing cash prizes for the top five selections. We thank Blizzard for their continued support of the mapping community as well as working with us to make some improvements to the TLMC. Without further ado, we'd like to present the new and improved TLMC.
Submission Phase
April 28 - May 12
One issue with previous TLMCs was mappers were unclear about what Blizzard wanted from the mapmaking community. In order to remedy this situation, we have been provided with 4 distinct categories of maps Blizzard is specifically requesting.
Macro maps where it's very straight forward to play and take expansions on
Examples:
Akilon Wastes: The first macro map of the HotS-era.
The first macro map of the HotS-era. Newkirk Precinct: A heavy macro map that featured one of the best TvTs of all time: Taeja vs Innovation.
A heavy macro map that featured one of the best TvTs of all time: Taeja vs Innovation. Dusk Towers: The most recent example of a typical macro map.
Rush map that promotes heavy early game play
Examples:
Scrap Station: Lots of potential for early-game aggression with close air distance and destructible rocks in the middle as well as a relatively hard-to-defend natural.
Lots of potential for early-game aggression with close air distance and destructible rocks in the middle as well as a relatively hard-to-defend natural. Daedalus Point: The large natural ramp allows for very easy early aggression.
A new map type! A "hasn’t been seen before" type of map
Examples: Any of the maps that were considered new, different when they first came in.
Crevasse Introduced rocks at the main ramp and one of the first maps to have a backdoor expansion.
Introduced rocks at the main ramp and one of the first maps to have a backdoor expansion. Korhal Floating Island: Provides completely different games depending on the spawn positions.
Provides completely different games depending on the spawn positions. Ulrena: Short rush distance but that distance is able to be closed off via a depot or pylon-sized blocker as the game goes on.
A map that has cool high yield resource usage
Example:
Habitation Station: There were many interesting decisions based around when to take the gold on this map. For example, Terrans would float to the gold, Protoss and Zerg would take it as their natural, and sometimes players would ignore it altogether, instead opting to take the more safe expansions.
Mappers who submit maps MUST submit in one of these four categories. Also, instead of picking seven finalists as we normally do, we will take fifteen finalists, four from each of the first three categories and three from the gold base category. Maps will be judged not only on the quality of the map, but also on how well the map is within the context of the category. For example, how well does the map in the last category utilize its high-yield resources? Are the high-yield resources used strategically or are they just there for the sake of having some gold bases? One issue with previous TLMCs was mappers were unclear about what Blizzard wanted from the mapmaking community. In order to remedy this situation, we have been provided with 4 distinct categories of maps Blizzard is specifically requesting.Mappers who submit maps MUST submit in one of these four categories. Also, instead of picking seven finalists as we normally do, |
was another gangster film featuring the re-teaming of director Brian De Palma and Al Pacino — and made just ten years after Scarface. The pictures also feature overlapping cast members, as well as other bits of trivia connecting them that you can easily Google. Yet there's a Grand Canyon-sized chasm between them, for as much as Scarface is cold and harsh throughout its nearly three-hour running time, Carlito's Way wears its beating heart on its sleeve for all of its tight two-plus hours.
And Carlito's Way is all about time. Its protagonist, Carlito Brigante, is released into the world after a prison stint and earnestly wants to go clean, yet nearly every old haunt and pal are knocking him further down the lawless ladder. When it finally looks as if he's lined everything up for a life in the islands, his internal stopwatch starts and doesn't end until he gets shot in the finale. Oh, did I spoil that? Well, guess what, I didn't, because the film starts with him getting shot and then rewinds to fill in what leads up to that, so take a pill and deal with it.
No ifs, ands, buts about it — Carlito's Way is a tragedy. The film's somber mood is balanced only by its larger-than-life performances, retro '70s threads, thrilling sequences, and plenty of sweaty disco tunes outside of Patrick Doyle's stellar score. But boy, does it have heart! Pacino's eyes tell a story all their own — and they're not filled with his now-stereotypical "Hooo Ahhhs" that earned him that Scent of a Woman Academy Award just one year prior (something which inevitably stained Carlito's critical reaction at the time). Instead, Pacino turns in a riveting performance that's mostly understated, but busted wide open by some of the best bravura scenes of his career — take the scene where he's cornered in a bathroom with a gun and no bullets and hollers his way out of a deadly situation by talking the sickest smack you've ever heard. Later he goes from zero to intense during a domestic argument as he smashes a mirror while sticking up for his code of honor, which includes a loyalty to his friends that will inevitably get him killed — his girlfriend even says so!
And let's talk about his friends — first off, Davey Kleinfeld, one of the best coked-up characters in cinema history. That horrendous perm of his helps disguise bad-boy actor Sean Penn, who, in a totally awesome alternate universe, would have won an Oscar for this — or at least been nominated. He's Carlito's number-one dude, the lawyer who got him out of prison and is bound to get him into more trouble. Then there's Luis Guzman's Pachanga, another brother from the past who's in it for himself behind his boss's back. Now there are some buddies Carlito sees right through, like Lalin, the wheelchair-bound ex-con who Pacino catches wearing a wire. Played to the hilt by Viggo Mortensen (looong before he won hearts in Middle Earth), Lalin has just minutes of screentime, but levels the playing field with a performance that couldn't be more different from the quiet cool that he's known for now. The entire world should stop what they are doing and slow-clap every time his monologue is played about having to wear diapers, trust me.
And then there's Gail... You see, Carlito's Way is — beyond the foot chases, the insane De Palma camera direction, and a career-making moment by John Leguizamo as Benny Blanco from the Bronx — at its heart a romance. Gail (played by Penelope Ann Miller) is Carlito's angel, the dancer ex-girlfriend he pined for while in the joint and spies on in the rain when he gets out. There are some who claim that she's the weak link in the cast, but I find no wrong in the performance. Her character could be richer just like my belly should have abs.
But this isn't Gail's Way, it's Carlito's — and he is one damn fine character played by one of the best in the biz. Culled from real-life judge Edwin Torres's two novels inspired by the colorful characters on the streets while he was growing up, Carlito isn't searching for redemption as much as yearning for a way out. And he believes that he can do it — and you want to believe he can, too. You want him to hitch a ride with Gail at the end of the film and go rent cars down south under a thatched roof, which makes his journey all the more intense.
And boy howdy, is this film packed with tension! Take the pool scene — expertly choreographed, with Carlito keeping an eye on his cousin by staging an elaborate billiards trick that includes the reflection of a killer in another thug's aviator shades. Or the entire finale chase, which starts at the disco club (an incredible set in and of itself) and stretches through the streets, onto a train, then into Grand Central. If not for Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break, it'd be considered the French Connection of foot chases.
And here's where I get sorta specific, so turn away if you must. But just when things look good for our man Charlie, the rug is pulled out from under him. After every angle Carlito ran through in his head... all the hoods he dodged... he misses one thing — the same pompous attitude that landed him in jail comes to shoot him point blank by way of another street hood whom he let live when he really shouldn't have. And this horrible moment happens in front of Gail, who called it just scenes before, but was blinded by Carlito's charismatic belief that everything would work out.
And then the film comes to its heartbreaking close, re-enacting the brilliant camera move that opens the picture. Carlito is on the gurney and the audience gets one final inner monologue from him as he closes up shop on this world. He stares at a travel sign and envisions Gail dancing on the beach with the money he gave her — and the camera closes in on those sparkling Pacino eyes. When they finally close, the end credits roll to Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful" as Gail dances against a sunset. It's a powerful moment — yet you have to stay through the rolling credits to see the one final gut punch — the thing that nails the film's landing, for just as Cocker's voice cracks in only the way it does, we see little baby Carlito run into the frame as Gail snatches him up and dances to a fade out. World, I'm gonna need one more slow-clap from y'all. And maybe some tissues.
Carlito's Way survived its initial critical reception and has only gained admiration as the years go by. In 2005 a direct-to-video prequel was made and is horrible. Luis Guzman co-starred in it playing a different dude. The character of Lalin did not make an appearance, much to the dismay of this writer.
--
Jeremy Wheeler is a writer/illustrator based in Ann Arbor, MI, who has contributed to the All Movie Guide, Chicago Reader, A.V. Club, and others. He's also the poster designer for Bang! Media.
Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture.When I started using Hugo, I was very impressed by its speed. But I was daunted by the directory structure it creates for a new project. With directory names like archetypes and static, a Hugo site felt unfamiliar and confusing. Fortunately, not every site needs them.
This post tells you how to start small with just the bare minimum files and directories to build a Hugo site without errors. Being minimal, this site will have only one page (essentially, the home page).
You can see the finished project on Github. Let’s start looking at only the top-level files of the project:
. ├── config.toml ├── content/ ├──.git/ ├──.gitignore └── themes/
There are only two directories: content which contains your site’s content like posts or articles and themes which are contain various themes - the non-content part of your site like its design and page layouts.
For Hugo, config.toml contains all the configuration settings of your site like the name of the site, author name, theme etc. For this minimal site, we will only mention two lines:
baseURL = "http://example.org/" theme = "bare"
This is a TOML file. It has a very simple syntax. Each line is written like this:
key = "value"
The baseURL value mentions the URL where the site will be published. Strictly speaking, we don’t need it for a minimal site. But Hugo throws an error if baseURL is not specified.
Next, we mention that we are using the “bare” theme. Essentially, “bare” is a directory inside “themes” directory. We will look at it closely soon.
The Git files are worth mentioning. I prefer to exclude the generated site (having rendered HTML pages) from Git. Assuming that the generated files will go into a directory named “public”, my.gitignore file is simply this:
public
Content files
A content file is usually a text file containing your blog post or article. Typically content files are written in Markdown syntax. But Hugo supports other text formats like Asciidoc, reStructuredText or Org-Mode, which gets converted to HTML. This is easier than directly editing HTML files.
The only content file in this minimal site is _index.md. This filename is special to Hugo and used to specify a page leading to a list of pages. Typically, an index file is used for a home page, a section, a taxonomy or a taxonomy terms listing.
Our _index.md looks like this:
+++ title = "Home sweet home" +++ This page has **bold** and *italics* formatting.
The two +++ separators divides the document into two parts - the front matter (first three lines) in TOML format and the rest of the document in Markdown format. Front matter specifies the metadata of the file like its title, date or category. Most text editors will treat this file as a Markdown file (due to the.md extension) and ignore the front matter.
Since the _index.md is located inside content directory at the top-level, it will be the first page seen when the user opens the baseURL location i.e. the home page. However, for this page to be rendered, there must be a corresponding template within the theme.
Theme files
So far, we have not specified the look and feel of the site. This is typically mentioned in a separate theme directory (it can also be mentioned inside a layouts directory within the site but its more cleaner this way).
Unlike say Wordpress themes, you might not be able to download an arbitrary Hugo theme and apply it to your site. This is because a theme makes certain assumptions like that your site is a blog and the posts are one-level deep etc, which might not be true in your case. So, I prefer making my own theme while creating new kind of sites. Besides you would eventually want to customize your theme anyway.
The bare theme is located inside the themes directory. Here is directory structure of that theme:
themes/ └── bare/ ├── layouts/ │ └── index.html └── theme.toml
Note that this is literally a “bare” theme in that it has no stylesheets or images. It can just render a single home page in plain HTML.
The theme.toml like config.toml contains some metadata about this theme. As seen below, it is fairly self-explanatory:
name = "Bare" license = "MIT"
The layouts directory contains templates which specify how your content files should be rendered into HTML. As you might have guessed, index.html at the top-level is used for rendering a top-level _index.md. This file contains:
<html> <body> <h1>Welcome!</h1> <h2>{{.Title }}</h2> {{.Content }} </body> </html>
This looks like an HTML page except for parts enclosed in double curly braces ( {{ something }} ). These parts are in Go Template language and will be replaced by their values.
To understand what.Title means you have to understand that the dot in the beginning refers to the current context, which is the current page. In other programming languages this might be written as ThisPage.Title, but here ThisPage is implied and hence omitted.
The value for.Title comes from the front matter. While rendering “_index.md”, it will be replaced by “Home sweet home” (refer _index.md mentioned earlier). The value for.Content will be the rendered HTML from the Markdown file.
Most themes will have certain common elements across a site like a header and footer. Just because we only need a template for one page, the “bare” theme omits all those flourishes.
You can checkout the finished project at Github. You can use this as a landing page or could be a starting point to a larger Hugo project.
Rendering and Publishing
While developing a Hugo site or previewing a post that is being composed, you might want to use the built-in test server. The files are not generated (in the project folder) but you can browse your site locally in your browser
For local development, execute the following command (in the project directory):
$ hugo server -w
This is what you should see in your browser:
Once you are ready to publish the site, you’ll need the generate the files into an output directory. The following command will create generate your site into the “public” directory:
$ hugo --destination public
Now you can copy the files from public directory into the web root of “example.com” or whichever domain that you mentioned as your baseURL. You can use GitHub Pages to host this site for free. I would recommend reading up instructions in their GitHub Pages documentation.
Next, I would recommend looking at other Hugo sites to understand how various features of Hugo have been used. Personally, I wrote this post so that I have a minimal starting point when I start a new project. Enjoy exploring Hugo!Tiaro resident Sharonlee Cordell with a photo of her "husband" Ebou Janha who lives in Gambia, Africa.
Tiaro resident Sharonlee Cordell with a photo of her "husband" Ebou Janha who lives in Gambia, Africa. Alistair Brightman
A TIARO woman who is in love with a man she has never met is desperately trying to raise funds so she can visit him in Gambia - and she has fought back against claims that the GoFundMe page she set up to achieve that goal is a scam.
Sharonlee Cordell, 55, met Ebou Janha, 41, on Facebook more than a year ago and gradually the two became friends.
SPECIAL COVERAGE:
When Ebou told Sharonlee he was in love with her, she rejected his declaration until she discussed it with a friend later and Sharonlee realised she was in love with him too.
"She (the friend) was the one who picked up on it," Sharonlee said.
Sharonlee is on a pension and Ebou says he is poor, earning the equivalent of only $81 a month, which means without help, the two may never get to meet.
Sharonlee has created a GoFundMe page with a target of $10,000 so she can travel overseas and meet Ebou - as well as buy him a wedding present that would be valuable in Gambia - a motorbike.
She said most Gambians have no form of transport and Ebou walked nearly everywhere he went, so the present would change his life.
Sharonlee Cordell, 55, says she is 100% sincere in her desire to meet Ebou, 41, who she regularly talks to on Skype.
Sharonlee was accused of "scamming" after setting up the GoFundMe page and hit back at the allegations, saying she was 100% sincere in her desire to meet Ebou, who she regularly Skypes with.
"I would never call anyone a scammer," she said, explaining how hurt she was at the accusation.
"I try to lift people up."
She said she was devastated that people would accuse her of that.
Sharonlee also addressed any concerns people might have about the veracity of her relationship with Ebou.
She is aware of the dangers and warning signs of online relationship scams as she has had two people try to get her to send them money previously when they approached her on Facebook.
However her relationship with Ebou is different, Sharonlee says, and he would never willingly accept her money.
"He's never asked for a cent off me," she said.
She had to insist on giving him $10 once when he suffered an eye injury, she said.
Despite the distance between them, Sharon said they considered themselves to be married - she even sent him a ring and wears a similar one herself to symbolise their relationship.
"Ebou is everything to me," she said.
One day Sharonlee hopes to live in Gambia with Ebou, after her two teenage daughters are independent.
She said they were hoping to set up a farm and create a wonderful life, not only for themselves but for Ebou's family - he has a 12-year-old son from a previous relationship - and the community they would live in.This post was featured in our July 2015 anthology of most popular VividCortex blog posts of all time. To see more of our top content, check out that list here.
One of the patterns I’ve found in the standard Go library is what I call package-and-object. (That’s my own name; maybe I’m reinventing or naming something already known by another name.) You can see this idiom in several packages. It makes these packages a delight to use.
The essence of the idiom is that you design a type with methods as usual, and then you also place matching functions at the package level itself. These functions simply delegate to a default instance of the type that’s a private package-level variable, created in an init() function.
This gives users a lot of flexibility for how they want to use the functionality you’ve designed for the type. If you design carefully, then most users’ needs can be satisfied by the default behavior you provide, and they don’t need to create variables to get that functionality. This saves them from annoyances such as having to choose which scope owns the variable and whether to make it global or to pass it around in function calls as needed. Yet if users need to, they can create their own objects if they want to tweak the default behavior.
To take a look at the default logging functionality, for example, you can just import the log package and then write things like log.Print(). It’s super-concise and handy, and it does the right thing. Want to customize it? Make your own log.Logger variable, and set its properties. The same goes for the flag package. You can see this pattern in other places too, such as http.ListenAndServe().
At VividCortex we’ve used this approach a time or two in our own packages, and found it very handy.
Do you use it? What suggestions do you have?
Picture from JamesIrwinAs far as property guardians go, all the action seems to be taking place in Bristol. As well as the issues (and possession claim) noted here, there is a separate possession claim going on, with Camelot seeking possession against Greg Roynon, who was also living in one of the former nursing homes.
From the Bristol Post report of the trial hearing here, it appears that Mr Roynon, represented by Russell James, is arguing – at least partly – that Camelot’s notice to quit was of no effect because he was in fact a tenant.
This seems to be on the basis that he was given a specific room, which he could lock against all others, and that he had to inform Camelot if he wished to move to another room. Rather than rooms being agreed amongst guardians, Camelot’s officer admitted that this was managed by Camelot.
The argument seems to be a classic Street v Mountford one – that regardless of the description in the agreement of this being a licence (not ‘lease’ as the Bristol Post rather confusing has it), the factual situation was exclusive possession, for a term, for a rent and therefore a tenancy. I’ve always thought that some arrangements (though not property guardian set ups in general) were potentially vulnerable to such an argument. Indeed I have seen a council TRO make just such an argument against another Guardian firm.
Camelot, represented by Elizabeth Fitzgerald (who is I am sure very able but not yet at least, I think, the QC that the Bristol Post has her), denied this and relied on the terms of the licence agreement. But then Camelot also appear to be taking a different line of argument.
According to this report of the hearing (a very definitely not impartial report, I must add) Camelot appear to be arguing that the agreement with Bristol City Council to ‘protect and secure’ the properties was with Camelot Property Management Limited (CPM). However, the agreements with the guardians to occupy the property were with Camelot Guardian Management Ltd (CGM), who had no authorised possession of the building.
Thus, as far as I can make out, the issue of licence/tenancy was solely between Mr Roynon and CGM, but CPM were entitled to immediate vacant possession of the building as CPM had no contractual or legal obligation to the guardians.
From the reports, I can’t make out whether the issue of the basis on which CGM were authorised to put in guardians was addressed, but it also seems that the ‘separation of powers’ argument had some evidential issues.
Camelot also appear to have asserted an ulterior purpose in Mr Roynon defending the case, to discredit them and then pick up Guardian contracts. This was denied,
The hearing was, alas, adjourned to 8 February.
As the case is part heard, I don’t propose to make any comments on the arguments made. We will just have to wait and see. But it is certainly interesting to see some of the issues around property guardian set ups being played out in court.APOCALYPSE NOT YET PAUL BIRCH 48 Cliff Road, Cowes, IOW, PO31 8BN, England Paul@paulbirch.net and http://www.paulbirch.net
1. Introduction
In "The Menace of the Apocalyptic Individual", Libertarian Alliance Political Notes No 164, Brian Micklethwait asks whether freedom might not permit psychopathic individuals to destroy mankind. The short answer is: yes. He also asks whether libertarianism may therefore be just too dangerous a creed for the coming millennium. To which I answer: not if we're reasonable about it.
There are ways in which small groups or individual persons may in the future be capable of inflicting damage on a cataclysmic scale (more on this below). It would however be a major error to suppose that any form of political organisation (or lack thereof) can eliminate this danger. Risk is the inescapable and largely unpredictable concomitant of the historical process; even the ultraconservative dinosaurs could not avoid it.
Nevertheless, a free market would unquestionably heighten the risk of catastrophe in the near to medium term. A free market is dynamic. It accelerates change. It creates novelty, unpredictability. It is therefore dangerous.
However, a free market is also efficient at creating solutions, and certainly the threat of apocalypse is a problem (or universe of problems) to which solutions will be sought. So any given threat to which a solution is at all possible is likely to be short-lived. Are there any threats to which there is no possible defence? We don't know, but if there are we've probably had it whatever we do; there can be no way of making sure they never happen.
The bottom line is that there can be no absolute guarantees, but that a free society is still our best bet.
2. Dangerous Technologies Can't Be Banned Effectively
Whenever science is on the verge of new and potentially dangerous technologies the environmentalist lobby raises a clamour to suppress them. At the moment the no-nos include human cloning and genetically modified crops. Invariably the assumption is that if only the government passes a law banning the use of this technology, the problem will go away. To put it mildly: this assumption is flawed. The dangers inherent in these new technologies (however great or small these dangers may be) cannot be wished away by legislation, because legislation cannot entirely prevent their use or development.
Note that this is not the same as the argument that laws prohibiting, say, prostitution won't work, because you can't stop people visiting prostitutes. On the contrary, such laws, adequately enforced, can indeed effectively reduce the practice of prostitution to acceptably low levels; they work because complete success is neither required nor demanded.
By contrast, laws against "dangerous" technologies have to work perfectly, or fail absolutely. That deadly virus must never be released. That superhuman genetically engineered monster clone must never be created. Pandora's box must never be opened. And this is something no law can guarantee.
The most such legislation can do is slow the process down. Face it. Sooner or later humans will be cloned, genetically modified crops will be released into the wild, terrorist organisations will get their hands on nuclear bombs, lone psychotics will send man-made diseases through the mail or release nerve gas in department stores.
3. Banning New Technologies Increases The Risk
It gets worse. Banning new technologies increases the long-term risk. Why? Well, suppose you're a scientist researching genetically modified wheat and you're denied permission to continue or expand your experiments. What do you do? Perhaps you just give up and do something else instead. Or perhaps you struggle to overcome official resistance and eventually get to do the work. But perhaps you simply say "stuff them!" and carry on regardless. To avoid interference you keep your work secret or take refuge in some third world country. Either way, you are working under such disadvantages that you are unable to take the reasonable precautions you otherwise would. Your modified wheat escapes into the wild and hybridises with the native flora. Pandora's box is open.
This is not mere speculation. It has already happened. The scientist in question was American. The third world country was Brazil. I can't remember what the crop was; it might have been wheat.
In this case it didn't matter. Despite all the hoohah there is little risk from the sort of genetic modifications currently being undertaken. We have been genetically modifying crops to make them more suitable for human consumption for thousands of years, because natural crops, like the original potatoes, have a habit of being dangerously toxic, even lethal, a trick of self defence those despicable plants long ago developed to stop us eating them.
However, let the genetic engineers become frustrated with the burden of bureaucratic interference and one of them could easily decide to produce something nastier; say, a variety of grass hardier than the common or garden variety, enhanced with the genes for tetradotoxin (puffer fish poison). Any cow that eats that stuff is dead meat. But revenge is sweet.
4. Banning New Technologies Gives Them To The Bad Guys First
In a free market, companies and individuals will mostly be developing new technologies with a view to benefiting themselves by benefiting other people. But if legitimate development and use is blocked, then darker motives must predominate. Technologies, or their nastier applications, will be developed for criminal purposes, for terrorism, for revenge by the paranoid or oppressed, or, like today's computer viruses, out of a mischievous or malicious nihilism and, of course, by governments and their defence contractors for use against their own citizens and those of other countries.
I do not wish to claim that the development of weaponry for the defence of oneself or one's country is illegitimate, not even so-called offensive weaponry or weapons of mass destruction. One cannot hope for an effective defence without the ability to strike back at the enemy. Nor do I concur with the frequent claim that weapons of mass destruction are only of use to states and so would cease to be manufactured or developed in a libertarian society; on the contrary, I would expect a free market to froth over with super-cheap and ultra-powerful weapons, as with all other wonderful goodies. I see no difficulty in mass-producing thermonuclear devices at a few hundred quid a shot (electrically detonated spherical shell charge compacting a lithium hydride sphere with a highly sub-critical plutonium fission trigger at the core demands very precise construction, but so do hard disks and other consumer computer parts). I'd buy 'em. Wouldn't you? There's nothing quite so much fun as designing a really devastating weapon, especially if it can blow up whole solar systems or galaxies (ask any Science Fiction author).
What I do claim is that in the free market most effort would be essentially defensive directed first towards finding ways of protecting the customer against the violence of others. The offensive weaponry necessary to retaliate against or punish an individual attacker would in general not be anything like so sophisticated (if a terrorist threatens you with a nuke, you don't need a nuke of your own to deal with him if you can find him, hitting him over the head with half a brick will do just as well).
5. You Have The Right To Own Any Weapon You Can Afford To Insure
This is what I believe to be, broadly speaking, the morally correct interpretation of the right to bear arms. You have the right carry, or to own, a sword, a sidearm, a machine gun, an artillery piece, a tank, a ballistic missile, a heap of hydrogen bombs or the starship Enterprise. There's no limit. So long as you also carry third party insurance covering all the risks your use or ownership imposes upon others, and for which you are thereby responsible. The right to bear arms is unlimited, but not absolute.
It's like driving a car, a dangerous activity that the law quite properly forbids you to undertake without third party insurance. Why insurance? Well, when you drive a car (or do anything else) you are the one responsible for your actions and their consequences; if you cause injury or damage, you must pay for it; you have violated another's rights. Now if the damage inflicted were always within your ability to pay, there would be no need to carry insurance; you could pay up as and when it became necessary. Unfortunately, major accidents can easily kill or maim quite a lot of people, or create a loss well beyond your means. If you are not properly insured you are thus violating people's rights by subjecting them to a risk you cannot cover. Insurance allows you to spread the risk, paying the predictable and affordable expectation value of the loss rather than the actual unpredictable and possibly unaffordable amount.
If you carry a firearm, it may go off accidentally and kill someone. You should carry third party insurance against that event. If you carry a grenade, it may kill half a dozen. The insurance premium will take that into account. If you own a hydrogen bomb the premium is likely to be astronomical though perhaps you could bring it down to an affordable level by agreeing to store the device in an underground containment structure in an area of low population density, with good cryptographic and physical security for the arming mechanism, and keys divided amongst several persons to reduce the risk if you lose your marbles. Just like reducing your car insurance by agreeing not to drink.
Now notice that if we find ourselves wholly unable to reduce the danger of psychopathic misuse of these or any other articles to acceptable levels, it follows that we will be unable to meet the costs of insuring them. In those circumstances there can be no moral objection to banning them; indeed, there will be a moral imperative to do so; rights will be violated if we do not ban them (unfortunately, rights may still be violated even if we do ban them, since the ban is unlikely to be 100% effective). But if anyone subsequently works out how to diminish the risks to the point at which he can fund them, then his right to own or carry the articles is thereby restored.
6. Psychopaths Aren't Insane You Know
Well, actually, they are. But not as much as you think. Very few killers, even psychopathic ones, genuinely wish to kill the maximum number of people possible. Fewer than one percent of them try to kill more than a few dozen people, and almost none go further. That's not because they couldn't. From the dawn of civilisation it has been possible for a single berserker with a sword to run amok in a market place, or a nunnery, or a school, and slay many times that number. Nowadays, driving a car (better yet, a lorry) into a crowd at 70 mph should take out at least as many with less effort; and with a little careful planning anyone should be able to get his score well into triple figures.
But what do today's nut cases actually do? They put on a show, using a rifle or other firearm to shoot their victims one by one. Despite what the anti-gun media would have you believe, they don't simply blaze away indiscriminately on full automatic. Instead they choose their targets individually, leaving seconds or minutes between successive shots. For example, in the Hungerford massacre, the killer's average rate of fire was around one round per five minutes. This is typical, and falls far short of the full capability of the weapons employed.
The greatest numbers of victims of individual murderers are those of serial killers like Buhram, a ritual strangler of the Indian cult of Thugee, whose score in 1840 was at least 931, or the Countess Bathory of Hungary (1560-1614), the original female vampire, who in all murdered 610 young girls and was alleged to have bathed in their blood to renew her youth (source: The Guinness Book of Records). Even our modern terrorists have so far failed to improve upon these records!
These statistics should reassure us somewhat though not entirely. Perhaps one person per hundred million per decade (or rather more in the United States) will kill a few dozen at one go. We can live with that it's negligible. Furthermore, it seems likely that a free, prosperous and just society will produce fewer active psychopaths than a more repressive one. Yet surely there will still be some resentful lunatics; and out of these I guess that perhaps one in ten might genuinely wish to kill the maximum possible number of people. So in the United Kingdom we might hope to go a few hundred years between major incidents. A psychopath's hydrogen bomb might then kill up to a million people, corresponding to a murder rate around 10 per 100,000 per year high, but not unprecedented, and still far lower than the death rates generally attributable to war and other state activities.
We could considerably reduce the number of casualties by better building design or similar techniques, but then the psychopath could plant more than one device (although psychopaths aren't renowned for effective planning) or use a bigger bomb. Or drive around the country squirting germs out of an aerosol. Or something. We can't be sure that that one total wacko per century won't succeed in wasting all of us.
7. Decentralisation As A Fallback Solution
If the capacity for evil of apocalyptic individuals cannot be contained, there remains at least one solution short of totalitarianism: decentralisation and quarantine. In the free market future, mankind will spread throughout the universe, for the most part in artificially constructed space habitats. No matter then how much destructive power an individual may control, he will probably be unable to do more than destroy the single settlement of which he is part. So if we limit (most) space habitats to populations of ten million or less, and impose fairly stringent controls and quarantine regulations on contact between colonies, the risk of catastrophe within any person's lifetime should remain acceptably low.
This is not an especially happy scenario, nor yet a catastrophically bad one. Indeed, it's probably better than it looks; no one need be forced into living in a small settlement, it's just that since larger ones will be more vulnerable most people will naturally choose to live somewhere smaller and safer, and to accept reasonable contractual limitations on their freedom of travel outside the colony. It's a bit like living in the country instead of a big city. Still, most of us would surely hope for a future with more freedom than this, especially when we realise that habitats with billions, even trillions of inhabitants are technically feasible.
8. Strict Insured Liability May Provide A Happier Solution
What I mean here is this: As I pointed out above, ownership of potentially dangerous articles carries responsibility for any resulting harm to others. Third party insurance to cover all such risks beyond your means is morally (and should be legally) mandatory. These risks include the possibility that you (or someone else) will become deranged and attempt to use the articles to harm others; or that they will be stolen and subsequently fall into the hands of terrorists or madmen; or that they will fall into the hands of people who do not understand the dangers; and so on. It is your responsibility to ensure that all the (foreseeable?) consequences of your ownership, direct and indirect, will be paid for. This does not mean that you must pay for all the consequences yourself (other people are responsible for their own actions too), only that you must make certain that someone will pay. You achieve this by taking out insurance.
But what if psychopaths can build their own antimatter bombs or nanoviruses from everyday objects? What if the household automatic everything-maker can also be programmed to churn out Terminator androids? Doesn't this vitiate the practice of third party insurance and the utility of strict liability? Not if we follow the logic through.
In the first place, since human beings are themselves dangerous animals, strict liability probably also implies that everyone should carry third party insurance against his own potential insanity, and if need be, reduce the premiums by subjecting himself to risk-reducing restrictions. You should also take out insurance before bringing a new human being, or man-eating tiger, or dog, or dinosaur, or android, or genetically modified crop into the world. You are not morally entitled to freedoms that impose risks you cannot afford.
More generally, these "everyday objects" must also be considered potentially dangerous articles, in that people can use them to construct articles dangerous in themselves. Thus their lawful ownership is similarly conditional upon third party insurance covering these further risks. As is the ownership of the tools used to fabricate these objects, and those used to fabricate the tools, and so on. Strict liability means that all ownership carries the responsibility of ensuring that any misuse, however indirect, is paid for.
What this means in practice is that the ordinary individual will only be able to afford direct access to devices and technologies where the risk of direct or indirect apocalyptic misuse is sufficiently small. More dangerous (and thus more costly) machinery will be owned mainly by large companies or government agencies, who can afford either additional security to reduce the risks, or higher premiums.
Again, this is not an especially happy conclusion. Many may feel that no one has the right to prevent them making |
Virginia in Charlottesville. The first law sought to double funding for the NSF, NIST and the DOE science office over ten years, using recommendations from a 2005 US National Academies report, 'Rising Above the Gathering Storm'.
“The objective was to support getting new ideas into science and technology,” says Jones. “The current COMPETES bill is at odds with those goals. Some of the policies are very bad ideas.”
Road ahead
Still, the measure is far from becoming law, and it is not the only legislation that will steer US science agencies in months and years to come.
As an authorization bill, the House measure suggests — but does not determine — funding levels for the NSF, the DOE’s science office and NIST. Doling out the cash is the job of the House and Senate appropriations committees, which, each year, write spending bills for consideration by the full US Congress.
And the House COMPETES bill would require approval from the US Senate and President Barack Obama — who has threatened to veto the measure — before it would become law. Meanwhile, several powerful senators have introduced their own version of the COMPETES bill, which differs significantly from the House measure. It deals only with the energy department, and seeks to boost spending on programmes that the House bill would cut. They include the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E), for which the Senate bill proposes a budget that rises to $341 million in 2020; the House bill, in contrast, seeks to cut ARPA-E's budget below the current level of $280 million.
But even if the House COMPETES bill stalls in Congress, says Michael Lubell, public-affairs director for the American Physical Society in Washington DC, its provisions could surface in 2016 spending bills. “The parts in COMPETES that deal with climate change — that’s where you could see real mischief,” he says.
It is too early to know whether that will happen. “There is quite a bit of political alchemy in all of this,” says Wendy Naus, executive director of COSSA in Washington DC. “We’ll have to wait and see what else gets thrown in the pot.”President Obama’s pay caps on Wall Street are having unintended consequences throughout the economy. Analysts warn that this brain drain of executives from financial firms will inevitably release a flood of reckless, overpaid morons to other sectors of the economy.
Their concern is not entirely without warrant, according to Bob Flaterbean, a head-hunting consultant: “These guys aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, but can they bully their way into a cushy VP job at some textile company in Iowa? Yeah, definitely.”
Leaders of some industry groups are calling for the restrictions on financial pay to be repealed. Neal Patuvy, president of the Mid-Atlantic Waste Reprocessing Alliance, released a statement today saying, “Our industry supports job stability. Really. Please let these guys stay where they are. Increase taxes, subsidize them, just don’t unleash these a-holes on the rest of the economy.”
Only time will tell what effect these compensation caps and other regulatory changes have on America’s economy. But the great Wall Street Brain Drain of 2009 is sure to shake up history.On the morning of a mid-March game against the Calgary Flames, the St. Louis Blues goaltending coach, Jim Corsi, was minding his own business when a shot rang off the crossbar and clunked him on the forehead.
Momentarily stunned, and bleeding, Corsi skated off the ice and was greeted in the corridor outside the dressing room by Martin Brodeur.
Brodeur is a member of the goaltending fraternity, recently retired, and now working for the Blues as a special assistant. Brodeur demanded to see the damage – a lump the size of a golf ball had formed, and a bluish bruise was in the process of forming. Naturally, the two started to compare war stories because, after all, that's what goaltenders do.
Story continues below advertisement
But in a world where most people know Corsi only as an advanced statistic, here was living proof that there was an actual flesh-and-blood human being behind the equation.
Corsi, the formula, measures the shot-attempt differential of a player while on the ice, helping to usher in a new era of analytics that is sweeping and dividing the NHL community.
Corsi, the person, is in his first season as the Blues goaltender coach, after spending the previous 16 years doing for the same job for the Buffalo Sabres. In his time with Buffalo, Corsi worked with Dominik Hasek and helped Ryan Miller develop into an NHL star.
He is also an engineering grad, a former school teacher and a teammate of Wayne Gretzky's during the Edmonton Oilers' inaugural NHL season, responsible for eight of their 28 regular-season wins that year. Corsi played more than a decade professionally in Italy.
During his early minor-pro days, spent time in the old North American Hockey League, he played with and against many of the characters who inspired the movie Slap Shot. He was also one of the NHL's first full-time goaltending coaches, grew up in Montreal, attended Concordia when it was still Loyola University, briefly played professional soccer for the Olympique, and is now coaching the Blues' goaltending tandem of Brian Elliott and Jake Allen.
In short, with Jim Corsi, there's a lot to get to know.
And yet, for the vast majority of casual hockey fans, Corsi is synonymous with a measure, not a man.
Story continues below advertisement
Story continues below advertisement
"It has taken on a life of its own," Corsi acknowledged. "I remember telling my wife, 'I'm not Fahrenheit.' When people talk about it, they don't say it's the statistic named after Jim Corsi. They say, 'He has a Corsi of ….'
"I had become an inanimate object. I had become Kleenex."
The story of how Corsi, now 60, came to be part of the analytics movement begins in the mid-1970s, after he'd graduated from Loyola with an engineering degree and was pondering several career choices. The Kansas City Scouts had him on their college protected list, but by the time Corsi was ready to consider pro hockey as an option, they'd moved to Colorado and become the Rockies.
Ultimately, a conversation with Ken Dryden, then a star goalie with the Montreal Canadiens, persuaded him to give pro hockey a try instead of venturing out in the working world as an engineer.
"It's remarkable because both Ken and Dave Dryden had major impacts on the arc of my career," Corsi said. "My wife and I were college-educated and we had a pretty good future going if we'd stayed with that. At the time, NHL contracts weren't that big. We weren't going to get rich. Ken said, 'Jim, give it three years. You can always be an engineer in three years, but you can't come back to hockey in three years – and if you don't try it now, you'll never know what you could have been.' I thought that was great advice – and after three years, I was in the NHL.
"Then it was Dave Dryden retiring that got me into the NHL with Edmonton. He was really good for me because he was the first to talk about goalie coaching. He had an analytical mind. He'd say, 'More goals are coming in from here than there, so maybe you should work more on these skills.' And I'd think, 'Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.'"
Story continues below advertisement
It was the first hint Corsi would have a future, instructing goalies, and it began when he began tweaking his own game and technique.
A second career crossroads came soon after his rookie NHL season with the Oilers. Unhappy about being bounced from Edmonton to Oklahoma City to Houston in the 1979-80 season, and cognizant that he'd given pro hockey the three years he promised, Corsi decided he might have a brighter future doing something else – until he got a call from Dave Chambers, then Italy's national team coach.
Chambers telephoned Corsi at his mother's Montreal home to offer him a chance to play in Italy and she hung up the phone (Corsi tells this story, mimicking a heavy Italian accent).
Ultimately, Corsi reached Chambers, decided to try Italy for one year and stayed for 12, playing mostly for AS Varese. In all, he made eight appearances for Italy at the world championships and in 1982, was in goal when Italy shocked a Canadian team that included Gretzky by tying it 3-3. In that same tournament, it also defeated the United States, pushing it into the B pool for the following year's worlds, a result that would cause him a moment's grief during a job interview some 15 years later.
When Corsi retired after the 1991-92 season, he moved back to North America and started teaching part-time, consulting with teams part-time and doing some colour work alongside Dick Irvin on Montreal Canadiens broadcasts.
In the meantime, he sent applications through the mail, seeking a job in the NHL as a goalie coach. That first year, he got an interview with New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello, made the short list, but didn't get the job. For five years, he kept trying and not getting anywhere. In the summer of 1998, just at a point when he was exploring doing a PhD in education sciences, the Sabres called and asked him to interview. It was a turning point.
Story continues below advertisement
"I had listed Mark Napier as a reference because I'd played with him in Europe and [Sabres' coach] Lindy Ruff had called Mark to ask about me," Corsi said. "So I'm in the room with Lindy Ruff, Don Luce, Terry Martin, all the big wigs with the team and [GM] Darcy Regier walks in and says, 'I don't know anything about you, but our assistant coach, Mike Ramsey says you're the bugger that forced the USA to go down into the B pool at the world championships' because we'd beaten them and it forced them to go down.
"I'm sitting there, I took my glasses off, I say, 'Well, I guess this interview is over.' And they all started to laugh. So I think, 'Maybe it's not over.'
It wasn't. Corsi returned to Montreal, where he'd been offered a full-time tenured position teaching high school math and science. Then Buffalo called and offered him the job – part-time to start. After talking it over with his wife, he took it.
"Without the strength of my wife, and the ability to say, 'well, let's try it,' it wouldn't have happened,'" Corsi said. "Here I am."
Regier, laughing all the way, confirmed the story of that first interview and says that in all the years they subsequently worked together, he found Corsi to "be a very interesting guy because of his high level of curiosity.
"He's one of those life-long learning people and it's not focused in one area. It's all over the map. There are a lot of things that interest him. He's high energy – and does the best Groucho Marx impression of anybody I know. In that regard, he's very youthful, a very good person."
Story continues below advertisement
Ruff, now coach of the Dallas Stars, had a clear affection for Corsi, describing him as "a very articulate, intelligent man. He's 100-per-cent loyal, just a really good guy, who loves to talk. I would say to him, 'Jimmy, don't ask me a question you know the answer to already.' If you were sharing stats, he would come up with formulas, different from the NHL's, that you could use and would help you."
Corsi was at the forefront of the NHL's trend toward hiring goalie coaches. Previously, teams tended to use goalie consultants, who weren't officially members of the coaching staff. Instead, they'd parachute in a handful of times a year, or if a goalie was going through a slump, to work on technique and sometimes, just to talk about the job, which was so distinct from what a position player might go through when he struggled.
"In those days, if the goalie wasn't stopping enough pucks, the solution was just to get another goalie – not to work with the goalie to make him better," Corsi said.
"For me, the real change came after the 2004-05 lockout. More and more teams started to hire full-time goalie coaches. They were no longer consultants – and there was new pressure on them to make sure the kids in the organization were developing. It wasn't enough just to mentor goalies. There was a teaching role. Development was required. You'd be back and forth between the NHL team and the minors. Now, they even have full-time goalie coaches in the minors.
"So it's evolved – to the point, where goalie coaches' heads are now rolling. They used to be untouchable. If the goalie coach got the job, he was there for keeps. Now, it's to the point even this year, two teams [Edmonton and Philadelphia] released their guys in mid-season. That sends tremors. It used to be a safe haven. Now, he's just a coach involved in developing players."
In Buffalo, Corsi had a chance to work with Hasek, coming off two consecutive Hart trophy wins, and eventually Miller, drafted 138th overall in 1999, the year after Corsi joined the organization. In Buffalo, Corsi developed a formula he said was designed to measure a goalie's workload.
Story continues below advertisement
Based on his own playing experience, Corsi theorized that simply counting shots on goal was not an accurate barometer of how much work a goalie did on any given night. Instead, he believed a goaltender could exert just as much effort or more trying to stop a shot that never made it through to the net, as he did an actual recorded shot on goal.
As a result, he incorporated blocked and missed shots into his analysis of a goalie's workload, on the grounds that goaltenders still had to be prepared to move laterally across a crease on an odd-man rush, or lunge for a shot that might be just high and wide of the net. These goalie "actions" were as physically taxing as recorded shots on goal. Moreover, he also placed a greater value on tracking viable scoring chances, as opposed to simply shots, some of which, taken from far range or a bad angle, were often relatively harmless.
The method behind the madness was simply to help his goaltending charges train more efficiently.
Corsi's groundbreaking work eventually landed in the hands of several Internet bloggers who refined them many times over, by adding new variables.
"Literally, from the time he started until the time he left, he was a math teacher, so he was always deep into numbers," Regier said. "You'd have these conversations with him: 'What do you think of this? What do you think of that? We used to joke about it because Lindy [Ruff] or someone else on the staff would joke, 'Jimmy, you're just trying to find another way to make the goaltenders look good.' He would talk to whoever would listen about not just save percentage, but scoring-chance save percentage. I don't know when the analytics people got ahold of it, but Jimmy was doing that a long time ago, and for as long as I can remember."
But Corsi also believed his role was to work with a goalie's strengths as well as trying to correct his shortcomings.
Hasek, for example, played an unorthodox style. In someone else's hands, he might have been asked to completely remake his game. Corsi didn't. Corsi wouldn't. Speaking at the Hall of Fame last November following his induction, Hasek said his career in North America was largely aided by goalie coaches who didn't try to reinvent his game into the cookie-cutter style of the era.
"What is it that makes Dominik so good?" Corsi said. "He thinks like a player but plays like a goalie. That, for me, was the essential thing. I played goal as a player, but I was a forward in soccer and it influenced my philosophy. The successful goalies today, they think like forwards and play like goalies. Look at Dominik or Marty Brodeur, bookends for my career right now. Two entirely different skill sets and styles, but both very successful. If you look at all the successful goalies, they could see what the play was going to be. People would say, 'Was he ever lucky to be in that spot.' No, he was waiting for it. He could see what was going to happen.
"My biggest and constant challenge to goalies is telling them, their biggest strength is playing hockey. If you want to stop pucks and just stop pucks, you're doomed."
Last year, after the Sabres' housecleaning, Corsi was without an NHL position and working with the national team in Italy when Blues GM Doug Armstrong called and asked him to interview for the opening in St. Louis, a job he ultimately landed. St. Louis is in contention for the President's Trophy as the NHL's top team and its goaltending, which has been excellent this season, will be under scrutiny as the Blues try to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
In St. Louis, Corsi says he's "working with an exceptional staff and a great group of kids. Elliott, Allen, [Jordan] Binnington, the young kid, all of them are really responsive to the stuff I'm doing. It may not be the same as what they're used to seeing, but their response to the workload has been really good. Part of it is trying to keep the drills fresh and applicable.
"When I went back to school to learn about teaching, one of the things I learned was about the psychology of how people learn. In teaching, the research shows one of the worst retention levels is through lecture. So as a coach, the best way to teach a goalie to do a drill is to show him how – by doing it yourself. I remember being in youth hockey and the coach would start screaming if you didn't do the drill properly. I'd think, 'They're not deaf, that's not the problem.' With the pros, if the drill goes sour after I showed them, I'd say, 'Stop, stop, stop,' and say, 'Guys, my fault, I didn't explain it properly.' People learn visually, audibly, tactilely. Some guys, when they hear a drill explained, they go to the back of the line, because they want to see how it's done."
The value of analytics has divided the hockey community into two camps. Corsi believes it doesn't need to be so. Instead of being framed as an either/or proposition, the reality is, you can be in both. They are a measure of past performance and can provide a clue to future behaviour.
But they are not to be taken as absolutes.
"I think where it's going to go is to a place where people can say, 'I'm going to have an opinion, you're going to have an opinion, but ultimately, it is only part of a picture that allows us to interpret what went on in that game,'" Corsi said. "To hang your hat on it in too clinical a way is dangerous, because lots of stuff goes on in a game. I hope there's not paralysis by analysis, because our game is too fast. It's not football. It's instinctive. But some of the analysis will tell you if a guy has some issues, so maybe you don't want him on the ice in the last minute or two.
"As a coach, I often say, if you think with your heart, you end up with heart disease. You have to be really careful with that. But ultimately, you get patterns. You start seeing things [in the analytics] that match what you're thinking. It's something that allows us to interpret the qualities of what that athlete is doing, but it is not Fahrenheit. The temperature outside today is an absolute measure, a fact. Analytics are not an absolute, but they are numbers that help the debate move forward.
"I used to get hate mail from people who'd say, 'I'm old school and what do you know?' What do I know? It's just like plus-minus. You have to take it with a grain of salt. For me, I just look at my body of work. Dominik Hasek asks me to be one of his guests at the Hall of Fame. Marty Brodeur, who doesn't know me from Page 9, comes in and invites me to talk video with him because he wants to make sure his game is right. Those are the things that matter for me. The fact that I'm still employed in hockey is more than enough."
As for the fact that his name is now associated with a hockey statistic in the same way that a 17th-century German physicist, engineer and glass blower is associated with a temperature scale, Corsi is okay with Corsi.
"Even my kids, their friends would say to them, 'the Corsi number, it's cool you have the same name as them.' They'll say, 'Well, no, it's my dad.'
"But it's wonderful. It's humbling. It's quite a funny story how it got that name, but I'm okay with that. I don't feel marginalized. I'm actually quite pleased in the grand scheme of things. It's nice to hear the debate on analytics has been expanded. My only concern is it's almost gone too far the other way – what is reality, other than what the numbers show? – because there's more to it than that.
"I often say, 'Statistics are like a lamppost for a drunkard. You can either use it to lean on or to illuminate.'"Image caption The Saar site was effectively a modern city with restaurants and shops, say archaeologists
Excavations at an archaeological site in Bahrain are shedding light on one of the oldest trading civilisations.
Despite its antiquity, comparatively little is known about the advanced culture represented at Saar.
The site in Bahrain, thought to be the location of the enigmatic Dilmun civilisation, was recently discussed at a conference in Manama, the Gulf nation's capital, organised by the UN's educational, scientific and cultural body (Unesco).
The belief system here has a lot in common with those of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt Abdullah Hassan Yehia, Keeper, Bahrain Fort
The meeting was devoted to wide-ranging debate on heritage tourism; Bahrain is a Unesco regional headquarters and one of its key attractions is an abundance of ancient sites.
At Saar (named after the closest modern village), with the scorching sun rising ever higher in the sky, a Bahraini archaeologist patiently explained to a group of workers how to re-point a low wall in a state of near collapse.
This meticulous maintenance of the archaeological settlement marks a turning point in the way Bahraini specialists are dealing with the vast store of historical remains on the island.
According to Salman al-Mahari, the Bahraini archaeologist in charge, the Saar settlement divides into two: a residential zone and, at a small distance, the cemetery where the inhabitants buried their dead.
Image caption Archaeologists have uncovered a cemetery some distance from Saar's residential zone
"This site has provided a lot of information about daily life," he explains. "This has enabled us to compare finds made here with objects unearthed at other locations on the island. It is evident that this city and graveyard date back to the early Dilmun period."
Dilmun, one of most important ancient civilisations of the region and said to date to the third millennium BC, was a hub on a major trading route between Mesopotamia - the world's oldest civilisation - and the Indus Valley in South Asia.
It is also believed that Dilmun had commercial ties with ancient sites at Elam in Oman, Alba in Syria and Haittan in Turkey.
As Salman al-Mahari confirms, the team is now preserving what has been found to ensure that the historical findings are made accessible.
"For 4,000 years this site was underground so it was sheltered," he says. "Now after excavation, it is exposed to the elements. We have no immediate plans to carry out further excavations. We want to protect the site and to interpret what we have unearthed for visitors."
The Saar site is far from being the most significant relic of the Dilmun era. On the northern tip of the island, archaeological expeditions have uncovered seven successive levels of settlements at the Qal'at al Bahrain (the fort of Bahrain). Under the oldest and most extensive fort, three consecutive Dilmun cities as well as a Greek city dating back to 200 BC have been unearthed.
The site is impressive: the outer walls enclose an area of several hundred square metres. At its centre lie massive carved stones marking the entrance and walls of a chamber containing an altar once flanked by copper-faced pillars.
Image caption The Dilmun civilisation was a trading link between the Middle East and South Asia
Next to it is another structure where the presence of blackened animal bones and charred earth suggest a chamber for sacrifices to the gods.
On the other side of the central altar, a flight of carved steps leads down to a pool, a deep, stone-walled well built over one of the numerous underground springs where one of three principal Sumerian deities - Enki, the water-dwelling god of wisdom - supposedly lived.
The abundance of sweet water flowing from springs which still supply the island with much of its drinking water was one of the cornerstones of Dilmun. The island was an oasis of fertility in ancient times in a mainly desolate region. This could have given rise to a legend that Bahrain may even have been the biblical Garden of Eden.
But as Abdullah Hassan Yehia, the keeper of the Qal'at al Bahrain, explains, the fertile nature of the island encouraged more than just agriculture (Dilmun was famed for its vegetable production). There is strong evidence of religious practices and beliefs that can be compared with those in other advanced societies of the time.
"The belief system here has a lot in common with those of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt," he says. "Belief in the after-life is shown by burying the dead with possessions such as tools, food, drinking vessels and gold. We've even found weapons."
Abdullah Hassan Yehia also explains that the Dilmun merchants had a monopoly of trade in copper, a precious commodity which was shipped from the mines of Oman to the cities of Mesopotamia. But he debunks the theory that Bahrain may have been used by prehistoric inhabitants of the Arabian mainland as a cemetery.
Image caption The fort overlies three consecutive Dilmun cities
The island has approximately 170,000 burial mounds covering an area of 30 square kilometres or 5% of the main island area.
The majority of the burial grounds date back to the second and third centuries BC but some are as recent as 2,000 years old. The oldest and largest burial mounds, referred to as the "Royal Tombs", are found at Aali and measure up to 15m in height and 45m in diameter.
Archaeologist Salman Al-Mahari agrees: "There were a number of large population centres on the island. We have calculated that there would have been a significant number of deaths of both adults and children who would have been buried here," he says.
This sort of debate is exactly what Khalifa Ahmed Al Khalifa, assistant director of programmes at the Arab regional Centre for World Heritage is keen to encourage.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Khalifa Ahmed al-Khalifa from the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage explains why it is time to make the "extraordinary artefacts" available to the public
"There has been a lot of academic work carried out over the past decades," he recaps. "The idea is to simplify and interpret all this academic information so that local people and international visitors can grasp the importance of our heritage."
Using Saar as an example, he continues. "It includes houses, restaurants, commercial outlets, a cemetery and a place of worship. These are all part of a modern city."
"One of the characteristics of Saar are its honeycomb-shaped burial complexes. This is the sort of thing that people find fascinating," he adds. "As long as it is presented in an easily digestible way."
While academic research continues into life 4,000 years ago in Dilmun, with an emphasis on trade, diet, gods, pottery and other industries as well as local burial customs, there is now a focus on making everything interesting to the layperson.
"It's quite a challenge that we're facing," says Khalifa Ahmed al-Khalif. "But with the help of new technology we'll be able to place Bahrain on the [ancient] global map."Looking for a subtle way to show your allegiance to the Empire? Then these awesome Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet earrings might be exactly what you are looking for (assuming you have your ears pierced). As cool as these are, I’m not exactly sure I care much for the pink flower (apparently you can get it in red too). Flower or not, they look really good and for only $8, these Stormtrooper helmet earrings seem to be reasonably priced. Actually, I have never shopped for earrings before so I wouldn’t have a clue if that is a reasonable price or not, that just sounds good for jewelry this awesome.
Pass this along to any Star Wars fans you know! Like us on Facebook too!
[Source: Etsy vis So Geek Chic]GETTY Bill Gates warned that mass immigration on its current scale is a disaster for the continent
In their relentless propaganda, these ideologues portray the unceasing foreign influx as a progressive ideal which has enriched our culture and boosted our prosperity. Anyone suggesting otherwise is held to be a reactionary bigot without compassion. This narrative was always bogus, as we can see from the strains now tearing apart European societies. But the conceit of the dogmatists has now really been demolished by an unlikely voice: that of Bill Gates, Microsoft genius, American billionaire and global philanthropist. In an interview this week with a German newspaper, Gates warned that mass immigration on its current scale is a disaster for the continent, “which cannot possibly take in the huge number of people who are wanting to make their way to Europe”.
Using stark language he added that: “Europe must make it more difficult for Africans to reach the continent via the current transit routes.” His statements cannot be dismissed as mere prejudice. A man of impeccable liberal credentials, Gates now uses the colossal fortune that he built from Microsoft to fight poverty, hunger and disease in Africa, largely through the foundation that he and his wife Melinda created. In total, their charity has so far spent at least £28billion on this work, while Gates has pledged that his long-term goal is to give away almost all his personal wealth, currently estimated at more than £70billion. Such a background of epic generosity only reinforces the power of his words. He is right to argue that Europe is in the grip of immigration meltdown. The day before his interview was published, the UN revealed that the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean has already topped 100,000 this year, with 85 per cent of them reaching Italy. Last week 12,000 arrived in Italy by boat. So desperate is the crisis that the Italian government has now threatened to close its ports to rescue vessels, at the same time pleading with other European nations to alleviate its burden. But Austria has moved in the opposite direction by beefing up security on its border with Italy through the introduction of tanks and putting 750 troops on standby. There could be no greater symbol of Brussels’ failure on migration than Austria’s move. This is happening because the governing elite has shown no will to protect our civilisation.
GETTY Bill Gates's statements cannot be dismissed as mere prejudice
Obsessed with free movement, cultural diversity and the abolition of national identities, Europe’s leaders are wilfully presiding over the destruction of our continent. The suicidal decision by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015 to open the migrant floodgates is matched today by the EU’s bizarre policy of providing a gigantic ferry service from the Libyan coast to Italy, masquerading as a humanitarian rescue initiative. Colonel Gaddafi, the late Libyan dictator, once predicted that, if he fell, “thousands of people from Libya will invade Europe. There will be no one to stop them any more”. He underestimated the lethal self loathing of Europe’s political establishment. Far from trying to stop the migrants, the rescue boats pick them up just off the African shoreline and instead of taking their passengers back the short distance to Libya, they transport them to Italy, a journey of more than 300 miles. Bill Gates rightly felt that this approach can only intensify the Libyan migration racket.
Meet The Top 20 Billionaires On The Planet Tue, March 21, 2017 This is Forbes' Billionaires List for 2017 Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 20 20. Sheldon Adelson, Chairman and CEO, Las Vegas Sands. Net worth: $30.4 B
“The more generous you are, the more word gets around about this – which in turn motivates more people to leave Africa.” Indeed the soft-touch reputation of Europe is building up the number of potential African migrants to an alarming degree. One intelligence agency recently claimed that there are now at least 6.6 million people gathered along the shores of the southern Mediterranean waiting to make the crossing. In February, an Austrian military report predicted that, as a result of poverty and turmoil in Africa, as many as 15 million migrants may seek to enter Europe over the next three years. More disturbingly, the president of the EU Parliament Antonio Tajani, an Italian politician, said this week that 20 million African migrants could come to Europe “in the near future”. And most of these Africans are just economic migrants rather than genuine victims of persecution. A UN report this week said that 70 per cent of those crossing the Mediterranean are not refugees at all, a figure that makes a mockery of all the emotional blackmail from the pro-immigration lobby. Yet the Mediterranean fiasco is just one aspect of the immigration nightmare engulfing Europe.Iran's president says his country will press ahead with its missile program and continue to boost military capabilities in defiance of U.S. demands to the contrary.
ADVERTISING Read more
Hassan Rouhani spoke during a military parade on Friday commemorating the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
He says Iran "will strengthen our defense and military capabilities... whether you want it or not" - a statement directed at the United States and President Donald Trump's speech at the U.N. General Assembly.
In the speech, Trump accused Iran of supporting terrorists and called Tehran a "corrupt dictatorship" and a "murderous regime."
Rouhani also said Tehran will keep supporting the "oppressed people of Yemen, Syria and Palestine," a reference to Iran's role in wars in Yemen and Syria and its support for Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas.
"Nuclear agreement is working. Other issues are out of the scope of the agreement" @FedericaMog #JCPOA #IranDeal pic.twitter.com/sYjuvVPALd EU External Action (@eu_eeas) September 20, 2017
(AP)“Better Together” chairman Alistair Darling is in today’s Telegraph, yet again demanding that people should be prevented from expressing opinions on the internet, unless those opinions are supportive of the Union. In Mr Darling’s world, businessmen should be permitted to try to frighten their employees into voting No with mad, untrue rants and veiled threats that they’d be voting themselves onto the dole, but anyone responding to the threat with “Shut up, grandad” must be censored and silenced.
So far, so ho hum – if Unionist politicians are whining about “cybernats”, there must be a Y in the day, is the general rule. But as we can see above, the former Chancellor wasn’t the only Labour MP bleating about terrible Nat bully boys today.
The tweet above was posted this morning by Ian Murray, the Labour MP for Edinburgh South. Requests by several people to Mr Murray to clarify how he knew that “Yes supporters” were responsible for the alleged vandalism of his office went unanswered.
(In fairness, a tragic fatal accident in the constituency may have occupied his time, although almost two hours went by between the initial tweet, the requests for proof and the news that the female pupil at Liberton High School had died.)
So some of our alert readers who live near his office went round for a look.
The only visible damage appears at first to comprise some indecipherable random graffiti scrawls, but on close examination of the last two pics it seems to be clearly possible to make out the letters “OE” in multiple locations.
(You may have to look quite hard to see them, so we’ve highlighted them below.)
If you do a bit of contextual Googling (say, “OE edinburgh graffiti”) you quickly come up with this Scotsman article from a few years ago:
Probe a little further and you’ll find this in the same paper:
You can also turn up some surprisingly detailed academic research into the gangs.
Now, we don’t profess ourselves experts on the Edinburgh middle-class graffiti scene. But it doesn’t seem to require a particularly great leap of the imagination to posit that the damage done to Mr Murray’s office – located towards the north of his constituency, which encompasses the territory of “DKM”, and which we’ve marked with a wee RAF symbol near top centre on the map below (click to enlarge) – seems rather more likely to have been the result of a “turf war” than a political attack.
We’re sure that when Mr Murray realises his honest error and gets a moment to attend to his Twitter account, he’ll be quick to retract the defamatory, inflammatory allegation that the minor cosmetic damage done to his door was part of a disgraceful campaign of cybernat terror. He has, after all, been Edinburgh South MP for almost four years, and we presume must be aware of such issues.
No, really, we’re all but positive he will.
We are, of course, using that word in its “case for the Union” sense.August 13, 2014 2 min read
The word "influencer" gets thrown around a lot in business, but how does the power of the persuasion really work? An infographic from U.K.-based virtual phone service Everreach, explains the elements companies can utilize to impact their customers and get to "yes." The list is based on the teachings of Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of the popular book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
For businesses, the principles of "reciprocity" and "scarcity" are big factors in the persuasion game. Customers feel more inclined to appreciate your business, for instance, when they |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.